Friday, July 19, 2013

Jehovah Alone is Worthy

Jehovah Alone is Worthy
Read: 2 Kings 17:7-41
Worship only the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt with such mighty miracles and power.  You must worship him and bow before him; offer sacrifices to him alone.  (2 Kings 17:36 NLT)
            Disaster came upon the nation of Israel because the people worshipped the gods of the pagan nations around them.  They turned away from the God of their forefathers,  built shrines, set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles, sacrificed their sons and daughters in fire, consulted fortune-tellers, and used sorcery arousing the anger of the Lord. 
            Is this how the people of Israel thought about worship?  Their actions reveal that they rejected God as the object of their affections and substituted worthless idols.  What was the result?  The Scriptural record says, “They worshipped worthless idols and became worthless themselves.  They followed the example of the nations around them, disobeying the Lord’s command not to imitate them.”  (2 Kings 17:15b NLT)
            Therein lays the danger for us today.  We live in a world full of idols and false worship.  No longer are God and his Son Jesus Christ the center of worship around the world.  No longer is Jesus the object of man’s affection.  He has been relegated into obscurity by secularism and humanism.  Feel good and prosperity gospels have replaced the good news.  Sin is only a figment of the imagination and rarely mentioned in public debate.  Greed and lavish lifestyles have replaced modesty and reverence. 
            It is a well-known fact that our style of worship shapes the character of the worshippers into a likeness of the object worshipped.  Though created in the image and likeness of God, when we worship false gods of any kind, our souls become infused with the substitute deities.  As a result, our worship becomes a mockery to the very God who created us. 
            “Holy, Holy, Holy,” a hymn written generations ago is our call to worship.  “Only thou are holy; there is none beside Thee, Perfect in power, in love, and purity.”  It is God alone whom we worship.  He alone should be the object of our affection.
            Are you worshipping the great Creator God?  Is his son, Jesus Christ the object of your affection?  Jesus is lord of all and Lord over all --- including you – including me – He alone is Worthy.
Thought for the Day: God is a jealous God and will have no other gods before Him.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for revealing to us that you alone are worthy of worship.

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