Most everyone can recite the infamous Exodus 20:3-- "Thou shall have no other Gods before me." We read these words in the Bible, along with the other nine commandments, and think we do not have to worry about that one. We aren't bowing down to other divine beings, we do not say our prayers to Zeus, or Apollo, or Athena, and we do not mold statues out of gold and denounce the existence of God. However, the term Gods can also be translated to the word Idols--"thou shall have no other idols before me." so what does this change about the context of what we read? When we think of having no other Gods, that in and of itself seems simple enough. Someone would have to go to great lengths to think up another God and serve it. However, idols hit much closer to home than the Greek Gods of our history books. So what exactly are idols? According to the dictionary, An idol is a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered. Woah. Back that New Webster's train up. I love peanut-butter, does that mean peanut-butter is my idol? What about Emma Watson? I admire her oh-so-much does that mean I have made her a God in my heart? lets revisit the words of our heavenly father, shall we? He says, thou shall have no other Gods before me. Implying, of course, that anything that become more important than God in our life, is an idol, or a God. Well, pshh. nothing is more important to me that God, right? Unfortunately, just because we put "God is my everything" on our bio on Instagram, does not mean that he is. No, not even if you put that on your bio on Instagram, Twitter, MySpace, Vine, and *gasp* Pintrest. God is not the most important thing in our life just because we know all of Jeremy Camp's songs by heart, or that we can recite John 3:16 with the rest of the kindergartners who have no inkling of the meaning of the passage. I would go as far as to say God in number one in a very slim amount of people. I know God is not number one in my heart every single day. You heathen, you say. Yeah, but, think about it. Our time is divided between school, sports, our phones, all our possessions, food, and, yes, especially ourselves-- the way we look, the way others see us, and all our accomplishments. How can we say we want to be known for the work God has done in our hearts, when we count the calories on everything we eat, when we refuse to leave the house without perfectly curled hair, evenly mascara-ed eyes, and delete every selfie that is under 100 likes?Dang. Shots fired. The idols we serve in 2015 are not made of bronze and gold, but out of the reflection that stares back at us, completely dissatisfied in the mold that God lovingly crafted and breathed life from his holy mouth. We dedicate months to sports in order to get better and strengthen our bodies. But reading our bible to get to know God better and strengthen our relationship with him seems unimportant. We wake up every morning for 5am practices, but somehow getting up before noon once a week for church is asking too much. I don't have to go to church every Sunday to be a Christian. You are 100% correct. Your salvation has no dependency on your attendance. You also don't have to go to games in order to be an athlete. Everyone sees you at practices, you put the time in, you wear the jersey, why should you play in the game? You don't have to prove to people you are on the team. But I want to play in the game, I love the sport. Exactly. My. Point. Going to church isn't about proving our stance with God, it is something you should do out of love, because you want to be there, because you want to know God better. Just like putting on your helmet every Friday night and rushing the field is not about proving you are a football player, you do it because you love the game. We can stay up all night to study for that math test, read all those APUSH chapters, and memorize Spanish vocabulary. But when it gets late and we have no homework, we claim we are too tired to read a few chapters out of our bible.The sad truth is that we fear the world, but have no fear of God. If we do not study we fail the test. But if we do not read our bible? What? What happens? Our relationship with God grows weaker, his voice grows softer, and the intimacy we had gets further away. That might not seem like a huge deal. But, guys. THAT'S A HUGE DEAL. We have completely mixed up our priorities. We are suddenly more worried about people unfollowing us than the state of our souls. We think the people in the bible were so dumb as to bow down to a chunk of gold molded into the shape of a pea brained farm animal, while we bow down to a chunk of metal that fits into the palm of our hand. Its time to burn our idols, ladies and gentlemen because the one true God "will come at an hour when we least expect it" (Luke 12:40). And what will we say? When all our toys are reveled for what they truly are? And we can no longer throw a ball, tackle some guys and hope they get a concussion? The things of this world will all eventually waste away. So, I ask you, who is your God?
