Mini gods

Jonathan and I have been using The Message Remix Solo together as a devotion. This book is very different from most devotion books that are around. It’s not something that contains a bible verse or two and then some moral story to go along with it plus the authors theological thoughts. This is purely our thoughts. It’s more of a guidebook. It’s based on the early churches Lectio Devina – read, think, pray, live.

Anyway, the passage below was from our reading today. It made us think about the other gods in our lives that take over and squeeze God out. I can instantly think of several of my “gods” – computer and shopping are high on the list. Maybe you could read the passage below and think  and pray about what gods you have in your own life that push God out of your main focus and about how you can adjust that. That’s the hard part.

“So now: Fear God. Worship him in total commitment. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped on the far side of The River (the Euphrates) and in Egypt. You, worship God. “If you decide that it’s a bad thing to worship God, then choose a god you’d rather serve—and do it today. Choose one of the gods your ancestors worshiped from the country beyond The River, or one of the gods of the Amorites, on whose land you’re now living. As for me and my family, we’ll worship God.”

The people answered, “We’d never forsake God! Never! We’d never leave God to worship other gods.

“God is our God! He brought up our ancestors from Egypt and from slave conditions. He did all those great signs while we watched. He has kept his eye on us all along the roads we’ve traveled and among the nations we’ve passed through. Just for us he drove out all the nations, Amorites and all, who lived in the land.

“Count us in: We too are going to worship God. He’s our God.”

Then Joshua told the people: “You can’t do it; you’re not able to worship God. He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He won’t put up with your fooling around and sinning. When you leave God and take up the worship of foreign gods, he’ll turn right around and come down on you hard. He’ll put an end to you—and after all the good he has done for you!” But the people told Joshua: “No! No! We worship God!”

And so Joshua addressed the people: “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen God for yourselves—to worship him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” Joshua said, “Now get rid of all the foreign gods you have with you. Say an unqualified Yes to God, the God of Israel.” The people answered Joshua, “We will worship God. What he says, we’ll do.”

(Joshua 24:14-24 – The Message)

, , ,

about

Posted on November 18, 2008
Posted by lynhallewell

related entries


Comments

RSS feed | Trackback URI

Comments »

No comments yet.

Name (required)
E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
URI
Subscribe to comments via email
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment.