In the beginning, a man and a woman were exiled from a garden because of their choices.
Approximately 2,500 years ago, a group of people were exiled from their homes because of their choices.
In Jeremiah 29, a letter is recorded that was sent from the One who knew their ending from the beginning, to the surviving exiles. He told them their fate, and He also gave them a special promise. That He would come to them and bring them back to the place they had been exiled from - in His time.
He also told them that while they were waiting to go home, they needed to make better choices in whom they trusted to represent Him and His words.
In many other passages He also commanded them not to replace Him as God, with idols that are anyone or anything.
2,000 years ago a perfect man made the choice to die a cruel death for me - for you - so that I wouldn't have to be permanently exiled from my true home. (spoiler alert: He came back to life!):)
44 years ago I was born with a choice whether or not to confess and believe Him as Lord and receive this gift of eternal life. *Romans 10:9, *John 3:16
On May 29th, 1984 I made that choice. (Which is, incidentally, my mom's birthday. She liked her birthday present. ;)) The most important decision a person will ever make. It determined my final home.
Since then, I've had 33, almost 34 years, of daily choices that affect my life and the lives of those around me. In good ways or bad.
I have wandered through America's marketplaces filled with idols, as they are part of living on planet earth. You cannot live on earth without walking through idol marketplaces. The enemy has them everywhere. As I've looked, some idols I have never picked up because one look at them and I was repulsed. Many times, I have picked up idols to see what they were all about. Some I have set right back down because they quickly disgusted me or hurt my hand, and I knew immediately I did not want to own them. Some I have held for a little while, rolling them around in my hand, seeing how they felt. But it didn't take long to realize they were harmful too because the more they rolled around, I felt the familiar splinters and razor sharp edges that reveal them for what they are - and I set them down quickly. And I head back home to my God because I want to honor Him and His command to keep Him as Lord of my life. Good choices.
And then there are the times I have gathered and received good gifts that come from my God who wants to bless me as His child. I have come home blessed with family, relationships, basic needs, and beautiful things. Good things that He wants me to enjoy and I'm so grateful for them. But, the next thing I know I have begun to carry them around too much.
I don't leave them in their proper place and I begin to make the choice that I can't live without them in my hand. And so I begin to carry them with me everywhere. I decide that it's ok to carry them everywhere because they are a gift from my God and He wants me to have them.
I carry them with me to the marketplace filled with idols. And as I'm wandering, I slowly notice that there are tables that actually offer what I'm holding in my hand. I wonder why I haven't noticed them before? These idols actually look far more pleasing than the ones I've walked away from before. They aren't as ugly, they aren't as harmful. Something tells me I need to stop looking and touching, but it is so beautiful and is an image of something good that my God has given me, and so I linger. And then I feel the draw to come back and look at them again the next day. I feel a caution, but I make the choice that it's not anything that's harmful.
And I come back the next day. And the next. I feel a caution, but I decide again it's just not that harmful. This time I don't go back home to my God. I decide it's ok to stay here for a night. And it's ok, because I have along the gift my God has given me and it will remind me of Him even though I'm not spending time with Him for a day and a night. I go home the next day and I do spend time with my God, but I find myself thinking about His gift while He's talking to me and not concentrating on what He's trying to tell me. I'm thinking so much about the gift that I make the choice to stay at the marketplace more than a day and a night when I go back the next time. I stay a week. I feel my God calling me back to Him during the week that I'm staying at the marketplace, and I miss Him, but I'm starting to make friends who share my love for the gift I keep bringing along with me when I come and I think surely He would be happy for me to be able to spend time with my gift and my new friends.
I make choices slowly, until one day I realize what I'm carrying in my hand everyday is no longer His gift, but it is now an ugly idol that I have crafted with the help of the world's marketplace holder, the enemy. I have wasted time and money and emotion. And I have set it as more important than my God on the throne of my heart. (If you want to read a good description of how an idol can deceive, read *Isaiah 44: 9-20)
Not good choices.
I come home, ashamed and embarrassed, to my God and He asks me, "Are you willing to lay down your gift and carry it around no longer? Set it aside until it no longer is ruling your life? Let me reshape it into a gift and not a consuming god?"
Like, last week He asked me.
I realized God was asking me to recognize that a good gift from Him was becoming dangerously close to becoming an idol in my life. For a time I tried to reason that it wasn't that bad. Bad choice. But I knew, deep down it was true. I also tried to convince myself for a little bit that I could discipline myself and do with less of it, which is usually a temptation for me as well when I sense He's asking me to give something up completely. Most of the time, when I feel God asking me to lay something down, if it's a material thing, He asks me to physically "fast" from it for awhile, not just do with less of it - for good reason. Something I don't buy, something I don't eat or drink, etc. People are obviously more difficult, especially if it is a family member that you live with. :) But, He has also been faithful in showing me how to bring people down to their proper place in my life as well. It's just in a different way.
I'm so thankful He's willing to stop us when we're headed down a path that leads to another god.
I said yes to Him.
Good choice.
As I was pondering and asking when He would like me to start, I felt the Holy Spirit open my eyes to Maundy Thursday. The day we use to commemorate the night before Jesus was crucified - when He told His disciples that He was going to die. The significance of destroying a gift that was becoming an idol and putting it to death on the same day that Jesus announced His, felt so right.
I don't tell people when I'm fasting normally. Whether it's from food or other. It's such a personal thing that I don't believe needs to be made known. Which is why I'm not sharing the what and how long. But, I have felt very strongly that I'm supposed to share this story from my life. I also know from experience that I don't feel good when I don't listen. And so I leave it here for Him to do with it what He wills.
I have the privilege of sitting at a table with some older ladies that I have come to love dearly at a Bible study I attend every week. A couple of months ago I asked them if it becomes easier to not be enticed by idols as one grows older (but young at heart);). I love to hear their insight and wisdom and personal experiences. My friend Pat said, "It doesn't really become easier, no. It's just that what tempts you changes.'
"Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart, oh take and seal it.
Seal it for Thy courts above."
We all feel it.
And so I run to Him. I tell Him my idols need to die. In honor of His death, I let Him reveal to me what they are and with His help I carry out their death sentence.
I bow down before Him because of the choice He made 2,000 years ago that made a way for me, for you, to be ready for Him when He comes for us - in His time. When He comes back to take us to be where He is.
Exiles no longer. Home.
I bow down before Him because I am humbled that He rose from the dead and He LIVES and He wants me to come and be with Him.
"Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked." *Psalm 84:10
The tents of the wicked. Those blasted idol marketplaces. :( I'm choosing to die to myself and leave them today.
The splendor of His majesty is beyond compare.
I so hope you'll choose to join me in His courts,
Jules
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