Thanks for the encouragement last chapter. I'll keep trucking away. Something that I was pondering today as I read was the worship of idols. I commonly hear that putting anything above God is idolatry but I've been having a hard time A. figuring out if that is true, and B. figuring out what that actually means. It seems that most of the time I read it I'm picturing some literal idols that people have elevated to the status of God to replace God or some character of him as a malicious act of rebellion. I know there are plenty of people around the world who still worship idols though not so much in the Western world. On the second part, "putting something before God" doesn't seem like a fair statement to me as our lives are so much more complicated than a simple list of priorities. Loving my wife is in of itself an act of loving God. Spending time with my kids is for me sometimes a submission to God's will. Other things like watching a tv show may be an needed physical and emotional break. So if I in my heart would rather take that break than jump into Ezekiel is that idolatry? I can't imagine so. Surely as our creator he understands our heart and our needs to the point where He is not spelling our love "T.I.M.E." as I often hear people say. Looking through the Bible I don't see God angry with his people when they are just living their lives in moderation and some neutral relationship. But he gets angry when they turn away, rebel, and reject him. In this and the last couple chapters some as well I think rejection is the emotion that God is expressing through Ezekiel. And maybe that rejection can be passive as well, but it certainly seems an active act to me. Feel free to engage me on this and I won't take offense, I would love more experienced and/or educated viewpoints.

How do you determine practically what has what has replaced God in your heart? Use the polished corvette in Phil's example. At what point for a Christian does their polished corvette become an idol? When they choose to polish it rather than further develop their relationship with God through Bible study, which would be anytime they choose to polish it. You also mention affection, but I'm not sure how I show God affection. I have a hard enough time showing my mom affection. I'm feeling like I might be a severe idol worshipper by these definitions. Doing this challenge is for me a big "challenge", I'd say every other element of my life comprises a much larger element. I'm not really sure how to change it, maybe its just an intense amount of trust and a lot of prayer.

For some reason this just clicked for me. Jesus said one of the greatest rules was to love God, idol worship is the the extreme example of not doing that. Worse than atheism I think, its not just a rejection of the idea of God but rejection specifically of Yahweh.