Friday, July 15, 2011

THE LOSER IN US CALLED IDOL-WORSHIPER





God says in Exodus 20:3: “You shall not bow down to idols or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” Jealous does not imply that God gets insecure or envious of gods. God forbids idolatry (actually God hates it, to Him it is an abomination) because He is zealous for our well-being.  
God forbids idolatry of graven images because it is an exercise in futility.
3 For the customs of the people are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. 4 They adorn it with silver and gold. They fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. 5 Like scarecrows in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm, nor can they do any good. JEREMIAH 10
6 They bow down and worship it. 7 They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save him from his troubles. ISAIAH 46 
19 Woe to him who says to wood “Come to life!” or to lifeless stone “Wake up!” Can it give guidance? …There is no breath in it. HABAKKUK 2
14 Those who make idols are disillusioned, because the gods they make are false and lifeless. 15 They are worthless and should be despised; they will be destroyed when the Lord comes to deal with them. JEREMIAH 10 tev
16 [But God] who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these [gods], for He is the Maker of all things, including Isra’el, the tribe of His inheritance—[Adonai-Tzava’ot] is His name… 12 God made the earth by His power, founded the world by His wisdom, stretched out the heavens by His understanding. JEREMIAH 10
God forbids idolatry of graven images because it is dishonest.
20 Can people make their own God? No, if they did, it would not really be God. JEREMIAH 16 tev
The creation capable of creating another Creator or one that can outdo the Creator? That of course is an impossibility and a false teaching.
Idolmakers portray God in three-dimensional human forms. That is dishonesty. Some idolmakers portray God in animal forms. That is dishonesty made even worse.
21 God is spirit. JOHN 4
39 A [spirit] has no flesh and bones. LUKE 24
Idolmakers act as if they had seen God and they are making a representation of what they had seen. That is dishonesty. The fact that the “gods” they portray have different faces is enough proof that they had not seen God.
31 No one has seen Him, no one can describe Him. SIRACH 43
15 [Moses said to the Israelites] You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore, watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. DEUTERONOMY 4
The popular belief is that the prophet Moses had seen God. It is a false belief. He saw “the form of God” but not the face of God (Numbers 12:8).
19 [God said to him,] I will cause all My goodness to pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce the name of Adonai. 20 But My face you cannot see, because a human being cannot look at Me and remain alive. 23 …You will see My back, but My face is not to be seen. EXODUS 33 cjb
46 No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father. JOHN 6
The question now is, if nobody has seen the face of God, to whom belongs the face in the idols? And if the face does not belong to God, why do people look at it while praying?
Idolmakers portray gods and goddesses as God. They portray dragons, snakes, crocodiles and cows as God. They portray God as half-man, half-animal. They portray Confucius and Buddha as God. They are making us believe in polytheism, that there is more than one God. That of course is a false teaching. There is only one God.
Idolatry makes us believe that behind the graven images are godly spirits that hear petitions and grant them. That of course is another false teaching.
14 They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs. REVELATION 16
Lucifer even goes to the extent of making us believe that the Spirit of God is hearing the petitions and granting them. That is not true. The truth is, we are being manipulated to become devil-dependent.
9 The work of Lucifer is displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. 2 THESSALONIANS 2
God is permitting the delusion to test us.
3 The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the Lord your God you must follow, and Him you must revere. Keep His commandments and obey Him. Serve Him, and hold fast to Him. DEUTERONOMY 13
Where the idols are, that’s where to find God—this is another false teaching. Don’t buy it. Idols are an abomination to God. It is most unlikely that God will stay in idol-hosting places.
Also, don’t believe that God can be worshiped “only” at idol-hosting chapels and church houses. God is omnipresent. He can be worshiped wherever we are. Chapels and church houses are not really a requirement for worship.
Lucifer is making us look for God outside of ourselves, not within us. Don’t do that. Our spirits are our synagogues. It is where God hopes to dwell. He is waiting for us to sweep it and elevate it into a “temple” worthy of the King of kings. He is waiting for us to welcome Him into it—for us to be reunited with Him and be in constant communion and fellowship with Him. This is the kind of worship God seeks.
21 Y’shua declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this [Samaritan] mountain nor in Jerusalem. 23 …a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. JOHN 4
God forbids idolatry of graven images because it hampers our blessings. It prevents us from enjoying His LOVE.
15 Cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an idol—a thing detestable [repulsive, loathsome] to the Lord, the work of the craftsman’s hand—and sets it up secretly [to worship it]. DEUTERONOMY 27
Why is our nation going through a lot of poverty, reversals and pain?
Because the nation is cursed! God blesses everybody but the cursed is blessed less and made to suffer more.
Why is the nation cursed?
Because God has spoken against idolatry and yet religious images not of God continue to adorn our homes, workplaces, schools, churches, stores, hospitals and government offices. People are enticed to light candles to them and offer flowers and garlands to them. People make the sign of the cross and bow before them. People embrace them, wipe them with their handkerchiefs, make supplications to them, and shed tears before them.
Our people are pursuing an ungodly tradition blindly, without question. Lucifer loves it!
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. ROMANS 1
An estimated 1.3 million devotees joined in the Jan. 9, 2008-procession of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila. Did it please God? If yes, why is it that two people died and 46 were wounded during the procession? The following year, in another procession, the life-size icon of the Virgin Mary tumbled and fell on a young girl in Tondo, Manila. The girl died. Her mother was seen on TV asking why the tragic accident should happen to them. In 2010, two male devotees died and 400 people were injured at the Black Nazarene-procession in Quiapo.
The sooner we get the message, the better for the nation. God is not pleased with the idolatry. It does not benefit us to stay under the curse. This explains why the destruction of graven images and the churches that shelter them has been decreed (Numbers 33:52).
10 If you keep My commands, you shall abide in My love. JOHN 15
God’s True Form
Idolatry of graven images projects a distorted notion of God. Let us have a clear idea of how God really looks like:
§  The vision of the prophet Ezekiel
26 Above the expanse over [the heads of the four living creatures] was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. 27 I saw that from what appeared to be His waist up He looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there [what appeared to be His waist] down He looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded Him. 28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around Him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. EZEKIEL 1
§  The vision at the Exodus
9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Isra’el went up 10 and saw the God of Isra’el. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself… 17 To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. EXODUS 24
21 By day the Lord went ahead of the Israelites in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light; so they could travel by day or night. EXODUS 13
§  The vision of the apostle John who had an out-of-body experience and met with God in His heavenly kingdom.
13 ...and among the lampstands was someone like a Son of Man, dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet, and with a golden sash around His chest. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. REVELATION 1
More or less this is the picture: God is a spirit with a form like that of a man. The form has no tangible body. In lieu of a physical body is an intangible body “full of fire” (Ezekiel 1:27, Exodus 24:19). The fire is not of color yellow or blue but white. The body emits an aura of light whose radiance contains “all the colors of the rainbow” (Ezekiel 1:28).
The prophet Daniel, who had a vision of God, described God’s clothing “as white as snow; the hair of His head was white like wool” (Daniel 7:9). A river of fire pours out, flowing from His presence (Daniel 7:10 nlt).
5 God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. 1 JOHN 1
2 He wraps Himself in light as with a garment. PSALM 104 
11 The Lord God is a sun. PSALM 84
19 The eyes of the Lord are 10,000 times brighter than the sun. ECCLESIASTICUS 23
17 God [is the] Creator of all light, and He shines forever without change or shadow. JAMES 1 tlb
God has a throne of sapphire (Ezekiel 1:26). It sits on a “pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself” (Exodus 24:9). A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne (Revelation 4:3). God and His throne and the pavement of sapphire all seem to be carried by a fog or cloud. 
9 The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud.” EXODUS 19
Scripture’s depiction of God is no different to what the apostles saw of Y’shua at the transfiguration. His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white as the light (Matthew 17:2)—bright as a flash of lightning (Luke 9:29).
“I am the Light” said Y’shua in John 9:5. Saul of Tarsus had a glimpse of the light and it made him blind (Acts 9:9).
16 (God) lives in an unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. 1 TIMOTHY 6
What are we saying all along? We are saying the likeness of God as biblically described does not resemble the idols being peddled to man.





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