Then
I ask myself how many false idols have I set up? (Micah 5:9-15) Do I recognize
them for what they are? Or do I believe God won’t mind, or even so that perhaps
these aren’t so bad after all? And have I fooled myself that this is what God
allows as worship? Do I worship the stars and heavens that God made? Or am I
intimately involved with thanking Him for making these? (Zephaniah 1:3-9) Do I
give up my God for worshipping false idols, whatever they may be? (Rom1: 25)
God knows my heart. He knows where my heart’s pleasures take it. And He will
let me see one by one the gods I have put before Him fall to the earth and
smash into a million pieces as though a valuable vase has just been made dust.
(Acts 7:40-46) Before the one true God, all idols are destroyed.(Acts 19:27)
And God will look upon my worship, and determine if I am truly trying to follow
His blessed commandments, and remember Him by keeping His Word sacred and being
involved in worship and fellowshipping with others that He has called. In
Zachariah, the author is exhorted to keep the festival of the tabernacle, to
worship the King, to go to Jerusalem to carry on such worship(Zech 14:14-20).
If this does not happen, God will judge them accordingly. The Greek word for
this is sebazomai (Strong’s reference: to honor religiously) This is
true with my worship. If I say I worship the one true God, yet do not go to
commune with others also in worship of Him then my worship will be judged. (Heb
10:25) Does this mean I have to keep “holy days”? Not neccessarily. But it does
mean that I should keep special those times when God, and I and others that He
has called are together and to treat them as He is in the presence of myself
and others. The divining rod is God’s
word. Is my worship to honor God? (Luke 14:10-16) Or am I making a check list
and, after doing each item, do believe that my worship to God is complete and I
have done what the Father asks me to do? (Matt 15:5-12, Mark 7:5-12) That is,
is my worship in truth and spirit? (John 4:14-28). There is always the
possibility that my worship to God is so concerned with where and how and what
scripture that I forget the why and the who (Acts 18:9-15). There is always the
possibility that I can be worshipping and not understanding why (Acts 8:24-32,
Acts 17:18-23). False worship denies the Sonship of Jesus and the power of God,
or at least tries to transfer that power to us so that it becomes selfish and
self-absorbed. False worship is being in the desert and giving into satan (Matt
4:7-13). False worship is taking the apple from the serpent in the Garden of
Eden, simply because the devil whispered to me that I can take it. (Gen 3)
False worship is seeing evil and being fooled by it. (Rev 13:4) False worship condemns my heart because of
what I have chosen to follow (Rev 13:8-12, 14:9) In false worship there is
division. (Rev 13:6-8) It is so convincing and so insidious that I can even be
convinced of the old idea “my way or the highway”, and I can believe that my
righteous indignation is justified by nothing being written about how such-and-thus
is done. While that may be true, I am reminded of the two people in Philipi
that quarreled in the church there. Paul doesn’t give us the reason, and I am
not so sure it matters. What matters is that Paul urged them to be of like mind
to Christ. (Phil 4:2) How ludicrous it
is to assume that just because I believe one way is right that is the only
possible way to do something! It’s God’s way that is important.(Rev 14:5-11)
The one who made the universe, the Creator. And if God encourages us or if we
allow God to encourage us, we can worship and not be afraid of the beast or
even drawn away by the beast. If not, false worship will destroy everything,
even to the death of myself. (Rev 13:15, Rev 14:11) That is not God being
cruel. That is God giving me what I have told Him I wanted out of my
relationship with Him. When I am out of synch with what He wants. (Acts 7:43)
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