Every time I see this Guinness poster (in the Restroom of the Anchor fish and chips restaurant : -) I’m reminded of one of the prophet Bob Jones’s strories from the time when he died and got a glimpse into the afterlife. He described a conveyor belt moving toward the lake of fire on which people were wrapped in dollar bills or inside a whisky bottle – literally bound in the thing that had been their god in this life.
To me the most sob-ering verse in the bible is Ezekiel 14:4
“Therefore, speak to them and tell them: This is what the Lord GOD says: When anyone from the house of Israel sets up idols in his heart, puts a sinful stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet, I, Yahweh, will answer him appropriately. I will answer him according to his many idols,” (Holman)
To me this verse is sob-ering because the people think all is well. God is answering our prayers and blessing us and giving us what we want. But we are deceived because our prayers are being shaped by the idols of our hearts.
We can read into the cartoon above……the alcoholic’s foolish eyes fixed on the next drop thinking that it will bring the joy which he is so desperately searching for but denying the reality that it is harming everyone around him and is himself a prisoner, totally paralyzed in his being from the mouth down! The idol of his heart is obvious.
However, as Richard Rohr points out in his book Breathing Under Water, we are in fact all addicts, for addiction is simply a modern term for what the bible calls sin. and sin is where we let anything control us and hinder us from being liberated fully into our true identity as children of God. It could stand for Stuck In Navel gazing.
These idols as I said last week can be the good things that God has given me like my friends or family, my church or ministry, my work or hobbies my health or home, my opinions or ‘success’……and I can believe that there is nothing wrong because God is blessing me and answering my prayers and there’s no obvious ‘fall out’ as there is with the alcoholic……..unaware that he is answering me according to what has become the idol of my heart. “Sure” he says, “Name it and claim it – I’ll give you what you want!” (or rather, like the alcoholic, what you mistakenly think you want.)
This is why we need to cry with the psalmist and sing with Carol Pardoe on the Good Mornin’ Dad album
Search me and know my heart,
Try me and know my thoughts.
Pluck out any wicked way in me;
In your presence let me stay;
Make me willing to obey;
Restore to me the joy of my salvation
…………and then be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit reveals.
“You shall have no there gods before me…..” is the first commandment of the Old Covenant, that in the New Covenant becomes the first promise of what God will do……..as we are asking and allowing Him to cleanse our hearts.
This week at our home fellowship, our daughter Abby and her husband Stephen who are visiting shared about their last year which began with someone proposing to them they join another couple in pioneering a church plant in Belfast city centre. Abby described how she had become very comfortable with the solid church family that had adopted her in exile from her family here and how initially she sobbed at the prospect of losing this earthly treasure. But Father worked on their hearts, until they agreed it was his plan that they should take this step of faith.
She shared about the subsequent grace that had flowed as they had surrendered the ‘heart idol’ of personal comfort. As she spoke about one new friend’s life that had been totally transformed after they made the move a different kind of tear began flowing from her and Stephen’s eyes as they sobbed….tears of joy – sharing in heaven’s celebration!
I received an email after last week’s blog from a friend who I regard as a seasoned and mature brother. It illustrates how this journey to Zion’s joy along the highway of holiness – is indeed lifelong:
Paul, this blog was a special encouragement as I was praying the very day it arrived regarding a frustration in my soul and the Lord was taking me to Psalm 87. I began to sing some of the “old” songs of Zion. “All my streams of joy are in you”! “Let’s go up to Zion”! Oh how I long to find ALL of my streams of joy in Him and yet how easy it is for me to look in other places. Thanks for your blog and I am heading on Zion’s highway of joy today. Blessings. Brian.