Graven Images or Symbols of Faith?

Yesterday at work, we were saying good-bye to a student in our program who was moving to another state. During our conversations with her, the topic of idol worship came up. This student was a former Catholic and she was commenting on a cross necklace that another person was wearing. The student put forth the opinion that wearing the cross necklace was a form of idol worship. She said that the Catholics worship the statues and images of Mary (earthly mother of Jesus), the Apostles and their own saints, rather than worship God directly. She felt that wearing a cross necklace was similar in that people who wear the cross are putting their faith in the image of the cross, rather than Jesus himself. Interesting argument! She said that God himself commanded us in the Ten Commandments that we should make and worship no graven images of other gods and worship Him alone. She felt the image of the cross was an image that Christians were worshiping.

A colleague of mine, who was a Christian told the student that the cross was just a symbol of faith rather than an image that she worshipped. She said the cross necklace reminded her of who was she was serving, Jesus. She said she did not pray to the necklace or worship the cross itself, it was just a reminder of her faith. She went on to say that the statues and images used in the Catholic Churches would be OK, as long as the members of the Church did not worship the statues. As long as the images are reminders of who they serve, which should be God or Jesus.

My opinions, were kept silent (a miracle itself), until now. Here are my thoughts: 1) God did give the commands stated by the student, "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; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God." (Exodus 20:3-4) 2) The image of the cross necklace is not a idol, or at least it's not supposed to be. The cross is a symbol of Christians representing the life sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for the forgiveness of all sinners. It is a reminder of the promise of eternal life we shall one day have. I guess if Christians use the cross in a way that makes it more than what it is, then it could be considered an idol of sorts. For example: Using a cross or cross symbol to scare away vampires or evil spirits. The cross itself has no holy power over evil, it was the person on the cross, Jesus, whom "God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name." (Philippians 2:3) The cross cannot save us from our sins, only Jesus can. 3) I don't think Catholics intentionally worship the images of saints or the Apostles. I do think they misdirect their prayers through the saints, or special priests, bishops, or others. Christians are told to pray to God through His Son Jesus, with a Holy Spirit who intercedes for us. I do believe Catholics do worship Mary (the mother of Jesus), even though the Bible never tells us to directly do so. If in fact Catholics are praying to these images or in the name of these images, then they are in fact engaging in a form of worship to them. This would not be in keeping with the first two commandments of the Ten Commandments. Jesus very clearly said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

We cannot get to God through the Pope, Mary, the Apostles, the saints, a good preacher, your "inner light", good works or deeds, or any other false prophet such as Mohammad, Buddha, or Joseph Smith. Only the Bible, the Word of God, can give us true guidance to God; not the Kabbalah, the Qu'ran (Koran), The Vedas, The Book of Mormon, Naturalism or the Four Noble Truths. There is only ONE true God...to believe in anything or anyone else is wrong. This is absolute and cannot be changed. See my earlier blog By Who's Authority?.

My response to the student would have been have follows, "If you feel that wearing the cross is in violation of the 10 Commandments, then by all means do not wear a cross, for this hinders your personal worship of God. But do not condemn those who wear the cross as a reminder of Him who died upon that cross. I do not believe they are worshipping the cross, just looking at it as a reminder of whom they serve."

Oliver

Let me introduce you to Oliver. Oliver is the nickname I have given to my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). OCD manifest itself in many ways. Some people with severe forms of the disorder would remind you of Monk, which is one my favorite TV shows. Others compulsively wash their hands, check locked doors, turn on and off lights or count things over and over again. Lucky for me my OCD is not quite so bad; but Oliver does interfere with my life in negative ways.

Oliver is responsible for my creating lists. I make lists of almost everything. When I get nervous or bored, I make a list of the Presidents or the States. I make to-d0 lists of chores for me, or what I think the family needs to do. I have a list of my 100 favorite movies and my 25 dumbest movies. Now, these list by themselves are not so bad, but every time I watch a movie or think of something I have to do, I must list it. I must write it down or I verbally "list" on my wife, what I need to do. She hates that. I constantly "list" on my kids about what to do next or I repeat my schedule to them 5-6 times daily. When we go on trips, I must follow the directions exactly or follow the schedule as close as possible. This is just part of Oliver's obsessive behavior.

Oliver's compulsiveness shows when I see a commercial for a show I want to watch. I must schedule the show on our DVR, "RIGHT NOW!" I can't wait. I have to do it now. If I find something in a store I want to buy, I want to buy it "RIGHT NOW!" If I don't buy it, Oliver will obsess about it, for me, reminding me, I have to buy it. If I see a cup or a plate left out from a meal or a box of cookies sitting on a side table, I can not rest until I put them away. I used to pay bills, the day they arrived in the mail. I could not wait until pay day, they had to be paid NOW! Thank God, I don't do that anymore. If I think of something I want to write on this blog, I want to do it as quickly as possible. Everything has to be right NOW!

Although not life threatening, Oliver does cause problems. I am irritable easily as I battle him for control of my life and my family. I have trouble staying focused and I tend to take out my anger at Oliver on my family and friends. Not Good!

I am very glad to be in battle with Oliver. I am attempting to limit his control over my life. I am working a Twelve Step program, similar to what Addicts work to stop drug or alcohol abuse. So far I have seen improvement, but Oliver is still there. For those who have their own "Oliver", there is hope for you. Maybe one day I can stop Oliver once and for all, but for now, it's MY God verses Oliver, and we know who is going to win!

By Who's Authority?

Last night I watched a great movie called Time Changer. It was about a Bible professor from the 1890's who was about to publish a thesis on how to preach morals and ethics to the world, but without using the name of Jesus, or God, to give authority to them. He contended that many people of the world may be "put off" from accepting the Gospel because they hear the name of Jesus. They may have had a "bad experience" with a church or a not-so-moral Christian, that by hearing the name of Jesus may be offensive to them and thus automatically close their ears to hearing the truth about morality and ethics. Lucky for this professor, he had a colleague who disagreed with him.

The colleague contended, that without the divine authority of Jesus, who is God, teaching morals and ethics becomes relative to the individual, rather than the absolute Truth that it is. Without the authority of Jesus to answer the question of, "Who says it's wrong to do _____________?", the answer will become, "I say it's wrong." If I say something is wrong, then another person can say, "Well I don't think it is." Then who is correct in their beliefs? The colleague stated that Christians must be able to say, "________________ is wrong, because God/Jesus says it is wrong in His Word, the Bible."

This issue of acknowledging the authority of Jesus, is also addressed in a book called Right From Wrong, by Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler. In this book McDowell and Hostetler contend that the present generation of teenagers (and adults), "has lost its belief in objective right and wrong. To them, the truth is a matter of taste; morality of individual preference." Without the authority of Jesus to teach right from wrong, then Christian families loose the ability to pass on moral absolutes and core values to our children.

In his book A Man After God's Own Heart, Jim George presents a list of Ten Commandments for Child raising. The first two are: "Teach them, using God's Word and Tell them what's right and wrong." In order to teach them what is right from wrong, we must first teach them the absolute authority of the Word of God. Then we will be able to answer the question of, "Why is this wrong?", with the absolute truth of, "Because God says it is!" And if God says its wrong then that is good enough!

At the end of the movie, the professor changed his original premise of presenting morals to the world. He realized that without Jesus and His absolute truth, then morality is relevant and the authority of Jesus is put into question. Just what Satan has always wanted.

Where's George?

2 Years ago my wife discovered a fun web site called http://www.wheresgeorge.com/. It is a web site that is designed to track where your money has been. You enter the serial number and series number of any U.S. monetary bill; 1's, 2's, 5's 20's, 50's even 100's. You then enter the zip code where you are currently and release your bill back into circulation. Some people buy rubber stamps that have "Wheresgeorge.com" written on it and they stamp the bill before spending it again. This increases the chances that some one will re-enter the bill into the Where's George system. If some else does enter your bill into the system, you will get an e-mail telling you where your bill has gone to and how far it's traveled. If you enter a bill that once belonged to someone else, you will see where the bill has traveled before you "captured" it. They even have a note section, where you can tell something about the bill. Some just tell where they got the bill (Got it a Wal-Mart, or Got this bill as part of Birthday Gift, etc...) or something about the bill (Bill is torn on one corner, someone wrote something on the bill, or bill is crispy and new, etc...). It's a fun site that can get a little addicting. I was entering every bill I came across for a little while before I slowed down and started entering bills occasionally. But it is fun to get the occasional e-mail about someone finding one of your bills! Have fun!

Update: 3-9-2008 (as of today I have entered 1,547 bills with a monetary value of $13,114! When I first discovered this site my OCD and I had a blast...I had to work hard not to enter every bill that came across.

Feeling Small and A Little Scared

Today I started my new job! I am feeling a little overwhelmed from all the new information about my job duties and responsibilities. I am not sure where to find the resources I need to fulfill my job functions. AHHHHH! Don't run away, Don't run away. I know that God put me in this job for a reason and He will not fail to prepare me for what I need to do. I have been assured by my co-workers, and my wife, that it might take 3 months to feel "not so lost", and in about a year, I should feel comfortable with the job. The feelings I have right now remind me of a song I heard last night while watching an episode of Animaniacs with my family. The song is called "Yakko's Universe". Here are the lyrics:

Everybody lives on a street in a city

Or a village or a town for what it's worth.

And they're all inside a country which is part of a continent

That sits upon a planet known as Earth.

And the Earth is a ball full of oceans and some mountains

Which is out there spinning silently in space.

And living on that Earth are the plants and the animals

And also the entire human race.

It's a great big universe...And we're all really puny

We're just tiny little specks...About the size of Mickey Rooney.

It's big and black and inky...And we are small and dinky

It's a big universe and we're not.

And we're part of a vast interplanetary system

Stretching seven hundred billion miles long.

With nine planets and a sun; we think the Earth's the only one

That has life on it, although we could be wrong.

Across the interstellar voids are a billion asteroids

Including meteors and Halley's Comet too.

And there's over fifty moons floating out there like balloons

In a panoramic trillion-mile view.

And still it's all a speck amid a hundred billion stars

In a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

It's sixty thousand trillion miles from one end to the other

And still that's just a fraction of the way.

'Cause there's a hundred billion galaxies that stretch across the sky

Filled with constellations, planets, moons and stars.

And still the universe extends to a place that never ends

Which is maybe just inside a little jar!

It's a great big universe...And we're all really puny

We're just tiny little specks...About the size of Mickey Rooney.

Though we don't know how it got here...We're an important part here.

It's a big universe and it's ours!

It's funny sometimes how a kid's show can remind us big folks, just how small we are. We should never get "to big for our britches" and think we are more important than what we are. Although Yakko claims "we don't know how it got here" in the song, I know exactly where the Universe came from. It was created by GOD! And even though we are "about the size of Mickey Rooney" in comparison to the entire universe. God the Creator still cares for little old me. So don't be afraid to be afraid, and tell God that you are scared. He will comfort you. After all we are His children!

Learning How to Forgive

Many people are held up in their spiritual and relationship growth because they are still holding on to something from their past that they just can't seem to let go of. Someone has said something to them or hurt them in someway that caused pain and anger and although they have tried to forgive that person, they still hold on to bitter feelings, anger, and resentment. In the book Men Are Like Waffles and Women Are Like Spaghetti, there is a section about how to forgive and not let the past control your present life and relationship with your spouse and God. It gives you six statements or steps to follow to pattern your forgiveness in a practical way to help you work out the situation. They are:

1) I forgive (name of person) for (name of offense). This specifically names the offense and person who caused this offense so we can focus directly on that problem. Do not be vague about this.

2) I admit that what happened was wrong. It is not an admission of guilt for what we have done (unless we are trying to forgive ourselves), it is just an honest, non critical, confession that something wrong has happened. If nothing wrong has happened then there is nothing to forgive.

3) I do not expect (name the person) to make up for what he or she has done. A courageous statement of reality. No one can make up completely for the mistakes they have made. The pain will still be there. The memory will still linger. There is nothing you or the offender can do to "undo" it. You must forgive, offer repentance and try to start over.

4) I will use the offense to define who (name the person) is. When you define others by the things they have done wrong, it encourages a process of decay in your relationship with them. But if you define them as a person with a problem, or a person who has made a mistake, then you can define them as an "adopted child of God" who is in need of God's forgiveness. Rather than think negative about your offender, pray for them and turn them over to God.

5) I will not manipulate (name the person) with this offense. If you continue or try to emotionally blackmail the other person by bringing up the offense in an attempt to control their behavior, for positive, or negative, gain, then you are still letting the offense control your life. You are not fully enjoying the freedom of forgiveness and looking forward to the life ahead of you. Lucky for us Jesus does not constantly bring up our sins, He died for, to try to manipulate us.

6) I will not allow what has happened to stop my personal growth. This is very important. We too often allow the sinful offenses of others to dictate the course of our life. We become emotionally committed to behaviors that make us prone to depression, anger and resentment. Forgiveness allows us freedom to grow in our relationships. It releases the anchors that have been dragging us down. When we truly forgive we can love freely with nothing holding us back.

For more information go to: Farrel Communications and order a copy of the book.