idols of today.

So, I know I just wrote last night and it took me a while to do that, but I realized this morning that I really want to post this on my blog. This past summer for the first time I really started to long for missions... and I am still open to that and where that means God might want me to go. I try to explain my heart to people, and my words get jumbled, and they looked confused when I say that I would really like to go to New York or China. Why two such seperated places, and yet they have so much in common. I recently read an incredible book that I recommend to all, called Safely Home. There is like a page and a half that words the things that break my heart and so many others so much... and I just want to say, these words and struggles are not just of the culture of China or America as a whole, but of mine individually. That's why I have a heart for it, because I understand the struggle so much first hand.

Here are the words of Randy Alcorn... inspired by those fighting for Christ in the underground church of China.

"Look more carefully, Ben. Corruption is everywhere. Bribery is rampant. IN Beijing, wealthy parents have given gifts of refrigerators and computers to elementary teachers to get a 'fair' grade for their child. A hundred million peasants have left the countryside to search for quick riches in cities. They float from job to job. They fuel the profits of drug rings and commit many crimes. People think only about money these days. By some standards that is progress. Not by mine."
"What's the alternative? Do you prefer poverty?"
"I am no freind of poverty. But there is still poverty everywhere - men from good families turn to selling drugs; girls sell themselves. Men desperate to feed their families get middle-of-the-night drug deliveries at their houses. I have seen it happen. In our area last year seven people I knew took their lives, four of them elderly, whose gray heads should have been crowned with honor and respect. You know the meaning of jiangxi?"
"No."
"Despair of the elderly. Many commit suicide. With all the changes, the elderly feel out of place. Useless. Helpless. They do not know what their hearts are searching for. There is much depression in China, much hopelessness. Sometimes the poor believe wealth could make them happy. They kill themselves because they are not rich. Sometimes the rich lose everything in the stock market. Then they kill themselves. And sometimes they just keep making more money. And still they kill themselves..."
"...You see the outside. Do no confuse China's skin with her bones. yes, many people have a more comfortable life. The main goal is to make more money, to own more things. Posters of the money god are everywhere - on shop windows, at businesses, in homes. Getting rich is the main topic on television. I'm glad we do not have one. Money-god figures appear on the screen. We still have our old idols, the demons that have plagued China. And now we have your idols also."
"My idols?"
"America's idols. Materialism. Pleasure. Entertainment. Worship of celebrities. Obsession with sex. Food. Fame. All are idols, false gods. A wise pastor said China's problem used to be Maoism, but now it is Me-ism The problems on the outside are always easier to deal with than the problems inside..."
"...Do you not see the emptiness in her eyes? She has heard many promises in her life. All of them were broken. She has given up hope. Look around you, Ben. Of a hundre faces, at least ninety-five look like hers."

This is what gets to me... and I am sure so many of you. Realize these idols bring destruction. I've seen it in my own life. And I must surrender those idols every day.

"22Are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain?
Or can the heavens grant showers?
Is it not You, O LORD our God?
Therefore we hope in You,
For You are the one who has done all these things." - Jeremiah 14:22