You Are What You Worship

Awhile back I turned on the TV and watched the first 10 minutes of a show called, "Deadliest Roads."  During the episode titled "Thin Air," one of the truck drivers was tasked to carry a statue of Buddha to another monastery higher up the Rohtang Pass in India.  As the monks carefully placed their golden deity in the back of his truck the driver asked incredulously:  "Is that your god?"  One of the men answered yes.  As he slowly drove up the mountain the idol was shown in the back of the cargo area, shaking with every vibration of the truck.  When I saw that golden idol sitting in the dark, carefully wrapped with protective cloths, I thought of Isaiah 40:18-20:  "To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? ¹⁹ The workman molds an image, the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains. ²⁰ Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that will not totter."

In this passage, the True Living God points out the folly in those who serve idols.  These devout monks took great care to ensure their idol would not tip over and break!  Is that a god worthy of worship?  Here is another passage that reveals the foolishness of idolatry.  Psalm 115:5-8 describes:  "They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see; ⁶ they have ears, but they do not hear; noses they have, but they do not smell; ⁷ they have hands, but they do not handle; feet they have, but they do not walk; nor do they mutter through their throat. ⁸ Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them."  After stating the obvious, this scripture finishes with a stern indictment:  everyone who worships an idol is as powerless as their idol.  The truth is, man is no more powerful than the god or gods he serves.  Man made by God in the image of God can choose to make gods according to his own design.  Anything we worship that is not the creator of heaven and earth - whether it be money, fame, power, self, or that which is made - are all idols which are powerless to hear, speak, or save.

Let us take this thought even further.  Since scripture has established that man is no greater than his god, what does this say of those who serve the Almighty God, the great I AM?  We have not made God, but He has created us.  He is the God who created light, water, the heavens the earth, the universe known and unknown, all life, plants, animals, people, speech, and communication.  He is a God in whom all the senses originate:  sight, hearing, smell, touch, the speaking of words, the ability to move and act.  When a person chooses to trust and worship Jesus Christ as LORD, he places his faith in the Living God, the pre-imminent One, the God who has made all things.  Jesus did many signs pointing to His divinity:  He made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the mute to speak, set the captives free by delivering people from prisons of sin and unclean spirits, made the lame and paralyzed to walk, healed lepers, and raised the dead to life.  Now there is a God who will not totter!  Crucify Him if you like, but He will rise incorruptible and glorified!

We do not serve a God who reserves all ability for Himself, but a gracious God who empowers us with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus says in John 14:12, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father."  Paul affirms in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  This is not an idle boast, but the reality of life revealed in a lifestyle reserved for all who trust in Jesus Christ as Saviour.  We do not seek to do things to make a name for ourselves, but for the power of God to be so revealed through our lives that only He receives all the glory.  2 Corinthians 4:6-7 says, "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us."  We do not become gods by placing our faith in Christ, but by His grace He makes us like Him:  alive and empowered with the Holy Spirit!

Man is no more powerful than the gods he serves.  A man may serve a million deities, but if they are all lifeless and powerless he only clutters his life with useless garbage.  But if you serve the One and Only True God, you serve a powerful living God who hears, speaks, heals, moves, and answers.  False gods are only fit for the fire, for that is where all sin ultimately goes.  If we cling to our idols, we bring their judgment upon ourselves.  Yet when we repent and place our faith in Christ, He grants us a pardon and gives us eternal life.  I choose life!  John 14:6 records the immortal truth:  "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."  He says the same to you today!