Jeremiah 50:38 “A sword and a drought upon her waters, that they may be dried up! For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols (objects of terror in which they foolishly trust).” (Amplified)

Images are everywhere these days. I can not but help seeing the wares the billboards advertise while I drive down the road. When the television is turned on, pictures blare out. The newspaper is filled with photographs and captions. Images are everywhere and even though they are not carved statues that people bow down and worship, they still represent idols. That “one-more-thing that I cannot do without” is greed. and that thrill of fulfilling desires is selfishness. We surround ourselves with idols that will do us no good. Idols of sex, of power, of humour, of being the best, etc. We can turn simple things such as favorite hobbies or personal achievements into idols, or we can grasp for more ephemeral or philosophical thoughts such as 'peace for Darfur' and 'mosquito nets for kids in Congo', or politicial leanings can be turned into personal idols. We all know this and shake our heads when we find either ourselves or another Christian falling into this trap. One danger, however, which we do not recognize is that we can turn Christan things into idols.

The cross can be easily turned into an idol. We can start to worship the cross and not the creator. We genuflect when we pass a cross or say a quick prayer. We can think about the cross and say “Because of the cross I am free!” and it is true, but we have instead of celebrating what happened on the Cross and who made it happen, we celebrate the thing.

We can begin to worship our church history. I can not even begin to count all the churches I have been to that are more proud of their history than the gospel of Jesus. Remember that Jesus told the pharisees that God could create children of Abraham out of the earth itself because they were prideful of their heritage.

We can begin to worship our pastor. I have heard many friends speak about a certain pastor and elevate their lives and/or teachings to the very level of Christ! Paul spoke out against this to the Corinthians who were arguing over being “for Apollos” or “for Paul.” Then a tragedy happens like with Pastor Haggard and their ideals are destroyed.

We can idolize hymns and put them higher than scripture. Even the Bible can be turned into an idol. We can (and frequently do) worship the book more than the creator! I know some people have even taken portions of scripture and made them more important than the rest of it. I heard someone once say “If all you have is the book of _______ and even if all you have of that is chapter ___ then you can throw out the rest of the Bible!”

As we seek after Christ, please let us be careful of turning things in our lives and our search into idols. We need to guard against it as much as anything else. The only god in our lives must be God, our Father in Heaven. Do not let anything become more important than Him!

God eternal, Lord of all,
Lowly at Thy feet we fall;
All the earth doth worship Thee;
We amidst the throng would be.