SOMETHING BETTER – 7
The Need
The captivating need for a god that we described yesterday is a common denominator of “man” regardless of gender, nationality, education, wealth, religion or anything else that distinguishes us as individuals.
Even the “natives” in the remotest jungles have their form of a god. It might be the sun or moon, a river, trees, a bird, animal or other aspects of nature – – or the earthly things that we long for to make us satisfied in life.
In every case this confirms the innate yearning of our inner being for communion with our Creator. All become spiritually empowered when we give them the place of a god, and man will typically make sacrifices for his god.
God’s Warning
We know that Israel was warned against following other gods, as in the First Commandment in Exodus 20:3: “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
And Deut. 8:19 is a strong message: “And it shall come about, if you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and serve and worship them, I testify against you today that you will certainly perish.” Should American Christians consider that?
Truth Be Said – –
Many Christians find it hard to acknowledge that there might be other gods in their life. They just don’t think they’re capable of such a thing! But if there aren’t other gods in this world why did God so clearly warn us against worshiping them?
And how else do we explain our failure to influence our nation for good and to win others to Christ in a way that would be natural to the temples of the Living God?
There are obviously other god-options! We are slaves to a god and all we get to decide is which of the two we will serve. (Rom. 6:16-19) One is the source of all pain, sorrow and destruction in the world but God has something better.
More next time, hopefully Monday.
Ken Stoltzfus
Kidron, OH USA
March 20, 2021
CLICK HERE for a printable pdf