[Thankful Jane]

Ex 20:2-6
I am the Lord thy God that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not maken unto thee any graven image nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them neither shalt thou serve them. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me and showing mercy unto the thousands of them that love me.

We are to have no other gods before Him. That includes our self. Coveting is just our self wanting something that we don't have (and someone else does.) Think Lucifer. At the root of every sin is coveting. (At the root of those who practice "deputy authority" is coveting to be someone and act in God's place).

If we are bowing down and serving something other than God alone because of the desires of our own deceitfully wicked heart, we are committing idolatry.

There is only one acceptable service and that is to present our bodies a living sacrifice to Him.

If we present ourselves a living sacrifice to serve anything else, we are in peril and our children are in peril because our inquity will be visited upon them (there is another one for the "what went wrong with our children list.")

We are commanded not to serve that which looks like it is of God (likeness of something in the heavens above).

He shows mercy on us and our children when we love Him only; that means repenting of our idolatry. We can't repent of it until we see it.

Matt you, too, are spot on. How can we keep ourselves from idols if we don't see them. Step one: see them. Step two: smash them.

Lord open our eyes to whatever we love or serve in our hearts more than You.

I have been reading The Two Babylons again. What an eye opener. Paul referred to the mystery of iniquity that was already at work in his time. What was that? It was something that looked like God, but wasn't. It was Satan's subtlety to secure for himself the worship that was God's alone through a counterfeit, something that fooled people into following him all the while believing they were serving God. The mystery of iniquity over time became Mystery Babylon the Great, Mother of the Harlots of the earth.

The parallels to the LC experience found in that book are stunning. I plan to quote a few things if I get time. The Babylonian religion was dependent on the development of a strong hierarchical system. It was developed in secrecy. The way for a priest in the hierarchy to gain further admission into the inner circle and have knowledge of the mysteries (secrets) was a pathway of compromising the conscience. The Babylonian religion was filled with idolaters. There was one high priest who was the repositor of all knowledge. I could go on, but the day is calling.

So there you have some of my thoughts on idolatry.

Thankful Jane