Anyone can start from a beginning, and begin a story. It takes a really talented person to start in the middle of something. Or at least that's the excuse I'll use for the fact that I started this blog in July of 2013 with all good intentions of making regular postings. That obviously didn't work out. So here we are 6 months later. My intentions now are, again, to make regular contributions from studies I am conducting. Hopefully they will be insightful to you as they are to me. In keeping with my fashion of starting in the middle I'm not going to go back to the beginning of my most recent study of 1 Corinthians 10, but rather....start in the middle. (At some point in time I promise to review the first 9 chapters)
In first Corinthians 10 we find Paul reiterating some of his earlier comments to the church at Corinth. He emphasizes again the importance of staying away from idols, fleeing fornication, ect. He does something slightly different in chapter 10 though. For a group of predominately Gentile believers he uses the example of the Jews in their initial "launching" from Exodus as a way of communicating how not to live in God's grace.
The first hurtle he tackles, and what we will focus on for a brief, thought provoking moment is in vs. 7
"Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them..."
Now our immediate response to this is "Easy....I don't have any idols." Whereas I would agree that as a whole American homes lack Buddha's in our closets, or Vishnu's in our living room, but I would not agree with the fact that we have no idols. We have idols they just aren't statues in our homes.
America has developed a mentality that is pure idol worship. Consumerism being a big one. We worship sports teams to an insane degree. Now I love college football, but I had to make the decision a couple of years ago to break myself of my idol worship. "What do you mean Adam?" Glad you asked. Think about that big game you were waiting for. You waited all week. You got geared up. Put on your teams outfit. Grilled some amazing ribs. Watched intensely. Yelling, Screaming. Singing the fight song. Then as the game turned south for your team so did your emotional state. Anger. Depression. Then they lost, and for four days you pouted acting like the world wasn't as bright a place as it was before the game.
That my friends is idolatry. If something other than God evokes such a emotional response, and consumes such fervent worship it's idolatry.
Sometimes it's easier for us to just get back to the basics. God said have no other gods before me. Lets just keep it simple, and remove the idols from our lives. If you evaluate yourself, and find things you're investing too much idol worship in (family, jobs, money, sports) it's time for a New Years resolution. Clean house for 2014 of the idols to enjoy a closer walk with God.
Link to the 1st Corinthians Series -
http://www.zionrestpbc.org/Zion_Rest_PBC/Corinthians_Series.html
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