Generational Idolatry
During Bible Study we were discussing the first commandment and about generational idolatry. A few examples:
A woman gets engaged and one of the first questions we ask is, “how big is the ring?”
A pastor plants a church and one of the first questions we ask is, “how large is the group?”
You meet someone for the first time and you ask them, “So what do you do?”
Someone wants to set you up on a date and you ask them, “So what do they look like?”
Lord save me from middle-class comfort Christianity. How subverted our values have become. Our version of success has become a growing career, a home with a mortage, cute well-dressed children, a SUV, and weekend church invovement. Success according to the Sermon on the Mount means humility, mourning, meekness, hunger, mercy, purity, peace and persecution.
Sometimes I want to live so radically but I realize I am just the same. My idols are much more refined. Pastors idolize other pastors, buildings, and ministries. Generational idolatry is so impossible to break. It requires a counter-culture: A group of people who pray, who call each other out, who challenge each other to live in light of the radical imperative to be disciples of Christ.
Lord save me from:
Comfort Christianity, Culture Christianity, Complacent Christianity
Our version of Christianity is the American Dream plus going to church. Where are the upside-down values of those who live according to the Kingdom of God? Are we living in the time of Judges or Acts?
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