By John Mitchell
Most people would say that they don’t worship any statues. In the Old Testament, in Exodus 20:3-5, God wrote the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets. The first one is, “You shall have no other gods before Me” and the second one is, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image–any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” In the New Testament, in Matthew 22:36 & 37, Jesus tells us that the Greatest Commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Only God deserves to be first in our life, and to have this deepest kind of love, and worship from us. God has given us dominion over all the earth. Satan wants to have dominion over us. When God is in control of our life, we have the best life we could ever have. When Satan, is in control of our life, we have the worst life we could ever have. When we willingly, let the ways of the world into our life, we have rejected the ways of God, and have submitted ourselves to Satan’s deceptive ways of the world. The forbidden statue idols of the Old Testament, are just one kind of idol. Any person, object, or activity, that is more important to us than God, has become an idol to us. This can happen gradually, without us realizing that it is happening to us. A man can say that he is going to gamble a few dollars, just for the fun of it. Then he starts thinking, “I could win big with this gambling.” He continues gambling more and more money. Then he starts to believe, that by the law of averages, he is sure he will win very big, very soon. Eventually the grocery money is gone, then the house payment money is gambled away. The marriage is lost, and the employment is terminated. Romans 8:6, tells us, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Gambling became the most important thing in his life, even more important than God. Gambling was his idol, that he let control and destroy his life. Drugs can control, destroy, and kill you, with an over dose. Many people look at money as the answer to all of their problems, and the provider of all of their needs and wants. Some rich people say, “I have plenty of money for anything that I may need or want, so I don’t need God!” When a person loves money more than God, money has become first place in their life, instead of God. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24) We can make an idol out of, money, alcohol, sports, working out, computer games, recreation, entertainment, pornography, or any person, thing, or activity that becomes more important to us than God. Even our employment can become our idol. It is the right thing to do to go to work and earn money, to support your family, but if you are always at work, like you are married to your work, you have become a workaholic. You don’t have time to pray and thank God for your employment, because you are too busy working and thanking your employer for being your provider. You don’t have any time to serve the needs of your family, because you are always busy serving the needs of your employer. We should love our spouse, but if we love our spouse, more than we love God, then our spouse has become an idol to us. If an idol is in first place in your life, everything else in your life suffers because of it. If God is in first place in your life, everything else in your life is blessed because of it. God wants us to have our life in balance with everything in its proper place of importance. In the past I did not understand Luke 14:26-27. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” This is how I was able to understand it. When Lucy and I were dating, she once said to me, “John, if you ever tell me, that you love me, more than you love God, you’ll never see me again.” I then realized that this is what the Scripture meant. If you love anyone, even your wife, even your own life, more than you love God, you are not acceptable to God, as a disciple of His. “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot become My disciple.” (Luke 14:33) We have to be willing to obey and follow God, no matter how difficult that may be. If God is not in FIRST PLACE in our life, then our life is out of balance, and out of order. That first place position never stays vacant. If God, our Creator, is not in His rightful first place position in our life, then something else is where only God should be. Please think about this! God has blessed us with dominion over all of the earth, and over all of its resources. God has sacrificed His only Son, Jesus, for us, so that salvation is available to everyone, who will accept, and obey God’s plan of salvation for us. God has given us the words of His Holy Scripture, to instruct us, and to guide us in the best way to live our life, here on earth, and to help us to be able to follow God’s plan of salvation for us, which is the only way to get to heaven. Everything that can be done for us, has been done for us. Each and every one of us is in control of our eternal future. We determine and control our future, by using our God given free will, to decide whose plan are we going to follow for our life. There are only two choices. God’s plan of salvation for us, or Satan’s plan of destruction for us. There is no neutral middle ground!! “HE WHO IS NOT WITH ME IS AGAINST ME,…” (Matthew 12:30a) In Luke 4:8 Jesus tells Satan, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.” Who are you worshiping and serving? If you have not been baptized, now is the time to be baptized, for the remission of your sins. If you have been baptized, and God is not in first place in your life, now is the time to repent.