American Idol

Even though Ezekiel is really wordy and tends to be a tad repetitive, I was really convicted of sin when I was doing some catchup reading last night. Check out Ezekiel 9 sometime. Basically, God sends out the executioners of the city throughout Jerusalem in Passover style. There is a "man clothed in linen" who goes out before the executioners and marks the heads of the people who aren't idolaters. When the executioners go out through the temple and city, they kill everyone who does not have a mark on his or her head including elderly, women, and children.

This is really convicting for me. Obviously God has strong feelings about idolatry. I've been thinking a lot about idols lately. Idols take a very different shape in the present day as opposed to the 500's BC, but the concept is the same. It is something worshiped that is not God. The idols in the Old Testament tended to be very obvious, i.e. golden calfs, mountains, etc. However, the idols now are a little more subtle. They can be sports, grades, social status, television and movies, ministry; and the list goes on. Imagine there is a visitor who comes to the United States who has no presuppositions of the culture or religious climate of the country. If they were to observe people's day-to-day lives, they would probably see people waiting for the weekend idolizing free time, or observe people studying the "word" (ESPN.com) for a prediction for this week's "worship time" (NFL game), or see people doing just about anything to gain social status whether it is serving others with the motive of getting others' approval or cutting others down in order to seem superior.

By no means am I saying I don't have idols. I love the feeling of doing ministry and sharing my faith. However, sometimes I see ministry as an 'end.' It becomes an idol for me really easily because my motivation is not to bring God glory, but instead to make my name great or impress others. It's pretty twisted, huh? Does this mean that I should stop doing ministry? I don't think so... However, I think there needs to be a change in mindset to "God is good. He brought others into my life when I didn't know the gospel. I worship Him. Therefore, I am humbled by the opportunity to share God with others."

After I read Ezekiel 9 I took inventory of the idols in my life and wrote them down. I found that it was really helpful to see them outside of my "justifying head." In order to kill those idols you need to see Christ for who He is and put Him in the place of those idols. Find out how your life is ordered around worshiping these idols and look to find how you can order your life around the person and work of Jesus Christ.