Way of The Warrior- A Daily Devotional

Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.- Ezekiel 14:1-5 ESV

Warrior;

Do you understand the depth of this meaning to us in today’s America, in today’s WORLD? When many think of an idol, they think of a physical object. The word IDOL conjures up images of little dolls, or trinkets, maybe large stone figures and\or sculptures. Most would never think of carrying around an object and “worshiping” or “praising”, or seeking wisdom or blessings from a stone or a physical object, so therefore this does not apply to them. This is a gross error in thought, and dangerous because it will allow those real idols in our lives to stand and do perpetual, if not, eternal damage. The 4 Hebrew boys of the book of Daniel, is where most people go when they hear about the “worship of idols”. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel refused to bow to the Babylonian or Mead-Persian idols, so they got in trouble, stayed loyal and became famous for their GREAT FAITH and for honoring Yahweh, Jehovah, the God of the Bible instead of giving in to what everybody else in their Pagan culture was doing, which was worshipping Idols. Hear the Word of the Lord; You, O king, have issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the golden statue, and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into the blazing fiery furnace. But there are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—who have ignored you, O king, and have refused to serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.” (Daniel 3:10-12) Whatever we treasure, fear, desire, think about, dream about- more than God, whatever drives our thoughts, desires, and actions, becomes an idol, and these idols dull our spiritual hearing and harden our hearts to things of God. Anything that you have as more important than God, desire more than God, value more than God is an idol, and it is as unto SORCERY to God, and it is an abomination!

Leader, idolatry extends beyond the worship of images and false gods. It is a matter of the heart, associated with pride, self-centeredness, greed, gluttony and love for possessions. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24). Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. (Philippians 3:19) As God was establishing the 10 commandments in Exodus 20, as a precursor God states very openly; “I am a jealous God”.  Because God is a JEALOUS God, and because he told us in the 1^stcommandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me”- Idolatry is a major theme of the Bible. Idolatry challenges God’s sovereignty and attempts to offer an alternate focus to deal with life and its issues. Tim Keller states in his book, ‘Counterfeit Gods’, an idol is “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.” Basically, an idol can be anything that takes the place of God as the most important focus and priority in our life. John, the apostle Jesus loved, put it simply, soldier; Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:21) In modern America, in the modern world we live in Idols, are our marriage, our family, pride, happiness, sex, money, fame, importance, physical health, physical beauty and SELF!  To see the God of the NEW AGE, look in the mirror.  As Pastor Irwin Lutzer put it, “Self is on the throne of most people’s lives.  In America, in one of the most effective perversions of Justice, one of the greatest “WILES” of the enemy, Social Justice, our greatest idol has become covetousness.  Paul to the Colossian church makes it clear that America is drowning in COVETOUSNESS masquerading as EQUITY.   Hear the Word of the Lord: Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)

Conduit, a good speaker opens with power and closes with power. I believe that the bookends of a speech, or presentation are what lasts, and people remember most. We have already talked about the first commandment, the last, the 10^this; You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17) The entire Critical Race Theory, Black Lives Matter movement, White Privilege, and the Victimhood of people with Black skin- is lacking forgiveness, lacking love, but FILLED WITH Covetousness, Bitterness, Idolatry, strife- it is an abomination to God, and it is causing God to cease to hear our prayers, or respond to our entreaties. The solution to this is to STOP! Hear the Word of the Lord; “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. (Ezekiel 14:6) We must AWAKEN to the lies that we have been following, and the one who is leading this abomination, the father of lies. Then we must, ABANDON, lay aside the patterns of the flesh. Then we must ADORN ourselves with Christ. If we PUT ON CHRIST, we are not going to be PUT ON by the lies of this world, and the Social Justice movement of the Prince of this World. The prophet Isaiah warned us against such sin, as this time would bring. Hear the Word of the LORD: Listen! The LORD’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. Your hands are the hands of murderers, and your fingers are filthy with sin. Your lips are full of lies, and your mouth spews corruption. No one cares about being fair and honest. The people’s lawsuits are based on lies. They conceive evil deeds and then give birth to sin. They hatch deadly snakes and weave spiders’ webs. Whoever eats their eggs will die; whoever cracks them will hatch a viper. Their webs can’t be made into clothing, and nothing they do is productive. All their activity is filled with sin, and violence is their trademark. Their feet run to do evil, and they rush to commit murder. They think only about sinning. Misery and destruction always follow them. They don’t know where to find peace or what it means to be just and good. They have mapped out crooked roads, and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace. (Isaiah 59;1-8) The World says, NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE. The Word says, “No Jesus, No Peace. KNOW JESUS, KNOW PEACE!”