"The opposite of Christianity is not Atheism, but Idolatry."

Psalm 24:3 & 4:
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who...does not LIFT UP HIS SOUL to what is false...
He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Psalm 25:1
To you, O LORD, I LIFT UP MY SOUL.
O my God, in you I trust...

We see from Ps. 25:1 that "lift up my soul" means "to trust"; the only people able to stand in the presence of God are those who are entrusting their lives to God. Those who entrust their lives (lift up their souls) to what is false cannot stand in his presence, nor recieve from Him blessing and righteousness, because he is not the God of their salvation - they have a functional savior who is not God.

THIS MESSAGE from Mark Driscoll examines the idea of functional saviors and idolatry from a different text, 1 Corinthians 10. Waves of conviction crashed over me as I listened the other day. I was shaken to see that my problem isn't just my sinful behaviors, but (worse) the idols producing the behaviors. I am worse than I would like to think. I was sent to my knees to search out the root idols producing the fruit of sinful thoughts/actions/words in my life.

We should not be totally dismayed at our unrighteousness and idolatry, however. Conviction is not the same as condemnation. The Spirit means for us to run to Jesus, who, in the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, is "our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Righteousness (justification AND sanctification) is a gift of God, through Jesus, to those who LIFT UP THEIR SOULS (Ps. 24:3 & 4 again!) to Him. We can say to Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)