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13
May
2009

IDOLATRY: WATCH OUT, YOU’LL BECOME WHAT YOU WORSHIP!

When Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord in the temple (Isaiah 6:1-13), we often ignore the circumstances of the event and lose ourselves in a contemplation of what it must have been like to be in such a manifestation of the presence of God.  According to G.K. Beale’s analysis of Old Testament idolatry, God warned his people that they would become what they worshiped.  As a result of worshipping the gods of the nations around them, Israel had become deaf and blind to the things of God (cf. Psalm 115:2-8), particularly to holiness and righteousness.  They had learned to take God’s presence for granted, and no longer reflected his glory to the world as a witness of God’s redemptive compassion for all humanity.  Indeed, the key element of this passage is that while in the presence of God, Isaiah realized his own sinful condition, and that of his people (Isa. 6:5).  However, Isaiah was transformed by an act of cleansing from the presence of God and became an imager of God to Israel.  Israel on the other hand continued in a spiritual insensitivity that reflected the lack of living attributes of the idols they chose to worship, unconnected to God and incapable of enjoying or appreciating his presence among them.

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13
May
2009

IDOLATRY: FINDING THE RIGHT PLACE FOR THE CHURCH IN THE PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH!

Willow Creek Church, along with 200 other churches, recently published findings from an extensive survey of congregants (80,000), which traced some of the dynamics of spiritual growth and the process of maturing as a Christian.  Specifically they were able to identify four segments or levels of spiritual maturity in the church, Exploring Christ, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ and Christ-Centered Life.  They based their assessment on the premise that spiritual growth is a process of increasing intimacy with God, under the Matthew 22:37-39 rubric.  The upshot is that there is a shift in the role of the church between the earlier stags of growth and the later more mature levels.  But in many cases the church has not reacted to this, and has elevated its role to the place of prime resourcer of personal spiritual growth at every stage in the Christian’s personal development.  This is tantamount to church idolatry, especially when the shift to greater intimacy occurs more as a result of personal practices at these more mature levels, rather than what the church directly contributes.  The church has in a sense inserted itself in the process where the Holy Spirit should be… and this can only be described as idolatry.  The fall out is that while the church purports to want its people to grow, what it is actually doing has stunted and even arrested spiritual growth, by babying its people and failing to change roles to become the resourcer of ministry and service, by those who have grown past a direct dependency on the church for their personal spiritual growth.

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