Idols

We can quickly identify idols and false gods when they are made in images of gold and jewels and place in temples, but the idols of today that we are slaves of seem to be more difficult to identify and resist. "Take the whole range of gods which men worship-money, power, reputation, all the false gods that men idolize (for though men have abandoned idols in stone and wood they set up idols in the chambers of imagery and bow down to them in the devotedness of their hearts)." But what can these gods do for you in return for your worship and devotion? "You may find a false god to idolize; you may offer him the daily incense of your devotions; but will this god pardon your sins when you are stretched upon a bed of death? Will money do it? Will fashion do it? Will respectability do it? Will the praise of men do it? Will your own legal, pharisaical, self0righteous heart do it? Turn to all these gods and see what they can do for you on a bed of sickness, in the hour of death, in nature's last extremity, against Satan's accusations, a guilty conscience, and the wrath of the Almighty. What can these idols do for you in that hour when flesh and heart fail? All they can do is to abandon you at the last to reap what you have sowed, and leave you in the hands of him who is a consuming fire." God's fire can refine those who desire to be refined to reflect God's character, but to those who reject God and choose sin, this fire will scorch their souls without mercy.

Living Life