Thirteen Acts of Soul Worship

David Clarkson continues, in his discourse on soul idolatry:

Before we come to confirm and apply this truth, it will be requisite to make a more clear discovery of this secret idolatry, the most that are guilty of it not taking notice of their guilt, because they account nothing idolatry but what is openly and outwardly so.

He then lists and describes thirteen "acts of soul worship."

1. Esteem.  That which we most highly value we make our God.

2. Mindfulness.  That which we are most mindful of we make our God.

3. Intention.  That which we [make our ultimate goal] we make our God.

4. Resolution.  That which we resolve [to pursue] we make our God.

5. Love.  That which we love [the most] we make our God.

6. Trust.  That which we most trust we make our God.

   "For confidence and dependence is an act of worship which the Lord calls for as due only to          himself."

7. Fear.  That which we most fear (respect, revere) we worship as our God.

8. Hope.  That which we make our hope we worship as God.

9. Desire.  That which we most desire we worship as our God.

10. Delight. That which we most delight and rejoice in, that we worship as God.

11. Zeal.  That for which are more zealous we worship as God.

12. Gratitude.  That to which we are most grateful, that we worship as God.

13. Care and Industry. That whom we serve we worship as God.

Who is your God?  May we be like Thomas who, when seeing Jesus, proclaimed:

"My Lord and my God."  

And my Jesus Christ receive our sole soul worship.

Secret and Soul Idolatry

David Clarkson writes of the "twofold worship due only to God, internal and external."

External worship is the religious activity - bowing, and I suppose singing, reciting, and whatever else goes along with a religious service.

Internal worship, as Clarkson says, is "the acts of the soul and actions answerable thereto."

When the mind is most taken up with an object, and the heart and affections most set upon it, this is soul worship, and this is due only to God.  For He being the chief good, and the last end of intelligent creatures, it is his due, proper to him alone, to be most minded and most affected; it is the hour due only to the Lord to have the first, the highest place, both in our minds and hearts and endeavors.

Therein, external idolatry is something like bowing to an idol.  But secret and soul idolatry is

when the mind and heart is set upon anything more than God; when anything is more valued, more intended; anything more trusted, more loved, or our endeavors more for any other thing than God.

Clarkson chillingly concludes:

Secret idolaters shall have no inheritance in the kingdom of God.

Every thought, attitude, word and deed is one of worship.  The worship is either true - devoted to the God of the Bible - or false - devoted to anything else.  This is paramount for all of life and specifically for counseling.  Our problems of the soul, our relationships, and our outlook are so often problems of lingering soul idolatry.

Not As Obvious, Far More Pervasive, and Perhaps More Destructive Idolatry

After hearing Tim Keller's paradigm-shifting sermon at the Gospel Coalition Conference as well as reading Greg Beale's We Become What We Worship, I'm thinking a lot about idolatry.

I'm now reading David Clarkson's Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven  (Download it here.) and plan to blog through it slowly.

This morning's reading packed a punch.  Considering Ephesians 5.5 Clarkson pronounces that

Indeed, every reigning lust is an idol, and every person in whom it reigns is an idolater.  The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life are carnal man's trinity.

What is idolatry? Clarkson names idolatry as following: 

To give that honor and worship to the creature which is due only to God.  

To transfer that respect which is due only to God, from Him to the creature.

Next time: "twofold worship"

Our High Places

From Kevin De Young, a former classmate.

...when it comes to the entertainment choices of the vast majority of Christians in the vast majority of our churches my strong impression is that there is little difference between what we take in and what the rest of the world goes to for a good time.

Read the rest here.

Update: The High Place of Youth 

The Lack of Church Discipline

Hopeless - But Not Enough

An important lesson from Bob Kauflin in his book Worship Matters.

Stay with it - we have much to learn from his story (pages 22-25).

I spent most of my early years seeking my own glory.  Popularity, music, and academic excellence were my idols of choice...When God saved me at seventeen, my sins were completely forgiven.  But I had deep-rooted sin patterns that weren't going to die easily.

When we moved to North Carolina to help start a church, my cravings for admiration and control were constantly challenged...No one know it at the time, but God was using these situations and others to expose the long-standing sins of idolatry in my heart.  I wanted everyone around me to share my high opinion of myself.  My life was one extended attempt to draw attention to my gifts, my abilities, and my efforts.  But it wasn't working.  I wasn't getting the praise I craved, and that was affecting my soul.  I increasingly struggled with feelings of anxiety, fear, and confusion.  I felt like my life was about to fall apart.

Over the next three months I experienced a variety of symptoms.  Hallowness and tightness in my chest.  Buzzing in my face.  Daily thoughts of death.  ITching on my arms.  Panic attacks.  Sleeplessness.  Shortness of breath.  I woke up each morning to this thought: Your life is completely hopeless.  And things went downhill from there.

I confessed [to pastor/friend], "Gary, I don't know what to do.  I feel hopeless all the time.  Completely hopeless.  I expected Gary to say something like, "You'll be okay, Bob.  God is faithful.  He's working all things for your good."  Instead he looked at me with compassion and stated, "I don't think you're hopeless enough...

"If you were really hopeless, you'd stop trusting in yourself and what you can do and start trusting in what Jesus accomplished for you at the cross."

As I considered Gary's response in the coming weeks, the fog began to lift.  I started seeing a reality that dominated my life - the reality of my sinful cravings.  My problems - emotional, physical, and otherwise - stemmed from battles within my heart of which I'd been largely unaware.  Yes, I wanted God to be exalted through my life, but another agenda was ruling my heart.  I wanted people to approve of me, admire me, applaud me.

To be honest, I wanted people to adore me.  I had an incessant passion to steal God's glory.  I was lover of myself rather than a lover of God.  And it was killing me.  

I was striving to gain the approval of those whose approval was of no eternal significance.  I'd failed to see that the only approval that matters - God's - is impossible to earn but is offered as a gift through the gospel.  And it was the gospel that set me free.

Today the gospel - which I so frequently assumed but so often failed to apply - is the center and foundation of my daily life.