Our god Is Sick

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As we have watched the Dow drop over the last two years, it is obvious our god is sick. No, I don’t mean the one who created all things. I mean the one we care about the most in America -- the dollar. The economy is what defines my dollar. It is the dollar that gives me the power to buy things. Our culture defines value by what one is able to consume. Dollars give us consumption power. So it goes - we worship that which gives us the power to consume. When the economy is bad my dollar is weak. So if the economy is sick, our god is sick.

Is this a bad thing? Well, it is if my god is the dollar. But, if I cling to the living, God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, it is good for my god to be sick. For the idol that would usurp my love and allegiance to the Redeemer is diminished and its hold on me is impaired. A diseased god teaches me to trust in the God who never slumbers or sleeps. It urges me to look to the high and lofty One, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.

After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. (1 Samuel 5:1-4 NIV)

They tried to resurrect their god but he kept falling. The God of the covenant allows no rivals. In the second fall, their god was broken so it could not be resurrected again. It’s pitiful to reposition a cracked god. As Americans, we want to resurrect our economy, to get it working right for us. A healthy economy is not bad, unless we make it our god. But, Samuel leaves us a story that says it is better to worship a God who can resurrect us, than grieve a god that we must resurrect.

ICA!

Bernie