You will have no other gods

* Luís Alberto Alves

"You shall have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make thee an image
no resemblance to any of the above
neither on the earth, nor in the waters under the earth, neither
and you shall not worship him, for I the Lord your God am
A jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers in the children unto the third
and the fourth generation of them that hate me and have mercy
even a thousand generations of them that love me, and keep my commandments. "

Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 5, verses 7-11. Jesus
Christ does not always say yes, for our own good He speaks not to the
our requests and explains in detail why we should not do what we consider correct. In the words above, included in the ten commandments transmitted to Moses, the Lord clarifies why we should not take certain actions.

Several Christians, frequent worshipers, worship other
gods ignoring the counsel of God. They are accustomed to hearing only the yes and closing their ears to the denials of Jesus Christ.

They forget the supreme wisdom of the Lord and the reasons for not having other gods in our lives. When the Jews were in Egypt for 400 years, they met the countless gods worshiped by the Egyptians.

For that people were polytheistic (worship of various religious entities). One of them, indirectly is confused with Jesus Christ at the end of the year: Osiris. In the Egyptian tradition, he would have died and been resurrected, besides being born at the end of the year and worshiped as the sun god.

When the Lord advises us that we should not have other gods
is to avoid the contamination brought about by this practice. It is to prevent idolatry, it is when we replace Jesus Christ with other things in our life.

In doing so, we went out of their way, as happened with the
Jewish people upon reaching the desert. They lost their patience and made
a golden calf to take the place of the Lord, who took them out of the
slavery in Egypt.

In our short life here in this world, we unconsciously place
other gods on our way. Most are in touch with us daily. The greatest of them is related to feeling. We love our family more than Jesus Christ. It comes first in the heart.

The husband or wife captivates our attention. We think of them at all times. When they get sick or take a long time to get home from work or school, their hearts startle. They enter our lives so intensely that everything begins to revolve around them. In order not to hurt them, we end up leaving behind the ministry given to us by Jesus Christ.

The God "family" numbs many converts. Take the reason. No
let the Christian reason. Share the work with your family,
establishing leisure time with them, the time to leave for
dining, going to the movies, traveling and even participating in sports. That
God "family" does not admit the Christian to love Jesus Christ above all things.

For it is visible, while the Lord is not physically
of our eyes. It is when the son or daughter, used by the evil spirits, confronts the Christian father or mother: "You spend more time in the church than with us, we are tired of hearing only of Jesus Christ here at home, we can not hear our songs, which you classify as demonic, do not watch the novels and the movies we like, go to ballads.

Even a beer or caipirinha is criticized. That there is
sin in wearing tighter clothing or short skirts, for it would be an instrument of unclean spirits. " The god "family" is strong, because it attacks in the sentimental area, where the heart feels the impacts with more intensity.

When the woman knows Jesus Christ and the husband remains in unbelief, the battle is fierce in the house. It's split. You need to be attentive to your husband, without forgetting God. That's when fighting becomes violent. Blackmail is common. There are few Christians who continue in the ways of the Lord when they lean against the wall, as it was with me.

The god "family" tried to withdraw from the presence of the Lord using my then-wife. Before we knew Jesus Christ, we were of witchcraft. Our courtship, betrothal, and marriage were anointed by evil spirits. After four and a half years of marriage, I met Jesus Christ. My wife remained in witchcraft. After a while I started to evangelize and get involved with the work of God. I went deeper into the word of Jesus Christ. I spent loving the lives of the slaves of darkness.

I devoted part of the day to the Lord and the rest to my wife. But she wanted more. He wanted me to stay in the mud from where I left, visiting or participating in sorcerers' terreiros, parading at Carnival, listening to the music of the world and being evil, as it was before the conversion.

For ten years and eight months I prayed for the conversion of my wife, during this period I fasted for a year, beginning at the beginning of the day and ending at nightfall. Fasting food, only drinking water. But she did not want Jesus Christ.

*Luís Alberto Alves is a  pastor