American Idol

"You shall not make for yourself an idol, on any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.  You shall not serve them; for I the Lord your God, am a jealous God..."--Exodus 20:4-5.  The second commandment, not to make for ourselves or let alone worship an idol.  God does not want us to make for ourselves and/or worship any sort of idol.  The Hebrew word for idol is defined as something that is shaped or fashioned as a worship-icon or a god.

Idol.  Chances are I already have your attention just with the image I used above.   We all are well aware of the TV show American Idol.  I watched a few episodes of a previous season of the show but it never really grabbed my attention.  But one thing I sometimes I find myself thinking about is the very title, American Idol. And in reality, it hit me that the show and its contestants, and even the judges in some people's eyes are just that, idols.  According to one website, 26.1 million people watched the season opener this year!!! That's 26.1 million souls!!!  Even when talking about the show, when you simply say something like "I watched Idol" last night, people instantly know which show you are talking about.  But please don't get me wrong, I am not here to bash American Idol and I am especially not here to talk about whether or not Christians should be watching it.  My point is that we live in a society that, as I heard it put on the radio last night, is celebrity obsessed.  Celebrities are one of many idols that Americans have in their lives today. Celebrities are one among many American idols.

Idol.  But what about us as Christians?  I don't know how many times I hear some of our own brethren ranting and raving about what's wrong with American culture in a similar fashion to what I just did in my previous paragraph.  But how often are we guilty of the same idolatry that God clearly forbids in Exodus 20:4-5?  How often are we guilty of worshipping the same idols?

Idol.  Idols in America today are not worshipped in temples and are not given blood sacrifices.  The idols we see today in people's lives are celebrities, money, TV shows e.g. American Idol, jobs or dare I say it? Even Facebook and the list goes on and on.   These are the true American idols.    

Idol.  So what does this mean to us?  How does it apply? Again my purpose with this blog and with all my blogs is not to preach against something rather to encourage myself and my brethren in Christ to examine our own lives.  What are the idols in our lives that are preventing us from serving our God with all we have? We must remember that Exodus 20:5 tells us that our God is a jealous God and He expects us to worship Him exclusively in all we do.

Examine to see if there are idols in your life and make every effort to remove them as they could cost us our salvation if we don't do so.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!