SELF-PORTRAITS

    God's first commandment is this:
        Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
   God created us, and, as our Creator, the Almighty knows best what is best for us; in fact, no one knows us as well as God knows us.
   As our heavenly Father, God wants us to believe in Him and to enjoy the richness of His blessings.  
   At the same time, God gives us free will:  the freedom to choose what we do with our lives.  And because so many of our choices are the wrong choices, which are choices made without God, we cannot blame God for anything. 
   God is not a dictator.  He does not make us do anything.  He does not make us believe in Him.  Neither does He make us love Him.
   By believing this first commandment, however, we can also believe that the number one problem people have in this world is spiritual.  By refusing to believe God, we have accepted our own way of doing things; and by choosing to live our lives without God, we reap the consequences of life that God did not want us to have.
   The Son of God came to earth to die for our sins and to restore our spiritual relationship with God; but if we refuse Christ, we have chosen not to restore our relationship with God and therefore to remain apart from God, living our lives according to our own choices.  And by refusing Christ, we have also chosen to ignore the first commandment of God; and by refusing this spiritual connection with God, we have chosen to connect ourselves to the gods of this world.
   The gods of this world are many:
   First, we have placed ourselves as a god because of our belief in self rather than believing God.  By elevating myself to the position of god, I am telling God that I know best what is best for me---and not the One who created me.
   Secondly, I begin to accumulate other gods:  the god of money, the god of power and prestige, the god over other people.  As god, I now have the power of judgmentalism, criticism, condemnation of others.  And to convince others that I am god, I use the power of my voice, my anger, and my wrath to bring others under my realm of authority.  And when others see me, they will know that I am here.  They will either play ball my way, or they will experience my dark side.  I become a terrorist as I terrorize others to do things my way.  I become a devil and I am proud of myself.  Others will know me as I am known.
   Thirdly, man abused his creative talent from God by creating his worst spiritual nightmare when he created religion.  For religion is a picture of a life without God:  a self-portrait of man's inner quest to be the god of his own world, to show the world what he believes internally, and a public presentation of men, women, and children to voice their opposition to God. 
   Man does not like God's way, so man created his own way with his own religion.
   Man does not like God's way of salvation through Christ, so man created his own way of salvation with his religion.
   Man does not accept God's way to get to heaven, so man created his own ways to get to heaven without God. 
   And because man accepts himself as god, he does not need God for anything. 
   What does your self-portrait say about you?  What are you telling others by what others see in you?  What is coming out of you that will attract others to believe in what you are demonstrating?
   But if I accept your religion, then I will become like you.  Do I want to be like you?  Do I want my children to be like you with all of your wrath, your anger, your judgmentalism, criticism, and condemnation of others?  Do I want to become a god just like you?  And if I become like you, that will not work because one of us must be the boss god.
   Religion is nothing more than man's showplace of man himself. 
   Our problems in this world are spiritual and until we are rightly connected to God through Christ our problems will get worse and worse.  Religion has never fixed anything and it never will because religion is dead, it has no life, and it cannot give anything because it is non-living.
   Christ is alive and He can give eternal life.