Beware of Idols

 What does Jesus look like?  What does God the Father look like?  What does the Holy Spirit look like?

Most of your answers likely break the second commandment.  We are given some pictures and metaphors of God, but for the most part we are not given images of any of the persons of God.  Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter, John and Jude all had seen Jesus and none of them offer a scrap of physical description (save for Revelation when we have an apocalyptic vision of Jesus with feet of brass, eyes like fire and a sword coming out of His mouth).

I firmly believe that nary a physical description of Jesus exists in the Bible because if we had these details we would end up worshipping a picture of Jesus.  If we were supposed to know, Dr. Luke could have said, "He was sort of tall" or Matthew might have said, "His hair was shorter than most."  We aren't given a description because we are prone to making and worshipping idols.

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." Exodus 20:4-6

This command certainly prohibits the worship of idols representing other gods and much ink has been spilled about that.  This command speaks against the actual idol in a yard I passed by this week, it scolds me for the times I have given a flag more reverence than I have given Christ, and it speaks against the physical things we treat as gods in our lives.  The Bible is clear that worshipping idols is evil and downright stupidly useless.

But why is commandment #1 "You shall have no other gods before me." If commandment #2 means the exact same thing?  I don't believe that it's simply a prohibition against making representations of false gods.

Making a physical representation of the real God will lead to the creation of a false god.

Consider what the Israelites did a few chapters after the recording of the Ten Commandments.  Moses, who was their intermediator between them and Yahweh, was on the mountain.  The people got tired of waiting for him and asked Aaron to make them gods.  So, Aaron fashioned a calf out of gold.  Then it says this:

"'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, 'Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.'" Exodus 32:4b-5 (read LORD as Yahweh)

The golden calf wasn't supposed to be a different god but it was supposed to be the real God, it was an idol of Yahweh.  In the instant after making this idol, supposedly of God, they had a festival that was simply loud revelry and "running wild" (v. 25).

Alongside attempting to make idols of God Himself, we must also be wary of turning things from God into idols.  We must avoid thinking the cross in our sanctuary or on our necklace is a good luck charm.  We must not think the communion cups themselves have magical powers.  We are prone to do this.

In 2 Kings 18:4 we learn that the bronze snake that God TOLD Moses to make in the desert had been turned to an idol.  The people took a good, God prescribed object and turned it into an idol that later was called Nehushtan.

The Second Commandment is one we need to take more seriously. Does the commandment forbid objects in our worship and stained glass in our windows?  I don't think entirely.  Does this commandment prohibit our felt-board depictions of Jesus and our Easter Passion plays?  Maybe.  I don't know how to effectively do children's education, visual story telling, religious art and the like without ever attempting a depiction of our Lord.  But I do know that if the depiction becomes your perception of our Lord you are harboring an idol.  I do know that God is serious about this command even promising generations of curses and blessings based on the Israelites' keeping of the commandment.

Here's the bottom line.  We must have our perception of God the Father, Son and Spirit most and best shaped by the Word of God.  I'm not asking anyone to protest the use of the Jesus film or anything like that.  I just know that I wish I didn't have images of a long brown haired man or a giant white bearded man in my thoughts of God.  I know that my false images of God wildly miss the majesty of all He is.

This understanding of the Second Commandment took me a while to process.  I don't expect you to be any different if this is new to you (though you're likely wiser and more obedient to the Word than I). I do ask you to consider how we can avoid breaking this commandment today.

No gods Before Me

 Over the next several posts I want to look at the 10 Commandments.  These commandments are so familiar and yet likely rather unfamiliar to us.

In Exodus 20 before God issues the 10 commandments He says:

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." Exodus 20:2

The Lord begins like this to establish that He has the right to give commands to the people of Israel.  Yahweh says that He is their God, He is their creator and supernatural leader.  He says that He is the God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt.  In this statement He says that He has redeemed them, or purchased and rescued them, out of slavery and therefore now has rights over them.  God could very well say the same to me even though I have never been enslaved in Egypt.  God made me and He rescued me out of the dominion of darkness and brought me into His kingdom (Colossians 1:13).

God has the right to tell us what to do.  He had the right to dictate the kind of people Israel would be as He established them as a new, free nation.  So, what does He require of us in the 10 Commandments?

"You shall have no other gods before me." Exodus 20:3

God called Israel out of a land of polytheism into strict monotheism.  There is but one God and Yahweh is Him.  The people had seen Yahweh's dominance over the Egyptian gods of the Nile, the sun, frogs and whatnot during the ten plagues.  Israel was not to return to bowing down to any god but the real God.

Not many of us have other gods we say we bow to.  Not many of us would say that we struggle with polytheistic tendencies.  But do we?

I believe we do have other things that tend to be functional gods in our lives.  While we may not call them gods, we have things that function as gods.  When life gets tough we lean on the god of financial security.  When we want joy we look to the god of perfect Instagramable moments.  When we want wonder we turn to the god of sports excellence.  When we want direction we turn to the god of politics.  We are experts in turning the many goods in our lives into gods in our lives.  We turn innocuous things into toxic objects of worship and adoration.

But I argue that the biggest threat to keeping the first commandment is a would-be god much closer than the bank or the stadium.

Self.

Our culture is run by the priests of self worship.  We are implored to pursue our own happiness.  We are saluted and applauded for defining our own identity.  We are urged to determine our own destiny, to be the master of our fate the captain of our soul ("Invictus" by William Ernest Henley).  We are encouraged to find our own truth.  In the Garden of Eden the serpent  tempted Eve by suggesting that God was afraid that we would be like him and discover that we were just as capable as He is (Genesis 3:5). 

Today the pharisees of the Church of Self reenforce the worship of the god in the mirror and all the sacrifices the Trinity of Id, Ego and Superego require to be satiated.

"You shall have no gods before me."

This short, simply commandment requires our utmost attention.  This sentence demands that we focus our gaze on the God that rescued us out of slavery.  This sentence makes the believer recalibrate his or her worship regularly.  It makes us ask: what do I cherish, what do I find security in, what do I find joy in, to what do I sacrifice?

Next post we will look at the next commandment, but for now this commandment has given me plenty to consider and plenty to repent from.  

Be monotheistic in every sense of the word today.

Happy 30th Birthday, Christine!

 Today is my wife's 30th birthday!

She is spending today pregnant with my child and navigating "hold me" requests from my other two children and hanging out with her parents.  She is the wonderful mother of my children.  She is my best friend and lover.  She is a gift from God to me.

I have been blessed to have spent most of her 20's loving her.  

I first laid eyes on Christine in January of her 20th year.  She sat in the front pew as I spoke to a group about Ephesians chapter 6.  It was not love at first.

 Later that Summer I began to notice her character and personality and started to become interested.  By the Fall I had taken her out on our first date and I quickly fell in love.  

In January of her 21st year I proposed to her.  We were married in August of her 22nd year.  I hit a home run.

In years 22, 23, 24 and 25 I loved her deeply as my beautiful wife.  In May of her 26th year I began to love my Christine as the mother of my child.  In November of her 28th year I loved her as my beautiful partner in foster parenting  In February of her 28th year I loved her as the mother of my children.

On her 29th birthday I began to love her as my lovely quarantine partner.  Year 29 of Christine's life was, to say the least, an odd one and yet a wonderful one.  I'm so glad to have been madly in love with the woman I've spent so much time with.

Christine, loving you during your 20's has been a privilege.  The love we've had, shared and made during this span of your life has meant so much to me.   My only regret is I didn't love you at first sight that January morning.

Christine, a toast to a more normal year in your 30th year, for all of us.  And a toast to this new decade of me loving you being even more deep, rich, rewarding, satisfying and fun than the last decade. 

Thank you for letting me love you today.

My Phone: Good and Evil

 My wife was out getting a few things and I was outside playing with my kids as the warm sun hung overhead.  I grabbed my phone to check the time and without a thought pushed that blue square.  I had a notification.  That red number one had to be eliminated, so I clicked.  It was an invite to a page that a woman I went to high school with had invited me to join.

I shouldn't have clicked on that.  I didn't notice that page was an "only fans page".  Upon clicking there was the woman that was three years behind me in high school wearing a few pieces of floss.  I didn't need to see that and I declined the invite.  I got out but noticed the invite was still quickly accessible, so I thought I could swipe it to delete the request and avoid the temptation to see a nearly naked woman.  Whoops.  The swipe took me back to it and I had to back out again.

Meanwhile my kids continued to play.  I should have just kept playing.  I didn't do anything wrong by seeing the photo that was sprung at me, but I could have avoided the entire situation by remaining present with my kids.  

Our phones have the ability to access deeply sinful things.  I'm keenly aware of the pornographic power my phone has, and it terrifies me to think about my son having one some day.  I'm keenly aware when I'm on social media how tempted I am to be a jerk (you might not be surprised how quickly I think jerkish things and have to try not to type them).

Our phones can be boon and bane.  They can lead us into temptation, but they can also be used for great good.  

There are many ways in which my phone helps me.  I have less frustration and therefore my wife and I have fewer arguments thanks to GPS.  I'm better at my job thanks to instant information available from my pocket.  I'm able to talk to my sister in Australia face-to-face for free.  There are ways upon ways I can use my phone for good, but I want to highlight one easy good use for the phone.

My church has committed to spend 24 hours collectively in prayer on the first weekend of each month.  We sign up for times and we spend that time praying.  I've made my monthly prayer (so far) a time of prayer with my phone in my hand and I want to encourage you to try this some time.

I take the church directory and begin typing out my prayer for the person on that page in a text to them.  It's not anything extravagant, but just a paragraph or so of my prayer to God for them.  Then I send it.  That's it.  I don't try to make it through the directory, in fact I never get that far.  I set my timer on my phone for 30 minutes and have been surprised each time how short 30 minutes of this kind of prayer can be.  

Our phones are boon and bane.  I invite you to try my suggestion, or find another way, to use our phones to encourage and build up those we love.  

Try praying with your phone in your hand today.

The Power of Pumping Blood

 I hope you spend a lot of time thinking about the death of Jesus.  I hope you ponder the awesome sacrifice of Christ for us.  Some of you have taken communion recently and some haven't since the pandemic began, but this Christian rite is designed to help us remember the body broken for us and the blood shed for us.

But how much time do you spend thinking about the ascension of Jesus the Christ?  Probably not a lot.  I'm sure you spend ample time thinking about the resurrection of Jesus, as you should.  But Jesus did more than die and rise again.  He ascended.

We spend a lot of time drawing hope from the spilled blood of Jesus while largely ignoring the pumping blood of Jesus.

Jesus is a man with a heart pumping blood right now.  Jesus is still 100% God and 100% man.  His body is perfected, but He still is very much "God with skin on" today.  Remember, Jesus didn't disappear and vanish into Heaven; no, He ascended as a man up into Heaven and the angels declared to His disciples that He would come back the same way, and they didn't simply mean through the sky. (Acts 1:9-11)

So what?

1) Our Hope is Living.

"Praise be the the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade... kept in Heaven for you..." 1 Peter 1:3-4

Our hope is not chiefly living for ever in Heaven (it is that).  Our hope is the person Jesus.  Jesus lives.  When we believe the Gospel we get Jesus and therefore get the entire God-head.  Our hope is not dead and gone but is living and kept in Heaven for us.

2) His Ascension Proves Ours.

When we die our souls will go to the present Heaven while our bodies stay on the present earth.  On that day when the Gospel is completely culminated we will be like Jesus is now.  We will be fully human.  100% pure spirit with 100% pure body, just as Jesus is right now.  One of the great truths of the Bible, that we rehearse in immersive baptism, is that we get Christ's death, burial and bodily resurrection.

3) He's "God with Skin On" Interceding for us Right Now.

Jesus, the man, is our Great High Priest.  He represents us to God daily.  He speaks on our behalf as our praying lawyer every day.  He has this role as a perfect, eternal man.

"Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood.  Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them." Hebrews 7:23-25 

4) His Reign as Our Savior King is Now.

I admit that sometimes it doesn't feel as though Jesus is reigning as King, but he certainly is.  Notice the tense in the passage below.  

"...Jesus Christ, who has gone into Heaven and is at God's right hand... with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him." 1 Peter 3:21b-22

I'm not encouraging you to think of the spilled blood of Jesus any less.  I don't know a single person that spends too much time dwelling on that.  What I encourage you to do is to think about how Jesus the ascended man lives today and how He is for you.  

Let that be your living hope today.

4 Adjectives to Reach the World

 Beyond the dictionary definition, how would those outside the Church describe Christians?  How do they describe Christians?  What adjectives might they use?

Some describe Christians as a voting block.  Others as those who go to church on Sunday.  Others may say goody two shoes.  Some may say judgmental.  These are just a few ways I have seen Christians described.

Would the adjectives of joyful, hopeful, peaceful and glad be used the describe Christians?  Could they be used to describe you?

These four words should be hallmarks of the Christian's attitude.  We should not be sorrowful all the time, though we will have times of sorrow and are commanded to be always sorrowful and always joyful (2 Corinthians 6:10).  We should not be hopeless, we have the world's greatest hope.  We should not be dour, we are to be glad people.  We should not be anxious, we have sure promises for our well being.

A Christian is one who is saved by God and one who has a great future guaranteed and one who has constant guidance and assurance guaranteed in writing.  We should be hope filled, joyful, peaceful, glad individuals.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13)

"On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare

a feast of rich food for all peoples,

a banquet of aged wine

the best of meats and the finest of wines.

On this mountain He will destroy

the shroud that enfolds all peoples,

the sheet that covers all nations;

He will swallow up death forever.

The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears

from all faces;

He will remove the disgrace of His people

from all the earth.

                                                                                                  The LORD has spoken.
In that day they will say,

Surely this is our God;

We trusted in Him, and He saved us.

This is the LORD, we have trusted in Him;

let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation." 

Isaiah 25:6-9

God has promised to fill us with hope.  He has given us the peace that passes all understanding.  He has given us all sorts of reasons to be joyful and glad.  This doesn't mean we can't have emotional valleys.  This doesn't mean we live lives that ignore the pain around us.  But, Christians, what might happen to our witness if these four words became adjectives the unbelieving world associated strongly with us?

Be glad, peaceful, joyful, hopeful people, because of Christ, today.

My Beautiful, Smart, Nice, Brave Daughter's Birthday

 Just over a year ago Kobe Bryant, his daughter and their friends were killed in a helicopter crash.  Kobe accomplished a lot in his career.  He was one of the greatest basketball players ever: he won five NBA Finals, two Olympic gold medals and several individual awards.  He won an Oscar, had his own shoe and was known instantly without his last name being needed.

But Kobe's greatest legacy is that after his tragic death the #GirlDad movement began.  Across the globe men showed off their pride of being the father of daughters.  Across continents men were inspired to be great fathers for their daughters.  Many people imagine the political movements that can make a grand difference in this world, but the grassroots change made by fathers loving their daughters can be immense.

I am a proud #GirlDad.  

Two years ago on Groundhog's Day a little girl named Anna Kathleen first exited my wife's womb and entered my arms.  My love for Anna has grown so much since she hurried into our lives that Saturday morning.

I like to do some call and responses with my kids.  Anna's call and response with me is my blessing over her.

If you read the Old Testament you find the blessings given were often prophetic.  I don't claim to be a prophet, but I do want my daughter to know what I think she is now and what I know she can become.

"Anna are you beautiful? Yes.  

Are you smart? Yes.  

Are you nice? Yes.  

Are you brave? Yes."

I want Anna to know she's beautiful.  I want her to know she was knitted together in her mother's womb by God.  I don't want her to go through life questioning her physical loveliness.  I want her to be a girl and a woman that exudes inner and outer beauty with confidence.

I want Anna to know she can be an intelligent woman.  I don't want her to grow up with the false belief that men want dumb girls.  Perhaps boys might be intimidated by smart girls, but men aren't.  I want her to know that there's great reward in gaining wisdom and knowledge.

Love is kind and I want my little girl to be kind.  I say 'nice' now because she understands it, but I really want her to strive to be kind.  I hope Anna is a person with strong, well thought out beliefs that can be kind to those who agree with her and those who disagree with her.  I want her to be a refuge for the weak and disheartened.

I want my Anna to be brave.  I pray that Anna will be a woman of courage.  To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, courage is not a virtue in and of itself; courage is the virtues at the testing point.  I believe Anna can be brave enough to love, brave enough to be kind, brave enough to be right, brave enough to stand her ground, brave enough to be an outstanding woman that makes this world a better place.

Anna, you are beautiful, smart, nice and brave and I believe you will grow even more so and I implore you to invest in those qualities.

I wish I wasn't in self-isolation for your birthday.  I wish I could give you kisses.  But most of all, my wish is to get the honor in playing a role in the person God is still making you into today.