Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

I'm Mike Whitman, and I titled our reading, House Gods.

The men in the Bible study group were nearly 80 years old, so I was surprised to learn they struggled with lust. A battle that had

begun in their youth lingered still. Each day they pledged to follow Jesus in this area and asked

forgiveness for the moments they fail. It may surprise us that godly men still fight against

base temptations at a late stage in life.

But maybe it shouldn't.

An idol is anything that threatens to take the place of God in our lives.

And such things can show up long after we assume they're gone.

In the Bible, Jacob had been rescued from his uncle Laban and his brother Esau.

He was returning to Bethel to worship God and celebrate his many blessings,

yet his family still kept foreign gods that Jacob had to bury.

At the end of the book of Joshua, after Israel had defeated their enemies and settled in Canaan,

Joshua still had to urge them to throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield

your hearts to the Lord.

And King David's wife Michael apparently kept idols, for she put one in his bed to deceive the soldiers

who came to kill him. Idols are more common than we think, and God is more patient than we deserve.

Temptations to turn to them will come, but God's forgiveness is greater. May we be set apart for Jesus, turning from our sins

and finding forgiveness in Him.

Today's scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 35, verses 1 through 5.

Then God said to Jacob, Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God,

who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.

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