May 17, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
THE MANY “OTHER GODS” OF THIS WORLD
“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Many do not realize that they are actually worshiping “other gods.” The work of the Holy Spirit is to change our carnal minds and hearts, which “are at enmity towards the law” into a new heart and a new mind having a new spirit in order to seek after, grasp, understand and love the wisdom of God, truth and righteousness.
Satan, in disguise, promised the mother of mankind that in disobedience she would “become like gods.” She yielded to this self-pleasing, self-exalting temptation by Lucifer, himself fallen to become Satan through his pride and exaltation, and fell.
Since then, the forms and variations of “like gods” and “other gods,” as Satan’s first successful temptation and deception have only become more deceptive, all-pervasive and devastating through the cunning and “subtility” of that serpent, Satan, the devil working through his evil spirits and demons.
God’s people in these last hours of earth’s probation have been amply warned already to “put on the new man in Christ Jesus,” and clad themselves with “the whole armor of God” lest they fall a prey and victim to “being like gods” and “having other gods” without realizing they are. The most deadly deception and delusion is to believe that one is not deceived when in fact, he is. That was the Eve moment alone for the Bible says Adam “was not deceived.” He chose to disobey God because of his “uxurious” foolish, self-centered love for Eve.
I am going to continue providing more spiritual magnification in what the first and second commandment comprehends this week, hoping it will help all gain the victory over Satan and his numberless schemes for these last days:
“The Lord urges His supremacy. But Satan well knows that the worship of the living God elevates, ennobles, and exalts a nation. He knows that idol worship does not elevate, but it degrades men’s ideas, by associating with worship that which is base and corrupt. He is at work constantly to draw the mind away from the only true and living God. He leads men to give honor and glory to OBJECTS that human hands have made or to soulless creatures that God has created.”
“The Egyptians and other heaven nations had many strange gods—creatures of their own fanciful imaginations.”
“To make an image of God dishonors Him. No one should bring into service the power of imagination to worship that which belittles God in the mind and associates Him with COMMON things. Those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. They must exercise living faith. Their worship will then be CONTROLLED not by the imagination, but by genuine faith.”
“Let men worship and serve the Lord God, and Him only. Let not SELFISH PRIDE be lifted up and served as a god. Let not MONEY be made a god. If SENSUALITY is not kept under the control of higher powers of the mind, base passion will rule the being.”
“Any thing that is made the subject of UNDUE thought and admiration, absorbing the mind, is a GOD CHOSEN BEFORE THE LORD. God is a searcher of the heart. He distinguishes between true heart-service and idolatry.” (MS 126, 1901)/4BC 1145.
Tomorrow we consider even more specific “other gods” in our lives. May the Holy Spirit continue working in our hearts before He finally withdraws, for as God said to the antediluvians, “My Spirit will not always strive with men.” NMF