No Other Gods

Listen...can you hear that?...it's the sound of a quiet house...a very quiet house.

The kids are all back in school today, the husband is tucked up in his office working, even the dog and the cat are quietly snoozing, and the house is quiet.  I just may be in heaven!

Don't get me wrong an hour or two of this and I will be begging for someone to talk to but right now, I am SO enjoying this!

It has allowed me to get started on my new book for my Thursday bible study.  We are studying No Other Gods:  Confronting Our Modern-day Idols by Kelly Minter.  I can tell you already I am going to LOVE this book.  The whole premise of the book is something that I have been struggling with for quite some time now, so I am excited to have someone walk me through it. 

In 2 Kings 17:33 it says, "They worshiped the Lord but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought."  Hmm, are we talking about ancient Israel or America today?  

How many of us "worship" God but "serve" someone, or more likely, someTHING else?  How much of our time and attention do we  give to God compared to the time and attention we give to other things (material possessions, activities for ourselves and our kids, to-do lists that must be accomplished)?  When those things get more time and attention then God, they become an idol, THEY become your god.  

The thing is, in our current culture, not only is this OK, but it is expected.  Sure lots of us go to church on Sunday (at least most Sundays, I mean as long as there is nothing else going on, I mean I WANT to go to church but...).  At least in my community, church is generally recognized as a good thing.  Most of our friends go to church on a fairly regular basis where we spend some time with God, and perhaps are even moved by the message.  But when Monday roles around it is back to the routine, running here, running there, worrying about this, complaining about that, and I am sorry but I just don't have time for God today.  Please don't read any judgement into this, I am just as guilty of this as the next person.  There are any number of things that pull my time and attention away from where it needs to be on any given day.  

But that doesn't make it OK.  I know in my heart that it's not, and I'm guessing maybe you do to.  Maybe you know that there are about 10 other things on that list or in your mind that come before a relationship with your maker.  Whatever it is, whatever is holding your attention, your thoughts, controlling how you spend those few precious minutes of down time a day THAT is your god.  And I want you to know it is no replacement for the real God.  We ALL have idols that we have placed before God but he makes it pretty clear throughout his book, that that is not OK.  He wants, he deserves and he is worthy of ALL of us, our time, our attention, our lives.  

He deserves more time than my minivan gets as I chauffeur kids from here to there.  He deserves more of my thoughts than my checkbook gets.  He deserves more of my attention than the TV gets.  HE is my God, not those other things.  And HE alone is worthy.