Picturing Theology

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P i c t u r i n g T h e o l o g y

Giving Glory to God (continued)

c. The tendency to take the credit usually occurs when we segment God off to a little part of our lives, rather than seeing everything we do as capable of honoring or dishonoring God—everything!

The well-known Christian author, Keith Miller, makes this point well: “It has never ceased to amaze me that we Christians have developed a kind of selective vision which allows us to be deeply and sincerely involved in worship and church activities and yet almost totally pagan [oblivious to God] in the day-in, day-out guts of our business lives and never realize it.” B. Second, we can rob God of the praise and adoration he deserves by ascribing the glory we owe to him alone to someone or something else , Isa. 42.8. The threefold power grid of sin and substitute for God: money, sex, and power (greed, lust, and pride), 1 John 2.15-17; Exod. 20.2-3. It is possible to practice unconscious idolatry, even as a Christian, that is, to temporarily worship something else by giving it our love and allegiance. 1. You may worship the god of pleasure. 2. Many people today worship at the altar of greed and possession. (We live in a culture that glorifies acquisition, buying, selling, getting, as the most significant thing in our lives.) Between 1983 and 1988, Americans bought 62 million microwave ovens, 88 million cars and light trucks, 105 million color television sets, 63 million VCR’s, 31 million cordless phones, and 30 million telephone answering machines. ~ Newsweek 3. Do not worship the god of sport. 4. Offer no sacrifices to the god of marriage and family. 5. Do not seek to glorify the god of ethnicity and country.