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No Room for Idols

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9For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.  1 Thessalonians 1:9-10

 

Statues are easy. I remember the day my dad threw out an idol. He rocked the boat! It created waves. Was it art or was it an idol?

 

What lodge deep in my heart was the idea that our affection for Jesus did not leave room for idols. But you know statues are easy.

 

What’s not as obvious is how my heart turns many, many, many of God’s good gifts into idols. They take the place of Jesus in my heart. I take hold of their false promise of peace, of joy, of security. Whether its achievement, money, health, children, friends, pleasure, these become idols in my heart when they become ultimate. They cannot bear the weight of my soul. Nor can my soul bear their weight. I will be crushed by them. Like the tragic hoarder in Connecticut I might not ever see the consequence of my misplaced affection until its too late.

 

But here is the grace of God to us in Christ: His grace awakens us to the Living God and we now keep turning from idols to serve the living and true God. Statues are easy for us to see and say “ah, a false view of God.” But please, don’t become smaug, you may be sitting on your idol.

 

So look with Jesus Christ our Lord at your heart. With Him there is no room for idols. Its not time to move furniture around, its time to clean house. Some things must go and some things must be put back in their proper place under Jesus. Then the report will go out about us, “They turned from their idols to serve Jesus, the living God.”

Block F

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woods

On the eve of the equinox
I heard the frogs sing
under starlit skies.

They carried me on their song
to places I had been before
and caused me to wonder.

Who else had quietly walked
this trail between the gentle caress
of swordferns seeking home?

I drew in my breath
but the damp warming soil
would not give up their names.

Fits of Piety and Heart Attacks

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17And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”   Mark 7:17-23

We get keyed up about the wrong things; in a fit of piety we move the furniture and try to clean up our lives.

Jesus highlights our misdirected piety.

Instead of attending to the real problem of purity, our piety (effort at holiness) often attacks the wrong thing.

Humanly motivated piety attacks substances. The hope is that by limiting the substances coming into the body then a person will be righteous.

The central concern of piety must be the heart. For its what comes out of my heart that slimes me and others. Jesus gave some examples of what He sees there in the heart:

evil thoughts
sexual immorality
theft
murder
adultery
coveting
wickedness
deceit
sensuality
envy
slander
pride
foolishness

A quick look at this list clarifies my need for a priest, a physician for my heart. I need someone who can attack my heart and change my life.

But who has the priestly power to cleanse me from impurity?

Who is qualified to radically transform the heart?

Who has knowledge of the secret designs of my heart?

Jesus Christ, the Creator of Heaven and earth, the Lamb of God, who comes to take away the sin of the world.

The Holy Spirit motivates a different piety.

This pursuit of holiness is now a pursuit of the Holy One of God, Jesus Christ.

11But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

15Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance… Hebrews 9:11-15

 

Showing Off

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39You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.   John 5:39-40

We don’t memorize the Scripture in order to show off. Rather we memorize the Scripture because it bears witness to Jesus. It leads us to Him. Its voice, which is His voice, speaks to us calling us to come to Jesus. “Come to Jesus” that’s the call of the Scripture. Jesus said so Himself. Knowledge does not give us the Kingdom life; Jesus does.

When it comes to memorizing the Word that bears witness to Jesus here’s some suggestions:

1. Write it; say it; sing it.

2. Review it, review it, review it.

3. Meditate on it. Take time to meet Jesus in the words and see the many varied ways the Word of God merges with our lives.

4. Oh yeah and the secret of Scripture memory: review, review, review.