A Reading Challenge

Hey Girls,
You all know I'm a big reader. I love to read and normally have several books going in addition to our book of the month. Well, today I'm challenging you to do the same with me and Priscilla Shirer.  On her blog http://www.goingbeyond.com/blog/countdown-resolution-revolution-book-club, she is hosting a book club to read her book The Resolution for Women. I've joined and I wanted to let you know about it so you could join along if you wanted to.  Below is the video introduction. The club begins next Friday.  I hope some of you will join me! 

Have a great day!
Kimberly

Yes to God

Girls, Do you remember the book What Happens When Women Say Yes to God? Well, Lysa has done a webcast about the book.  It's on her site and can be viewed until Thursday night.  I thought I would share it with you since we read the book.

Have a great day,
Kimberly

http://lysaterkeurst.com/2011/09/yes-to-god-webcast-replay-on-demand/

The Microwave Generation

Ding! Awwwww- the sound that says our food is ready. The ding that tells us that what we put in this amazing box-like appliance just moments ago is now hot and ready to eat. The microwave oven has been a constant part of my life and I love it. Since its appearance on the consumer market in 1967 millions have been sold. There’s one in just about every home in the U.S. I’ll bet there’s one in yours.

Since its inception our generation has become accustom to getting things quick. That instant satisfaction has become such a characteristic that we have a catch phrase-the microwave generation. Yep, that’s us. We want our every need taken care of in a blink of an eye. Wait? No way! Just think of how the consumer market caters to this need. Sprint’s 4G network that’s the fastest ever! Phones that will let you surf the net anywhere because waiting till we get home for that facebook update is too long. Internet service has to be roadrunner fast. Food that you can drive up to a restarunt and get from without leaving your car in 5 miuntes or less!  If you want it- now’s the time to get it. Right now.. don’t wait. And if our generation is bad, just look at the one coming up behind us. Scary!

So, what’s this entire thing have to do with our book? The key is instant satisfaction. It’s one of the reasons I believe so many of us turn to false gods. We don’t want to wait on God. We want something to satisfy that longing or pain right away.

In chapter six Kelly looks at why we run to idols instead of God. She says,

“So much of what draws us to our personal gods has to do with where our needs are, where we hurt, why we hurt, and how we desire that pain to be satiated."

Kelly talks about how important it is to understand why we turn to our false gods. It’s important to get to the root of the problem if we expect to change the behavior. (Note: We’ll need God’s help to do this, but it’s critical to understand what the root of our need is for idols. If you don’t know what the root of the problem is, then take some time in prayer to ask God to reveal it to you.)

For me, I turn to the idols in my life to fill emotions needs I feel I have. Loneliness, fear, lack of self worth is my big three. Many times to fill that space I’ll turn to food. It’s my main false god. Food is a quick and easy fix. There’s that instant satisfaction again. I want comfort and I want it now! This is one that I have to spend some time with the Lord asking Him to help me understand.

Perhaps my favorite part of the chapter came with the explanation of Matthew 11:28-30.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

God knows that we will seek satisfaction in something. He invites us to come to him and find rest. This rest requires that we take the yoke of Jesus. I’ve read this passage many times and often wondered how taking Jesus’ yoke upon myself will lead to rest. Kelly explains it beautifully.

“This rest requires that we take his yoke, which is easy and light. The word yoke is not something we toss around too often today, as it’s an apparatus placed on cattle to join them to one another so they can pull something like a plow. But the principle is so beautiful and vital to understanding what it means for God to be God in our life, as opposed to gods functioning as God. Metaphorically, the word is a picture of bondage or slavery, what doesn’t sound particularly restful to me, sort of as exciting as sticking my head in a gallows. But if I can borrow from Romans 6:16 for a minute, the bottom line is that we are all slaves to something, whether to sin or to righteousness; ‘Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?’ Paul explains that whatever we obey-whatever we offer ourselves to-becomes our master.”

In the beginning taking on Jesus’ yoke seems contrary to what we believe in our hearts. Taking on the yoke of obedience can feel “heavy and life-sucking while the sparkle and promise of our favorite false god can look irresistible.” Proverbs 14:12 says

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

In the end turning to the false gods in our lives will weigh us down with a heavy burden and leads to death.

Human Nature

I love to study nature. Just to see the way the nature works fascinates me. How the bee knows where to find nectar or how photosynthesis works. How the planets revolve round the sun without going off course or how the mountains are formed. How tornados are created or how creatures adapt to their environments. All of it amazes me. Plants, animals, weather, and the earth itself. To say I was an Earth Science geek in school would be an understatement.

But of all the things that most fascinate me, its how all creatures have a built in instinct to know just how to take care of themselves and their young. Just think, minutes after a foal is born, it’s walking. The creatures God created are amazing, but none more so than man.

Our human nature was given to us by God. He created us with certain basic instincts and desires. The instinct to eat when we get hungry, to drink when we thirst, to protect our young when they are threatened were all encoded into our DNA. All of these are innate parts of our being. We are hard wired with the desire to seek out love and relationship and most importantly to worship. God created us to worship. What we worship is the ultimate question.

In chapters 4-5 Kelly dives into this issue of who we are to worship. She begins by taken us back to the days of Sunday school where we learned the Ten Commandments. The first commandment is the most important.

“I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” (Exodus 20:2)

The Lord begins by setting up His authority. If we do not except that He is Lord then all the other commandments have little meaning in our lives.

Not only do we need to settle that Jesus is Lord, but also that He is the only God. In today’s culture, with its open acceptance of every religion and tolerance for everyone mentality, we are in danger of forgetting that there is only one God.

So why do we need to settle this in our hearts right off the bat?

“If God is not God, if he is not the only God in our lives, then his commands and principles and truths become matters of suggestion that we’re free to savor or toss at our whims.”

I love how God reminds us with just a tiny word that our relationship with him is personal. Remember the first part of Exodus 20:2? “I am the LORD thy God.” There is it, that tiny word- thy. I am the Lord your God. Not just any God, but your God. It’s personal. It’s relational. I like how Kelly says it,

“It’s the one word that changes everything, the word that brings what could have been a faceless God into a reachable One….” She asks, “Is he God, or is he your God?”

Being in a relationship with God will give you the strength to turn from your idols and live for God.

So back to our human nature. We’re designed to worship something. Whether it is God or an idol, we’re going to worship one or the other.

“If we’re not in a personal relationship with him, we will absolutely be in it with something else, a false god, because our hearts are designed in such a way as to be intimate with something.”

So which one will we choose?

Functional Gods

Today’s post comes from chapter three of our book. In it, Kelly dives a little deeper into what modern day idols look like. She nailed it down by saying, “I was ruled by my selfishness and dragged around by cavernous desires. Although I was a Christian, so many other things led the way besides God. I professed God, but, functionally, I allowed a slew of other things to act as him.”   That’s the trouble in a nutshell. We allow our sinful flesh to lead us.

“In biblical terms, an idol is something other than God that:  

a.       we set our hearts on- Luke 12:29  “And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.”

b.      motivates us- 1 Corinthians 4:5 “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

c.       masters or rules us- Psalm 119:133 “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

d.      we serve- Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Each issue above has a verse that we can memorize to remind us to turn to God instead of our idols. 

Kelly uses the term functional god because it pulls the concept of idolatry out of distant lands and times and places it in today’s world.  She states, “Suddenly, it’s not just about who I proclaim is my God, but who actually functions as him.”  This statement has stuck with me all day.  It caused me to ponder “What is God’s function in my life?” As I thought about it, it occurred to me that God’s function is to fill all the spaces in my being that I turn to idols for.  When I long for my husband for companionship, God is there and ready to fill that need for someone to talk to. When I turn to food to fill that void when I’m lonely or frustrated, God is there to fill that need too.

The things I substitute for God are not necessarily bad things.  My husband’s company and food are not bad things. But the trouble begins when I try to replace God with them. 

Psalm 106:36 says, “And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.”

That’s what an idol is…a snare. It traps you. Without realizing it you’re sucked into letting something or someone other than God dictate your behavior. And that is where the trouble lies.

They Worship the Lord, but Served Other Gods.

I knew when I chose this book that it would be a tough subject.  As Americans we have so many distractions. So many things, people and places that take our focus away from God. Kelly mentions that her heart was stirred when she read 2 Kings 17:33 & 41. It’s the spring board for her book.

33They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.

41So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.

I wondered who “they” were so I did a little research.  They were the people that the Assyria king brought from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled in Samaria.  These people were moved into the land.  Through some persecution from the Lord the people asked the king for someone to teach them the ways of the “god” of the region.  They didn’t know of the Lord and therefore didn’t know how to worship Him.  The King sent one priest to teach them. But they still served the idols from their homelands.  That’s the short version.

“The people were living split lives, worshipping the One while serving the others.”  As I read Kelly’s words I thought of the people around me. We do the same thing. We worship God on Sunday, but serve other “gods” throughout the week. I’m just as guilty of this. The more I read and study this the more I can see it.

“Both verses speak of worship to God but service to idols ….Yet if you could have witnessed what I was controlled by, what motivated and moved me, you would have seen that in many cases it was not God at all, but my idols. Not carved images, but people, career paths, materialism, acceptance, and more.” Yes, those have been my idols too.  Doing things to please others instead of what would please God. Buying that book or dress or food item instead of turning to God for comfort. Walking down a destructive path because I desired so badly to be accepted instead of know that I already am by God.

Kelly’s cure for this action is learning to turn from our idols to God. Replacing those other things that don’t satisfy with the God that does.  I’m looking forward to this journey of discovery.