Psalm 135:18

Psalm 135:18

Who are we turning into?

This is a curious statement, it effectively says that we become like the objects or beings that we worship! If we worship a pitiful, lifeless image made of stone, our faith or religion is pitiful and lifeless too. If our god is avenging, cruel and murderous, so shall our attitude to others be. If our god is wealthy, demanding and dictatorial, that becomes the character of the religions he or she represents. 

So we could go on, faith and trust are very much in tune with the objects, the deities or the religion that we serve. Which brings us, of course, to the nature of the Lord God Almighty and the character of those who serve Him. Again, each form of the faith is very much affected by the way in which people perceive the Lord. For instance, Orthodox Jews have a very different reaction to the Lord God than Pentecostals, and Roman Catholics to Free Church evangelicals! From these comparisons we begin to see that truth is essential to our quest and that pursuit of the whole of the Scriptural message is fundamental to true faith. It is also important that we grasp that any man-made elements of religion are meaningless, our sole source of inspiration is the Holy Spirit, and we listen only to those who clearly live as they speak and who speak only as the Spirit inspires them. Making God in our image, making representations of Him, paying obeisance to statues, icons and the like are not part of the true faith, we worship a God who is “Spirit, and His worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:24. A true disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is visibly becoming like Him. Saying the right things is NOT enough, there has to be evidence that the words come from a life that is lived by faith. It is therefore important that we ask ourselves today, who do I worship and if it is the Lord God and His Son Jesus Christ, am I becoming like them? 

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