Riverside Church

“You see, idols will take over our lives if we let them. Remember for us, we are talking about things like money and pleasure and comfort when we are talking about idols. Idols are things that take the place of God in our lives – often they are things that are good in themselves, but they become idols if they become God-substitutes. The broken-down altar teaches us that if we are not fighting against idolatry in our lives, the idols will take over – they will squeeze out the worship of God.”

— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

“Knowing Jesus and living to please him is so wonderful – so satisfying – so delightful – that it is possible to be content in every circumstance. That is something to think about! That is something to aspire to. Life can be good and for most of us it is good. But it can be so much better. We can know deeper joys and more profound delights and greater satisfactions by doing whatever it takes to grow in our love for Christ. One thing that this requires is time. Much of this happens inside our head – in our minds – in our thoughts. That involves the Word, but it also involves thinking. It requires thoughts of Christ and his glory – who he is, what he has done, what he is doing, what he will do. It requires thoughts of Christ to be welcome in our minds.”

— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

“And so it is easy for us to place our trust in the things we can see rather than in the God whom we can’t see. The only way we know that everything that we need comes from God is from the Bible. God tells us in his word that he is our Shepherd and our provider. But we know that by faith. We do not know that empirically. God’s involvement in our lives and in the weather and in the economy is not something that we can discern on the basis of experience. We must believe it on the basis of God’s word.”

— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

“This is an important part of the biblical teaching concerning desires. We are to desire some things more than other things. Some desirable things are more important than other desirable things. We are to desire some things with all our hearts, and we are to desire other things with less than all our hearts and there are yet other things that we are not to desire at all. How we order our desires is a moral question. The kinds of things that we prioritize in our lives is a reflection of the kind of people we are, and God is concerned with what kind of people we are.”

— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

“Idolatry is anything which takes the place of God in our lives – anything that we love more than God – anything that we trust more than God – anything that we look to, to satisfy our souls more than God. Romans 1:25 gives a short definition of idolatry when it says of mankind in sin that they “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.””

— Rev. Jerry Hamstra