Tag: idols

Using God’s gifts to serve others, with Peter Johnson, Hershey, PA

But God gifts each of his children

Hosea 2:8 [The Lord said] It was I who gave her everything she has … But she gave all my gifts to Baal [an idol].

1 John 5:21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols [anything that might take God’s place in your hearts NLT].

The thing about the prophets is that they smack us right between the eyes. They have the courage (and often pay a high personal price) to confront us with our wrongdoing and to detail its consequences.

So the immediate question is, what are the gifts God has given me? And what have I done with them? And what are the name(s) of the idol(s) that tempt and seduce me into squandering those gifts and dishonor their Giver?

I won’t drag you through the sordid list of idols that the enemy uses to war against my soul. Instead, I want to give you a positive picture of a person who has overcome all kinds of obstacles because of his love for Jesus. He doesn’t bemoan what he doesn’t have. Instead, he uses what he does have, the gifts God has given him, not to serve himself but to serve others and to honor his Lord. Here’s one example from Christmas, when Rev. Peter Johnson stood outside for hours in winter weather night after night to listen to and pray for people. Pete describes it like this:

“A few weeks ago Hanoverdale Church hosted its annual Drive Thru Bethlehem. For several nights hundreds of cars drove through our church yard experiencing different stations of the Bethlehem Christmas story. From paying taxes to Caesar, to seeing the Christ child with his parents at the manger, to listening to the angel choir, and interacting with wisemen, shepherds, Roman soldiers and townspeople, the story of Christmas came alive.

The photos are dark because it was a dark night, but they give you an idea of Drive through Bethlehem.

“As pastor, I got the opportunity to pray for people in their cars at the last station before they left to continue their journey.

“Is it worth it to stand and interact with folks in the cold? Oh, yes!!! I met people who were asking for prayer last year and came back this year to tell how God answered those prayers. One couple asked that God might allow them to become pregnant and this year they introduced me to their baby. Another asked for comfort and healing for a sick loved one on hospice with cancer, and this year they wanted me to meet the one who did not die but was healed.

“After praying for hundreds of people over two weekends, who knows those whom God answered with a different answer. But I declare to you that God is still in the prayer answering business!!!

“If you live in central Pennsylvania and are looking for a place to worship, a place where the Bible will be studied and believed, give us a try. Hanoverdale Church, 577 Hershey Rd in Hummelstown, PA, 9:00 a.m.”

Rest

But God is full of compassion

Isaiah 44:6, 10 This is what the Lord says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: “I am the First and the Last; there is no other God. … Who but a fool would make his own god—an idol who cannot help him one bit?”

James 5:11 The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

On my trip home from Colombia, I read a book called And I His Servant by Dr. Dick Hillis, the founder of our mission organization, OC International. It’s a collection of his stories, many of them about his experiences in Asia beginning in 1933. (Dr. Hillis’s biography is also available, called Steel in His Soul.)

One chapter, “Sincerely Yours,” would fit neatly into Isaiah 44. Dr. Hillis describes the process of making a mud idol, then says this:

But before I made a further judgment about their sanity, I decided to ask why the people bowed before these idols. “Madam,” I said, “for the last ten minutes you have been on your knees bowing before this deity. Would you please tell me why?”

“Sir,” she replied. “My husband is out of work. My children are hungry. The landlord has threatened to throw us out. My burdens are heavy and I am asking for help.”

“And you, Sir,” I said. …

“We have seven children. The youngest is two weeks old. Her mother is very sick. The midwife can’t stop her bleeding. She has a fever and won’t eat and I am afraid for my children and their mother’s life.”

The answer to why people bow before gods who have eyes and cannot see and ears and cannot hear, is simple. They have burdens they cannot carry and fears they cannot quiet. They have never met the One who said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28-30).

It occurs to me today that perhaps we create idols—likely not made of wood or mud, but rather of other things that matter more to us than the Creator, Redeemer, and Lord of Heaven’s Armies—for the same reasons: burdens we cannot carry and fears we cannot quiet. We deny, numb, and distract ourselves with our choices of addictions and indulgences, but nothing is really solved or healed. We fight for our independence only to discover we’re not capable of managing life all by ourselves.

And the Lord says to us with compassion, “Come to Me. I will give you rest.”