Surface-to-Air Missile.

God loves Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene.

I am convinced of that love because of Scripture. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…”. Because we are included in the world, we are included in His love.

In addition to the scriptural evidence, we also experience God’s love through His rhema word to us from week to week. Our pastors and guest speakers consistently bring the word of God to us our community, and we are constantly encouraged to draw ever nearer to the One who loves us.

From time to time, Bronx Bethany becomes the recipient of an unmistakable warning from the Lord. And that, too, is evidence of God’s love for us. He sends His word, like a guided missile, to reach us at the core of our being and to shake us out of our complacency and complicity.

In yesterday’s service, we received an unmistakable warning: Destroy the idols.

Pastor Sam shared a revelatory word from God which challenged us to re-think the way we understand Scripture. And as we read the canon from Genesis through Revelation, we can see God’s concern for how we love Him, and for how we demonstrate His love to others.

If we, created with the capacity to love exhaustively, do not love God exclusively, then we leave the door of our heart wide open for the sin of idolatry to be manifested. Pastor Sam pointed to the historical books (Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles) as examples: kings of Israel were judged based not on their war records or economic innovation, but on their devotion to God.

So as we go through this week, we’ll take another look at what God has said concerning love, obedience, and idolatry. For today, let’s close with a few cautionary verses from First John chapter 2.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains forever. (First John 2:15-17)