Sometimes we don’t want to go to church or read and follow God’s word or do God’s work because it isn’t easy or convenient.
So we pick a church because it is close to us or at a convenient time, instead of because it is filled with God’s spirit. Or we pick a church because we like the music and the sermons do not make us uncomfortable, instead of choosing one that pushes us to grow in Christ and do God’s work. We tend to read the bible only when it fits our schedule or we don’t read it at all because it’s not convenient. We tend to do God’s work only when it doesn’t get in the way of what we want to do.
Here is an example of someone who chose to follow and worship God in the time and way he wanted and do his will instead of God’s. His name is King Jeroboam
1Kings 12:28-31. The King made two calves of gold and said to the people, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, here are your gods who brought you up from Egypt, and he set up one in Bethel and the other in Dan. He made shrines in the high places and made high priests of every class of people, not of the sons of Levi.When you make a gold calf you melt the gold and pour it into a mold.
The mold shapes the gold into a desired shape.
When we worship idols then we are worshiping something that we choose the form or shape of what we are worshiping.
Jeroboam is saying it is too much or too far to go to Jerusalem. He is saying worship God in this new way because God’s way of doing it is too difficult and is not convenient.
He is making up his own religion one of convenience.
Today many people make up their own religion or belief system. They say I’ll believe some of what the bible says is true, and some of Buddhist teaching, and some of this other stuff. So they take the parts that fit into the type of life they want and make up their own “truth”.
When we do this we are saying to God, “I am the one who decides what truth is.”
In reality things are either true or not. What we believe doesn’t change truth. If I believe I can fly it doesn’t make me fly. The truth is that if I jump off a building I fall just like anyone who believes they can’t fly. God has decided what is true and it won’t change because you don’t believe it. When we try to decide truth we are placing ourselves in God’s role in our life. This is idol worship.
When you make up you own style of worshiping or your own belief system that fits into your life, it is a religion of convenience. You are trying to mold God to fit into your life, instead of letting God mold you to fit his needs.
You see God has made us for a purpose and until you let God mold or shape you your full potential and purpose in life will not be reached. It says in
Isaiah 64:8 Lord you are our Father. We are the clay and you are the potter, and we are the work of your hand. Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. We are to be clay in His hands; He is not to be clay in our hands. So what does the bible say about rebellion of the “clay” toward the Maker? In Isaiah 30:14 it says those who don’t hear God’s word will be,
“suddenly broken like a potter’s vessel, into very small pieces.” In Isaiah 45:9 it says,
Woe to him who strives with his maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to Him who forms it, what are you making? Or shall your handiwork say You have no hands?Here is what happened to Jeroboam’s people.
2 kings 17:16 So they left the commandments of the Lord their God, made for themselves a molded image of two gold calves. 2 Kings 17:18 Therefore the Lord was angry with Israel and removed them from sight. 2 Kings 17:23 Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria.
They were put into slavery or bondage. They lost freedom!
In Exodus 32:8-9, 10 the people of Israel break the covenant with God and God said
“They have turned away quickly out of the way which I have commanded them, they have made a molded calf and worshiped it.” “They are a stiff necked people!” “My wrath may burn hot against them.” As a result God had Moses punished the people (3000 people fell that day) and the tabernacle of God was moved out of the camp, this represents separation from God.
It says in
Acts 17:29 We ought not to think that the Devine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. And in Romans 9:20 says,
who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to Him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and one for dishonor?
Romans 8:28, 29 Says this about what plans God has for us and the form or image He wants to mold us into.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.Believers are to be conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ!
2 Corinthians 3:18 We all with a veiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as the spirit of the Lord.
No mater what we think God molds and shapes us, we don’t shape God. He will make us a vessel of honor (the image of his Son) or a vessel of dishonor. It’s up to us to place ourselves in his hands or to rebel against the Maker.
Allman Brothers Band
