I am so stinking excited!!!

Okay! I started a new bible study today...the Lord is so good!
I am thrilled beyond words and so excited that I can not type fast enough. Since I had done all of Beth Moore's it was time to break free and move on to another teacher for such a time as this...LOL!
So, I looked and prayed and looked and prayed and BAM the one I was supposed to do appeared before my eyes on the shelf at Lifeway. DRUM ROLL here it is

"No Other Gods" by Kelly Minter. The girl is so real, which is a must for me! I get tired of trying to find a bible study and it being so vague and "churchy". I also can't stand fake or pretense. Just give it to me straight!

Let me know if you get this and want to do it with me. I am pretty sure I will be leading this one after my "Stepping Up" is over. Click on that link above and tell me what you think!

She starts out in the beginning talking about our modern day "functional gods" and she uses this verse to speak about how we in essence say things but our actions don't match up. 2 Kings 17:33 They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.

This verse hit hard this morning because I can't even tell you the times I have been divided in my heart toward the Lord. I have served Him but also had other things or people that I set my heart on that took the place of God. Fear, relationships, image, fear of failure and stuff are just to name a few things that have driven me or caused me to stay paralyzed in life. Then the next verse she uses that I love is this: 41 Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.
Oh this hit hard today...we can be worshipping the Lord but holding our idols in the other hand with a death grip because they have driven us for so long it is what is comfortable and what begins to define us (these are my thoughts at least). I am reminded of these verses: Isaiah 44:19-20
19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, "Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?"
20 He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?"

So often we allow things to creep into our lives and we really begin to have a driving need for them when in essence they can not deliver on the promises these idols make...they are a lie. The enemy wants to deceive us into thinking people, or things, or position (even in the church), can give us what we really need. They can't and we keep coming back to try to get full because they didn't do it for us. No one and nothing can take the place of God, but we will spend ourselves in vain trying to feel the aching places. I don't even think we realize it most of the time.

One thing I read in the Hebrew lexical aides years ago about idolatry is that the reason God hates it so much is because it is in essence the worship of satan. I am not talking about not having things and never watching television or shopping what I am talking about is do the things we have and seek after have us? Because we are not a people who are safe if the Lord does not whole heartedly have us. I am sure you can testify to this in your own life.

So what do we do? Our idols must be cast down. That is what I am going to work with the Lord on thru this study and I am sure for the rest of my life. It is so true in my life and yours that what we worship begins to control us and drive us and we labor toward that end. Maybe I am the only one ;).