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.

Matthew 7:28-29 “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”

During my college years, I read through many text books. My teachers would always refer to the book and would teach from it. For some of my classes, the author of the textbook was a former teacher from that school and my professors would tell us wide-eyed students anecdotes about the man who wrote the book as well as former professors there. In most of my studies, the classes seemed too long or to dry or boring, even with all the anecdotes and stories the professors would tell to keep our attention. However there were times when the classes were exciting and went by far too quickly. In those classes my teachers were drawing directly from their own life experiences and telling us what happened to them and they were speaking on their authority, not on a text book's authority or on behalf of someone else.

One of my friends told me about her first day of class at her school. The professor stood in front of the class and said “If you will look at the name on the blackboard and then look at the name on your textbook for this class, you will see that they are the same. That means you can either come to class or you can read the book, it is your choice.” This teacher was not relying on the teachings of other authorities, but on his own! When my professors relied on their own authority to teach us, we learned the lessons faster and easier while enjoying them more.

We have the opportunity to learn directly from the author of everything. Certainly we don't seem to be able to sit in a classroom with Him, but we do have His book. Often times when we start to read the book, we see it as a text book and it is boring and dry. However when our perception changes and instead of seeing it as a dry, old, dusty text book we begin to see it as a manual or the transcript of our loving, faithful, merciful teacher's desire of the things He wants us to know, then everything changes. Instead of it being dry and tedious, learning His word becomes exciting and enjoyable. It turns from being a textbook to being a non-stop, page turning thriller that will keep us awake all through the night!

Let us learn from our Living Author. I pray that we can have our perceptions about His word changed from it being an old required reading assignment to His love letter written directly for us. God offers to teach us directly, with no proxies or no teacher's assistants taking the classes. He wants to do it Himself, but we must let Him.

Suppliant, lo! Thy children bend,
Father, for Thy blessing now;
Thou canst teach us, guide, defend;
We are weak, almighty Thou!

With the peace Thy Word imparts
Be the taught and teacher blessed;
In our lives and in our hearts,
Father, be Thy laws impressed.

Pour into each longing mind
Light and knowledge from above,
Charity for all mankind,
'Trusting faith, enduring love.

Matthew 7:24-27 “"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."”

Have you ever been driving down a road, any road, and seen a large truck towing a large flatbed trailer with a house on it? To be fair its a small house, or even part of a house, but the truck is still carrying a building. Why? Why is this small house being moved? The owners of the house wanted to move it. That is why. They purchased this house from a lot that was full of prefabricated houses and they wanted to move it to where they wanted their house to be “built.” The concrete had been poured and the foundation was prepared to receive this newly moved house.

Buildings can be moved from foundation to foundation. It takes a lot of time, effort, and hard work, but it can be done. Foundations, however, can not be moved; when you remove a foundation whatever was on it falls apart. The building can not last when the ground is unprepared for it. A proper foundation is required for a strong building.

We were all born having our lives founded on a sandy beach. The tides of life would come in and wash away whatever we had managed to build. We had a poor foundation. Yet when we realized God's love and accepted His grace and mercy, when we were saved, God came in with his mighty power and moved our frail little building to the right foundation, to Christ. With Jesus as our foundation, we are now able to survive any tempest – not only the small waves and tides but now the monsoons and hurricanes as well!

Jesus Christ is our foundation and we can never forget that. All we have built into our lives must be supported by Him or else it cannot stand. Now that we have this firm foundation, we need to share it with those who still make futile attempts to build a life founded on shifting sands. We are glad because we have the strength of Christ as our base. How can we be so miserly to try and hoard this limitless strength and mercy from those who need it?

First we need to make certain that every aspect of our lives are built on Christ. After we have our own lives fully and firmly rooted in Jesus then we can begin to share and show His strength to those in need.

Firm on the Rock I stand, Jesus, my Lord,
Held by Thy mighty hand, Jesus, my Lord.
Filled with Thy love divine, O what a joy is mine!
I am a child of Thine, Jesus, my Lord.

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”

Churches across the world are full of people who earnestly believe that because they go to church every week, because they do all the right things, and because they said a prayer one day that they will avoid the fires of hell and instead enjoy heaven – if there is a heaven. They are leaders, they are followers, they are movers and shakers in the Christian world, but in the end they will face the same judgment as everyone else. Will they be able to honestly plead the blood of Christ as a defense?

I find this part of Jesus' preaching to be very disturbing. It is challenging and seems harsh for some reason. Too many people gloss over all the hard things that are in the Bible because it is discomforting and they want a feel-good Jesus, an easy Bible, and a quick fix for everything. Here Jesus challenges us though. He tells us directly that there are people who are not saved that act as if they are. However He also tells us that all we must do is believe in Him and He will give us everlasting life. All we must do is call on the name of the Lord and we shall be saved. How then do these two statements mix? If there is a person who calls on the name of the Lord to cast out demons, how will they be unacknowledged and thrown out of heaven?

We are given the answer. They did not do the will of God. God wants all to be saved, but He also is a pure and righteous God. The blood of Christ washes us clean of all sins, but we must accept it totally. A quick prayer and doing the right things is no substitute for a total acceptance and faith in Him. People who stand before the throne of Judgment and say “But Lord! I did all this stuff in your name!” have tried to earn their way, by themselves. They could not surrender themselves to total commitment to Christ. They did not truly believe in Christ and His blood and they could not do the will of the Father because they did not know the will of the Father.

When we came to a knowledge of Christ's grace for us, we were adopted into God's family. Jesus' gruesome death on the cross was our adoption fee. We were given direct communication with God. In prayer and supplication we find out everything God wants for us. If we love the Lord, we are called to obey Him. We obey Him by loving Him. How easy is that? Yet it is the hardest thing in the world for us to accomplish. We are saved by Grace, but it is also only by grace that we can learn to love our Lord.

We, as believers, need to dedicate ourselves every day to learning to love God. It doesn't matter how well we know the Bible. What is important is how well we know the author of the Bible. God has blessed us so completely that we can honestly do nothing less or more than learn Him. We can not help but love Him. Let us then make this our aim – to know and love God more and more each day!

Redeemer, come, with us abide;
our hearts to thee we open wide;
let us thy inner presence feel;
thy grace and love in us reveal.

Matthew 7:17-20 “So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”

I enjoy walking and hiking through some of the local parks. The nice shade trees spread everywhere as I walk a half-forgotten path next to a small brook and it is absolutely delightful. Some of the trees are rotten though. I did not know they were rotten last fall and only found out this spring. Last fall, the bright colors were everywhere, the leaves had not quite made up their minds whether they wanted to remain on the trees or to cover the ground. There was a riot of color spreading over the world in that little valley. During the winter there was no shade and the hard ground was not so fun to walk on, but I still enjoyed my little forays. The stark branches against the cold, blue sky were beautiful in their own way. Then we had an ice storm come through. When I went walking after all the ice had melted and it was safe again to travel, I found that many of the trees I thought were healthy and strong were broken and rotten inside. They could not hold up to the winter storm that had come through. Despite how they looked on the outside, inside they were compromised and had no strength. Despite how healthy they appeared on the outside, when trouble cam, the trees were proven to be diseased.

As Christians, we are constantly finding ourselves being tested. Our faith is tried, our hope is probed, our grace is assessed – in fact our entire walk with Christ is analyzed. Sometimes we pass and sometimes we don't. In Galatians, Paul speaks about the fruit of the spirit, and when we are tested, that fruit gives evidence of our lives. The wonderful thing is that when we fail part of the testing, God is there to help us back up. He shows us where we need to change and He aids us in changing. On our own, we have no hope of changing, just as a tree has no hope of changing. When Christ shows us our errors though, we remember that we have been spliced and grafted onto Him and we have strength, hope and grace . We have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and even self control! We have only to grow it as we bond with God our Savior.

The holy spirit is continuing the great work of making us more like Christ. He is changing us from a rotten, diseased, malnourished, malformed, and ugly tree with poor fruit into a healthy and growing branch on the vine of Christ. Therefore we should not worry that we do not pass every test of our walk, but instead we should have hope that we will pass the next one. Every test does not just show failure, it also shows improvement. Certainly last time I failed to keep my temper and I was unable to show kindness despite my anger, but this time I managed to keep my temper even though I was angry and not very kind, therefore I have improved. Everything moves us closer to Christ so do not loose heart!

This week, let us focus on the evidence of Christ in our lives. Today always is fresh and new. The failures of yesterday can become today's achievements. God is glorified in our struggle and effort to become more like Him.

Another day begun!
Lord, grant us grace that we,
Before the setting of the sun,
Redeem the time for Thee.