John, in his old age, wrote this in 1 John 5:21: \u201cDear children, keep yourselves from idols.\u201d<\/em><\/p> The things I chose over Jesus time and time again became an idol to me. What started as compromise turned into idolatry, which led to captivity.<\/strong><\/p> \u201cYou shall have no other gods before <\/sup>me.\u201d <\/em>Exodus 20:3<\/em><\/p> \u201cI wrote for them the many things of my law, but they regarded them as something alien.\u201d Hosea 8:12<\/em><\/p> Journal entry, Age 19. God can meet my needs? I had no idea what that meant or how that worked. And the waiting period? I wanted to just roll over and see He is there whenever I want. That\u2019s what I imagined marriage to be too. Someone physical, always there to meet my needs whenever I need. And when I didn\u2019t see God come for me in the timing or way I wanted, I settled for meeting my needs my own way.<\/p> \u201cWhen the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, \u201cCome, make us gods <\/sup>who will go before us. […] He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, \u201cThese are your gods, <\/sup>Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.\u201d\u3000<\/em>Exodus 32:1b, 4<\/em><\/p> \u201cWith their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction. […] This calf – a craftsman has made it; it is not God.\u201d\u00a0 Hosea 8:4b, 6a<\/em><\/p> \u201cWait for your God always.\u201d <\/em>Hosea 12:6b<\/em><\/p> I gradually began to believe that affection from men, sexual pleasure, comfort and security imagined to be found through sex were better than anything God could give me.<\/p> \u201cEphraim is oppressed, trampled in judgment, intent on pursuing idols.\u201d\u00a0 Hosea 5:11<\/em><\/p> \u201cShe said, \u2018I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.\u2019 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, \u2018I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.\u2019\u201d <\/em>Hosea 2:5b-7<\/em><\/p> \u201c[…] The Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods.\u201d Hosea 3:1b<\/em><\/p> \u201cI don\u2019t want your sacrifices \u2013 I want your love; I don\u2019t want your offerings \u2013 I want you to know me.\u201d Hosea 6:6 TLB<\/p> \u201c[…] I long to redeem them.\u201d Hosea 7:13b<\/em><\/p> \u201cMy heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.\u201d Hosea 11:8b<\/em><\/p> My compromises (turning away from God to other things in times of difficulty) eventually lead to captivity (the inability to say no to temptation) which began to slowly bring death into my life (death of my sense of worth, of my dreams, of my purpose to live). Gradually that idol demanded more and more. From binging behavior to a loss of control.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cThey worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.\u201d Psalm 106:36<\/em><\/p> This is what the Lord says:\u201cWhat fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.” Jeremiah 2:5<\/em><\/p> \u201cMy people are destroyed because they don\u2019t know me. They exchanged the glory of God for the disgrace of idols.\u201d Hosea 4:6a, 4:7b<\/em><\/p> \u201cThose who run after other gods will suffer more and more.\u201d Psalm 16:4<\/em><\/p> \u201cO Israel, return to the Lord, your God, for you have been crushed by your sins. Bring your petition. Come to the Lord and say, \u201cO Lord, take away our sins; be gracious to us and receive us, and we will offer you the sacrifice of praise. Assyria cannot save us, nor can our strength in battle; never again will we call the idols we have made \u2018our gods\u2019; for in you alone, O Lord, the fatherless find mercy. Then I will cure you of idolatry and faithlessness, and my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be forever gone! I will refresh Israel like the dew from heaven; she will blossom as the lily and root deeply in the soil like cedars in Lebanon. Her branches will spread out as beautiful as olive trees, fragrant as the forests of Lebanon. Her people will return from exile far away and rest beneath my shadow. They will be a watered garden and blossom like grapes; they will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon.\u201cO Ephraim! Stay away from idols! I am living and strong! I look after you and care for you. I am like an evergreen tree, yielding my fruit to you throughout the year. My mercies never fail.\u201d <\/em>Hosea 14:1-8 TLB\u00a0<\/em><\/p> After one year of captivity, in desperation, I cried out for help. I finally was ready to do whatever it would take to learn how to stand – to learn how to walk consistently in freedom from compromises and idols through the difficulties of life.<\/p> Journal entry, Age 24 In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and He answered by setting me free. Psalm 118:5<\/em><\/p> He remembered us in our low estate \u201cMy eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare.\u201d Psalm 25:15<\/em><\/p> \u201cWhenever you have thrown away idols, I have shown you my power. With one word I have saved you.\u201d Isaiah 43:12 TLB<\/em><\/p> \u201cThey will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them.\u201d Ezekiel 34:27b<\/em><\/p> \u201cI will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.\u201d Ezekiel 36:25<\/em><\/p> \u201cBut I will court her again, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly there. There I will give back her vineyards, and transform her valley of troubles into a door of hope. She will respond to me there, singing with joy as in days long ago in her youth, after I had freed her from captivity in Egypt. In that coming day, says the Lord, she will call me \u201cMy Husband\u201d instead of \u201cMy Master\u201d. I will cause her to forget her idols, and their names will not be spoken anymore. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and love, and you will really know me then as you never have before.\u201d Hosea 2:14-16, 20 TLB<\/em><\/p> \nDiscovery Bible\uff1a\u201cTangible sources can satisfy my needs much better than an intangible source.\u201d<\/h2>
All day yesterday I could feel myself looking for things to fill something in me. I was consciously aware of how I was craving everything: cookies, a cigarette, company, male company, icecream, wanting something tangible now. I looked for the easy way out again. I was very aware that I was keeping my gaze down, instead of looking up and seeing that Jesus was right there, wanting to show me His love, and show me that He is infinitely capable to fill and satisfy and be my desire.<\/strong><\/p>\u201cNothing is better.\u201d<\/h2>
Loved amidst idolatry.<\/h2>
Can\u2019t stop… Ensnared.<\/h2>
Help. help. Help. help. Help. help. Help.
Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
Jesus Jesus Jesus!!!
Show me Your love.<\/strong><\/p>Set free. Saved. Rescued. Cleansed.<\/h2>
His love endures forever.
and freed us from our enemies.
His love endures forever. Psalm 136:23-24<\/em><\/p>
What did you learn about humans\u2019 propensity towards idols through the scripture in this section? What did you learn about God\u2019s feelings towards idols? What did you learn about God\u2019s feelings towards idol worshippers? \n<\/strong> <\/p>