A HOUSE OF IDOLS

   God's first commandment is this:
   Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:  for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.  (Exodus 20: 3-6)
   The first commandment of God is the longest commandment.  In it, the Lord is specifically clear about Himself, who He is, and how we are to conduct our behavior and attitudes about Him and in our worship of Him.
   Have you ever thought about why there are no images of Christ from the time He lived upon the earth?  Surely, there were artists in His lifetime, but there are no portraits, no woodcarvings, no sculptures.  Pictures we have of Christ today are merely images created out of the imaginations of people. 
   Please consider that Jesus was not a hero to the world in the time that He lived on earth.  He was an enemy of religion and He was also an enemy of the Roman Empire.  Yet Christ did not break any religious law, and neither did He break any Roman law.  But they killed Him anyway!  Why, then, did thy crucify an innocent man? 
   Images and idols are representative of heros:  people to be remembered and adored.  Jesus was not wanted to be remembered and adored.  Certainly He was not supposed to be worshipped.  They crucified the Lord because they believed that killing Him would put an end to the whole story of Jesus and that His disciples would vanish once He was dead.  And with Jesus dead, who would want people to remember Him?
   Now back to the first commandment of God:
   If you are in a religion that worships images of Christ, you are in a house of idols:  according to the Word of God.
   If you are in a religion that worships images of men and women, you are in a house of idols:  according to the Word of God.
   If you are in a religion that worships and prays to the spirts of dead people, you are in a house of idols:  according to the Word of God.
   Therefore, if you are in a house of idols, you are in violation of the first commandment:  according to the Word of God.
   If you are in a house of idols, do you truly believe that God is there?
   Do you truly believe that the Holy Spirit is in the presence of a house of idols? 
   Do you honestly think that God is blessing your worship and adoration of idols?
   So then, if you are in a house of idols, where are you? 
  You are in a place of darkness because the Light of Christ is not there.  And if you choose to remain there, your iniquity will be visited to your children and grandchildren, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, according to the Word of God.  And according to the first commandment, you hate God because of your choice to worship idols. 
   To be saved, not only must you be willing to confess to God that your are a sinner as well as to receive Christ as your Saviour, but you must also be willing to come out of your house of idols. 
   As it is written in the Word of God:  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (II Corinthians 6: 17-18)