The Morgan Church Devotional

a pastor's thoughts about...uhm...stuff

Name:
Location: Morgan, VT., United States

follower of Jesus. husband & father. friend. pastor.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Sweet Soul Dream

God tells jacob to go back to bethel (the house of God) and jacob tells his entire household:

"put away the foreign idols that are among you,
purify yourselves, and change your garments-
we're going to Bethel".

book burnings are famous...or infamous.
people have, ofcourse, had record, tape and cd burnings--
in my opinion, just about anything top 40 can go on that burn heap, but that's a different story. there are some things we shouldn't spend our time reading or listening to...true.

but maybe, just maybe, there are bigger idols in our homes...and those are the idols we should spend our time ridding ourselves of.

things like:

pride.
greed.
lust.
self importance.
self indulgence.
self centeredness.
selfishness.
self.
self.
self.

is your problem anger?
then your idol may be one of the "selfs"... or maybe pride.
do you steal or lie?
then your idol very well may be greed.
do you have affairs (or look at pornography)?
then your idol is lust or self indulgence.
are you so unsatisfied with your life that it comes out in the form of bad attitudes?
then maybe your idol is self importance.

the sins are the symptom, not the problem. let's let God get at the problems in our lives...let's all have burn piles in our backyards--well, everyone except for Dina--and let's be willing to part with our idols.

here's world party's "sweet soul dream" by Karl Wallinger:

I'd give you all of my money
abandon that beautiful girl
take my books
my choicest looks
and burn them all today
i've got rare '61 beatles
i got a film of all of my dreams
but i'd lose them all
burn them all
go along without all of it
give up the chances i see
if you'd take me up
raise me up
let me know the heart of it
give me your sweet soul dream.

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you do decide to let Dina go at the burning please put the fire department on speed dial first! You know pride can be well disguised in self protection. Just trying to make it through a trial when the tornado of confrontation occurs its hard to remember to have Jesus as my shield not my own strength. I'll keep trying.

15:35  
Blogger PMike. said...

as a matter of fact, someone emailed me their comment and said basically the same thing. that we often don't ask for help and/or advice because of pride...we're afraid what they'll think etc...

16:04  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

UMH... this one is going to take a little thinking on...

20:35  
Blogger PMike. said...

is anyone brave enough to speak what thier "idol" is? you can do so anonymously.

21:18  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Okay thought about it and decided to just answer the questions you asked.no,no, no, no. How am I doing if these are the answers? I think my only "idols" at this point in my life are my granddaughters the question is- is this bad?

05:30  
Blogger PMike. said...

what is an idol? an idol is something that one devotes undo worship and adoration to. we all love our kids (and grandkids) but that doesn't make them an idol. idols get in the way of our relationship with God...they interrupt our fellowship with Him...they distract us from giving God the honor that is due Him.

like it or not, we all have idols of one sort or another. admitting what they are (even to ourselves) is the hard part and our unwillingness to do so may be a clue as to what that idol is.

06:23  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

my idol(s)probrably focus on selfishness. I find pride in how for i've come am angry and offended when treated with lack of recognition that i am a vital part of this family (in my perspective)and angry at the repeated offenses from my family. oh the anger is my biggest "sheild"

13:26  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think pride is probably my idol. Who I think I am and what I've accomplished in my life all come into to play. Works. It's hard to rely on God when I feel like I'm only just keeping my head above water most days

06:20  
Blogger PMike. said...

the first step in "putting our idols away" is identifying them. God bless those who did...

let's begin to take the next step now.

09:53  

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