True Worship - Rumor notes 134

 Revelation 14

6 I saw an angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal Good News to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation, tribe, language, and people. 7 He said with a loud voice, "Fear the Lord, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters!"

Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters

In context of what has just been discussed about judging God and the effects that can have on our perceptions and relationship to Him in our own lives, this call to worship Him simply amplifies what has already been exposed. To worship means to look to a source to define who we are, our identity, our purpose and sense of value and to show us how we fit in with everyone around us. Who we allow to define how to act like ourselves becomes the object of our worship. Worship has to do with worth, and worth involves how we value ourselves and feel worthy to receive attention, interest, affection and who we choose to trust. Worship involves who or what we love most, make our highest priority, receive what we believe will satisfy our longings and who or what shapes our character.

Worship also involves release of our authority. When we understand the true nature of authority as God designed it, worship takes on a whole new dimension in our relationship with God. Most people imagine that God's authority must be viewed as completely sovereign, meaning we are to live in fear of His awesome power that might be used to severely punish or destroy us if we do not follow the right protocols to prevent His wrath from falling on us. Yet all of this is actually worship as defined by the dragon, not the kind of worship and authority that God desires. For actual authority has been delegated out by God, entrusted to each one of us. It is embodied in our freedom to choose for ourselves whom we will serve, whom we will desire, admire, want to become like, pursue and use as our model and hero to become like. Thus true authority is released by us to empower either God or the dragon to have access to our heart, mind, spirit, soul and body that shapes us into their image.

In the previous verses we learned about how the 144,000 group obsess with following the Lamb wherever He goes. This is worship, and every one of us worship in one way or another. Those who choose to worship God as this angel calls us to do, come to desire to become completely reflective of the disposition and mindset the Lamb exhibits. They come to see that God is completely like the Lamb, and they desire to reflect that glory without resistance in their own lives and be transformed into His image and likeness. They sing praises to the Lamb, they dress like the Lamb, they think and react and love like the Lamb until their characters are so set into the Lamb's way of living that nothing will ever be able to alter their passion to live forever in the presence of the Lamb with joy unspeakable and full of glory. (See quote at the end of this document.)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy became our father again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn't fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials, that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ – whom not having known you love; in whom, though now you don't see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory – receiving the result of your faith, the salvation [healing transformation] of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

This is true worship, and it puts God's judgment in a new light, for judgment is what we do, not what God does to us. We are given the role of judging God, and we are called to do so by worshiping Him as worthy of our own trust, admiration, allegiance and as our Source of joy. As we continue to do this we reflect Him and become more and more like Him until we are fitted to enter the glorious presence of His unveiled passion to experience joy as never before. By worshiping the One who created us and everything around us, we are reintegrated back into our unique place in His circuit of love by consenting to allow Him to restore us to our design for intimate relationship with Him at the maximum level of capacity for joy. This introduces a whole different perspective to this message about judgment than most of us have ever imagined.

This is the kind of worship glimpsed in chapters 4 and 5 where we watch with amazement as the entire universe is caught up in ecstasy and wonder over the greatness of God that is beyond comprehension. Such worship is saturated with appreciation of His true character and views His actions as only revealing love despite the distortions affecting how He has been viewed historically. As the unfolding truth about Him continues to expand through revelations of the Lamb as laid out in chapter 5 and the rest of this book, praise, honor and awe increases until at last darkness can no longer obscure or deny it, and every sentient being in the universe comes to conclude that God is true and right, and in no way has He ever been devious or complicit with the ways of darkness.

Note the contrast between the motives for worship of the beast and the dragon in the previous chapter, to the motives for worshipping the true God listed here. The dragon relies on threats of punishment, violence and death to elicit worship, the exact opposite of giving life more abundantly.

When the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever, and throw their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed, and were created!" (Revelation 4:9-11)

The four living creatures said, "Amen!" The elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5:14)

All the angels were standing around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before his throne, and worshiped God, (Revelation 7:11)

The twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God's throne, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: "We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was; because you have taken your great power, and reigned. The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints, and those who fear your name, to the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth." (Revelation 11:16-18)

He said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" He said to me, "These are true words of God." I fell down before his feet to worship him. He said to me, "Look! Don't do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy." (Revelation 19:9-10)

Now I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who had shown me these things. He said to me, "See you don't do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God." (Revelation 22:8-9)

What caused John to impulsively fall down to worship his angel attendant? Understand that the nature of worship is looking to a source to define us, yet the only valid Source for anyone to worship is the One who has inherent life and for whom all creation is designed to reflect. This angel had personal experience observing the fallout from what had transpired after the highest created angel in the universe started to solicit and later even to demand worship from other created beings. John's escort knew firsthand the tragic consequences of misdirected worship, so he was highly sensitive to the dangers of receiving worship that belonged solely to God. No angel can create or provide the power of life to anyone like the Godhead does, so to allow a human being to focus their worship on a created angel was like tempting the angel to indulge in the very sin that was part of the downfall of Lucifer, and this angel guide wanted nothing to do with that. He did not want John to mistake his angel guide as being somehow more important or valuable than John himself as a human being. They were fellow servants, meaning they were equals from heaven's perspective, and John needed to be reminded of that in order to avoid slipping into angel worship simply out of awe of the advantages of power and perspective they can use to serve us here on earth.

Again, when he brings in the firstborn into the world he says, "Let all the angels of God worship him." (Hebrews 1:6)

We must be extremely careful to not allow any other being, natural or supernatural, to define who we are or who we reflect other than the Ones who created us in Their image. To do so is to worship a false god in place of God, and our Creator who designed us to find our true fulfillment and greatest joy through fellowship and intimacy with His heart of passionate love, is very jealous for our highest affections, not because there are any other legitimate options competing with Him but because He does not want any of His children to be lost, for it grieves His heart when we are seduced into seeking fulfillment from inferior sources that only exploit us and rob us of our inheritance as children of our Father in heaven.

for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (Exodus 34:14)

He said to him, "I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'" (Matthew 4:9-10)

You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:4-8)

You worship that which you don't know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:22-24)

How can we worship that which we don't know? We do it all the time, yet because we don't realize what worship is or how we worship substitute gods, we can be oblivious to how deeply involved we are in worship of lesser gods from how we were created to live reflecting the God of love.

Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:24-25)

For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18-19 NAS95)

He spoke a parable to them, saying, "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly. He reasoned within himself, saying, 'What will I do, because I don't have room to store my crops?' He said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. I will tell my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry."' (Luke 12:16-19)

Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. (Romans 16:17-18 NAS95)

Don't love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father's love isn't in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn't the Father's, but is the world's. The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God's will remains forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

Idolatry is simply choosing other sources as gods to define our identity, worth, and who to emulate.

Lust means that we want something very intensely and we want it immediately to the point of violating healthy principles and freedom. We are willing to seize something we crave at the expense of integrity. Lust is perverted natural desires supercharged with demonic zeal that can transform something beautiful into a tragedy by subverting our free will to indulge in harmful activity and relationships rather than living in harmony with life-giving principles guided by the Spirit of God.

Lust of the flesh involves looking for satisfaction and fulfillment through sensory stimulation of the bodies nervous system physically. This can come in many varieties under this category of lust related to the literal flesh as well as the fallen nature of humanity. One example of this is appetite, for while a healthy appetite is certainly not sinful, when we allow food or drink or mind-altering substances or other ingestible products to hijack our will, we become slaves to our appetite and allow demonic spirits to hold us hostage in habits and impulsive addictions that debilitate our physical capacity to think and reason and be in health.

Another example is lust for sexual stimulation in all its myriad forms. Again, sex inherently is not evil, for God designed it as an introduction to the kind of intimacy we are created to experience with the divine. Yet this important asset gifted to humans is exploited by the enemy of our souls who does everything possible to distort, abuse, exploit and entangle it with fear, violence and shame. This defaces the image of God in His children on earth. Lust debases sex into self-gratification rather than a mutual celebration of God's design for expanding agape life.

Lust of the eyes is not merely an obsession with looking for natural beauty. Again, God designed us to appreciate and enjoy the beautiful, but lust involves exploiting beauty in ways to deceive, to seduce others with temptations to violate integrity and ignore the principles of love and truth and freedom. This can involve exploiting inherent natural beauty gifted to individuals to attract increased attention from others, to draw as many eyes as possible to gaze at them or what they can produce in order to build up a sense of worth based on externals. Lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes are mated to strengthen each other while bringing to ruin those on both sides of that equation.

Pride of life has to do with denial that our identity and worth comes only and directly from God. Pride involves attempting to fill the void created deep inside our psyche from this disconnect from God by distrust and unbelief. Pride surrounds us with substitutes designed to elicit admiration, respect and honor from others to create a sense of value and importance. Pride is not limited to religious arrogance but infects most all humanity because it reflects the disposition of the originator of sin. Lucifer came to imagine his value was rooted in his superior capacities, thinking they inherently made him better than everyone else. This was because he came to deny that all he had was entrusted to him as gifts by his creator. The result was pride that caused him to abuse his gifts and denigrate the principles of love defining God's kingdom that interfered with his agenda to exalt himself.

You said in your heart, "I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!" (Isaiah 14:13-14)

Pride is artificial identity constructed from external attributes, achievements or acquired wealth that attempts to both fill and hide the emptiness resulting from unbelief in God as the only source of worth.

behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is hidden from you; by your wisdom and by your understanding you have gotten you riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasures; by your great wisdom and by your traffic have you increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches-- (Ezekiel 28:3-5)

The reason we are considering all these things is because they are directly related to this first angel's message calling all to look back to our Origin as the only source from which we can receive life, identity and find our true value apart from any other venue or substitute. Sin subverts the truth about our relationship and total dependence on God for everything. Thus our greatest need in order to enter into life again is to worship the God of love who created everything and everyone. This requires turning our attention away from ourselves, our efforts to impress others, our false reasoning that worth and identity is derived from what we do or what we have, to worship the One who alone is fully trustworthy, the One who is only love, light and truth and who alone can save us from our sins.

All the children of Israel looked on, when the fire came down, and the glory of Yahweh was on the house; and they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped, and gave thanks to Yahweh, saying, For he is good; for his loving kindness endures for ever. (2 Chronicles 7:3)

Worship Yahweh in holy array. Tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, "Yahweh reigns." The world is also established. It can't be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and its fullness! Let the field and all that is in it exult! Then all the trees of the woods shall sing for joy before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth. (Psalms 96:9-13)

The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things. He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.' Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man. The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead." (Acts 17:24-31)

There are key issues identified in this passage we should pay attention to. First, the God of heaven created everything and everyone; there is no one else that can legitimately claim this. That means He owns everything and everyone simply because He is our origin. He is Creator, and to deny that is to challenge our own existence. Satan cannot claim that he created us, for he knows that would be so absurd it would easily expose him as a fraud. Yet he undermines this truth with specious theories such as evolution that leads millions to distrust God and to even doubt His existence.

What is more effective is to lead us to imagine God relates to us through the system of relative relationships as invented by Satan, the system of trading and exchange. When this paradigm defines how we relate, we imagine that God expects worship and service in exchange for providing for our needs. This is where the subtle nature of Satan's deceptions gain traction and how he is able to get us to worship alternative gods that operate within his system of social hierarchy.

Any god who can be influenced, leveraged or manipulated by gifts, sacrifices or acts of obedience are foreign to God's design for creation reflective of His character. Paul points out that God has no needs; God doesn't need a place to live, so building a temple or house for Him to live in from heaven's perspective is nonsensical. Additionally, God already owns everything, and because He is Spirit He has no need to eat physical food, so attempting to entice or bribe Him with gifts of food or sex or anything that appeals to humans is likewise absurd. Yet all of these things have infiltrated our perceptions about God and is how pagans relate to their pantheon of gods. Sadly these same notions have infiltrated Christian teachings about what God expects or demands from His subjects.

When we believe that God takes offense when we sin or fail to perfectly obey His laws and commands, that is a sure sign we view God as relating to us in the mindset of the trading system invented by Lucifer. An offense is the equivalent of a debt, and according to that system all debts and credits must be zeroed out to balance each other out, whether in the financial arena or in the emotional realm. This concept of zero-sum accounting permeates all of Satan's counterfeit kingdom while the means of motivating people are enticements of reward and fear of punishment.

The notion that God becomes angry or offended when others don't do what He wants originates with the gods of this world. It is a most sinister and subtle deception designed to keep us enslaved to fear and easily manipulated by those under the dragon's influence. Paul in his speech to pagans points out that the God who created all of us as one single family, is not at all influenced or swayed by our attempts to relate to Him transactionally like pagan gods demand. Rather we were created for fulfillment through intimacy grow to know the love that alone brings real fulfillment for our cravings to thrive in joy, peace and love. This defines the deepest craving of every human heart, but these cravings have been hijacked and manipulated by the enemy with lies about why we feel them in the first place and where to find satisfaction.

...that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

This intimacy with our Father who created us can be glimpsed throughout history. This is the kind of worship God wants from us, free of all fear, shame or dark feelings about Him.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says Yahweh, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end. You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and you will live..." (Amos 5:4)

But Israel shall be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation: you shall not be disappointed nor confounded world without end. For thus says Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn't create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited: I am Yahweh; and there is no one else. I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness; I didn't say to the seed of Jacob, Seek you me in vain: I, Yahweh, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations: they have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can't save. Declare you, and bring it forth; yes, let them take counsel together: who has shown this from ancient time? who has declared it of old? Haven't I, Yahweh? and there is no God else besides me, a just God and a Savior; there is no one besides me. Look to me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:17-22)

Therefore don't be anxious, saying, 'What will we eat?', 'What will we drink?' or, 'With what will we be clothed?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first God's Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:31-33)

For what great nation is there, that has a god so near to them, as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him? (Deuteronomy 4:7)

The anger of Yahweh shall not return, until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly. I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I didn't speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. Am I a God at hand, says Yahweh, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Yahweh. Don't I fill heaven and earth? says Yahweh. (Jeremiah 23:20-24)

This is the polar opposite of the kind of worship that transforms people into acting like demons. Selfishness, lust for power, greed, pride along with hatred, shame, condemnation and worldly justice all come from imagining that God is more like the beast rather than purely like the Lamb. This is what is unmasked in chapter 13, but here we see its counterpart in this angel's invitation to have our hearts realigned to know the One whose power alone saves us from our sins through the revelation of His graciousness, kindness and love.

This highlights the core issue of choice, the most powerful part about us we have been given. Each person is being brought to a point of decision as to what they will embrace as their concept of God and how He relates to them. The evidence of our choice is the way in which we relate to others.

Seek you Yahweh while he may be found; call you on him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7)

Additional notes:

In my ongoing study of Matthew 12 I am discovering more insights about this issue of worship and how much danger we can be in when it comes to our ideas and beliefs about worship. The Pharisees reacted violently when Jesus performed certain miracles involving exorcising demons that inhibited people from seeing or speaking, and especially when the title 'son of David' was invoked in connection to such miracles. King David, in the mind of the religiously and politically powerful in Jesus' day, was a hero they wanted to see replicated in triumphal accomplishments of the Messiah they put all their hopes in to forcibly rid them of the tyranny of Roman occupation. They thirsted for a powerful champion to launch a revolution similar to how David consolidated power in the many victories that culminated in the glory days of Solomon when their nation achieved a pinnacle of worldly honor.

The religious leaders in Jesus' day promoted the belief that the promised Messiah would restore them to a kingdom of earthly prestige and power once again, only this time their nation would rule the world forever as apparently prophesied in the Old Testament. Thus the title 'son of David' was linked closely with this vision of glory and power achieved by military might that would replicate David's exploits just as he conquered the giant against all odds at the outset of his career before becoming king.

Then one possessed by a demon, blind and mute, was brought to him and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. All the multitudes were amazed, and said, "Can this be the son of David?"

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons." (Matthew 12:22-24)

This confrontation has many nuances to it that would take too long to unpack here. However they are addressed in another document that is part of a series I am currently doing on Matthew 12, but I will try to summarize it briefly here.

When it says that this man delivered from demon possession was able to both speak and see after being healed, we find resonance in passages throughout Scripture linking seeing, speaking and hearing with the condition of the heart. The condition of this man symbolized the spiritual condition exposed in the light of the One who liberated this man trapped by demonic oppression.

A tradition originated in the story of David (2 Samuel 5:6-8) when he evicted the Jebusites and captured their city to make it his capital. This tradition was then passed down generationally all the way to Jesus' time. Even then the blind and the lame were considered cursed by God and deserving of 'just' punishment, so to heal such individuals was seen as defiance against clear judgments of God on people who deserved this condition. These stories in Jesus' life this phrase Son of David is elicited, when viewed from this perspective, makes those events more significant than simply a title tossed about loosely. In fact, Jesus' interactions with the blind and the lame were a direct challenge to the curse invoked by David as Jesus, the Son of David, came to revoke that curse from David.

Applying this title to Jesus incensed and aroused intense fury of religious leaders, causing them to fiercely accuse Him of being in league with the devil. Yet what actually was being exposed was the fact that their god very different from the Father God Jesus came to reveal, for their gods were anchored in their expectations of raw power from God in the Messiah they wanted Him to send.

What they were putting their hopes in to save them was little different than worshipping crude manufactured idols that they studiously avoided in their dogged pursuit of personal righteousness. Yet they, like so many yet today, failed to realize that strongly held traditions, dogmas and assertions about what God must do to save us can be an idol just as any carved image might be.

It is as easy to make an idol of false doctrines and theories as to fashion an idol of wood or stone. By misrepresenting the attributes of God, Satan leads men to conceive of Him in a false character. With many, a philosophical idol is enthroned in the place of Jehovah; while the living God, as He is revealed in His word, in Christ, and in the works of creation, is worshiped by but few. Thousands deify nature while they deny the God of nature. Though in a different form, idolatry exists in the Christian world today as verily as it existed among ancient Israel in the days of Elijah. The god of many professedly wise men, of philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists--the god of polished fashionable circles, of many colleges and universities, even of some theological institutions--is little better than Baal, the sun-god of Phoenicia. {GC 583.1}

No outward shrines may be visible, there may be no image for the eye to rest upon, yet we may be practicing idolatry. It is as easy to make an idol of cherished ideas or objects as to fashion gods of wood or stone. Thousands have a false conception of God and his attributes. They are as verily serving a false god as were the servants of Baal. Are we worshiping the true God as he is revealed in his word, in Christ, in nature, or are we adoring some philosophical idol enshrined in his place? God is a God of truth. Justice and mercy are the attributes of his throne. He is a God of love, of pity, and tender compassion. Thus he is represented in his Son, our Saviour. He is a God of patience and long-suffering. If such is the being whom we adore, and to whose character we are seeking to assimilate, we are worshiping the true God. {ST, Feb. 8, 1883 par. 2}