Tag: self-centeredness

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Our hearts the Idol Factory

image  “They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.” 2 Kings 17:15

Since attending the Advance ‘09 conference in June, I have been thinking about idolatry and trying to identify the idols that claim the affections of modern believers. These quotes have been helpful to my thinking.

“Idolatry is the most discussed problem in the Bible and one of the most powerful spiritual and intellectual concepts in the believer’s arsenal.  Yet for Christians today it is one of the least meaningful notions and is surrounded by ironies.  Perhaps this is why many evangelicals are ignorant of the idols in their lives…Contemporary evangelicals are little better at recognizing and resisting idols than modern secular people are…There can be no believing communities without an unswerving eye to the detection and destruction of idols”

Os Guiness & John Seel

image “An idol is not simply a statue of wood, stone or metal; it is anything we love and pursue in place of God, and can also be referred to as a ‘false god’ or a ‘functional god.’ In biblical terms, an idol is something other than God that we set our hearts on, that motivates us, that masters or rules us, or that we serve.”  Luke 12:29, 1 Corinthians 10:6, 1 Corinthians 4:5, Ps. 119:133, Matt. 6:24

Ken Sande

“There is always a reason for sin.  Under our sins are idolatrous desires…Sin isn’t only doing bad things, it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things.  Sins is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing more than God.  Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us.  Sin is primarily idolatry.”

Tim Keller

“A triune God could never be a God of human invention. Our idols, our made up gods, are monads – self centered autonomous deities, a bit like bigger versions of us really, a million miles away from the true, and stunningly beautiful, three-personed, eternally loving God.”

Friday Fought blogspot

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Create in me a clean heart, O God

cave1.jpgMan, made more like God than any other creature, has become less like God than any other creature.  Created to reflect the Glory of God, he has retreated sullenly into his cave–reflecting only his own sinfulness.

A.W. Tozer

“Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!”  This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 

I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.  Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes?

You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.   Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.”
This is what the LORD says: “Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 

You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.”
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

2 Samuel 12:7-13

It was the mercy of God that pursued David and did not allow his sin of arrogant self-centeredness to have the last word! 

What a horrible thing it would be if God allowed us to sin successfully!  How tender is our Father who would send the Nathan’s into our lives so that we might acknowledge the truth–a truth that sin’s lies blind us to.

David’s awareness of his sin occurred when there was a clash between 2 narratives.  He was writing his life story differently than God intended.  His story line had him at center stage, allowed to grab and possess anything he wanted without regard to any authority outside himself. 

The story gets radically redirected when God’s prophet Nathan corrects David’s plot line!  He brings to bear on David’s story a greater, truer narrative.  His story is supremely God centered and highlights the great generosity of God. 

It seems clear in this clash that God called his anointed back into right relationship–back into the reality that God and His word will rule!  It is glorious when David agrees with the correction and says, “I have sinned against the LORD”!

Father, I see in your Word that when I believe the words of my sinful mind–the thoughts that suggest that I need to grab and possess and consume– that you receive that activity as if I am despising you.  I cringe at the thought of how little I weigh my self centeredness and how much you are grieved by it. 

I write my story line as though there is no cost to writing you out and sending you off stage.  I yield my thoughts and embrace your truth once again.  Help me feel the weight of that moment by moment today so that my love of comfort, my desire for ease and convenience and immediate gratification would not have the last word.  Lord, I want the last word to be “I love you!”  AMEN