This pastor? An idol?? check. instead of having to deepen my personal relationship with God on Sundays, all i have to do is listen to this guy in a suit tell me stuff i've already hear a thousand times before about his personal portrait of god.
This worship music I'm listening to? An idol?? check! Instead of having to personally engage in heart-worship of the King on a daily basis, most of the time i'm content to mentally check out and just listen to other people worship.
The Christian books i'm reading? An idol?? check! instead of spiritually engaging the Unknown God and 'reasoning together' with Him, lettting Him challenge me to my spiritual core, letting Him give me fresh perspective on life, i'll have God "use" the books i'm reading to "speak to me". nah, i don't actually expect personal interaction and revelation from my relationship with God. it's good enough for me to let other people do that messy part of waiting and listening to God. i'll just read what they write. i'll just substitute their relationship with God for my own.
Those Christian friends? idols?? check!! being a Christian means getting to hang out with people exactly like me, right? spending time with other Christians is just as good as spending time with GodIsLove. i mean - it's the same thing, getting lifeblood from other branches on the Vine as getting lifeblood from the Vine itself, right? there's certainly no problem with spending 20 minutes a day in my quiet time and 3 hours at a youth group!
so who is this God exactly? Is He the God-people? is He the sermons and CD's that have God-labels on them? is He the music that has God-lyrics? and who do I exactly have a relationship with when I talk about a relationship with God? books and songs? friends and preachers? sermons? i'm scared to even begin to compare the amount of time I spend on my little Christian idols with the time I spend actually seeking Him. and the worst of it is, I think that because these idols have Jesus-labels on them, my worship of them is the same as worshipping the Lover of my soul.
God! Did You die so we could have a relationship with a book? You died so You could spend time with me! Blow our minds about who you really are. Don't let us paint a portrait of you and then worship the painting. i don't want to stare at a replica. i wanna see the original.
i wanna see God
"Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent..." - Jesus
