Turning from Idols to God

1 Thessalonians 1:8-10 For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. NKJV

Today we tend to dismiss the notation that people worship idols in our seemingly sophisticated generation. Those who lived long ago were idol worshipers we all agree and believe because today we are far more advanced intellectually than they were and we are not primitive. However, today we worship more idols I believe than ever in the history of humanity. Because of our advancement in technology, our idols range from great parks (Yosemite) to large man made buildings (the Eiffel Tower) and down to a tiny ipod not much larger than a silver dollar. The magnitude of human idolatry today is astronomical.

Television and the movie theaters have become perhaps the biggest idols over the past 30 years, but now the iphone, smartphones, and the internet are slowly passing them by leaps and bounds. The television networks, satellite, and cable stations are fighting back to regain its place as man’s number one idol by flooding their programming with reality tv shows. Today there seems to be nothing of limits as long as it can draw people to watch. The exploitation of children and grown men and women doing some gross things permeate the television airwaves. Let us not forget Hindus who worship many animals as gods and have many monuments and shrines to their many false gods or idols. There are many other false worship systems Islam, Buddhism, Bahia, Mormonism, Jehovah’s witness, etc. who are nothing but deceived idolaters. We can and have turned enjoyable things and events into idolatry such as sporting events of all kinds from little kid’s soccer, to college football, to professional sports.

I just read in the news this morning a tragic event of a man who won an eating contest (they have crept slowly into a form of idol worship) but not a contest of eating some type of food but rather live roaches and worms. What made the story tragic is that the man died after winning the contest. This is a tragic example of how low we can go down in a form of idolatry and find ourselves reaping bitter fruit as a result. It is eternally tragic if this winner of the contest died without Jesus Christ. This was a senseless show put on to entertain the on looking crowd and all for the winner to receive the prize of a python (snake). The reality tv show fear factor often has contestants eating bugs and other live and dead animals. Can we not see the big lying snake Satan right in the middle of this side show? The devil is the original idolater and seeks to see human beings worship idols instead of the true and living God.

Luke 4:12 “You shall not tempt the LORD your God.” NKJV

We all make an idol out of something, someplace, or some person and we worship it or them and that is sin in God’s eyes that we must repent of and receive His forgiveness and healing. However, with all that being said, the Apostle Paul went to a city filled with idolaters and idol worship and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ and celebrated that some of those people turned from their idols to the one and only true living God Jesus Christ. The gospel is still the same today as it was then with Paul in Thessalonica.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. NKJV

If I should forget Your patient hand to leave and worship useless things

Please send Your Word for loving correction, although it may sting

For on the other side of rebuke, is a river flowing with mercy and love

And there I find You Lord Jesus the only truth from Heaven above…

 

Sincerely in Christ,

 

Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle e-books now and will be available in a couple of weeks @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…