We Need to Get Ba’aled Out. In this episode, we read Warren Graff’s article, "Baalism in the Life of the Church," and discuss the roots of Baal worship in Israel and its consequences for Israel and churches today.

The issue is not the existence of so-called inner rings, but our desire and willingness to spend our lives in order to gain from an inner ring what is freely promised in Christ: hope, security, and identity.

We may not all be mass-murdering Nazis. But we all have the same root sin that causes the most egregious criminal activity on the face of the earth. We all have the desire to be our own God.

The nefarious thing about idolatry is that just about anything can become your idol: career, family, fame, wealth, status, spouse, you name it, any good thing can become a ‘god-thing” with ease. 

Righteousness before God is possessed only by grace and that through the currency of faith.

History is the painful realization that we aren’t the ones who can save the world but, rather, we’re the ones who get saved.

Even for idolatrous sellouts like you and me, God’s position has not changed. Even though we may have forgotten him, he never forgets us.

The thought of losing even one of those for whom his Son died pains God beyond belief, and the angels rejoice when even one of his children repents.

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If you and I were to examine our own lives, we’d likely have to admit that we are frequent disciples of Jeroboam’s “bootleg religion.”

The irony of our idolatry is that many of our idols could and would speak the gospel to us if we would listen.