i Create

     I am passionate about photography and everything that goes with it...photo editing & restoration, scrapbooking, et. There is something about capturing the light and a tiny glimpse of time in a creative way.  I also love anything I can make myself from grinding wheat to make our bread to making deodorant.  If I can avoid buying it at the store I probably have a recipe for it.  Frugality and self-sufficiency make me immensely happy.  I believe it is a good use of the resources that God in trusted to me and the benefits to my family are endless.  I will admit I also enjoy the shock value of going against society's main stream.  It is fairly safe to say I have an enormous and ever increasing list of hobbies.

     Looking at all this I have come to appreciate my spectacular creator in a whole new way.  I realize, however, that I must be careful of modern day idolatry.  The "worship" of anything that could monopolize my time and pull my focus away from Christ and HIS agenda.  Another recent worry of mine, and one that I believe to be far more subtle, is these "high places" I've been reading so much about in the New Testament.  All through Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles it mentions the high places. 

"Although he did not remove the high places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life."
                                                                                                                                          - I Kings 15:14

In I Samuel 9:12 there seems to be nothing wrong with these altars that were set on a hill for sacrifice and worship.  The central sanctuary was not functioning as the ark of the covenant was separated from the tabernacle at that time.  Worship at the high places was later condemned because it provided a means for the entrance to pagan practices in Israel's religious observances.  (See also I Kings 3:2-3)  It is obvious now that it is not OK to sacrifice and worship here and yet how can one's heart be fully committed to the Lord except that you ignore these high places?  Is there something in my life that is not really idolatry but still just a pretense to following the Lord?  I say that I am doing something for Him but my motives are wrong?  How, in my life, might I be appearing to be worshiping the Lord but really just using the site of a borrowed idol?  It has really been worrying me!  For now, I am taking heart in 2 Chronicles 15:15b, "They sought God EAGERLY and He was found by them."  Still, something I will be praying about and researching a little more.