Often when people make New Year’s resolutions, they begin with the words start, stop, or improve (or synonyms of these words) – start exercising, stop smoking, improve spending habits, etc. As we grow and mature, it is good to improve in all areas of our lives; but it is particularly important to improve our spiritual lives. So as we begin a new year, I want to suggest some resolutions for all of us to consider as we seek to please the Lord.
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January 1, 2014
New Year’s Resolutions: Start, Stop, Improve
August 7, 2012
Committing Adultery with Stones and Trees (8/7)
Thought from today’s Bible reading from Jeremiah 1-3.
Judgment was coming against the people of Judah for their infidelity. Though they should have learned from the mistakes of their brethren in Israel, they ignored their sins and God’s punishment for them and continued along the same path.
“And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. Because of the lightness of her harlotries, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees” (Jeremiah 3:8-9).
Idolatry to God is spiritual adultery. While the people Jeremiah addressed generally served graven images, there are many different things that can be made into idols that we must guard ourselves against today (1 John 5:21). Any idol, when reduced to its most basic form, is something common and ordinary (“stones and trees“). It is something that has been created by God.
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July 28, 2012
Those Who Make the Idols Will Be Like Them (7/28)
Thought from today’s Bible reading from 2 Kings 18:9-19:37; Psalm 46, 80, 135.
The children of Israel were repeatedly warned about following the gods of the nations around them. God’s people must still guard against this today (1 John 5:21). The following passage contains another warning about the danger posed by idols.
“The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, yes, everyone who trusts in them” (Psalm 135:15-18).
All idols are simply the inventions of man. Therefore, they are dumb, blind, deaf, and dead. But the interesting thing about these dumb, blind, deaf, and dead idols is that those who invent them “will be like them.”
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July 19, 2012
He Broke in Pieces the Bronze Serpent (7/19)
Thought from today’s Bible reading from 2 Kings 18:1-8; 2 Chronicles 29-31; Psalm 48.
Hezekiah was one of the righteous kings of Judah. He did something interesting as he attempted to purge the land of sin.
“He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.
“He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses” (2 Kings 18:3-6).
April 3, 2012
"Go and Cry Out to the Gods Which You Have Chosen" (4/3)
Thought from today’s Bible reading from Judges 10-12.
Following their regular pattern, the Israelites fell away and “did evil in the sight of the Lord” (Judges 10:6). To punish them, God “sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the sons of Ammon. They afflicted and crushed the sons of Israel that year” (Judges 10:7-8). Then, as they typically did, the sons of Israel cried to God for help.
“Then the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, ‘We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.’ The Lord said to the sons of Israel, ‘Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines? Also when the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hands. Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer deliver you. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress’” (Judges 10:10-14).
Time and time again, God proved His love for the sons of Israel in delivering them despite their disobedience. But they thought of God’s grace as a reason to tolerate sin, just as many do today (Romans 6:1-2).
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January 11, 2012
Facts About Idols
Idolatry is condemned in both the Old and New Testaments (Exodus 20:3-6; 1 Corinthians 6:9). There are a number of things that have the potential of becoming idols for us if we allow them. They are not limited to graven images but could include things like money, possessions, careers, and even people. The warning issued by John at the end of his first epistle – “Little children, guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21) – remains an important reminder for Christians today.
With the danger of idolatry being a reality and having the divinely given warning in mind, let us notice a few facts about idols.
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January 21, 2010
Evil Ahab
“Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.” “Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him” (1 Kings 16:30, 33).
These statements are rather incredible. When we look back at the number of evil kings over Israel up to this time, Ahab was the worst. Why was he so evil and what can we learn from his bad example? The passage where these verses are found gives us a few reasons for the statements.
“Now Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.
“It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him” (1 Kings 16:29-33).
There were four factors that contributed to Ahab being classified as the most wicked king. Each one is something we must guard against in our own life.
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