In yesterday's sermon on Zephaniah, Pastor Ryan spoke of God's impending judgment on Judah for two particular sins. One was complacency. The other was syncretism. What is syncretism? It's the attempt to reconcile disparate, even opposing beliefs and to blend their respective practices. Judah was doing this very thing by praying to Yahweh and to Milcom, the god of the Amorites. But they saw nothing wrong with this. After all what was wrong with wanting it both ways? But what about us? We may not be worshipping Milcom, but are we bowing to the gods of our culture? Do we profess a desire for God and still want the best this world has to offer? The call to be a Christian is to come and die, but are we trying to somehow reconcile that with the pursuit of the American Dream? Very often those secret idols are revealed in our aspirations for our children. It's very common to hear parents say, "We just want our kids to be happy." ...