Who is your God?

Reading through Jeremiah, I can't help but be struck by how much the situation in Israel just before the Captivity reminds me of many aspects of current American culture. Israel placed her trust in her own strength and wealth, and followed whatever gods she felt would enhance those. The king and leaders, as well as many of the people, ignored the Lord unless they needed a favor from Him. As their situation became more precarious, they did start to call out to God, but they did so while presenting themselves as faithful and worthy of God's intervention.

It's not a reflection of a genuine faith ion God to turn to Him when all else has failed. As He reminds us through Jeremiah, when people turn to other gods He will let them continue to get their help from those gods. Israel had reached a point at which they were ripe for a well-deserved judgment, and the Lord wasn't about to accept half-hearted efforts to ask Him for help.

I think that in many ways our culture has pursued other gods-not carved images, but things like money, success, fame, and position. Even good things like family and church can become a false god when put in the place that the Lord deserves. It may well be that when we scramble back to God in times of trouble He could say to us, "Go ask the god you've been serving for its help."

Is judgment in our future? I can't say that. I can say that what our society values and pursues are gods that can't help us, and that God may well let us reap the consequences of pursuing those gods. But I also know that He is merciful, and that if His people turn to Him, and the Holy Spirit works in hearts, we can see a revival in our churches and a great harvest of those who turn to the Lord.

I certainly am concerned about what I see happening in our culture. The stories I see on the news show that there is no value given to serving the Lord, and little even to serving others. People seem to be concerned almost exclusively with their own desires, and that brings about breakdowns in relationships, crimes against others who have what we want or are in the way of us getting it, and an obsession with and greedy hoarding of material possessions. I don;t see the love and mercy of Christ reflected in society as a whole, and, sadly, sometimes not even in the church.

A former pastor of mine had a vision for our church, which he summed up as, "We need to love people until they ask us why." That vision has carried on even though he has moved on, and our church strives to show the love of Jesus in our community to open doors to the gospel. We are still working on it, but I see progress. I think that attitude needs to be lived out in our culture, to show people what it means to turn from gods of self to the God who made us. As we do, we can expect the Spirit to work through us to touch our society for Jesus.