OUR GOD IS ALIVE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him.

But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

Psalm 115:2-8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

This world certainly offers a lot of things for people to worship.

Some people choose to worship money and the quest is so powerful that they won’t rest until they acquire riches and riches to be able to have anything their heart desires. Some people try and work their way to lavishness. Others try and cheat their way there. Still others try and gamble their way to the top whether at a casino or in playing the lottery. The problem is that even when people do acquire a little wealth, they never seem to be satisfied. One gain begets attempts to get another and another and another. Money can be like a drug that you can be addicted to.

Some people choose to worship their work. After all, most people can achieve their quest for money by working their way there. And so one will work and work and work and ever seek to climb the ladder of success, a longing that becomes almost obsessive in many cases. Work becomes such a time consumer that people are drawn into its vacuum and left with no time to do anything else.

Some people choose to worship sex. Love becomes lust and passion consumes a person to the point where their need for self satisfaction and emotional ecstasy trumps everything else in life, even if it means being unfaithful to a person they have married and committed their life to. Television these days offers shows that are underscored by sexual undertones and the Internet, once a fount for those seeking knowledge, has been prostituted by pornography, offering web surfers a fount of web sites to fulfill their hunger for sexual satisfaction.

And then there’s the worship of one’s self. In other words, you are centered on the things that make you feel good. This path leads people to fixations on any number of things. Some people will go to the gym obsessively to try and craft a body that will draw everyone’s attention, going well beyond just exercising and taking care of themselves. Others can’t turn away from food and will eat themselves into obesity and the health problems that come with being overweight. Still others turn to substances that will make them feel good artificially like alcohol and drugs. Despite knowing the addictive pitfalls of these substances, people are so consumed with achieving emotional highs that they are willing to do whatever it takes to have them.

There are certainly more things that could be mentioned here but you get the point. It’s little wonder why Jesus said the following in His Sermon on the Mount:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:19-21

What Jesus was getting at was worshipping the things of the world is a fleeting proposition. These things the world offer are here today and gone tomorrow. None of them are eternal in nature. Instead of pursuing the things that lead to death, Jesus espouses pursuing the things that bring us life and not just life in the here and now but life everlasting.

And we get that life from the One who is the source of life.

Look at today’s passage from the 115th Psalm:

Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him.

But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

Note the competing factions at play here. There are the people who are believers in God versus the people who choose to worship the world and its ways.

The people who are so infatuated with the world and idolatry question whether God exists. They are so blinded by the idols created by their own hands that they can no longer see that God is present with them. Their focus is on their own desires that they have shut out God’s desires for them. The result is self centeredness and a lifelessness that rivals the things they choose to worship.

The scriptures share that the worshipped idols have mouths but can’t speak, eyes but can’t see, ears but can’t hear, noses but no sense of smell, hands that couldn’t feel, feet that can’t walk, and throats that utter nothing. Now ask yourself about money and sex and success and food and drugs and alcohol. Are they not the same?

Friends, chasing after the desires of one’s own heart will only leave to a life that is empty and dead, ultimately unfulfilling. French philosopher Blaine Pascal said there is a God-shaped vacuum in every one’s heart that only God can fill. Maybe you have that feeling of emptiness inside, a God-shaped hole that is in need of filling.

The good news is that today you can call on the God who is very much alive, the God who created you, the God who the psalmist proclaims is in heaven and ready to do as He pleases in carrying out His will on earth until the day when He sends His Son Jesus back to bring salvation to all those who placed their faith and trust in Him.

You have a critical choice to make.

Will you worship the world and the idols it offers, opting to walk a path of death and destruction?

Or will you choose to worship the Lord and the abundant life now and forever that He offers?

If I were you, I would choose the Lord.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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