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The danger of celebrity cult – Part 1

By Austen C. Ukachi
09 February 2020   |   3:21 am
In the heart of every youth is an idol, which he adores, and which unknowingly affects his loyalty to God. The idol is not a carved image, but the image of a celebrity or icon after whom he patterns his life. That image looms so large that it prevents him from giving his total allegiance…

The Bible speaks against the worship of idols of any kind, anything that takes the place of God in our lives.<br />Photo; PEXELS

In the heart of every youth is an idol, which he adores, and which unknowingly affects his loyalty to God. The idol is not a carved image, but the image of a celebrity or icon after whom he patterns his life. That image looms so large that it prevents him from giving his total allegiance to God.

The Bible speaks against the worship of idols of any kind, anything that takes the place of God in our lives (Ex.20:3-5). In Exodus 32, the children of Israel turned to worship a golden calf, which they prevailed on Aaron to make for them. In Exodus 19, they had pledged their loyalty to God, but once Moses lingered on the mountain, they did not hesitate to prevail on Aaron to make a molten image for them, which they worshiped.

Satan craves to be worshiped. He would rather want us to worship him than worship God, the Creator. It is no secret that some worship Satan openly while others worship him secretly. Satan uses many subtle means to lure us to worship him. He uses money, power, fame, and sex to entice many to give themselves over to him. Satan’s obsession with worship knows no bound. He even tempted Jesus to worship him (Mt.4:8-10). But, just as Jesus resisted the devil’s ploy, so must we.

We all, youths and adults without exception, have one idol or another, which we unknowingly worship, and which takes the place of God in our hearts. While the youths have the celebrity cult to battle with, our fathers have work, sports, and money as their idols. For women, it is the idol of fashion, jewelry, and clothing.

Ask our youths today who they want to be like they will name one celebrity or the other, either a music star, fashion icon or sports icon or a successful businessman. These celebrities have a tremendous influence on the behaviour of our youths, which in some cases is good, we all must have role models, but in other cases, these role models affect their loyalty and worship of God. They dress like these artists, talk like them and behave like them; they follow them on social media and hardly have time to read their Bible, let alone to spend time praying to God. Whatever you spend your time on, whatever that affects your passion and behaviour and takes you away from God, is an idol. These celebrities now affect the attitude of our youths to work, affect their studies and relationships with their parents and friends.

Worship involves our emotions, passion, sacrifice, and loyalty. Where these are not given to God, they are misdirected after false gods and images. Just as there is genuine worship, there is also false worship. God has reserved His judgment against all false worshipers.

In the past, when we were growing up our role model was Christ or ministers of the gospel who have faithfully served God. But today, it is different from our children and youths. Values and standards have changed, but God and His standards have not changed. Unless the image of God is enshrined in our hearts, and lust for materialism is curbed, we can hardly give our best in the worship of God.

What do we do to release our children and youths from the bondage of the celebrity cult? We must be intentional in our discipleship. We must pray for them. We need to build mentoring relationships with them, to teach them about Christ, the greatest icon they should emulate. CONTACT:Pastoracukachi@gmail.com

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