Got idols?

Never seen American Idol, except for the British version where the Paul Potts fellow wows the judges and the audience with his rendition of Puccini's Nessun dorma. I've seen that about 20 times on youtube like the rest of you and if you have not, and you are reading this, chagrined that you've not yet seen it, you have my permission, no, an injunction to go, now, do not stop to put the clothes in the dryer or to pay the bills, go now to watch it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA . Ok. Now you've been bowled over by that beauty, by the portly man with the bad teeth, whose voice slays you where you sit, I want to wonder something about jealousy and beauty.

• Is he who made us righteous in his jealousy when we worship another? (This query, assumes that God did indeed make us; does it not follow that if he did indeed make us, his authorship gives him per se jealous authority? )

• Are you like me when you experience beauty in any form, do you desire more of it, with increased exposure to the degree that it, the beautiful, whatever the form of it is ALL you want?

• Is this craving for beauty our inheritance from Mother Eve whose eyes were saucers and whose ears were beguiled by the subtle serpent?

• Do you want beauty itself to be enough of a god?

• When you are transfixed, and it, the beautiful (thing, idea, man, woman, animal, created thing, otherwise or combination of any of the above) is the object of one's affection to the extent that God takes a back seat, would you consider that idolatry?

• Can beauty be a true virtue if there's no acknowledgement of the allotter of the beauty?
  

I heard a sermon last week that touched on beauty and its submission to the truth, the verity of the Gospel. The speaker's point almost threw me. He was asserting that an object, a person, or a thing evoking desire, (fill in the blank, food, art, a lover) by itself in all its splendor is simply straw, grass, and in fact destructive if it is not subject to the Gospel.



I found myself posturing and defending. I know posts like this aren't popular and that to some readers, a concept like idolatry is outdated and irrelevant.
When I first heard his words, I bristled, knowing there are things, ideas, objects, persons, (you name it), that are, for lack of a better word, above God.



I repent. God have mercy.



Derek Webb, a new favorite writer has a song entitled "I repent" it's not so much about beauty, but it is a song soaked in beauty and rich in the gospel message. Derek seems to be repenting of the American gospel message. Check out his site: www.derekwebb.com


I hope my questions will unnerve you a little like they do me, and I hope you'll investigate the beauty giver, the one who spoke creation in to being- Jesus

we are all goners and without a prayer save for Christ's finished work.



here's Derek's song:
I Repent words and music by derek webb

i repent, i repent of my pursuit of america's dream
i repent, i repent of living like i deserve anything
of my house, my fence, my kids, my wife in
our suburb where we're safe and white

i am wrong and of these things i repent
i repent, i repent of parading my liberty
i repent. i repent of paying for what i get for free
and for the way i believe that i am living right
by trading sins for others that are easier to hide
i am wrong and of these things i repent

bridge

i repent judging by a law that even i can't keep
of wearing righteousness like a disguise
to see through the planks in my own eyes
i repent, i repent of trading truth for false unity
i repent, i repent of confusing peace and idolatry
by caring more of what they think
than what i know of what we need
by domesticating you until you look just like me
i am wrong and of these things i repent