Ever Look to God.

 Yesterday we talked a little about having object to remind us of God's Word, God's Commandments.  

Deu 6:4  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 

Deu 6:5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 

Num 15:37  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 

Num 15:38  Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: 

Num 15:39  And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: 

Num 15:40  That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God. 

Num 15:41  I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.

Were the children of Israel told to worship the blue ribboned fringes on the borders of their garments?

No. 

They were told that when they look at it they would REMEMBER.

They were told to put the blue ribbon with fringes on their clothes… clothes they wear every day, and when they would happen to look upon that blue ribbon and fringes they were to REMEMBER to do ALL God's commandments, and to be HOLY to God.

Reminders, not items to worship.

The clothes you wear, you see them constantly. I see my jeans and my tee-shirt, my shoes. None of my clothing is blue ribbon fringed. I mentioned yesterday that I wear tee-shirts with Jesus (Biblical) themes. I am reminded of God when I wear them. Because I wear them often it's odd to me when I don't have one on and it seems strange, because I have to admit, I try to be aware that I am representing my Lord when I visibly wear a shirt proclaiming as much. Do I need reminding, do I need to be aware of being a representative of Christ? I do, I'm so far from perfect, I really do. 

Is that what God wanted though? For those wearing the ribbons and fringes to be reminded to represent God, or to be reminded to do all God's commandments, to be Holy to God. 

Num 15:41  I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.

Perhaps a reminder that I'm representing the God I proclaim to represent by wearing my tee-shirts, is a reminder of God to me, because to represent Him I need to be reminded of Him. How others view my behavior in light of my proclamation means something. If I didn't wear my belief in God for all to see I have no reason to think that anyone would associate my scowling face with God. Yet, if I walk around with a scowl on my face and I love God on my tee shirt, clearly it may appear differently. Oh, I KNOW that Christians ARE not perfect, but forgiven, still… we need to put God first in all things and that does mean trusting in Him in all things. That means God brought me out of my sin life and into new life in Him- the former things of my life before Him are not to be treated as acceptable, but tragic temptations, tragic sins that easily beset me, tragic sins that need forgiveness and to be forsaken in repentance. 

You can tell by reading this that it truly is a personal study I'm undertaking. I'm searching just as many others are. I'm in this spiritual battle just as so many others are. My warfare is real, the weapons I have are those given to me by God- His Word is my sword. 

The fringes and ribbon reminders of our God… the ONE and ONLY GOD, the GOD THAT SAVES. OUR GOD who COMMANDS US. We ARE to remember that He commands us, our love, and He is love. 

We CANNOT worship anything other than GOD- not a single item we see are we to worship!

God alone is to be WORSHIPED. God alone!

Let us be reminded of GOD alone. No statue, no jewelry, no shirt, no building can replace GOD. We must find God in SPIRIT beyond all outward displays of any kind. No object I hold replaces GOD not even the written WORD, because Psa_119:11  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  The word must be written in my heart! 

Joh_4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

I am not to worship the Bible, but the GOD who authored the Bible! The very same God who authored the Bible can bring any and all of the Bible to my mind if He so chooses. The word of God is there for me to read, praise God, but I am not to worship the Bible itself.  The Bible was burned by many and the tragedy of that was it was done to keep the words of truth from people. When the Bible was burned, God wasn't burned, He lives always! He is living truth! 

There are a lot of good things done with various things, but the things themselves should never be worshiped, never.

Let us ever look to GOD.  All by His grace and mercy, His love! 

(Excerpt)

April 9, 1901

“The Keeping of the Commandments. The Second Commandment” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 78, 15, p. 232.

“I AM the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” 

We have seen that no similitude or likeness was seen on Sinai when God spoke His law, though there were many similitudes and likenesses there. We have seen that this was so, especially “lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image” or likeness. And thus in the Second Commandment there is forbidden, in the worship of God, the use of any similitude or likeness of any kind in any way whatever. 

Yet there are a great number of professed Christians who use images, similitudes, and likenesses in abundance in their professed worship of God. This is worth inquiring into. 

“This first introduction of a symbolic worship was in the veneration of the cross and of relics.”—Gibbons. In “honor” of Christ and the martyrs. 

And the first introduction of the cross as a visible symbol was by Constantine, and in the midst of that flood of evil that made the papacy. 

It is true that the sign of the cross was used as early as the days of Tertullian; but it was only a sign, made with a motion of the hand upon the forehead or breast. 

Constantine enlarged upon this by the introduction of the visible cross itself: in the Labarum. He erected in Rome his own statue, “bearing a cross in its right hand, with an inscription which referred the victory of his arms and the deliverance of Rome to that salutary sign, the true symbol of force and courage. 

“The same symbol sanctified the arms of the soldiers of Constantine; the cross glittered on their helmets, was engraved on their shields, was interwoven into their banners; and the consecrated emblems which adorned the person of the emperor himself were distinguished only by richer materials and more exquisite workmanship.” 

The Labarum was “a long pike intersected by a transversal beam,” forming a cross. “The silken veil which hung down from the beam was curiously inwrought with the images of the reigning monarch and his children. The summit of the pike supported a crown of gold, which inclosed the mysterious monogram, at once expressive of the figure of the cross and the initial letters of the name of Christ.” 

The basis of all this was the fiction and the imposture of Constantine’s “vision of the cross.” And from it “the Catholic Church, both of the East and of the West, has adopted a prodigy which favors, or seems to favor, the popular worship of the cross.” 

Under Constantine’s patronage also, “magnificent churches were erected by the emperor in Rome, adorned with images and pictures, where the bishop sat on a lofty throne, encircled by inferior priests, and performing rites borrowed from the splendid ceremonial of the pagan temple.”—Lawrence.

Pictures were used first. The introduction of these pictures was made under the plea that they were useful to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heathen proselytes. What some person imagined and produced as a picture of Christ, would be painted on the wall or window; and these people would gaze upon that, and sail away upon a sea of their own imagination. In this they thought they were contemplating Christ, and honoring Him, and indeed worshiping Him. But it was as sheer idolatry as ever was. They were only worshiping themselves, in their own imaginings. Never yet has there been made a picture of Christ. All that ever pretended to be such are only idolatrous imagings. 

Soon images were set up along with the pictures, and thus “by a slow, though inevitable, progression, the honors of the original were transferred to the copy; the devout Christian prayed before the image of a saint; and the pagan rites of genuflexion, luminiaries, and incense again stole into the Catholic Church. The scruples of reaon or piety were silenced by the strong evidence of visions and miracles; and the pictures which speak, and move, and bleed, must be endowed with a divine energy, and may be considered as the proper objects of religious adoration.” 

And thus “the use and even the worship of images was firmly established before the end of the sixth century [before A.D. 600]; they were fondly cherished by the warm imagination of the Greeks and Asiatics; the pantheon and Vatican were adorned with the emblems of a new superstition.... The style and sentiments of a Byzantine hymn will declare how far their worship was removed from the grossest idolatry: ‘How can we with mortal eyes contemplate this image, whose celestial splendor the host of heaven presumes not to behold? He who dwells in heaven condescends this day to visit us by His venerable image. He who is seated on the cherubim visits us this day by a picture which the Father has delineated with His immaculate hand; which He has formed in an ineffable manner; and which we sanctify by adoring it with fear and love.’”—Gibbon. '