When I say

After Exodus 20:2-4 

When I say I am

the Lord your God,

have no other gods

before me, I’m serious,

deadly serious, for it is

a matter of life and

death. I am the Lord.

I am.

 

When I say you shall

have no other gods

before me, I mean none.

That includes politics,

work, celebrity,

self-beauty, animals,

smart phones, the number

of likes and followers,

public acclaim, money,

possessions, your house,

your garden, your car,

your dreams, your degrees,

your jewelry, your art,

your music, your hopes,

any of your created things,

any of your imagined things,

anything that you would

think you can replace me

with. I am a jealous God;

don’t think you can

replace me with anything.

Before you were,

I am.

 

Photograph by Michael Kroul via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Onesiphorus: courage in a time of persecution, part 1 – Michael A.G. Azad Haykin at Historia ecclesiastica. 

 

Letter #142: Will God Save Us? – Andrw Klavan at The New Jerusalem.

 

Blue Light – poem by Stella Nesanovich at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Beginning of Months – poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

Rain on the Window – poem by Seth Lewis.

Filling the emptiness

After Exodus 20:1-3 

To follow other gods

is to worship self,

really. The heart

pumps the blood

of self and ego,

grasping anything

that feeds our

belief that we are

the center of

the universe, that

no one, no thing 

is more important.

Nothing else is

allowed to sit

on the throne

of the human heart,

the empty throne,

the empty heart.

Only one thing

fills the empty

heart.

Only one.

 

Photograph by Vlad Kutepov via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Who Were the Hittites? – Robert Marineau at Tyndale House.

 

I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow – Jacob Crouch.

 

No Little People, No Little Places – Randy Alcorn at Eternal Perspective Ministries. 

 

The Problem of Faith Today – Josef Pieper at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

Idols and gods

After Exodus 20:1-3 

I’m not a pagan, 

worshipping any and

all, including unknown

gods. I know my faith;

I know who my one,

true God is. I tithe.

I serve. So what do

you mean to tell me

not to worship 

other gods? What is

this you hand me,

this list? (Reading.)

Money, Security. 

Success. Comfort. 

Recognition. Politics.

Beauty. Books. Power.

Popularity. Influence.

Control. Being obeyed.

Philosophy, Knowledge.

Education. Wealth.

Gluttony. Lust. 

The list goes on and

on, unending.

Oh.

 

Photograph by Egor Myznok via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Bells Toll – Paul Phillips at He’s Taken Leave.

 

The Daily Dance of Family Life – Seth Lewis.

 

The Normalization of Slander – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

Curious

After I John 5:6-21

It is curious to me that

the one whom Jesus loved

completes his first letter

with a plea, almost a wail,

for the little children,

the dear children,

to keep themselves,

ourselves,

from idols. After

all that he says

in his letter, he ends

with a plea sounding

more like a warning,

keep yourselves from idols.

Curious, it is. He writes

of love and sin and

family and truth and

confidence and then

finishes with a warning

about idols.

So who needs this warning?

Who is the audience

for this letter, what city,

what church, what group

of the faithful?

And the answer is:

All of them

all of us

each one

me

Photograph by Matthew Ansley via Unsplash. Used with permission.

"Counterfeit Gods" by Timothy Keller

I found this book in a rather odd place – the LSU campus bookstore in Baton Rouge. Like most campus bookstores these days, it’s much easier to find the brand apparel – the gods of our alma mater – than it is to find the books. But it was prominently displayed on a longish table, part of which was devoted to religious books.

 The book was Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters by Timothy Keller. Keller, a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America denomination, is well known in Christian faith circles. He’s the founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, with a congregation of 5,000+ and numerous daughter churches. He’s also actively involved in planting churches internationally.

Keller became widely known in much broader circles last year, when Princeton Seminary announced that he would receive the Kuyper theology prize. Seminarians exploded in outrage – Keller is known for his conservative, Biblical views on marriage and women’s ordination – and the seminary then rescinded the prize (but they still wanted him to give a lecture). Keller handled the controversy with far more grace than the seminary did.

This book (Keller’s written many books) called Counterfeit Gods was published in 2009, almost a decade ago. In a culture that travels at the speed of the internet, a book published a decade ago would be, or should be, rather dated. Counterfeit Gods is not. It could have been published yesterday. Its message is even more applicable in this era of fake news, issues of sexuality and personal freedom, and the increasingly vicious fights for political power.

He dispassionately considers the things in our lives and culture that we turn into idols – love, money, success, power, attention, patriotism, and more. Each discussion centers on a story from the Bible. It’s no surprise that none of these things are new; people have been making idols of the same things for thousands of years. Solomon was right: there is indeed nothing new under the sun, at least as it concerns the human condition.

Timothy Keller

Keller is the author of numerous books on faith, including works on family, marriage, prayer, justice, books of the Bible, and other subjects. In 2017, he stepped down as Redeemer’s senior pastor and is doing full-time teaching in a partner program with Reformed Theological Seminary.

I can pick up the newspaper today, and I can look at my own life, and I see why a book like Counterfeit Gods is timeless. That’s how wisdom works. Everything else passes away.

Top photograph by Nilton Oliviera via Unsplash. Used with permission.