IDOL WORSHIP LEADS NOWHERE BUT DEATH

​  An Army Drill Sergeant during training used to have to stand in front of a firmly rooted tree and tell it to move using an aggressive voice. Of course the tree did not move on command from the Drill Sergeant but God may have sent the wind to rustle the leaves a little. Ancient Greek and Roman Gods were made of stone or wood and emblazoned in precious metals. Folks talked and prayed to them and it was mostly for their own peace of mind because a carved stone or log cannot grant a petition of prayer. Wearers of crystal depend on the “medicinal values” when it is a mind thing. Jews and Christians have an eternal living being who hears prayers and petitions, takes the matter into consideration and answers either positively or negatively in His timing. What inanimate object can do that? NONE    
“What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”  Habakkuk 2:18-20
     Wood, paper, stone, crystals, glass, minerals, and metals are used as tools, adornments, and building materials not to be worshipped.  
     There are many things in this world today that people love. People, material objects, symbols, celestial bodies, otherworldly creatures, comic superheroes, nature, animals, even foods have been worshipped as long as man has roamed the earth. Each thing does have a significance in itself some of which are man-made and some just appear out of nowhere. Some make us feel better and some make us feel inadequate to the point of changing ourselves to be like the worshipped thing. But none of them can do anything that our God can.
     So many people are influenced by what they see in the media because their lives are inundated with what they need in life, how they should dress, how much they should weigh, and how they should act, that it has caused a great moral dilemma in society all because some people with money want to be loved by more people so they can make more money. Thankfully there are some popular people who are for the most part morally straight or are attaining to be and have tried their best to live a less fabulous life, some even stay out of the limelight and try to live normal lives when they are not on stage or on screen. Unfortunately we have the good with the bad. Some famous people live such distorted and sinful lives that they believe they are right and push the Adversaries agenda of sinful behaviors on society (unfortunately with a lot of success as of late).
    We are living in a time where the Word is getting distorted even by mainstream religious leaders just to get people to come and worship. When you distort the Word you are going completely against Revelation 22:18-19
 “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.”  
Some claim they are doing this for progress and the betterment of mankind. The Word is already distorted with the claim that all you have to do is believe in Jesus and forget that we have to live Godly lives as best as we can. Is this not found in the “Woes” of Isaiah 5?
Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes,
19 to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel—let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
     We all know pastors and leaders who have changed Scripture to get people into the church then need to keep their distorted view just to keep them. They have created idols of false words and damaged souls. We need to stop asking the Lord to come quickly and make it visible to all. We need to correct the world from their ideas of what is good and bad. Those who are wise in their own eyes are acting like fools as the drunkards continue to drink. Can we open the eyes of justice so it is no longer blind to the truth of things?
    Those who reject God’s Law will suffer and those who refuse to listen will rot. But in all this, God knows His faithful children and will not let the suffering be long. As long as we do not fall into the entrapment of false idols and distorted ideologies, keeping His Word and living like Christ the best we can, we will do fine.
Beware False Idols, even the inanimate ones can kill your soul.