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 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.

Week Three-gods of love

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We were made for God. Christ is the only One who can complete us. 

When giving yourself to others or loving something or someone else more than anything-this becomes an idol.You are giving yourself and your gifts to idols.

God is fighting for our hearts as we turn to idols instead of Him. 

How does Christ see you?

Week Three in our Bible study was about the gods of love and focused on one woman's story. This woman's struggle revolved around passion for boys and other girls in her younger years, she was struggling with her identity. She became so broken and said she, "need a God to save my life" as the other "gods" were not fulfilling her emptiness and confusion. She has become a new person through Christ even since struggling  after becoming a believer. Her words to others: "You are not unforgivable". Christ loves you no matter what your past or the struggles you will face in the future. 

We were left with a question that I really had to think about for awhile. 

How has God fought for your heart?

There is a video that was a part of the study this week and others at city on a hill.

You can also watch the entire first episode at this link.

Week Two-gods of pleasure

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Week two in the gods at war Bible study. This week it is about the gods of pleasure and mainly focused on one man's story about his obsession for food. Food is one thing that "if it makes you feel good, do it". Where do you go for comfort? What is the first response that you have when you need to feel comforted? Is it God or something else and then God? Is God your last resort? God has so much more to offer us than the temporary gods of pleasure. 

A man in our Bible study made a comment that I thought was brilliant and very true. "God would rather be the fix not the temporary solution".

Too often we think of God as being there for us just in case we need him. We always need him and He wants to be the solution to all of our problems, not just the difficult times.

gods at war

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Kyle Idleman has a new DVD Bible study called Gods at War. It is a six week study that discusses idols and how anything that is in our life BEFORE God is an idol. We just started the study this week and the first video was fantastic and really makes you think.

Most people think of idols as like a little trinket that people worship or something that isn't important or maybe just an old fashioned idea. The study depicts several people who explain their idols and how something that might even be good can turn into an idol.

Kyle tied his discussion with Joshua 24. While reading the verses we realized that different versions say something different. One version says that the people would not worship other gods, my version said serve  other gods. Worship to many (myself included) always seemed to be more of like what you do in church and singing and praise. This compares worship with serving, we are to praise Him but what better honor to serve Him?

Try and think about worship as serving, it really made me think.

To conclude the study we were asked seven questions about our own idols.These questions were asked throughout the entire video as well but seemed more thought provoking at the end.

Think about it, an idol is what you live your life around. Ask yourself these questions and try to answer them.
An idol of some sort is probably the answer to these.

1. What has left you most disappointed?

2. For what do you sacrifice time and money?

3. What do you worry about?

4. Where do you go for comfort?

5. What makes you mad?

6. What do you dream of?

7. Whose encouragement means the most to you?

I will be thinking about these questions for the next week...where do I go to comfort? The answer should be the Lord but what's the truth have to say?

Check out gods at war website and video.