The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory. All worshippers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols. Worship Him, all you gods!
(Verses 6-7)
They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, "You are our gods." Isaiah 43:17
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly (appetites), and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Philippians 3:18-19
There is a new royal son in England today, unnamed but precious, it seems, to the world. U.S. reporters have been camped out for days in London waiting for the announcement of the birth to be made so each could be the first to get the scoop. I saw a picture yesterday of the crowd languishing under multi-colored umbrellas in the stifling heat waiting outside the hospital for the news. And the announcement wasn't that a fetus had been delivered to Prince William. It was a baby. And rejoiced over as each birth of each precious child worldwide should be. But we have come to believe that the shameful deaths of millions of children is a right we have. That a conception wanted is called a baby, while the others are deemed blobs of tissue--the fetus. And we aren't even ashamed of it any more. At the courthouse steps in Austin, Texas, women screamed their disdain for banning abortions after twenty weeks and decried a new law that makes abortion clinics safer. We are turned upside down in our world right now. I was thankful, therefore, to hear how wanted and adored the new prince is.
And so we glory in our shame. And not just in political correctness with our hunger for abortion rights and gay marriage. Things are turned upside down morally in a nation because of what is happening to us as individuals. Our god is our appetites. Food, sex, power, money, drugs, alcohol--we have no self control. We open our mouths and pour in medications that become addictions that bring us destruction. Shame, a most wondrous tool of the enemy, keeps us in addiction, head bowed, no way out. No amount of justifying it really assuages the facts. Idols have only the power we give to them because they are impotent without our need to worship. To cling. And to our shame, even when we understand how bad that man is for us, our great need for heroin or alcohol is destroying our lives, crushing financial debt is robbing us of our livelihood, or food is making us fatter and fatter, sicker and sicker, we go right on back to the behavior that brought us low in the first place. That's different, you might say, than worshipping a silly totem pole or statue of Buddha. Is it? If we are bowing down, we have made our addiction our god. If that man or woman we've left it all for were standing right in front of us, would we actually prostrate ourselves before him or her in worship? Do we put the bottle of alcohol or the syringe of hallucinogen on a pedestal and praise it before we pour its poison into our systems? If we did, we'd more clearly understand our idol worship. Vain and silly, making us look weak, unstable and vulnerable. Shame on us.
When we worship idols, we've made our world too small. It becomes all about us. Self-centered and myopic. Waiting for the next fix of something. Hiding the fact that our idol makes us foolish, we sneak around in a second life. Shrouded in the cloak the enemy loves us to wear. All this when the One we are made to worship displays Himself gloriously at every turn! Everyone can see His majesty. Just look at the heavens! The oceans and mountains! Deserts and valleys! Think how rich and creative are all the wonders of the world in which we live. All that we now know of DNA--a single cell holding all that makes us who we are! Our God is infinitely wise and powerful, clothed in majesty, reigning in splendor yet accessible to us in equally infinite measure. And not to bring us shame. But to deliver us from it. As Jesus did when he met the woman at the well. She couldn't even associate with the other Samaritan women at the well in the mornings because of her degrading life. Five husbands and now with a live-in boyfriend. Jesus didn't speak to her faults but to her heart. Gave her dignity. She was the first person to whom He revealed that He is Messiah. Let her know she didn't have to live the way she was. She could have living water--from Him--to satisfy her unfulfilled longings. She got to be the one to bring good news to the village when she went back. God saw her. Past her addictions and into their cause. Only He can do that.
Addiction must bow to a holy God. It cannot stand before the One who shames it when He passes by. When Light rushes into darkness, it takes over. Flees for its life. What is left is a spotlight on the debris scattered about our lives from the sojourn into a nightmare and our enemy cowering in a corner somewhere. It is up to us to either justify the mess, pretending it's not as bad as it looks, or start cleaning it up by the grace of God. We must decide to no longer bow down saying, "You are my god" to things that have no power. The bottle of alcohol or the new job, the Rolls Royce or the Newport mansion, the bags of potato chips or the new man, all are puny before the God of All. All are finite, evanescent and untrustworthy. Worship Him, you silly gods. Bow down, His precious people, to the only One worthy of your life.
(Verses 6-7)
They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, "You are our gods." Isaiah 43:17
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly (appetites), and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Philippians 3:18-19
There is a new royal son in England today, unnamed but precious, it seems, to the world. U.S. reporters have been camped out for days in London waiting for the announcement of the birth to be made so each could be the first to get the scoop. I saw a picture yesterday of the crowd languishing under multi-colored umbrellas in the stifling heat waiting outside the hospital for the news. And the announcement wasn't that a fetus had been delivered to Prince William. It was a baby. And rejoiced over as each birth of each precious child worldwide should be. But we have come to believe that the shameful deaths of millions of children is a right we have. That a conception wanted is called a baby, while the others are deemed blobs of tissue--the fetus. And we aren't even ashamed of it any more. At the courthouse steps in Austin, Texas, women screamed their disdain for banning abortions after twenty weeks and decried a new law that makes abortion clinics safer. We are turned upside down in our world right now. I was thankful, therefore, to hear how wanted and adored the new prince is.
And so we glory in our shame. And not just in political correctness with our hunger for abortion rights and gay marriage. Things are turned upside down morally in a nation because of what is happening to us as individuals. Our god is our appetites. Food, sex, power, money, drugs, alcohol--we have no self control. We open our mouths and pour in medications that become addictions that bring us destruction. Shame, a most wondrous tool of the enemy, keeps us in addiction, head bowed, no way out. No amount of justifying it really assuages the facts. Idols have only the power we give to them because they are impotent without our need to worship. To cling. And to our shame, even when we understand how bad that man is for us, our great need for heroin or alcohol is destroying our lives, crushing financial debt is robbing us of our livelihood, or food is making us fatter and fatter, sicker and sicker, we go right on back to the behavior that brought us low in the first place. That's different, you might say, than worshipping a silly totem pole or statue of Buddha. Is it? If we are bowing down, we have made our addiction our god. If that man or woman we've left it all for were standing right in front of us, would we actually prostrate ourselves before him or her in worship? Do we put the bottle of alcohol or the syringe of hallucinogen on a pedestal and praise it before we pour its poison into our systems? If we did, we'd more clearly understand our idol worship. Vain and silly, making us look weak, unstable and vulnerable. Shame on us.
When we worship idols, we've made our world too small. It becomes all about us. Self-centered and myopic. Waiting for the next fix of something. Hiding the fact that our idol makes us foolish, we sneak around in a second life. Shrouded in the cloak the enemy loves us to wear. All this when the One we are made to worship displays Himself gloriously at every turn! Everyone can see His majesty. Just look at the heavens! The oceans and mountains! Deserts and valleys! Think how rich and creative are all the wonders of the world in which we live. All that we now know of DNA--a single cell holding all that makes us who we are! Our God is infinitely wise and powerful, clothed in majesty, reigning in splendor yet accessible to us in equally infinite measure. And not to bring us shame. But to deliver us from it. As Jesus did when he met the woman at the well. She couldn't even associate with the other Samaritan women at the well in the mornings because of her degrading life. Five husbands and now with a live-in boyfriend. Jesus didn't speak to her faults but to her heart. Gave her dignity. She was the first person to whom He revealed that He is Messiah. Let her know she didn't have to live the way she was. She could have living water--from Him--to satisfy her unfulfilled longings. She got to be the one to bring good news to the village when she went back. God saw her. Past her addictions and into their cause. Only He can do that.
Addiction must bow to a holy God. It cannot stand before the One who shames it when He passes by. When Light rushes into darkness, it takes over. Flees for its life. What is left is a spotlight on the debris scattered about our lives from the sojourn into a nightmare and our enemy cowering in a corner somewhere. It is up to us to either justify the mess, pretending it's not as bad as it looks, or start cleaning it up by the grace of God. We must decide to no longer bow down saying, "You are my god" to things that have no power. The bottle of alcohol or the new job, the Rolls Royce or the Newport mansion, the bags of potato chips or the new man, all are puny before the God of All. All are finite, evanescent and untrustworthy. Worship Him, you silly gods. Bow down, His precious people, to the only One worthy of your life.
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