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The First Coming of Hannah Montana

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Once upon a time I thought the end of the world apocalypse might be triggered by something like, say, a massive nuclear weapons build-up, a mutated super flu virus, or even a planet killer asteroid.

But then came Hannah Montana.

Sure, laugh at me, oh ye of little faith, but I have seen the future, and The Best of Both Worlds tour might signal the end of our world as we know it.

"Oh yeah. Come on.
You get the limo out front,
Hottest styles, every shoe, every color."

Never in my life would I foresee a time when a hit song and the words 'every shoe, every color' would be in the same sentence. Has anyone checked with Nostradamus on this one? There must be some clues in his predictions about a Disney fueled juggernaut that would leave a swath of penniless parents who had to hock a kidney to get their kid into a show that probably sold out in less than 15 minutes.

But wait - there's more!

I've seen enough Hannah Montana Miley Cyrus merchandise to cover every landfill on the planet, but this one definitely took the Hannah Montana cake topper:

Lexar 1GB Disney's Hannah Montana USB Flash Bracelet

Seriously? We don't have her face plastered enough around the globe, now we need her on our USB? Ah, but therein lies the world takeover plot. Once enough hard drives are infected with the achy-breaky Cyrus virus, global domination will be a walk in the park.

(Note to HM fans...please don't take my rant personally, it's my way of processing - tortured soul that I am.)

So if we wanted to sum up this tween phenom superstardom with one word, what would you choose?

For me, that's easy...in a word - worship. Worship defined as "love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess; venerate as an idol."

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

The thing is, while it's OK for followers of Christ to follow sports teams, bands, or identity confused Disney bots to a point, there is in a fact a point where the line is crossed. The line I'm talking about is the one God drew in the sand (actually on a stone tablet) thousands of years ago when He gave us the 10 commandments. The very first commandment leaves no confusion about where our worship needs to be directed:

Then God gave the people all these instructions:

"I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other god but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods." (Exodus 20:1-5)

At first glance, it may seem like God is almost insecure and jealous in an immature sense, but that is the opposite of what's behind His command to only worship Him. The fact is that human beings have a tendency to make little gods out of earthly things and people, and when we do, we get on the fast track to destruction. Why? Because idolatry produces addictions, selfishness, and pretty much throws all of life out of balance. That's why God is 'jealous'. It's not that he's threatened by idols, rather jealousy here is better understood as "zeal" or "zealous." The word describes a passionate intensity to protect or defend something that is jeopardized. In other words, He is too crazy in love with us to let us use up and mess up our lives with idols.

That's why the one option for Christians is the one the Apostle Paul gives us:

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

The word for "glory" here can literally mean "to make heavy." When we glorify God, we make His name and reputation "heavy" or famous. To worship God alone means that we run everything through the "heavy" filter - as in, "is what I'm doing/saying/thinking/believing/feeling something that helps make God's name famous and improve His reputation in the world? This is key, because if we are worshipping something or someone else besides God, this question won't even be on our radar screen, and we'll miss out on the incredible privilege of making God's name and fame celebrated on earth.

So go ahead and enjoy the latest greatest pop culture icons, but be careful that you don't set that icon on a platform above God, because that's when trying to have the best of both worlds will end up messing up yours!

Head: What you need to know about this truth

God is the only One who deserves to be worshipped, that's why our calling in life is to glorify Him in everything we do.

Heart: What you need to feel about this truth

"Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God-it whets our appetite. Our need for God is not taken care of by engaging in worship-it deepens. It overflows the hour and permeates the week."

Eugene Peterson

Hands: What you need to do about this truth

It's a good exercise for Christians to take a look inside our hearts to make sure no other thing is in the place where God should be. This week, do an 'idol check' to make sure you don't have any gods before the one true God!