the god of me-final week in gods at war Bible study

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The god of me was definitely a week that really hit home. This is what every idol revolves around-myself and what I want. I treasure my personal time and tend to stay at home and not talk to people.

Whichever god wins the war-wins control over us.

We often think that we are the center of the world. Why is this happening to me? Why can't my day go better? I need this. How many times do you think about yourself during the day? Is our personal success the most important thing to us? Is it not what we think about daily, do get as far ahead as we can or get a better job to make more money to get things that we want. 

Will I worship God or myself?

We learned this week about a man who was scared of God. I had personally never had this idea that God would be considered scary. I was brought up seeing God as a friend or father, not someone who is mean or awful. In turn, this man acted out in his hatred toward God. He got involved with the porn industry and started producing his own and hiring models. Over a matter of years, God put a group of people in his life to open his eyes to see how God is loving, and not someone who wants to ruin people's lives. 

The man mentioned something about how he views his past and said "I loved me a lot more than my wife". He loved himself so much that all he wanted was to make himself "happy" with porn or creating it for other people. These addictions that we have revolve around us and what we think we have to have. 

Eventually this man's life was completely changed, and while he lost everything that his money had gotten him, he felt peace and had started a relationship with Christ. 

What is it going to take to stop worshiping these false idols?

Kyle ended the study saying, "choose this day who you will serve".

Something that everyone mentioned after this god of self was how much we value our time with family or personal time. We fail to reach out to others when it's on our time or when we have a day off of work. Rest and family are important, but so is reaching out to others and being involved.

This was a really great study and even though we finished the videos, we each chose something that has become an idol in our life and decided to keep journals on what we need to work on. In order to fight a battle like this it's helpful to be held accountable, so with the journals and group meeting we will be holding each other accountable for what we need to work on.

This is a great study and I highly recommend it to everyone!

City on a Hill-gods of Power

This fifth week in our study we looked into the life of Chuck Colson, who once advised President Nixon. I had never heard of Chuck Colson before (sadly) but after hearing him talk on the video I discovered what an incredible impact he had.
Starting out, he came from limited means and wanted to prove himself and make something of his life. He had strong ethics and working hard was how he was raised. He did a good days work for a good days pay. Colson believed in God but didn't know Him or have a relationship with Him. In the video he stated how he would look at the stars or any other creation and know that man could not have done this it had to be God.

Colson began to work his way up and ended up working closely with President Nixon. Colson was known as Nixon's "hatchet man" because he did all of the dirty work, such as laying people off and whatnot. During this time Colson had so much power and control and became completely full of pride that he didn't see much else in his life. With all of this power he said that he still felt empty, like he was missing something.

Then his life changed when the Watergate Scandal blew up.  During this time he ended up asking questions from a friend about God and what made his friend so different. This changed Colson's life and he accepted Christ. After that he addmitted guilty to something he did while he had so much power and he was put in prison. Colson started a huge prison ministry after his life changed and continued to share God throughout his life. He died this year, yet his ministry and story continue to change people.

So the main thing we discussed is pride. Kyle Idleman talked about the Sign of gods of Power

• Being defensive
• Stubborn (not being able to say I'm sorry or I was wrong)
• Ungrateful (everything is unfair)
• Discontent (who has the bigger better house)

We have all struggled with these four things, mine probably being discontent, always wanting more than I need. Pride can be a very touchy issue, so these are good things to think about.

God gives grace to the humble.

God uses broken experiences for His glory.

City on a Hill-gods of Money

Kyle Idleman started week four with the gods of money and one man's life. This man started out slow and started to make tons of money with a new company venture. His job and new found wealth took him away from his family and money became all he focused on. Money in itself is not good or bad, but when it becomes something that you think about constantly it becomes an idol.

There is a common question of "how much is that person worth?" "How do I compare to others?"

The wealthy man stated that he had,"a little Jesus and a lot of money", which is what a lot of us try to do. Make God smaller than He is and pretend to take over control.

Is worship and serving the same thing? It is easy to worship one god and serve another. You can go to church and say all the right things and worship but who or what are you serving?

You can't serve God and money or God and something else. Do you trust in God? What have you put your trust in? 

This was a difficult week for me as money is in almost every aspect to our lives, that is simply the truth. This is one of my worries and I feel like I need to be in control, especially when it comes to money. These questions I have to ask myself repeatedly.