God Or "God's"?

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/25ojox

I can still remember sitting in junior English class in high school and listening to the teacher give a lecture on Roman and Greek gods. I really didn’t have much interest in these gods since I already knew that there was only one true God. But that didn’t stop me from having to learn about these other gods in order to pass the exam.

Many of these gods had the same function, but had different names. Depending on their Roman or Greek name, we came to know them as the following:

· Artemis, Diana, goddess of hunting and childbirth.

· Ares, Mars, god of war.

· Aphrodite, Venus, goddess of love.

· Eros, Cupid, god of love.

· Poseidon, Neptune, god of the sea.

· Zeus, Jupiter, ruler of the gods.

These gods of mythology would interact with one another and suffer the consequences or reap the blessings. In many ways they were mortal like we are, making mistakes and showing their weaknesses. These gods held no interest to me. I grew up learning of an all powerful God, one who was everywhere, knew all things, was all powerful and was intimately aware of the details of each of our lives.

That God, the God of the Bible, is described in many ways throughout the pages of the holy book. He tells us how He created the universe, our planet and all of life. He also tells us that He wants us to acknowledge Him and worship and serve Him throughout our lives.

Listen to what God said through Moses in Exodus 20:2-6.

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

“You shall have no other gods before Me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image — any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

This God, our God, is a jealous God, but also a God that cares deeply for us. In fact, He loved us so much that He gave His only Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. But many people will reject not only the sacrifice of Jesus, but they will also reject the God of creation.

God exerted His supremacy in the reading above and Jesus likewise exerted an exclusive position in John 14:6, when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

God says that He is the only God. And Jesus says that the only way to that God is through Jesus. It seems so simple, yet throughout history mankind has continually sought to find other gods to worship.

One such departure from God was brought to a climax when Joshua called upon the people to make up their minds and choose a god to worship. We find this reading in Joshua 24:14-15.

“Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

God or gods? That remains the question even today. The one true God waits patiently for mankind to repent and follow after Him. But the reality is that mankind continues to manufacture more and more gods each generation.

Gone by the wayside are the gods of Zeus, Neptune and Diana, but in their places are the gods of sports, drugs and self-indulgence.

I’m thankful for great parents and friends who taught me from an early age that there is only one God, and that God knows me and cares for me and wants me to be with Him for eternity.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we be mindful of the influx of other gods into our society and may we always be on guard to protect our faith in the one true God. May we live our lives as a living testimony of the blessings that one can have by living a Christian life.

Our thought for the day: “God without man is still God; man without God is nothing.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.