Chasing after other gods

I was reading in Hosea. It is always a fascinating book for me to read. Who names a girl Gomer? Who marries a prostitute and expects faithfulness? Who names their children "not my people," "no mercy", "no love"? I have often said, "thank you Lord you didn't call me to be Hosea."

In the midst of this book I was hammered by a statement, a charge God brings against the people of Israel. Hos 6:10 says, "My people have defiled themselves by chasing after other gods." Chasing after other gods-at first the statement just rolled by, then my brain tripped over the truth. It was very easy for me as a leader to chase after other gods. As I sat in the window in the coffee house, I saw clearly how easy it was for me to chase after gods.

There are no temples in my yard, no idols in my home, no false festivals on my calendar, yet I saw all the ways I so easily chased after false gods.

I saw how easy it is to replace "Christ in me the hope of Glory" for "hard work by me the hope of glory." And that was only the first of many false gods I could so easily chase. Others included "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" with "I can do all things"; "You shall have no other gods before me" with "you shall no other gods before me except for rest, recreation and pleasure";
"Meditate on my words day and night" with meditate on the words of Ed Young, George Barna, Crawford Loritts, Reggie McNeal and Andy Stanley"; "without faith it is impossible to please God" with "without faith in coaching, PowerPoint's, blackberry, social networking and websites it's impossible to please God."
It was so easy to chase after other things than Him.

In the same book Hosea wrote. "Oh that we might know the Lord. Let us press on to know Him."

What are you chasing after today? As a leader. As a man or woman of God. What are you chasing? Have other gods become more pressing than pressing on to know Him? Let it not be said of us that we "exchanged the Glory of God for the disgrace of idols[1]" even the modern ones.