Tag Archives: Idolatry

Copy Cat Worshiper

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Copy Cat

Today’s Devotion: Deuteronomy 12

My take away from Deuteronomy chapter 12 is that God has no interest in letting anyone or anything distract us from knowing He is God and there is no other.

In verses 4-5, “You must not worship the LORD your God in their way. But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go;” and the remainder of the book are a continuation of warnings, reminders and instructions.

We should not think we are immune to idolatry today; idols are all around us. Anything, anything that comes between our souls and God becomes an idol. Notice what Moses says in verses 4, “You must not worship the LORD your God in THEIR way.” What is their way?

Are you a copy cat worshiper or a monkey see – monkey do worshiper? In other words, we see that others have traditions, rituals or certain practices that make them seem more “spiritual.” One example is a cross necklace. Whenever I see someone wearing a cross necklace, I tend to “assume” that they have a relationship with Christ. Why else would someone where the cross of Jesus around their necks?

Or what about that cross that dangles from a rear view mirror? Is that person a Christian? Perhaps we assume people are more Holy or spiritual because of the church they attend, the frequency that they go to church, the volunteer work that they do or the bible verses that they have memorized. All signs of being good Christians, right?

Maybe not! What I read into these verses is that my relationship with God is my relationship with God and he is looking for authentic worshipers. We can copy cat other people, but if that is all we are doing and our hearts are going through the motions and there is no true heart connection – we’re wasting our time.

Leadership Into Trouble

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Puss-In-Boots

Today’s Devotion: Exodus 32

Exodus 32:22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.

This verse jumped off the page. Aaron is making excuses to justify the sin of the Israelite people. Are you kidding me? Since they are prone to sin, Abraham, and ultimately God, are supposed to not be angry and forgive them automatically?

They can’t get off that easily. I don’t know if I can say this, but the worst thing is that Aaron (the leader while Abraham was gone) should have been keeping them in line, but instead he jumps right in and recruits them to supply their gold to build and idol, and he goes right along and worships the golden calf right along with them!

Sadly, I can relate. I am the oldest of three, I have two younger brothers. I remember when my parents would tell me to watch my brothers because they had a quick errand to run. It wouldn’t be long before their car pulled out of the driveway that we started down the path of mischief. When my parents got back home they would look at me and with a stern and disappointed tone, “Sarah! What did you do?!” Oh I can still remember how it felt to hear those words. That face on the kitty from Puss-n-Boots at the top of this blog post, Yah… that was me. Guilty! Caught! Busted!

Of course, I didn’t know what came over me. I was given a little piece of responsibility and I blew it! I not only DIDN’T stop my brothers from doing wrong, I participated in it and sometimes even came up with the idea. Yes, my parents punished them, but I carried the guilt afterwords knowing that I undermined their trust.

This seems to parallel what happened when Moses when up on the Mountain to meet with God. “The cats away the mice shall play right?” Well, God was mad first and Moses persuaded Him not to punish them, but when Moses witnessed the mess for himself, even he got angry and acted on his anger.

We have to be aware of when we are given an opportunity to standup against the crowd, the temptation of fun, the festivals of idolatry, and the golden calves of our day. Yes, people are prone to sin, but that doesn’t mean that is our excuse for not living righteously and standing firm to keep people from participating in wrongdoing. God has entrusted us with the opportunity to know better. Not only do we need to take responsibility for ourselves, but we have to be especially careful what we lead others to do.