S234P4 – When fools rush in: false gods abound

Rom. 1:21-23

Yes, they (the wicked) knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

I had not seen my friend in several years, so I was excited when she told me that she was moving her family back home.  Since the last time we had met or even spoken, I had given my life to Christ. Meeting the family for lunch would be my time to share my new faith with them.  I did not expect this to be anything but a great conversation considering the fact that she had spent her childhood and adolescence in catholic school and knew about God herself.  Instead of joy, however, I was confronted with argument and laughter.  In her eyes, I was being foolish for believing such fantastic and impossible tales as those found in the Bible.  She preferred to share with me who she had decided God really is.

Here we have pride and foolishness attached at the hip once more. Seeing all the evidence we have indicating who the real God is, to fashion our own god is prideful because we are telling him how we think He should be.  We are claiming to know better regarding his character and substance, telling him that we have some points of improvement.  We enter this arena when we begin to decide how a loving God should act or what we think we should expect from him instead of turning to the scriptures to see who He is.  It is also foolish that we would think we could possibly make a god better than him.  He created us; we did not create him.  We cannot be much more impertinent than deciding to place ourselves in his role and him in ours.

One does not need to know God in order to know of him.  The sound and power of the violent ocean waves during a storm are only a shadow of his might.  The blinding light of the noonday desert sun is not even a measure of his glory.  The beauty He displays in the snow-capped mountains and the nighttime sky cannot compare to that which He possesses.  God constantly shows himself to us through his creation. Spoken into existence by his very words, they are the embodiment of his imagination.  It is only the proud fool who decides to worship what he has created with his own hands and mind.  Father, we ask that You make your holiness and godliness clear through your creation to those we know and love who are still trapped in foolish idolatry.