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Twenty-three years as a Christian and this is the first time I remember ever having heard this phrase: the de-Godding of God. It still gives me chills to think about it.

The phrase came from Mr. Carson’s message on Sunday morning. And, at this point in his message, he was speaking about how the Word confronts and divides us. He dissected this by saying, “God’s love is not awesome because the world is so big, but because the world [the object of his love] is so bad…The world did not recognize him. That is unfathomably bad. The world that he had made didn’t even recognize him…receive him…The most heinous thing that we do is not rape. The most heinous thing that we human beings do is not genocide. The most heinous thing that we do, we humans, is not lying. The most heinous thing that we do…is ignore our maker. It’s the sin that you always commit when you commit any other sin….idolatry. It is the de-Godding of God.”

Yep. See what I mean?! How many times a day do I ignore my maker? How often do I choose my own preferences and will, my comfort and pleasure instead of obedience to Christ? How often do I stand at the foot of Mt. Sinai (like the Israelites) getting distracted with my wants and desires and choose to make an idol rather than wait for the glory of God? A lot. Pretty much more than I want to admit. I make an idol of sleep and skip my time with the Lord. I make an idol of my money and spend it the way I want. I make an idol of food and eat what I want rather than seeking to honor God with what I eat. I make an idol of relationships instead of seeing them as totally undeserved blessings from him. I make idols all day long. I set them up on their own pillars. I name them, justify their existence and worship them. I de-God God.

Oh but this message brings such HOPE! I am not left to figure out where to go from here! Jesus Christ took on flesh – God and human being at the same time – to save this wretched sinner. Every time I look to the cross, I see the sacrifice he made. I see the love he has for this bad world, the world that he came to die for. And there is grace to change, through this finished work on the cross!

Through the kindness of the Holy Spirit’s conviction, I have since become aware of areas of my life (patterns of sin such as impatience and laziness) that I have chosen to make idols of by de-Godding God. And by his grace, I am changing! I am choosing not to make an idol of self, and in so doing ignore God, but to see him as the preeminent Christ who came to earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, rose again, and ascended to the throne where he is seated at the Father’s right hand!! This is my Maker.