Shrines in my heart?

A few weeks ago I gave you guys a list and promised new posts.  I am fulfilling my promise instead of washing my face and going to bed like a good girl should.

At the top of my list was the word - Shrines. The sermon passage that morning was from Judges 17.  There we see a wicked son and an equally wicked mother (imagine that).  Micah, the son, stole money from his mom then decided to fess up. His mother was not at all upset but instead blessed her son then promised to give the money to the LORD.  Instead, she gives some to the LORD but turns the majority into idols to give to her son. He sets up a shrine for his idols, gets an ephod, and "ordains" one of his kids to be a priest. And as if having his kid as a priest wasn't enough he found a Levite wandering in his neck of the woods and asked him to be a "father and priest".  What a wicked thing!

One of the things that always "gets me" so to speak, are shrines and temples of idols. When I am in the presence of such things I tremble.  I can not explain why.  My heart aches and immediately I begin, I am compelled, to pray.  "Lord, they do not know you here! They are not worshiping You here. Change their hearts. Open their eyes..." The first time I entered a Buddhist temple my Spirit was disturbed. I sang "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" with a heavy heart and misty eyes.

So as I listened to the sermon that Sunday morning I was reminded of the evil that accompanies such a thing. And then I thought of all the idols that we I set up "against the knowledge of God".  Do I gather my sinful pleasures in a compartment of my heart to look at and fondle and bow to?  Are their people, whether friends or media, that I go to when I want to be told my actions are "righteous"?  Do I have some form of a shrine? Do you?

    In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. 

Judges 17:6