Our Most Sacred Idol

Idolatry was a perpetual problem throughout Biblical history – not only among pagans, but also among the religious people. Nothing enraged God more than idolatry. But also, nothing enraged the idolaters more than when their treasured idols were threatened.

It is no different today. We too are made from the same stuff - the bent to worship idols. And we have a lot more potential idols than ever existed in the Bible days. We have modern conveniences, countless choices, opportunities, things, people, status, religion, and institutions, to name a few of the many things that we cling to for our sense of security and significance.

There is one idol that has been around since the beginning. I suspect that it is our most sacred idol. No one ever talks about it. It is very difficult to detect, for it cannot be seen, heard, or felt. It lurks quietly in the recesses of our minds. Few know that it exists. However, when this cherished idol is threatened, there is often a sharp defensive reaction from its worshipper.

You are now wondering, What is this idol?

A statement I once heard from a marriage therapist gives us a clue. He said, “I could help couples progress better if they each would let go of their need to be right.”

Aha! There it is! The need to be right! That is the culprit – the demon idol that lurks in our subconsciouses.

Of course we don’t view our need to be right as an idol. Yet we carefully pattern our lives in such a way that it is not threatened. We imply in one way or another: “Don’t you dare tell me I’m wrong or need to change my thinking.” …”I will tell you how right I am.”…. “ In fact, I will quickly correct you.”

And so, in order to protect our beloved idol, we control conversations; and we control our family, friends, and subordinates. We live our lives with an evangelistic fervor to defend this sacred idol – our need to be right.

Sadly, our need to be right keeps us locked up. It keeps us from learning new insights about life, and about God. It keeps us from understanding others and valuing their insights. It keeps us from admitting our spiritual poverty – and thus, our need for each other and for God. It keeps us from seeking God for wisdom and truth.

We must surrender our sacred idol and become poor – poor in mind, and poor in spirit. This is a humble path to take. However, only then can we be filled with wonderful new treasures from above – God’s Spirit and truth.

by DE

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"Someone who is filled with ideas, concepts, opinions, and convictions cannot be a good host. There is no inner space to listen, no openness to discover the gift of the other. It is not difficult to se how those "who know it all" can kill a conversation and prevent an interchange of ideas. Poverty of mind as a spiritual attitude is a growing willingness to recognize the incomprehensibility of the mystery of life. The more mature we become the more we will be able to give up our inclination to grasp, catch, and comprehend the fullness of life and the more we will be ready to let life (God) enter into us."

from Reaching Out by Henri Nouwen pg 103

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I suppose the word we are looking for is pride.

Pride comes in all forms, and in all people, whether saved or not.

It is an idol we will fight our entire lives.

Proverbs 16v18 tells us that pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Pride will destroy some people, either that or get rid of it.

Also, as an aside, have you looked into the person of Henri Nouwen and the books he has written?

Even if the quote is ok, check the source.

person of Henri Nouwen

Please, please, please, please may this thread not turn into an attack on yet another "suspect". (In fact, I considered taking the name out, aware of that propensity around here. But I left it in, in the hopes that we can move beyond a man, and allow this message to speak to our own hearts)

The words that I quoted are to be read in the context of MY message. Could we leave it there?

Please! Please! Please!

"Great minds discuss ideas.
Average minds discuss events.
Small minds discuss people."

Diane

Pr 18:13 He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.

Pr 26:12 Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.

Pr 29:20 Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him.

Ro 12:16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.

Just a few scripture to go along in this thread.

We have more than afew idols in America. wheree do I begin? We have Moloch, the Canaanite diety on our one dollar bill (little owl top right corner....sittin there perched on the frame of the "1" The diety was condemned as they had a nasty habit of sacricing their own children.
There' a 45 ft one in California where the leaders of the world(males only)celebrate the cremation of Care ?? during the summer Solstice. rumors suggest the mock sacrifices carried out therecould of at times been real?!

The Washinton monument is a phalnx (represents the penis)and matches the one in st. Peters square.

Look whos on top of our capitol building, the Statue of Liberty? Folks there is NO freedom. You are all property of the one in the seventh heaven. Do I need to go on?...

A response from elsewhere:

I have found that the only way I could get to the place where I recognized my own inability to be right, is to allow God by His Holy Spirit to bring me to my knees. This was for me a very difficult and trying process. What I have learned however, is that if I am real with God, He will continue to bring me to my knees in more and more areas of my life.

Then, one day, the realization set in that I was allowed to be wrong and still loved by my heavenly Father. You see, prior to this, I couldn’t even hear His voice, so I didn’t know that I no longer had to maintain some form of a façade; now I no longer have to pretend. Now I know that he loves me even when I don’t measure up, because my Savior does! Praise God for His faithfulness and His love, if we could only persist and continue to allow Him to humble us.

God bless you,

It seems to me, OUR most sacred idol is our view of God.

Oh Father, forgive us for mixing in our imaginations and distortions of your character into who we say You are. Come in revival and set us straight that we might know, worship and serve [b]You only[/b].

Another response from elsewhere:
What (…) an eye opener! I guessed the idol was my ego, which I guess is similar to my rightness. You are so right that when we think we are right that our revelation even of God is the right one, we really do close ourselves to our dear Lord, who wants nothing better than to fill His children with truth, to flood the eyes of our heart to know Him better.

I always wondered what poor in spirit meant, now I understand it better, humbling ourselves before God and before one another. Jesus sure lived that didn't He, a servant's heart in everything He did. I am going to look up Blessed are the poor in spirit (...)

JoanM wrote:
It seems to me, OUR most sacred idol is our view of God.

You are right on sister and praise God for His revelation of this!

Oh how true and sad this testimony has become to so many.

Many are worshipping their view of God and not in Spirit and Truth.

They have made their god to be their own imagination in how they would like Him to be instead of seeing Him in the revelation of God revealing Himself to them in the Holy Word.

Roadsign: Awesome question. Right up there with Jesus’ question, [i]“Who do you say that I am?”[/i].

Rbanks: Yes.

Look at these two words: imaginations--- reality. How they oppose (war against) one another.

Look who Jesus said He was: I am the Truth. Reality not imagination.

Look at this: [i]Casting down [b]imaginations[/b], and every high thing that exalteth itself [b]against the knowledge of God[/b], and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;[/i] (2cor 10:5)

Imaginations keep us from the knowledge of God. Even when we pursuit the God of the Bible.

[u]Paul put me on to this revelation[/u]. His imaginations about who God was (before Christ) led him to kill (and has led many down through the ages). His awesome encounter with the [u]reality of Truth[/u] ended all his imaginations of God and years of effort after his imagination of God. Everything given up,[i] “That I may [u][b]know him[/u][/b], and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;[/i] (Phil 3:10)

With many on this site, and many that do not even know of SI, I am pleading for real biblical revival because when God comes, in manifest reality, imaginations and distortion of who He is, are wiped away. There is an awesome, historical account of the reality of such a thing on this web site. If you have not seen this, you can. Just go to www.youtube.com . In the search box (on YouTube) type in: Peckham sermonindex. That should bring up all seven videos. The people living here were like you and I, like our neighbors, saved and unsaved. Some are still alive.

I know you know all this, but Truly, we believers need this. That is why I said [i]Come in revival and set us straight that we might know, worship and serve [b]You only[/b][/i]. “Know, worship, and serve” comes straight from Jesus’ response to Satan’s temptation to worship NOT GOD. With victories over the flesh and sin nature (Pride of Life) I do not want to fall to the third wave of Satan’s attack. ([i]Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.[/i]Mat.4:10 )

When I think of all the different imaginations in the world (small, like this job will change things for me and large, like evolution), I am staggered. It is revival or ruin like someone said. When I think that imaginations are LIES we believe and that Satin is the father of them, I am at war. [b][u]In revival, when God comes, there is no discussion about who is right (in the grocery store, in the therapist’s office, in the Governor’s office, in the Church ...)[/u][/b]. Brought to our knees, humbled by God, not man, before all. Revival (filled with [i]the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:[/i] Eph 1: 17)!

Best I stop. I thank God for His Word and His indwelling Holy Spirit, and a place where we can discuss such things. [b]Really, the videos say it all.[/b]

This final response may be more in-depth than normal, but I trust that you will appreciate this man’s ability to grasp the forces that underlie our “need to be right”.

A psychologist may argue with my definitions or claim they are too simplified, but that's okay. As far as I can ascertain, pride and ego are our two primary defenses against the outside world. My ego's job is to convince you, despite all evidence to the contrary, that I'm okay. Its tools are subtle and may take the forms of distraction or camouflage. For example, if my ego walks into the room before I get there, dancing and singing and flashing bright coloured lights, you may never get to see the real me underneath. That distraction is required because if you penetrate my disguise and you don't like what you see underneath, then what do I do? Alternately, my ego may cause me to be very, very quiet. Again, if I hide in the bushes at the periphery of events and I'm very careful, then once again, you'll have missed seeing the real me. Or my ego may erect a front not dissimilar to the Wizard of Oz (another idol) and set it loose to represent me in the outside world.

Pride is a whole different kettle of fish. If through some misstep on my part or exceptional cleverness on yours you manage to penetrate my ego, you'll meet the next line of defence - pride. My pride's sole purpose is, once again despite all evidence to the contrary, to convince me that I'm okay and it will join battle with all comers. It rejects all suggestions of positive changes in actions, behaviour, and thought because that would require admission that in some senses, I'm not okay -- a proposition that is simply too scary to contemplate. Pride's weapons against me are embarrassment, shame, humiliation, regret, sorrow, angst and, the biggest of them all, a closed mind. Its primary weapons against outsiders are anger, rage, jealousy, envy and the ilk.

When my ego and my pride are intact and operating at full steam, I'm unapproachable. You may make any suggestions you like about positive changes I could make in my life to make it better and I won't hear your suggestions as anything other than as an attack.
And the saddest part of all is that part of me may be perfectly aware that you're trying to help, yet be powerless to act. The internal dialogue may go something like this: "Change? Change what! Do you think I like the way I am any better than you do? Don't you think if I knew what to change - and how to change it - that I'd do it in a second?" The rest is an incoherent howl. (…)
The observer may wonder how someone gets from one state - hopelessly hostage to ego and pride - to another. (…)

I have cut the article at this point – leaving room for you to ponder. Does this remind you of the Garden of Eden – the original sin? How does this relate to Christ’s work of redemption?

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And now, I must do what I would prefer not, and that is to say, “Good Bye”. In the three years on SI I have enjoyed much wonderful fellowship, met many people coming and going, and, as you see, created many posts. It was all worth it! Some of my most treasured moments of fellowship have occurred through PM’s.

Perhaps I will come back some day, but for now, the Lord is calling me to focus on other areas of my life.

May God’s grace be with you all,

Diane