Stone, Wood or Pop Idols - Help, I think I'm an addict!!!

"Hi, my name is GG and I'm a Social Networking addict. It has been err ... 2 hours and twelve minutes since my last log in."

I look around nervously at the smiling faces of all the fellow addicts, all welcoming and encouraging, their eyes telling me they can relate.
Men, women, boys and girls and wait a minute ... you're kidding me, is that a cat sitting in the circle as well?

Ok, so maybe I exaggerated about the cat and I'm not sure if anyone has launched Social Networking Anonymous but if it were so, this scenario is one I might find myself in if I don't keep myself in check.
Yeah, I have to admit the Internet has at times become one of my favourite past times, the other day, my laptop was so hot from being continually on, I was so sure I could have fried a steak on it...
Maybe you're very self disciplined and you're one of those that can go for weeks without logging onto anything and when you do, you only stay for five minutes...good for you, but for the rest of us, every now and then we find ourselves spending far too much time than is necessary. Sigh.

Right, lets rewind for a minute, so I can put all this in perspective.
We all know that the Israelites messed about in the wilderness and because of that God made them wander around for 40 years instead of 11 days.
They did all sorts of terrible stuff, they complained and grumbled more than Mr Grumpy himself.
Then they thought, ahhh lets make ourselves a god. So they made themselves a golden calf. Who knows maybe they figured they could get some golden milk from it??? Beats me. Anyway the point is throughout the bible people did all forms of idol worshipping. Some preferred stone, some wood, others precious stone but bottom line is they worshipped other gods.

Now we may turn up our nose at them and think, how could they? But before we do, we need to examine our own lives and make sure we don't have our own idols. Now our idols may not be silver or wooden images and yeah we don't prostrate before them but our own idol worship takes a somewhat different form.

Pop idols - some people "worship" singers, actors, sports people and other celebrities to the point of treating them like a god. Some people take their direction in life from these people. Instead of looking to God and His word to lead and mould us, we sometimes look to these people to determine our way of dress, talk and so on. We emulate them in the way we carry ourselves.
There's nothing wrong with admiring them but make sure it doesn't go too far. As children of God, we need to be Christlike and let Him lead us in every facet of life.

Use of time
God requires that we should love Him with all our heart, soul and mind. And most importantly we should have no other God but Him. Exodus 20

This to me, denotes that we should spend as much as much time with God as we can. If we spend 10 mins with God in the morning and then spend the rest of our free time time going out for fun, or online chatting to our friends, face booking, blogging and watching TV then it's most likely that those things may have taken a bigger place in our heart than the things of God.
If we truly have a desire for God, we will cultivate our relationship with Him by spending more time with Him. He has said "Seek me and you shall find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13

Now don't get me wrong peeps, I'm not saying social networking or blogging or online surfing is wrong or evil.
NO, I'm not saying that.
And I'm not saying that we should spend every living moment of our lives singing hymns and carrying harps whilst sitting on fluffy cloud 9.

No.
I'm just saying, too much of anything is never good. The bible says we should exercise discipline and do everything in moderation.
Not everything that we do is profitable.
Besides God has given us special talents and assignments to do whilst we are down here. If we spend all our time on entertainment, we won't have time dream, plan and work our plan, and yet we will continue to dream of being bigger and better than Bill Gates.Hhmm.

Be honest with yourself. You may not be an addict but how much time do you spend watching TV? What percentage of your time do you spend going out with friends? How much time do you spend on your Nintendo Wii or PS? How often do you have the compulsion to log in and see whats happening with everyone on Facebook, Blogger, Buzz, Twitter or whatever it is that floats your boat?

The bible says the truth will set us free. John 8:32
If you think your time management may be a little out of hand, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you coz will power alone won't cut it. But the first step is admitting it to yourself.
C'mon guys we can all have fun but lets be wise with our time for one day, we shall all give an account of our time to our Daddy dearest.
                                                             ________________________________
Do you ever struggle with this? Or do you think you are very disciplined in this area? What advice could you give others?