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Clogging the Leak: When our Oil Spilleth Over


It started with a small trickle... and then a gushing leak... more catostrophic than 15,000 barrels of oil spilling into the gulf... and that was the hearts of the Israeli people... they had forgotten the promise... they had ignored a harboring disaster for years... they set up idols (false golden images) that they had begun to worship and decorate and collect... their hearts were left unattended and they had forgotten the God who saved them from the Egyptions.. who parted the sea.. who fed them manna when they were desperate.. who guided them through deserts and sustained them in famines......... they were like scattered sheep with no direction.. a ruptured oil rig with no plug....

King Solomon takes the throne and is given a choice... wisdom or wealth.. and unlike the evil villain in Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol"... he chose wisdom....... God liked this choice and favorably blessed Solomon and his people for this decision... Solomon's first task? clear out the idols... abolish idolotry.. and construct a temple to worship the God who plugs all leaks....

We forget the power of a Savior... we forget the one who died so that we may live.. we forget the promise... the ones we've made.. the ones we have been given... we are humans... unable to fix disasters with our own strengths... and yet we demand answers and accountability of others..

As the oil spill in the gulf breaches closer to our borders with every smacking wave... we are ever helpless to control... we must examine our condition... accept our humanity... with humbleness admit that like God's people of the Old Testament, we have created idols... oil rigs... that control our daily functions... we have removed God from our agendas... and calendars.. and chose wealth over widsom.. we have left our hearts unguarded... they gush daily spewing out jealousy, maliciousness... and devastate everything living around us... our hearts are like the oil slick that we try desparately to clean... but to no avail... we are a people who worship songs and movies and people that dont matter.. our time is wasted on plugging a geyser with used paper plates...

And we wake up each morning... wondering... how and why... and what have we done??? What do we do when our oil spilleth over????

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