Jerusalem, once so full of people, is now deserted. She who was once great among the nations now sits alone like a widow. Once the queen of all the earth, she is now a slave. She sobs through the night; tears stream down her cheeks. Among all her lovers, there is no one left to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her and become her enemies. [Lamentations 1.1-2]
It was a great service!
We enjoyed a Celebrate Recovery takeover at our church yesterday. There were testimonies from people whose lives had been devastated by 'hurts, hang-ups and habits." Their stories revealed just how desperate and removed from good decision-making people can become. For most of them, the very things they pursued (usually sex, alcohol and drugs) became a fast-track to their downfall. These "friends" and "lovers" became their enemies leaving them broken and alone.
For all those who testified in the abovementioned church service, they found genuine forgiveness and redemption in Jesus Christ.
The "friends" and "lovers" that lured these people into destruction are the same "friends" and "lovers" Jeremiah writes about in Lamentations 1.1-2. They are idols that make grandiose promises of better life only to deliver loss and suffering instead.
While there were many who shed a tear in the church service yesterday, others perhaps listened to the testimonies in bewilderment (albeit broken-hearted) how the testifiers were so easily misled. And then, today, something is alarmingly clear...
Just because some "indiscretions" yield quicker results than others does not mean that all indiscretions don't yield suffering and loss. The idols of sex, alcohol and drugs effectively bring sudden destruction (as a lifetime goes), but the idols of man's device - debt, insurance, medicine and technology - may go undetected for an entire lifetime only for their adultery to be revealed too late (after death) when all shall give account to God for single-minded faith or lack thereof.
Is it any wonder the outcasts of society were those who most appreciated Jesus? In contrast, those who had learned to play the game of man's systems (including religion) found Jesus unnecessary. The same is true today. It's all too easy for a person who is not on the fast-track to destruction to say of society's outcasts, "Bless their hearts - they just made poor decisions..." while they themselves are on an infinitely more deadly, undetected slow-track of mixed religion (some God, some idols). God will not tolerate divided loyalty.
You must not have any other god but me. [Exodus 20.3, author's underscore]
The trust modern society has placed in debt, insurance, medicine and technology IS that deadly, undetected slow-track of mixed faith, some in God and some in idols, that infuriates our Jealous God. Religious "mixed faith-er's" say, "Bless their hearts" about the fast-track stumblers' splinters in their eyes, with no recognition whatsoever of the logs in their own slow-track eyes.
What's worse is the justification found in the slow-track mixed faith approach: the preservation and betterment of life. The justification for debt, insurance, medicine and technology is self-centered at best. While the fast-track folks obviously throw all caution to the wind regarding their lives in their pursuit of idols, the slow-track folks preserve earthly life at the expense of eternal life (the reward for undivided faith in Christ alone).
To say, "God uses debt, insurance, medicine and technology," to make life better is no different than saying, "God uses illicit sex, alcohol and mind-altering drugs," to make life better. The goal either way is better life and the idol providing it is something other than, or in addition to, God. The only difference is the time it takes for the unsubstantiated promises of these idols to manifest.
The remedy for both fast-track and slow-track destruction is undivided selfless faith. Jesus said it like this:
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. [Luke 9.23]
Let it not be misunderstood: the cross is an instrument of death: certainly not for preservation or betterment of earthly life! The faith required to take up one's cross is necessarily undiluted and undivided! This faith that Jesus called us to is not only fearless of death, but it selflessly embraces death to find true life. ANYTHING that lures us with promises to preserve and better earthly life should be suspect as a damning idol.
So what started here as, 'It was a great service yesterday," should now indict us to say, "Damn our deception!" We should add to our, "Bless their hearts..." the heartfelt cry, "Save our souls!" Israel's history of trusting idols (many times in conjunction with their faith in God) serves to warn us of impure, diluted faith today - the end of which is always destruction and separation from God.
Father, may these words help us all to recognize the error of our pious, religious, diluted faith. May we engage in pure repentance and rid ourselves of all idols trusting in Jesus Christ alone as You have prescribed.
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