John, I believe the answer to each one of your semi-rhetorical questions is, "Yes!" The number of our sins of idolatry, as well as numerous other types of sins, is so astronomical, it compels us to walk in the precious light of the New Covenant, in which we are declared righteous in Christ, with NO condemnation, clean before our awesome Creator (and Friend); walking according to the Spirit, the love of Christ constraining us, working in us both to will and to do His good pleasure, the blood of Christ continually cleansing us. This, as opposed to the Puritan agonizing self-examination that thinks it can number the sins, categorize them every one, repent of each one individually, root them out, "mortify" them, and thereby, with much pain and suffering, get back "right with God" for the thousandth time, as if we were not made right with God by the Cross! It's grace, grace, a thousand times grace! Terry Rayburn --- John Reisinger <jreisinger@...> wrote: > If the word "image" is directly related to the word > "imagination" would it not follow that idolatry begins in the > mind by imagining God to be other than he has revealed Himself > to be and the "graven" image is merely the expression of my > idolatry? Likewise, if in preaching I proclaim God's character > to be other than He has revealed himself to be am I not just as > guilty of idolatry as if I crafted an idol out of gold and held > it up for the people to worship? Does the Arminian commit > idolatry when he presents a god totally unlike the God of the > Bible? The moment we start thinking about God in any kind of > terms beyond the Scriptures is not our "imagining" God always > going to be merely the product of our own imagination? Are we > not creating a god in our own image (imagination). JGR > -- > Read the Sound of Grace pages at > http://www.soundofgrace.com > > To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: > soundofgrace-unsubscribe@... > > To view our online archive go to our web page at > http://www.associate.com/groups/soundofgrace > > > ===== -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Visit "Grace For Life" An Oasis of Rest For the People of God Click => http://www.graceforlife.com -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Get better spam protection with Yahoo! Mail. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools