2016 | Pedestrian God

Carved Idol

Jul 14 2016

The Second Commandment clearly teaches us that we are not to have any idols. In the Old Testament times, idols were often carved or sculpted into a form that people could direct their attention to and worship.

A recent sermon reminded me that idols are created objects that are being misused. God designed them to declare glory to Himself. Yet people sinned and misdirected their worship from God to these objects.

Psalm 97:7 says, “All who serve carved images, those who boast in idols, will be put to shame. All the gods must worship Him.”

A clear example of a carved image worshiping Yahweh can be found in 1 Samuel 5. The Philistines captured the ark of God and brought it into the temple of Dagon. Yet Dagon’s statue fell prostate before the ark of the Lord each night. How embarrassing that a created idol recognized the splendor of the true Lord before the people did.

Is Your Testimony Boring?

Jul 08 2016

I’ve been there before. Sunday school teacher asks a couple kids to share their testimonies in front of a group and you’re one of them. The kid before you gets up and you get that sinking feeling in your gut. Here he/she goes again. It’s not that they are insincere; it’s just that their testimony is so exciting and yours is, well, it’s boring.

Everyone claps and brushes away tears as the kid in front of you finishes telling about how his/her parents died, their uncle abused them, their grandma abandoned them, they live in the children’s home, but God has protected them this whole time.

You, however, accepted Jesus when you were seven, maybe younger, and have grown up in church, never really messing up ever since. Sigh. What a boring testimony. No drugs, no alcohol, not even a good fight!

Flaming Words

Jul 01 2016

Our house has two smoke detectors in it – one in the kitchen and one in the hallway near the bedrooms. Kevin and I were performing our semi-annual battery check and could not tell if the smoke detector in the kitchen was malfunctioning or if the batteries were dying. So we did what any logical, well-educated couple would do. We set a fire.

East & West

Jun 01 2016

Our house is near Interstate 40, which makes travelling easy for us. We can just hop on for a few miles and get across town, or even head west to Memphis or east to Nashville. But sometimes I get confused about where I am and which way I’m headed. I come up to the interstate and panic as I try to think if I need to head east for two miles or west for two miles.

Sometimes I chuckle because east and west is all a matter of perspective. To my parents who live in Memphis, Jackson is in the east. But to our friends who have moved to Nashville, they have left us behind in the west.

No matter how directly confused I get, I like to think about the forgiveness of God as I travel east and west on the interstate.

Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

God Doesn’t Zone Out

May 16 2016

Stop! Growing with Jesus

That’s the current title of our Sunday School lessons with our middle school girls. We all had a good laugh over the importance of punctuation. Because “Stop! Growing with Jesus” is VERY different than “Stop Growing with Jesus!”

Yesterday’s lesson focused on the importance of listening to God. Just like our friendships are unhealthy when only one person does all the talking, so, too, our relationship with God is unhealthy when we do all the talking.

So we posed this question – How do you think God feels when we do all the talking and never stop to listen to Him?

And one of our girls quickly answered, “He probably just zones us out!”

Archive - 2016

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