Fear No Fear

“And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them, “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough; here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”” (1 Kings 12:28, LEB). It is NEVER a good idea to operate outside what God told you to do. It’s just foolishness. Jeroboam was looking at things from his eyes only. He was anxious and gave into fear. He could have trusted God to see him through and to keep the hearts of the people with him, but he chose to make his own way. He didn’t even do the wrong thing the right way. He doubled down and had the people of Israel mixing worship of Yahweh with idolatry (something the Samaritans have held to for thousands of years and continue even today). This was the worst of two worlds. Yet it is something we do almost DAILY. We decide that we don’t like something that God says is right. So we change the instructions. We write over His clean ones with our sloppy crayons. And try to claim it’s what He ‘really meant’. We blame translations (even though they all say the same thing in slightly different ways). We sometimes even remove verses. We ignore grammar. We even ignore the fact that some buzzwords we vigorously point out are not in the bible, are words invented in the last few hundred years and were used so modern readers would understand the ancient concept. We like to do it OUR way, and then claim that is what God IS, or God WANTED, or God MEANT. As if He needs our help to get a message, instruction, command, or statute to us. News flash? He doesn’t. He says what He means. His point of view is correct. Instead of trying to change His instructions, ignore His moral point of view, or mix proper worship with improper, WE need to change. It is OUR responsibility to get into affinity with Him. To align with HIM. It is us in Jesus that enables us to be blessed. Get connected to Him and then don’t moove from that spot.