American Idols

“Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23

Jesus knew it is in the heart—in the core of our souls—where we determine what we’re about. That’s where we set our values and priorities. That’s where we determine what we love and what defines us.

One problem: the human heart is easily deceived and very often self-centered.
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and wicked beyond cure. Who can know it?”
It’s one of the things that unites humanity—across miles, continents, and time zones. Across decades, centuries, and millennia even!

The human heart can be easily deceived and can be selfish to the extreme.
Think about it: What child had to be taught to be selfish? Have parents ever had to teach their kids to demand their own way? Have we ever had to teach them to think of themselves first?
No! Every child has this nature within themselves and will resort to it if allowed.
In other words, every child—every person—has selfish impulses within.
Unless some other source comes on us to change that situation, we will exhibit the thoughts and behaviors that make us (from God’s perspective) “unclean” (to use Jesus’s word).

So what’s this have to do with “idolatry”?
Simply this: if we are not careful, and if we don’t have the spiritual input necessary to change our hearts, we will be prone to idolatry.
How does that show itself?
An excellent question, and one I hope to help answer in this book.

The truth is, as John Calvin said, “Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.”
If we understand the Lord’s character—His loving, wise, holy, gracious, and good character—we will begin to understand that He deserves our trust more than we do—and certainly more than our culture does!
If we start to trust Him, knowing that His teachings come from His love for us, we will then begin to understand that the decision to conform our will to His is a wise one. As the apostle Paul wrote,
“Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing, and perfect will!” (Romans 12:1–2)
As we learn to trust His will and follow it, we will find that it is for our good!

I invite you to come along and consider the many ways we—especially in America—have made, and even worshipped, idols--and how we can correct ourselves!

I can almost guarantee you that some of the things I write will bother you. Some may even offend you. I don’t take that lightly. Believe me! However, I firmly believe, and I believe that the scriptures teach, that we when we are forced to confront ways that we have not lived according to His Word, and when we come to see beliefs and opinions that we’ve held that do not line up with His Word, then the best thing we can do—the only real option for Christ followers—is to repent and correct our thinking. This leads to the possibility of experiencing the reality of His “good, pleasing, and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).