Got Idols?

So I'm on fire right now. This morning at church was awesome! Buckle your seat belts because todays blog is worth the thrill. At Coquina we're going through Acts. Today we were in Acts 14. To recap: Paul and Barnabas are in Iconium visiting with people spreading the good news when the people start mistaking them for the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes. Just incase you didn't know, Iconium is some where in modern day Turkey. The legend in Iconium in that day was that Zeus and Hermes were performing miracles and because the people of Iconium didn't worship them, they burned the city down. So of course when Paul and Barnabas are there spreading the Gospel and performing miracles (see verse 9) the people mistook them for the Greek gods. So the people started bringing sacrifices to them. Hey, they didn't want their town to be burned down again! And Paul and Barnabas are all "Hey, don't worship us, we will fail you. We aren't gods." And of course the Jewish leaders of the day had to have their say, so they started saying, "That's right, they will fail you! You should sacrifice them to the idols." So the people take them out and stone them. Of course in typical Paul fashion, he just gets right back up and walks back into the city and continues to preach the Gospel.

So what does this have to do with idols and Danielle? Well in starting a blog I want to be real with you, my readers. That way you can see the struggles I have and how God is growing me. Rich has been gone for 2 full weeks now. This past Thursday I watched a really sad movie (bad choice on my side, but I didn't know it was going to be sad when I started). So the crying started and I got all upset about Nana's death and then it went into Richie being gone and how lonely I was. I got the image of a kid crying after the parent takes a toy away. I was that child crying for my toy (Richie) back. And I felt like God was really speaking to me saying, "Rich is gone, he's not coming back for 2 more weeks and there's nothing you can do about it. So what is your next move? Are you going to sit here crying or are you going to get up and walk with me?" So I got up.

I didn't know what this was going to lead to. How does this look? How am I going to answer this question, of what's next? The first thing you need to know about idols is that they aren't about worshipping the object, they are ME centered. And in this case, I had been looking to Rich for my acceptance, fulfillment, and redemption. That's a lot to put on a person. And Rich was not created to provide that for me. I have been setting Rich up for failure because I am expecting the impossible from him. Continuing in Gardner's awesome sermon, he said that when our idols don't deliver what we want from them we destroy them. The perfect example of this is Jesus. He comes in on Palm Sunday and everyone is all "Praise Jesus!" They idolized him in their hearts to be their physical savior. They wanted him to over throw the Romans, and when that didn't happen, they crucified Him. Gardner said we need to have a 9:11 of the heart. We need to bring down our idols. He pulled an awesome verse from Ecclesiastes 9:11, "I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all."

Eventually all our idols will fail us. They were created to do that. God created all things to fail so that there would only be one thing that would remain - Jesus. Christ never fails. He always delivers! So all that being said....I am now in the process with replacing Rich with Christ. We can't just remove our idols and keep walking. We need to replace them with something else or they, like weeds, will continue to grow back. As Tim Keller says, "If you uproot the idol and fail to 'plant' the love of Christ in its place, the idol will grow back." So that's where I am. Praying that God will teach me how to 'plant' His love in my heart. I'm praying that God becomes the desire of my heart. That I don't put Rich in a place God is suppose to reside. 


The best way to show others their idols is to show them yours. Matthew and Luke write about a guy going to his brother and trying to pull the speck out of his eye when he had a huge plank in his own eye. I'm writing this in hopes that you, my readers will see my plank and analyze your heart. Are you looking to something to give you only what God can give you? What is your speck? Please be praying for me as I work to replace my plank with a vision for Christ and his kingdom. 

On a much lighter note: here is the after picture of my paver wall I was telling you about yesterday. I think it looks pretty good for a first attempt.