Can God be an Idol?

     What? That doesn't even make sense or does it? Can God be an idol?  I hope this question opens up how we actually view God and the things we consider to be of God. In Exodus 20:44- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  So can we make a graven image of God or Jesus that is an idol? Can we take our traditions and beliefs and allow them to replace God even when we think that they are leading us to Him?
     For some reason the Lord has had me doing a study on idolatry especially where Israel was concerned in the Old Testament. I have been studying this for about a year now and it has been on my heart and mind. As I see the parallels between Israel and the "church" today they are eerily similar. This also strengthens my belief in the principle of the Disciple of Jesus and our working in the ministry of discipleship. Can we allow our churches, our doctrines, even our Bibles to replace God himself? The more I experience and study the church of America today the more I see a religious network and private clubs extended from the protestant reformation and the ideals of the American Nationalists. As much as we can look back at the reformation and see it as a good thing it was more of a conflict of thought than it was of discipleship.( or politics in the case of Henry VIII and Vasa) Now I am not saying who is really redeemed or not, such as Luther, Calvin, Arminian, Knox, etc., but the intense idealism that was behind it was more based on doctrine and theology than on picking up your cross and following Christ. But I am not here to detract on them as I will never earthly know if they ever were truly redeemed or not.
However, I have to look at God's plan from a historical perspective. Did he intend for the true gospel to be silent for more than a millennia under the Catholic Church and then to slowly over several centuries become more visible through the theological debates of certain men? Or has it been there all the time through people who have never been a part of the mainstream church but met on their own as the AAC Church(Church before Catholicism) did? These are simply questions that I don't think we can truly know the answers of, but my point is this...As we see the church today being so ineffective when it comes to the true gospel and the church of the past being so wrapped up in sacraments and traditions, can we assume that most churches today are preaching a different Jesus? When we see churches training their people for mediocrity can we assume those leaders are false teachers? When the Heart of the Gospel is to leave family or land for Christ and to despise yourself can we assume that most people today that claim to be Christians have never been born again?
     This has been an issue for me since I was 18. I was very disillusioned in the church I was in because I didn't see a church that the Scriptures described and as I went from School to School and Church to Church I continued to see a body of people that were perpetuating the idea of religion but not following Christ. It was in this period where I believe because of my lack of proper training in what it truly means to be a Christian that I made some poor decisions in my life which I have only myself to blame, but nevertheless had true Christianity been preached and put forth I believe as a soldier with proper training I would have been prepared for the fight. Now, I don't say this to anyways cast blame, but to point out the importance of the true gospel and our following of Jesus. So this goes back to my original question can God be an Idol? I believe that I had an idol at this time in my life that was God, but not the true God. An ideal that if I believed in Jesus, went to church, and partook in some ministries that I was a valiant Christian. But here is the crux of what is wrong with that...I wasn't giving up all for Christ. That is the Gospel. Jesus isn't about Sunday morning services or Wednesday night prayer meetings. He isn't about giving 10% or singing in the choir. The Pharisees did these types of things, the Roman Catholics do these types of things and in some cases more. So are we made righteous because we have belief in Jesus alone? So many look at the book of Romans as justification by faith alone in Christ by God's Grace to be what makes you a Christian. However, they don't look to the Gospels or many other books of the New Testament that expound on what it means to have faith in Christ. The Catholics which the reformers were breaking away from were steeped in all kinds of idolatry and different types of works for salvation, so their main focus was that salvation came by faith in Christ alone. AMEN, but what does that mean? Is it that simple belief or is it taking up your cross? Someone can simply believe without taking up their cross, but one who takes up his cross obviously believes. The watered down gospel and the unsurrendered Christian are equal principles. They want to preach and speak about service and ministering, but when the opportunities comes they turn it down citing some excuse which really is based in their desire for the status quo or comfort. Taking up the cross of Christ is not about comfort. It is about a daily desire for the sacrificial whether it be material or emotional for the sake of Christ.
    Now if you have read this far you might be saying "What got Bryan so rattled?" or "Bryan, why do you think that you have all of the answers?" Well, to answer the first question I am not rattled, but concerned as I see the Gospel of Christ being trampled on and as I have more and more encounters with different "Good" churches it becomes more clear. Now, that is not to say that if a church doesn't want to work with us that this upsets me. I have no problem with that as I believe the Lord will lead us where He wants us when He wants us. But what I do have a problem with is when I encounter churches and I see in their beliefs and leadership how they portray the Gospel of Christ whether they want to work with us or not. To address the second question I believe that the Bible has the answers and I have dedicated myself to an unadulterated devoted study of God's word apart from the beliefs I was taught or the doctrines of modern churches. However, I do not believe that I am correct on everything. I have a lot of work to do and a lot more of my crosses to pick up, but I am very firm in the belief in what the Bible says about the Gospel and to turn from it in one way or another no matter how small means an absolute perversion of that Gospel that Christ  and the apostles gave their life for.
     So in conclusion can God be an Idol? If we are truly worshipping God YAHWEH through faith in Jesus Christ than no He is not an idol. But if we are worshipping a god of Church or of comfort, one of traditions or intellect, one that is of our own making even if it coincides with a belief in Jesus than yes "God" can simply be a god.