I was with a group of Christians that I was asked to lead into a time of encountering the Lord’s presence. We were standing in a courtyard area. There was a sanctuary building on one side and another opposite. The group had gathered at the center of the courtyard. I turned away for a moment to collect something, and when I looked back, the group had taken a few wooden rectangular boxes and was holding them collectively together off the ground in the form of a cross. I ran over to the group and broke the boxes apart, telling them not to make any image that would become to them an idol, not even the symbol of the cross. We were to encounter the Lord only and to have nothing stand between Him and us.

One younger woman became furious and offended. I tried apologizing, but she would not let go of her anger. I walked toward another older African American man who had wandered away from the group, but he showed no interest in what I was saying.

Exo 20:1-6 “And God spoke all these words, saying: ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.’”