Thou shalt have no other gods before ME!
Obeying Holy Spirit, I posted my first blog entry in quite a while last Friday. I have been asking the Lord each day since then what to write about and what should the new category title be? The Lord reminded me that I had been pondering the question “what constitutes having another god in my life instead of The Lord God Jehovah?” In the past week, I had a couple conversations about it with my wife Shirley and on Thursday of this week I talked to my good friend Dale about it over lunch. Suffice it to say I was thinking about it a lot.
I have always been troubled by the teaching that says; “spending a considerable amount of time on television, ballgames, a hobby or other activities you enjoy, especially if it takes you away from your time with God, is in effect making that other activity your god.” I must admit that I have at times felt bad about watching my favorite St. Louis Cardinals ballgame in the evening. Was I making that my god? Was I feeling conviction from Holy Spirit or condemnation from the enemy?
The last thing I would want to do is have another god in place of the true God! I know God feels so strongly about it that He made it the first of His Ten Commandments!
Let’s do a deep dive into the Word of God, the Bible, and see if we can make some sense out of this.
Jeremiah 1:14-16 (MSG)
14 Then GOD told me, “Disaster will pour out of the north on everyone living in this land. 15 Watch for this: I’m calling all the kings out of the north.” GOD’s Decree.” They’ll come and set up headquarters facing Jerusalem’s gates, Facing all the city walls, facing all the villages of Judah. 16 I’ll pronounce my judgment on the people of Judah for walking out on me—what a terrible thing to do!— And courting other gods with their offerings, worshiping as gods sticks they’d carved, stones they’d painted.
Judges 2:11-15 (ESV)
11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger.
13 They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 14 So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.
Here is a short list of “other gods” mentioned in the Bible: Baal, Ashtaroth, Chemosh, Molech, and Mammon (Money) just to name a few. I believe that each of these false gods, including preoccupation with money, have a powerful demonic power behind it that a person could turn to for help and security rather than to God Himself! People actually worship, pray to, put their trust in, and bring sacrifices to these false gods, causing the true God to become angry. This is exactly why calling a ballgame or television a false god bothered me. Turning to other gods is very serious and God takes it very seriously!
At this point, I feel it’s important to address the possibility of spending too much time with hobbies or activities that rob us of precious time spent with the true Lord God. The definition of “too much time” would have to be determined between each individual and God. If God made it clear to us that we were spending too much time with other activities and not enough time with Him, that could clearly be categorized as a sin but hardly classified as turning to another god! I am at peace with the fact that as a Born Again Believer, my sins are forgiven through the Blood of Jesus! I can then strive to alleviate any sin that may be present with the help of Holy Spirit. An individual who has turned to another god however, has removed themselves from the umbrella of Salvation, and has ventured into a very dangerous position without the true God! Hopefully, this is food for thought for you as it was for me. It has helped me a lot to understand that there is a huge difference between a possible sinful activity and turning my back on God to trust in a false god!
As for the title “God and me in twenty-three.” That category title just popped into my mind as I was listening for direction from the Lord. I am looking forward to hearing what He gives us in the weeks to come; to see what He has to offer us regarding the year 2023, which is only a couple of months away.
See you next Friday. Be Blessed!
Good post!