{"id":44,"date":"2016-07-26T08:38:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T08:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecrimsonroad.wordpress.com\/?p=44"},"modified":"2018-06-24T13:15:09","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T13:15:09","slug":"the-realization-of-idolatry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/2016\/07\/26\/the-realization-of-idolatry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Realization of Idolatry"},"content":{"rendered":"

So there I was with my family listening to a message at home on a Sunday morning because church was closed for the day, the message was about idolatry and how if we are not worshiping Jesus we are worshiping something else, ALWAYS. We can say we don\u2019t worship anything but we might be worshiping success or money or anything really. We were made to worship God but if we don\u2019t, then we will be worshiping something else – no doubt about it. Then we discussed what type of idols we have in our lives. In my heart I knew I worshiped my sister, but I couldn\u2019t bring myself to admit it to someone else.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mom and Dad had tried to point out my idolatry before, but I never would admit it. But after this message, the Lord Jesus told me that I needed to admit my idolatry to Him and only after that I will be able to worship Him instead of an idol. But then a question came to mind: can we really be Christians if we have idols in our lives?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDad how can we be Christians if we still have idols in our lives?\u201d I asked him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that if we say we are Christians and still have idols in our life then we haven\u2019t fully surrendered to God.\u201d He said, \u201cOnce we surrender to Jesus, He will turn our focus to Him instead of other things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I was convicted, I knew that Jesus was telling me to surrender to Him. I wanted with all my heart to only worship Him so that night I sat on my bed and cried. I begged God to help me surrender to Him so I wouldn’t idolize my sister. When Jesus speaks to you there’s no turning back! <\/span><\/p>\n

I was exchanging all the glory and wonder of Jesus Christ for my idols. There is a Bible verse that says: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things…they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator!” (Romans 1:22-25)<\/span><\/p>\n

I was worshiping someone who couldn\u2019t come close to the glory of God the Father. So I surrendered to Jesus that night, He wouldn’t force me to change but He would help me change after I surrendered to Him. So I did.<\/span><\/p>\n

How about you, are you idolizing something or someone. Everyone idolizes something until they turn to God and surrender. Even after that there will be times you still fall, but God will always be there to pick you up.<\/span><\/p>\n

But one thing isn\u2019t clear, what is idolatry exactly? What does it mean to idolize something or someone? How do I know what idols I have in my life? And how do I stop worshiping these idols and start worshiping Jesus? Idolatry is when you are worshiping anything but the one true God and Savior. It could mean that you worship success or money or power. Anything you might put first instead of God is an idol. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you idolize something or someone in your life it means that you put them first instead of Jesus. For instance if you say that you don\u2019t have time to spend with God but you have enough time to watch a football game every evening, or if you go to work on Sundays instead of going to church. I could mean that you idolize those things. <\/span>You can\u2019t get rid of idols on your own, only Jesus can help you. But you have to completely surrender to Him before He can change you. Then He will change you from the inside out.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So there I was with my family listening to a message at home on a Sunday morning because church was closed for the day, the message was about idolatry and how if we are not worshiping Jesus we are worshiping something else, ALWAYS. We can say we don\u2019t worship anything but we might be worshiping… Continue reading The Realization of Idolatry<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god","category-idolatry","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1961,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/1961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}