Idolatry in Corporate Worship

Bob Kauflin lists some possible options.

• Musical Excellence
• Musical Preference
• Preaching Skill
• Creativity
• Experiences
• Liturgy

Read the rest for his explanations.  Very helpful.  

What You Really Need In Marriage

Mark Altrogge:

Our culture is extremely self-oriented. We are continually bombarded by messages that tell us we need greater self-esteem. We begin to think, I need to do this for me, I need to be validated, I need to feel good about myself, I need to think about my desires for a change, etc.

It’s so easy to bring this mentality into marriage. We can think we “need” certain things from our spouse. But in reality, we often take our desires, which may not be wrong in themselves, and elevate them to the level of “need.” “I want” becomes “I won’t be happy unless I get…”

Of course, there’s a place for talking to your spouse about your desires. There are things husbands and wives should do for one another. They should serve one another. They should seek to bless each other. Each should bear their share of the load of caring for the children and household chores.

But be careful with desires. But what if your spouse fails to meet your desires?

Read the rest.

Why We Get Angry

Mike Leake:

1. I get angry when my perceived rights are violated. No matter how legit these “rights” are whenever they are violated I am prone to anger. I feel that I have the “right” to fair treatment and I do not receive it then I get angry.
2. I get angry when my pride is wounded. Every person battles pride. Sometimes even those that seem the most humble take great pride in their humility. Whenever our pride (read source of identity) is wounded we often resort to anger. Our pride can be wounded through disrespect or a loving rebuke from a friend.
3. I get angry when my hopes are disappointed. Who of us does not have an imagined future? We have hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Some are bigger and stronger than others. This can be as simple as the hope of getting to watch a football game or the agony of a broken relationship. Any time things are not going the way that I envision them going I am tempted towards anger.
4. I get angry when my fears are confirmed. Just as we have hopes we also have fears. There are things that we hope no person ever notices about us. There are things that we hope never happen to us. There are things that we pray for and things that we pray never happen. When our fears are realized, either through someone exposing our true self or a situation that confirms our fear we are tempted to anger.
5. I get angry when my comfort is interrupted. We love our comfort. We plan vacations with the hope of relaxation and comfort. Sometimes we plan mini-vacations after getting home from school or work. We hope to sit down and relax, when that comfort is interrupted we can be quickly tempted to anger.

One thing that all of these have in common is idolatry. 

Read the rest.

Idolatry and Common Grace Are Often Quite Near One Another

One of the fascinating (and disturbing) things about popular cultural idols is that they are often (always?) strongly linked to the common grace that we considered in question 3. The reason for this is obvious: Satan is no Creator. He’s a deceiver, a distorter of creation. He cannot create anything new – he can only corrupt the goodness of God’s creation. Think of it this way: idolatry is a trap, and grace fragments serve as bait. It’s genius, really. Satan uses the good things of God’s creation as inducements for rebellion against him. We are tempted by the beauty that is supposed to reflect its Creator, and instead we are mollified by the thing. And thus we are drawn into false worship, and we become trapped. Idolatry uses common grace like a spider uses a porch light: the light attracts the moth so it hardly notices the web until it’s too late and it becomes hopelessly entangled. So keep your antennae attuned for the connections between those shining, beautiful shards of grace and the idolatry at the heart of this imaginative popular cultural world.

- Porterbrook curriculum, module "Culture", Unit 4

Why Personal Idols Destroy Community

One of the primary laws of human life is that you become like what you worship; what’s more, you reflect what you worship not only back to the object itself but also outward to the world around. Those who worship money increasingly define themselves in terms of it and increasingly treat other people as creditors, debtors, partners, or customers rather than as human beings. Those who worship sex define themselves in terms of it (their preferences, their practices, their past histories) and increasingly treat other people as actual or potential sexual objects. Those who worship power define themselves in terms of it and treat other people as either collaborators, competitors, or pawns. These and many other forms of idolatry combine in a thousand ways, all of them damaging to the image-bearing quality of the people concerned and of those whose lives they touch. 

- N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope, 182


Tony Reinke comments:

Wright’s point is that idolatry is more than a mere internal heart problem — idolatry is what we project onto others. Idolatry de-values others and becomes a relational cancer in our families, our communities, and our churches. In other words, personal idols dehumanize us, dehumanize our evaluation of others, and necessarily erode community.

"Materialism, the worship of the god “Mammon” as the greatest good on earth, may well be the biggest competitor with the God of Jesus Christ for the allegiance of human hearts in our world today."

Materialism, the worship of the god “Mammon” as the greatest good on earth, may well be the biggest competitor with the God of Jesus Christ for the allegiance of human hearts in our world today. It is easy to demonize other religions or aberrant offshoots of Christianity because we do not accept their theological tenets; it is much harder to see the weaknesses of the worldviews in which we ourselves are enmeshed. Like the Israelites of old who believed they could still worship Yahweh under the guise of a golden calf, Christians in more well-to-do nations or parts of the world think they can serve Jesus while still worshiping money and material possessions even more. They quickly deny that their attachment to those possessions comes anywhere close to worship, but when one compares the time and energy expended in working for it, managing it, protecting it, longing for more of it, and deciding how to spend it with the time and energy put into kingdom activity, the denials often ring hollow. 

Unlike those ideologies that find the material world inherently evil, biblical Christianity recognizes the fundamental goodness of property and possessions. God created the entire universe as good. Despite human sin bringing many damaging results to all of God’s creation, a decent standard of living is something almost all people appropriately desire. Being materially poor is not a virtue, nor does it by itself bestow any level of spirituality. Precisely because helping the poor is such a pervasive principle in the Bible, we can recognize that extreme forms of self-denial are not particularly Christian forms of spirituality. God wants his people not to live in poverty, so those who are well above the poverty line must be generous in helping those who have less so that as many people as possible can enjoy his good, created gifts….  

…Because of sin, material possessions do not always function as God intended them to. In many contexts, they may seldom function as he wishes. There is no biblical support, however, for the notion that money, since the fall, is inherently corrupting.  But possessions or the desire for possessions does frequently serve as a seduction to sin. Those who amass great riches are tempted to use them to wield power over others in inappropriate, heavy-handed fashion. They may think that people owe them favors in return for their patronage or benefaction. They readily imagine that money can buy happiness, health, and even salvation — if, indeed, they think they have anything to be saved from. They are naturally tempted to imagine that they don’t need God or even that there is no God. They often live in subcultures that shield them from having to encounter the most desperately needy people of the world, so that they can assuage their consciences that they have helped the poor even when they offer a much smaller percentage of their profits to that end than they might have otherwise. 

The best way, therefore, to maximize the goodness of material possessions and minimize their negative effects is to give a generous, even sacrificial amount of them away.  Philanthropy, in and of itself, saves no one, but it can do a huge amount of good for hurting people. The best forms of philanthropy, however, grow out of a Christian worldview. Sacrificial giving cannot be fixed at a certain percentage of one’s gross or net income or worth. Qualifying levels vary from person to person and from one set of circumstances to another. But they always involve giving up something that a person values considerably. 

God normally does not ask the rich to trade places with the poor, merely to give from their surplus. But they must be ruthlessly honest about just how much is surplus. Savings, investments, insurance, retirement accounts, and leaving money behind for one’s closest
relatives after one dies may also exemplify good stewardship under various conditions. But they cannot automatically be said to be appropriate for everybody. In fact, there is no one-size-fits-all-stewardship; all Christians must regularly reassess their finances and determine what God will be pleased with in their specific contexts. 

- Craig Blomberg, Christians in an Age of Wealth, p. 243

Everybody Worships

Everybody has got to live for something, but Jesus is arguing that, if he is not that thing, it will fail you. 

First, it will enslave you. Whatever that thing is, you will tell yourself that you have to have it or there is no tomorrow. That means that if anything threatens it, you will become inordinately scared; if anyone blocks it, you will become inordinately angry; and if you fail to achieve it, you will never be able to forgive yourself. 

But second, if you do achieve it, it will fail to deliver the fulfillment you expected. 

Let me give you an eloquent contemporary expression of what Jesus is saying. Nobody put this better than the American writer and intellectual David Foster Wallace. He got to the top of his profession. He was an award-winning, best-selling postmodern novelist known around the world for his fierce and boundary-pushing storytelling. He once wrote a sentence that was more than a thousand words long. And, tragically, he committed suicide. But a few years before that, he gave a now-famous commencement speech at Kenyon College. He said to the graduating class, 

Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god . . . to worship . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before [your loved ones] finally plant you. . . . Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they are evil or sinful; it is that they’re unconscious. They are default settings. 

Wallace was by no means a religious person, but he understood that everyone worships, everyone trusts in something for their salvation, everyone bases their lives on something that requires faith. A couple of years after giving that speech, Wallace killed himself. And this non-religious man’s parting words to us are pretty terrifying: “Something will eat you alive.” Because even though you might never call it worship, you can be absolutely sure you are worshiping and you are seeking. And Jesus says, unless you’re worshiping me, unless I’m the center of your life, unless you’re trying to get your spiritual thirst quenched through me and not through these other things, unless you see that the solution must come inside rather than just pass by outside, then whatever you worship will abandon you in the end.

- Tim Keller, Encounters with Jesus: Unexpected Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions (Dutton; 2013), 28–30

(HT:  Tony Reinke)

What Does It Really Mean To Cause Someone To Stumble?

Stephen Altrogge with a helpful and clarifying post.


Books by Stephen Altrogge:

• The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence 
• Create: Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Stuff 
• The Last Superhero 
• My Friend, My Hero, My Dad

Some Great Quotes From David Powlison on Idolatry

David Powlison:

“The last line of 1 John woos, then commands us: ‘Beloved children, keep yourselves from idols’ (1 John 5:21). In a 105-verse treatise on living in vital fellowship with Jesus, the Son of God, how on earth does that unexpected command merit being the final word?”

“If ‘idolatry’ is the characteristic and summary Old Testament word for our drift from God, then ‘desires’ is the characteristic and summary New Testament word for the same drift. Both are shorthand for the problem of human beings.”

“Idolatry is a problem of the heart, a metaphor for human lust, craving, yearning, and greedy demand.”

“The deep question of motivation is not ‘What is motivating me?’ The final question is, ‘Who is the master of this pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior?’ In the biblical view, we are religious, inevitably bound to one god or another. People do not have needs. We have masters, lords, gods.”

“Unconditional love says, ‘I love you just as you are.’ But the Gospel is better than unconditional love. The Gospel says, ‘God accepts you just as Christ is.”

Read the rest.

Books by David Powlison:

• Seeing With New Eyes
• Speaking Truth in Love
• The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context

(HT: Pastor JD)

Tim Keller: Diagnostic on Idols of the Heart

Tony Reinke:

Today on the DG blog I posted some thoughts on the link between faith and joy. Joy in God evaporates when our trust in God grows cold, was my main point. Emails and Tweets are coming in from readers wanting to know more about how to identify false securities (idols) in their own hearts. And perhaps the best list of categories comes from Timothy Keller’s book The Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything, Study Guide (Zondervan, 2010), and especially what he writes on page 40:

Tim Keller:

Why do we lie, or fail to love, or break our promises, or live selfishly? Of course, the general answer is “Because we are weak and sinful,” but the specific answer is that there is something besides Jesus Christ that we feel we must have to be happy, something that is more important to our heart than God, something that is enslaving our heart through inordinate desires. The key to change (and even to self-understanding) is therefore to identify the idols of the heart.”

After explaining the idolatry theme more closely from Romans 1:18–25, Galatians 4:8–9, and 1 John 5:21, Keller lists particular categories for personal reflection. The idol categories include the following:

“Life only has meaning/I only have worth if…

• I have power and influence over others.” (Power Idolatry)
• I am loved and respected by _____.” (Approval Idolatry)
• I have this kind of pleasure experience, a particular quality of life.” (Comfort idolatry)
• I am able to get mastery over my life in the area of _____.” (Control idolatry)
• people are dependent on me and need me.” (Helping Idolatry)
• someone is there to protect me and keep me safe.” (Dependence idolatry)
• I am completely free from obligations or responsibilities to take care of someone.” (Independence idolatry)
• I am highly productive and getting a lot done.” (Work idolatry)
• I am being recognized for my accomplishments, and I am excelling in my work.” (Achievement idolatry)
• I have a certain level of wealth, financial freedom, and very nice possessions.” (Materialism idolatry)
• I am adhering to my religion’s moral codes and accomplished in its activities.” (Religion idolatry)
• this one person is in my life and happy to be there, and/or happy with me.” (Individual person idolatry)
• I feel I am totally independent of organized religion and am living by a self-made morality.” (Irreligion idolatry)
• my race and culture is ascendant and recognized as superior.” (Racial/cultural idolatry)
• a particular social grouping or professional grouping or other group lets me in.” (Inner ring idolatry)
• my children and/or my parents are happy and happy with me.” (Family idolatry)
• Mr. or Ms. “Right” is in love with me.” (Relationship Idolatry)
• I am hurting, in a problem; only then do I feel worthy of love or able to deal with guilt.” (Suffering idolatry)
• my political or social cause is making progress and ascending in influence or power.” (Ideology idolatry)
• I have a particular kind of look or body image.” (Image idolatry)

Books by Tim Keller:

• The Prodigal God  
• King’s Cross 
• Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything 
• The Reason for God  
• Counterfeit Gods  
• Generous Justice

"We have turned to a God we can use..."

We have turned to a God we can use rather than a God we must obey; we have turned to a God who will fulfill our need rather than a God before whom we must surrender our rights to ourselves. He is a God for us, for our satisfaction-- not because we have learned to think of him in this way through Christ but because we have learned to think of him this way through the marketplace. Everything is for us, for our pleasure, for our satisfaction, and we have come to assume that it must be so in the church as well. 

- David Wells, God in the Wasteland


 Ed Stetzer comments:

And this is chiefly why our zeal for evangelism and the gospel has been undermined-- not because we don't care, not because we don't know what to do. We have simply replaced God's purpose for the world with our own purpose for the world. Even when we serve and help and give and share, we too often do it from a sense of obligation or a desire to impress. We have become a church steered by many different motivations but all too rarely by a singular desire to glorify God. Wells is right: "We will not be able to recover the vision and understanding of God's grandeur until we recover an understanding of ourselves as creatures who have been made to know such grandeur."

The message that emanates from the life and work of the apostle Paul, who was without argument the most productive missionary in the history of the church, is that we cannot hope to be either faithful or effective in kingdom service while being overly concerned about our own needs.

On two occasions he called himself an "ambassador." That's a pretty important job. Where I grew up in New York, those were the people who didn't have to pay parking tickets. They mattered. And Paul said, "We are ambassadors for Christ" (2 Cor. 5:20). Yet the only other time we read him referring to himself by that title, he said he was an "ambassador in chains" (Eph. 6:20). Yes, he was an ambassador-- just as we are-- yet that ambassadorial role, representing King Jesus, did not mean Paul was without hardship.

No one survives the harsh, abusive treatment he endured without living for something bigger than himself. We might assume, then, Paul was simply that devoted to the people he was called to serve. His compassion for them, his selfless interest in them, his desire that they experience the fruit of the gospel-- all of these must have come together to make him an unstoppable force.

Well, yes, Paul was devoted to the churches and the people who comprised them. He possessed an uncommon zeal to see others convinced of gospel truth and redeemed through God's eternal mercy and grace. But it wasn't concern for his neighbors that ultimately motivated Paul to such extremes of spiritual exertion and sacrifice. It was Jesus' love that "compelled" him (2 Cor. 5:14). "To live is Christ," he said (Phil. 1:21).

And we, too-- if we wish to be faithful to our calling-- must live supremely for the glory of God and what he is doing through his Son in our world.

Books by Ed Stetzer:

• Planting Missional Churches 
• Compelled: Living the Mission of God
• Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation
• Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations
• Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them
• Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too
• Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community
• Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series)

"Will we trade the deceptive and ever-declining thrills of choice-idolatry for the unique pleasures of commitment?"

Barry Cooper with a fascinating article about "choice-idolatry".  His conclusion:

Truly committing to another human being will certainly be our undoing. It requires substitutionary sacrifice: your life is subsumed in the quest for the other's contentment. In the case of marriage it means each person forsaking all others, which to the world looks like a very shabby prospect.

But this selfless giving of oneself to another human being holds unique power to make both the lover and the beloved truly beautiful. By losing their lives, they have gained them. But we can only taste this if we commit—and allow other to commit to us.

Committing to love at great cost to ourselves is the most desirable choice we can make in God's universe. He demonstrated this love for us on a tiny hill outside Jerusalem. He made the choice to love self-sacrificially. Forsaking all others, he committed himself to a particular people, at a particular time, in a particular place. Even the living God—powerful, sovereign, utterly free, whose triune nature means that he does not depend on others in order to love and be loved—nevertheless committed himself to love one bride.

Will we trade the deceptive and ever-declining thrills of choice-idolatry for the unique pleasures of commitment? We should do it, and soon. Because even if, by God's grace, our chains fall off, even if our dungeon flames with light, we may be powerless to get up and leave, because our hearts have been crippled. We put off commitment and venerate choice, idly believing that we will commit when we are ready. But when that day finally arrives, we may realize with widening eyes that we're no longer choosing sin. Sin is choosing us. We will have become imprisoned by choice.

And for those of us who have experienced this prison first-hand, isn't it strange when the world describes us as "butterflies"? That is too delicate, too lovely. Brothers and sisters, let me propose a more fitting insect: the moth. Drawn to the light but finally unable to enjoy it. Dulled. Restless. All-consuming.

Read the rest.

Urban Meyer Will Be Home For Dinner

Interesting article here on the trials and future for Urban Meyer.  A sobering tale of idolatry and potential redemption.  Great writing as well.

ESPN:

Before you join Urban Meyer, who is walking toward the exit of the Ohio State football office, there's a scar you need to see. A few years ago in Gainesville, his middle child, Gigi, planned a celebration to formally accept a college volleyball scholarship to Florida Gulf Coast University. It was football season, so she checked her dad's calendar, scheduling her big day around his job. As the hour approached, she waited at her high school, wanting much, expecting little. Some now-forgotten problem consumed Meyer, and he told his secretary he didn't have time. He wasn't going. His beautiful, athletic, earnest daughter would have to sign her letter of intent without him.

Meyer's secretary, a mother of four, insisted: "You're going."

Eighty or so people filed into the school cafeteria. Urban and his wife, Shelley, joined their daughter at the front table, watching as Gigi stood and spoke. She'd been nervous all day, and with a room of eyes on her, she thanked her mother for being there season after season, year after year.

Then she turned to her father.

Read the rest.

Worry Can Diagnose Our Idols

Craig Groeschel:

Someone said “Worry is distrusting the promises and power of God” and I think that is a good definition of it. One of the things I’m trying to help readers realize is that what we worry about or what we fear really reveals two things. First of all, it reveals what we value the most. For example if we’re worried about our kids’ safety, we value our kids. If we worry about financial stability, we value financial stability. But on a deeper level, what we fear reveals what we value the most and, too, it reveals where we trust God the least. If I’m always worried about my kids, I’m not trusting God with my kids. If I’m always worried about financial stability, I’m not trusting God to provide for me. And so what I try to do is get beyond the surface of “Hey, everybody worries” to say that worry is a sign of a deeper spiritual problem that we need to take to God and let Him cleanse.

Read the rest from an interview concerning Craig's new book, Soul Detox.

Comparison Kills

In counseling situations, my wife and often talk about "playing the comparison game" and how it will kill your soul and if married, your marriage.  Today, Ryan Huguley writes well on this topic.  He opens with this:

We’ve all done it.

We’ve all compared ourselves to someone else at some point in our lives – other Christians, other pastors, other parents, other husbands, other wives, other students, other men, other women…the list goes on and on. We compare ourselves to everyone around morally, spiritually, intellectually, and physically.

Though it’s common place in our lives, our constant comparison is killing us. NOTHING good comes from comparing ourselves to anyone else. Think about it…comparison kills you because it inevitably leads to one of two places…

Read the rest.

When Good Desires Morph Into Idolatry

[Many] desires are normal and natural and become sinful only by abuse. Good and lawful desires become corrupted when they are desired inordinately. When you want something good (such as desiring your spouse to love you, or your children to honor you, or your boss to treat you with respect) so much that you are willing to sin in order to fulfill your desire (or to sin as a result of your desire not being fulfilled), your desire becomes idolatrous. Such desires are sinful not because some new verse suddenly appeared in your Bible that says, ‘You shall not want your spouse to love you,’ or ‘You shall not desire your children to honor you,’ or ‘You shall not try to please your boss.’ They are wrong because you have longed for them too intently. What may have begun as a legitimate God-given desire has now metastasized and mutated into an inordinate one.

- Lou Priolo, Pleasing People, p. 37

(HT:  Joe Crispin)

Forsake All Fraudulent Success

Ray Ortlund:

In a world of secrets, outward success is everyone’s goal. If we can just succeed, we won’t have to face ourselves. No wonder that doesn’t work. It can’t work. The reality of what we are will always topple this house-of-cards persona we so earnestly wish were true.

The gospel is not God’s way of giving us an even better self-improvement goal. The gospel is God’s judgment on our better selves and his replacement of it all with Jesus.

Every one of us thinks, “If only I could do __________ or be __________, then I would arrive.” So, what does “arrival” look like to you? If it isn’t Jesus, the risen Lord himself, every arrival you achieve is only another set-back.

If you make financial security your arrival, you are already trapped in anxiety. If you make a thin body your identity, you will hate yourself more. If you make a porn-free life your okayness, you are doomed to compulsion. God’s remedy for you is not more money or better looks or perfect control. God’s gift to you is Jesus. With Jesus, we are saved. Everything is going to be okay. Without Jesus, we are damned. Nothing will go right.

Forsake all fraudulent success. Make Jesus your goal, your arrival, your identity, your comfort, your okayness, and he’ll gladly give himself to you — and on terms of grace. But reach for anything else, and it will turn into its opposite and betray you.

To paraphrase the apostle Paul, “I’ve lost everything, and I don’t even care, because now I get Jesus” (Philippians 3:8).

What is Idolatry?

You get to listen in on a phone call in this very helpful video.


Dr. David Powlison - What is idolatry? from CCEF on Vimeo.

Everyone, Christian or Non-Christian, is Trying to Find Salvation

This quote will be worth your time today.

Everyone is trying to find salvation. They might not ask, “What must I do to be saved?” But everyone has some sense of what it is that would make them satisfied, fulfilled, and accepted: success in business, the admiration of men, a beautiful home, a liberated homeland, a secure future, the worship of women, a great body, wealth and prosperity, the acceptance of friends, a happy family, a dream vacation.

Think about the people you know. Think about yourself.

1. How do they define salvation? How will they know they’ve
arrived? “I’ll be happy, fulfilled, accepted if . . .”

2. What must they do to be saved? What law or rules must they follow? “To achieve this I’ve got to...” 

3. How do they view people who don’t measure up to this law?
“People who don’t fit in are...”

4. What happens when they don’t measure up? “When I don’t
achieve, then...”

For the Pharisees it went like this: Salvation is national renewal. This will be achieved by personal purity. Those who don’t measure up, like tax collectors, sinners, and the poor, must be ostracized.

Every version of salvation involves a principle, a rule, a law. If your idea of salvation is to have friends accept you, then your first com- mandment will be: “Thou shalt not be uncool.” And uncool people must be avoided at all costs. If your idea of salvation is a beautiful home, then your prophet will be Martha Stewart. Your rule will be antique pine, tiled floors, and distressed paint. Or maybe clean lines, white walls, and no clutter. Your first commandment will be: “Thou shalt not be untidy.”

If other people don’t measure up, then we despise or avoid them. Yet, like the Pharisees, we need them so we can feel good about ourselves. And if we don’t measure up, then our “god” turns on us and condemns us. Life is seen as a race, and you’re a loser if you’re not successful, wealthy, or attractive.

But self-salvation doesn’t work. It doesn’t work, because none of these versions of salvation deliver. They don’t bring satisfaction, identity, or joy, because we were made to know God and glorify him. Anything less is a cheap substitute. They’re not salvation!

And self-salvation doesn’t work because we can’t measure up. If you want to be admired by blokes, but you’re not blokey enough, then you’re condemned. Even on a good day you’ll worry what others think of you. If you want security and prosperity, and you lose your job, then you’re condemned. Even when you have a job, you’ll be anxious, over-busy, and unable to say no. “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ ...” (Gal. 2:16).

The good news is that Jesus has not come “to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
He offers true salvation: being welcomed to God’s feast. And when we don’t measure up, we’re not condemned. Instead of condemning us, our God is condemned in our place. So salvation is found not through obeying any kind of law, but “through faith in Jesus.”

- Tim Chester, A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table (Re:Lit), 27, 28

Confronting our Idols

This is rich.

Confronting Idols & Making Disciples from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

(HT: Timmy Brister)