Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - Candidates and Slogans

"You shall have no other gods before Me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above 

or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 

You shall not bow down to them or worship them;"

Exodus 20:3-5 

    Something inside me felt sick when I first heard the title for the television show "American Idol," but at least the creators and producers were honest.  Americans love to put other human beings on pedestals, especially when they're beautiful, talented, shiny people, but as a friend of mine said, "God won't stand for it."
     Idolatry rears its ugly head in every arena, but sometimes the church proves to be the most fertile ground for the particular idolatry of humanism.  Humanism leads us to elect candidates and slogans to follow instead of learning to personally trust God Almighty.  

     "Give me a spiritual leader who spoon feeds me what tastes good" and 'wherever he leads, I'll go,'" says the lazy churchmember.

     "'I Surrender All' to someone who's talented, charismatic, and speaks enough spiritual jargon to satisfy my ears and make me feel good," calls out the emotional churchgoer.

     "Just get to the point, keep it short, and get me out on time," votes the busy church attender.

     We break the first two commandments and sacrifice our personal relationships with God when we focus on human leaders. And, being human, they will falter or fail miserably from the pressure we put on them to stay on that pedestal. 
     Many of us have learned the hard way not to bow before another person or to let another human overly influence our lives. Does that mean we've escaped humanism? Heavens, no! Satan simply places a new candidate with new slogans on the platform. 
     "If you want something done right, do it yourself."  

     "People will let you down; you're the only one you can depend on."  

We vote for self-reliance and ultimately, when we get something right or someone praises us, we tip on over into self-worship and there's still a human being on the pedestal.


     But wait, there's more: humanism offers more than human beings as gods. We've developed slogans and goals we'd hate to leave behind: "Quality; Excellence; No glitches; Well-oiled machines."  Odd slogans for people who've studied how God used Moses, the temperamental stutterer; Abraham, the self-preserving truth-bender; David, who would've been executed for his crimes if not for that crown on his head; Elijah, the depressed who should've been most impressed by God's Power; Peter, the big mouth; and Paul, the avenger God had to blind to show the Truth. "Quality; Excellence; No glitches; Well-oiled machines:" strange beliefs for the church that began as eleven men who scattered at the first sign of trouble. Amazingly, God still insists on shining His glory and perfection through cracked pots.


And let's not forget the tools of worship: music; sermons; devotional Books; Bible study classes; tradition(s); a pet theological point; a particular ministry; or, satisfying our appetites for something new and exciting among many others.  If any one of these tools becomes "necessary" to our worship experience or more important than communicating with our Father; if we  "can't worship" due to setting, sound, the soloist, or the  hypocrite sitting nearby, then we've placed something or someone else on the pedestal and, friends, God won't stand for it because none of them are Him. 


Father, help us honestly recognize and confess where humanism and idolatry have pushed You off the pedestal in our churches, off the thrones in our hearts. We've allowed this idolatry to cripple Your church. We confess that we're spoiled and selfish and like things our way. We're lazy and would rather have someone do for us than stretch out our hands to grasp Yours or kneel to beg You to show us Your way. Take away our desire to be "wowed" by anyone other than You: show us Your Glory so we never stop short again. Remove all idols from Your people and Your church and may our eyes, our hearts, our devotion stay riveted to You.
In the Name of Jesus Who said, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:23-24)