WORSHIP OUR JEALOUS GOD - PART 3

"My people have exchanged their Glory for worthless

idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens and shudder with

great horror,"declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 2:11-12

It's perhaps the strangest of ironies. The nations who worship false gods wouldn't think of adopting another nation's god (verse 11). But Israel, the only nation in that era worshiping the true God, did!

That's what idolatry is: the exchange of God's Glory for something worthless. Whatever takes God's place in out hearts is a travesty of unspeakable proportions. In any kind of worship other than the God-exalting, Christ-honouring kind of passion, we substituted the profane for the holy, the cheap for the priceless, the finite for the infinite, a curse for a blessing, and like Esau of old, our birthright for a bowl of soup. It's a foolish exchange, but we do it all the time.

We worship gadgets, cars, sports, styles, clothes, entertainment, and other wothless junk. We're not sure why. We just know that in the absence of God, we need something else. The problem is that we miscalculated. Our JEALOUS GOD isn't absent. Forsake foolish exchanges. Embrace your Glory.

Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols,

and demolish all their high places.

Numbers 33:52

The high places pointed to one forbidden, nauseating activity: IDOLATRY. They were shrines and altars on hills and mountain-tops designed exclusively for worship of a Canaanite god like the Baals and the Asherim. The high places in Scripture are usually written with contempt, because they were forms of IDOLATRY that was detestable and forbidden by our JEALOUS GOD!

We build high places in our hearts. You can probably identify right away which ones are some of your most persistent. What are your high places? We fall for the seduction of other altars: careers, income, relationships, misused sexuality, highly adored possessions, a purpose and a plan that are not of God's prompting. Our opportunities for high places on which to kneel are nearly limitless. Learn to recognize them. As god instructs, demolish them and turn to Him alone

An extract from Worhip The King - Chris Tiegreen

One of two things is going to happen in the life of a believer: either he is going to be conformed into the image of Jesus by allowing the Word of God that is spoken in the presence of the Lord (worship) to change him, or he is going to conform Jesus into the image of what his heart dictates.
If you go to the MOUNTAIN (worship in spirit & in truth), YOU CHANGE. If you stay at the FOOT (false worship - idolatry), as Aaron did, God's image in you changes - John Bevere (A Heart Ablaze)

WORSHIP GOD!
TPWC