February 22, 2023 -- Acts 17:29-31 -- The Acts of the Apostles: Blowing up the idol factory of the heart

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Acts 17:29-31 ESV

The crowning proof of Jesus’ veracity (truthfulness) is the fact that He was raised from the dead. The fact of Jesus’ resurrection was attested to by the women at the empty tomb, the women who saw Jesus, the disciples and also more than 500 people. Many of those 500 were still alive as Luke wrote Acts, and the rest of New Testament was being written, so that fact could readily be verified (see I Corinthians 15:1-5 for the quotation on this).

Look how useless idols are: images formed by art and imagination of man. What a graphic and wonderful description, exposing how vain all idols are. There are many idols, or tyrants that we serve in our lives: sex, drugs, intellect, alcohol, sugar, love, family ties, art, beauty, fame, Free Masonry, music, caffeine, riches, just to name a few. That list doesn't even include the traditional idols, such as the false gods and goddesses of the Greek Pantheon. Do not be fooled into thinking because you are not serving a stone or metal image you are not an idolator. The Reformer John Calvin said something to the effect that the human heart is an idol factory. How true. When we have conquered our sins in Christ, we are so apt to form the idol of pride, admiring our dedication, forgetting every victory is given through Christ our King by His Spirit's powerful, constant and persistent work in us.

Now is the time to repent. It is a beautiful word. When one repents he has recognized the sinfulness of his ways. He knows he is trapped by error and cannot think or act his way out of his thinking and bad patterns of behaving. He needs a Rescuer. Jesus is the Rescue story of every believer. People who have been Christians for a long time recognize their need for ever deeper repentance and putting away of false gods even as the Spirit reveals such vanity to their soul and mind. Those who are new to Christ realize the uselessness and pointlessness of life without Jesus. Jesus is our life’s delight, mind’s hope and soul’s only True God. It is Jesus, Who in the strength of His Spirit, lifts us from the deadness of our sin, and brings us into the Presence of Him Who sent Jesus to rescue us, He Who Is by and through Christ truly, our Father.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name! Thank You for rescuing us from our dances in the grave of addictions and false, idolatrous worship. There is none like You, in the farthest reaches of the cosmos, nor on the earth, or in the depths of the sea. There is no force or being or reality that even comes close to the beauty, and terrible magnificence of Who You Are. Thank You, Father in heaven, for Jesus Christ, Whom You appointed both Savior and Judge in righteousness. Thank You, for the gift of Your Holy Spirit Who moves us to study the Word, to learn more of You, so that our insatiable hungers are satisfied in You alone. Amen.
 

https://youtu.be/9Yr48Berkqc
Zach Williams He Is my Rescue Story

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