Idolatry, The Man Made Prison

Today I started reading Romans, and something in the first chapter of Romans spoke to me as it has been effecting my life quite a bit lately so I wanted to share my thoughts on the issue. The issue is that of idolatry, idolatry is the foundation of every single bit of sin in our life. And in the first chapter of Romans Paul tells us why this is in a frightening look at not only what happens when we choose other things over God in this life, but at the same time it offers us a glimpse of what an eternity separated from God would look like.

Paul starts us off by taking away any excuse we might have of not knowing God. He does this because of an argument that is quite commonly asked in our day and my assumption would be his day as well, "well what about people who have never heard of God? How can He hold them responsible?". So to address this Paul says in verses 19-21:

"because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse".

He is telling us that God planted evidence of His existence in our nature by way of reason and moral law. He is also telling us that by just looking at the world around us we are able to understand the creator and sustainer of such a universe must be a being of awesome, divine power thus no one has an excuse to put anything above God(idolatry).

So now that Paul has taken away any excuse for placing anything above God, he goes on in verses 22-25:

"Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."

This shows us the start of what we have done by choosing the created over God. There are many examples of idolatry that are easy to pull up are things such as evolution, choose to believe in mans "wisdom" instead of admitting that the creation and sustaining of this universe is beyond anything thing man can comprehend. But one that I find especially shocking that has effected me tremendously is a Christian who knows and believes in God, yet still puts himself and his worldly desires in front of God. Shouldn't we of all people, who have experienced a closeness and intimacy with God that others cannot imagine be able to put God above all, first and foremost in our lives? So here is the scary thing, this idolatry which we all fall prey to at times(for most of us, way to much of the time) it is a man made prison, we created this situation. Paul tells us that because WE exchanged God for anything else that could give us instant gratification, God gave us over to what WE chose, separation from God. Wether in some cases its a temporary separation, more of a wedge between us and God(for those of us who do believe in Him) or for others, what would be a permanent separation unless we come to believe and receive God into our hearts. Either way, it's what we wanted, we fought for it and God gave it to us.

It strikes me as odd that people say all the time, if God were real, He wouldn't have allowed this to happen! If God is real, He must be a cruel God to allow the world to be in this state! When the truth is God gave us what we wanted, we wanted a world without God at the top, and that is what He has given us. When you take God out of the equation, all sorts of evil comes out. Which is what Paul speaks to in verses 28-31:

"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God and longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful"

That is the world we live in, the world Paul just described, filled with all sorts of sin and despair. And the groundwork of all of it was idolatry, because we wanted something else at the top of our personal mountains instead of God. It really is a man made prison.

The scariest part about this is what it means for each and every one of us after this fleeting moment we call life on earth is over. Where are we headed? If we have chosen to gamble on putting anything and everything in front of God in our lives, choosing to ignore His calling then we are headed to a place far worse then this earth. You see in this chapter Paul gives us a glimpse of what hell is like, the very definition of hell is eternal separation from God. We have seen in these verse what an earthly separation from God has brought to us, but no matter how bad this earth gets, God will always be present on and in it, so we will never be fully separated from God while we inhabit this earth. But in hell, not only will God turn His back on everyone in it, no part of God is in hell, none of His goodness, none of His divine attributes that weather we believe in God or not, are still present on this earth. Meaning no kindness, no joy, no love, no relief at all will be found there, just depraved human minds, full all kinds of hate and wickedness with none of the Godly attributes we have on this earth to take any of the sting and horror out of being separated from God. The truth that I cling to though is that as one of God's children, no matter how much I put other things in front of God in my life, I will return to Him. It is a gift so reassuring and comforting that no misery I might experience on this earth while feeling separation from Him can ever keep me down for long.

In closing I wanted to offer this as an encouragement for myself, and anyone else who might read this. The more we put God as the number one thing in our lives, the closer we will be to Him. The closer we are to Him, the more His divine attributes will be revealed to us and experienced by us in our lives. This means the closer we are to Him, the more joy and satisfaction we will get out of this life. I am not promising riches, health or tons of friends but what I am promising is the deep joy and satisfaction only God offers us. Those of you who have a personal relationship know exactly what I am talking about, even if you feel distant from God right now, you can remember that joy and satisfaction from when you felt close to Him. Those of you that don't have that relationship with God can't imagine what this feels like, I pray each and every one of you will get to experience it someday. As for me? I am tired of feeling separate, I long for the closeness and intimacy God offers. He is and always will be the only thing I worship in this life, at this time the song lyrics "I'm coming back to the heart of Jesus, and its all about You, its all about You" mean so much to me. I want to encourage all of you who are struggling in the man made prison of idolatry to work hard to return to the heart of Jesus, its where we belong, and its the only place we will ever be truly joyful and satisfied.

Tim