Coach's Clipboard
Issue #508
May 21,  2018
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Dear Friends,

Thank you for your encouragement and support.  We pray you will be blessed daily through the Word. Please freely share this email with others.  

Continue to Catch Don!

  

 

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Bible Teaching Resources
Donald Anderson
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Powerless & Senseless is the Gods They Worship

Scripture
...they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats.  Psalm 115:7 (NIV)

Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.  Psalm 115:8 (NIV)
Powerless and Senseless is the Gods They Worship
 
Verse 7:   ...they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

Here in verse 7 we continue with our outline.  There were 4 things that were said about idols in verses 5 and 6: (1) "They have mouths but cannot speak"; (2) "eyes but they cannot see"; (3) "they have ears, but cannot hear"; (4) "noses, but they cannot smell."

Now here in verse 7 we have: (5) "hands, but cannot feel"; (6) "feet, but they cannot walk"; and (7) "nor can they utter a sound with their throats."

William Plumer said "Verses 5 - 7 contain a very remarkable instance of ridicule without unfairness.  Every sentence is just and candid.  There is no exaggeration, no coloring."

Verse 8:   Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

Whether you are actually the one who makes them or the one who trusts in them, everyone will be like them.

Warren Wiersbe says: "We become like the god we worship.  Those who worship silver and gold become like that - dear, lifeless and hard.  Many people are making a god of their own image.  But god made us in His image, and He wants us to have an active faith in Him."

Isaiah 44:9: "All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless.  Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame" (NIV).

James Boice said: "Idols not only mislead their worshipers, but they also debase them, which is why this section closes by saying, 'Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them' (v.8).  It means that human beings are drawn downward, not upward, by false gods."

To the Lord, idolatry is spiritual adultery.  Idolatry is anything that cools your desire for Christ.

Idols can be anything that steals the love that rightly belongs to the Lord.  Hunting, fishing, cars, computers, homes, hundred dollar bills, anything that would take that special place that belongs to the Lord and to the Lord alone is an idol.

The Psalmist says here in verse 8: "those who make them will be like them."  The same thing is true of those who walk intimately with the Lord.  We are progressively becoming more like Him.

My prayer this morning is: "Spirit of the Living God, make me more like my precious Savior!  Do in me that good work that makes me more Christlike!"

William Cowper said: "The dearest idol I have known, Whate'er that idol be, Help me to tear it from thy throne, And worship only Thee."

Jonah 2:8: "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs" (NIV).

Jesus is all I'll ever want.  Jesus is all I'll ever need.  Jesus is all I'll ever have.  He is more than enough!
Footprints
Praises & Prayer Request

1.  PrayNow concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.  Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.  1 Corinthians 8:1 (NASB) 

2.  Pray:   Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it?  Or an image that teaches lies?  For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.  Habakkuk 2:18 (NIV)

3.  Praise:   Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in you land to bow down before it.  I am the Lord your God.  Leviticus 26:1 (NIV)

4.  Pray:   For t he Board of Directors as they move forward under God's direction.

Please join me in singing verses 2 and 3 of "He Lives":

In all the world around me I see His loving care, And tho' my heart grows weary,
never will despair; I know that he is leading thro' all the stormy blast,
The day of His appearing will come at last.

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing 
Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King!  The Hope of all who seek Him,
the Help of all who find, None other is so loving, so good and kind.

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?  He lives within my heart.
Christ is All and in All,
 
Bible Teaching Resources

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)