The Dream

THE DREAM

Recently, I had a dream.  That’s not unusual.  Since I was young, I’ve always had a very active dream life, and I tend to remember dreams, particularly those that wake me up.  In this particular dream, I was visiting with a church member (not a real one, just a character in the dream), a young woman who was pregnant.  I was curious about her and her husband’s absence from church, fearing she might be having difficulty with the pregnancy.  She responded,  “Oh, no, everything’s fine.  We were just worshiping Zeus on Sunday.”  I was shocked that she so flippantly admitted to worshiping a false god rather than the One True God, and that she and her husband had exposed themselves and their unborn child to the demonic presence that permeates all false worship.

In the first century world, there was always the temptation on the part of the early Christians to return to the worship of the ancient gods.  That temptation is alive and well still today.  I awoke pondering what Greek gods might be worshiped in our day, not literally of course, but in the spirit of the areas of life they represented.

ZEUS was the top god in the Greek pantheon.  He was also the god of weather, particularly of storms.  “It’s too hot, too cold, too windy, too rainy to go to church today...”

HELIOS was the god of the sun.  “It’s such a beautiful day, far too nice out to be cooped up inside at church...”

PAN was the god of nature.  “I can worship God better out in nature than in a building...”

HYPNOS was the Greek god of sleep. “I’m too tired to make it today.  I’ve had a rough week...”

AERGIA was the Greek god of leisure.  “I’d rather do (insert something fun) than go to church today...”

ERIS was the Greek goddess of discord.  “The preacher/deacon/Sunday School teacher/member made me mad!  I’m never going back to church!”

DIONYSUS was the Greek god of festivities and the theater (entertainment).  Our culture is consumed by entertainment, often to the exclusion of what’s really important.

HERMES was the Greek god of sports.  “My kid has to be on this travel sport team playing somewhere in some tournament every weekend to have any chance of a scholarship.”  There are 7.9 million high school athletes in the United States.  Only 180,000 of them will get any sports-related college aid, far fewer a full ride.  That’s 0.0227% of a scholarship.  There is an absolute, unchangeable 100% chance that your child will one day stand before God.

PONOS was the Greek god of labor.  In our 24/7 world, sometimes people must work on Sundays.  Even in the days of the so-called “blue laws,” doctors, nurses, and police officers all had to work on Sundays.  But there is a big difference between having to work on Sunday and choosing work above worship on Sunday.  As Charles Spurgeon said, anyone who has so much work that he can’t pause on Sunday and Wednesday for a few hours to worship God has more work than God intended him to have, and he might check on who it is who is sending him that business!

HESTIA was the goddess of the home, household chores and the family.  “There’s so much to do around this house!  I’ve got to get it straightened up before I go back to work tomorrow.”  And then there’s “It’s more important to spend time with my family than be in church.”  What could be more important than spending time with your family in church, exposing your children to the gospel?

Obviously, there is nothing wrong with family time.  It’s important to spend time with the family.  And taking care of our homes is a part of our stewardship of the blessings that God has bestowed on us.  Meaningful work, since the Garden of Eden, and on into eternity, is a part of God’s plans for humanity.  Sports and appropriate entertainment are some of the good things that God gives us for our delight.  Offenses, the Bible says, are sure to come, but it also tells us that we are responsible for forgiving and working through those offenses, not writing people off, and certainly not writing the church off.  Rest and leisure are good things, so much so that God Himself demonstrated a Sabbath day of rest for us.  And certainly, nature testifies to us of the greatness of our Lord.  

But like all of the good gifts that God has given us, the devil wants to pervert God’s gifts by getting them out of their proper perspective, out of their proper order in our lives.  The gifts must never become more important than the gift-giver.  Anything that takes precedence over God and His worship becomes an idol, a “little g” god that comes between us and “big G” God.  And that’s not good.  Ever.

So let’s prioritize Sunday as the Lord’s day.  Let’s commit ourselves to being in the Lord’s house, on the Lord’s day, with the Lord’s people, singing the Lord’s praises, hearing the Lord’s Word, just like the Lord said.  

Numbers 6:24-26.

Bro. Donnie