Refuting Superstitions in God's Name

This is concerning such things as a superstitious email about how God will bless anyone who will forward it to a certain amount of people. In this case, a member from our team--our leader, Mike, of the Venice Beach outreach--received an email about how supposedly God would make him rich if he would forward a picture of Mary and baby Jesus. ("Jesus" is supposed to be holding up Mary in the satanic, disturbing image.) I was impressed with Mike's biblical response. With his permission, I am posting it.

From Mike:

Am I supposed to believe that God will make me rich (or bless me with worldly things) if I distribute this picture to other people and encourage them to treat it as an idol as well? If we look at the people in the Bible whom God favored, very few of them were rich by the world’s standards. Indeed, James (in Chapter 2 of his epistle) asks us “Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love Him?”

First of all, who is that boy holding up Mary? Is that supposed to be Jesus? If so, then why did he question her in John chapter 2? She ended up telling the servants to do whatever Jesus told them to do; He didn’t tell them to do what she told them.

If treating this picture as if it has magical powers results in supernatural events occurring, it’s most likely demonic. That’s especially true if it places more emphasis on Mary and less on Christ. I’ll put myself on record to say that it’s junk mail, just like the president of Argentina supposedly did. If something bad happens in my life, I’ll still refuse to believe that it had anything to do with a stupid picture. By the way, Mary’s “prayer position” with hands pressed together is not Christian at all – it resembles the Hindu “Namaste” position. It has no business being in a so-called Christian picture.

The bottom line is that people want to believe they can do insignificant things to control areas of their lives (or the world) which they really don’t have control over. It gives them a feeling of having power (i.e. when we joke about wearing a college hat or jersey to help them win a game). They’re really trying to take God off the throne and put themselves on it.

Mike