Modern day idolatry

Unless you have been living under a rock you have heard all of the buzz lately about gay marriage and whether it is something God is ok with or not. I posted earlier about my views on that. This post is about something that I have been thinking about as I have been reading the posts, blogs, articles etc. with people's opinions as to what they think about God and his views on the issue.

I am sure you have heard people say - "I believe in a loving God who wants everyone to be happy." or "I believe in a God who loves everyone and would never judge anyone based on who they love." or on the other extreme "God hates Fags!" or "Fags die, God laughs". Both of these extremes are wrong and both groups have violated one of the 10 commandments. Both groups have made God into a graven image. No they did not carve an image of God out of gold or wood, however they have made an image of who they think God should be in their minds. Any time our view of who God is does not line up with scripture we have made God into a graven image or idol. Take a look at what Luke said as he began writing his Gospel:

Luke 1: 1-4 - 1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

In verse 3 Luke says he carefully investigated everything from the beginning. He did not write what he thought God and Christ should be or do, he wrote the facts. He investigated the stories he heard and wrote them down as a historically accurate document. Another example of this is found in Acts.

Acts 17: 11 - Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

Many times we let our emotions overrule our brains. We let feelings prevail over truth. Any time we enter into conversations about God we have to do so with truth and accuracy. We need to understand that in issues like gay marriage we can certainly agree that God is a God of love but he is also a perfect judge. He has rules in place just like our families have rules, our workplaces have rules and our government has rules. His mercy and grace abound and are far beyond anything I can comprehend but there is a day coming when we will be judged, not based on what we think is ok or right, but on what God's word says.

I would encourage each one of us to study God's word and not just from a human viewpoint, not from just a mental standpoint but study asking the Holy Spirit to teach us and to convict us in areas where the scriptures conflict with our lifestyles or what we were brought up to believe.

I Corinthians 2: 13, 14 - 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We need to speak truth in love not avoid truth for the sake of love, if we do we have made God into who we think he should be and not who he is.