Put It On The Devil’s Bill

Perhaps you’ve heard the story about the spry Christian missionary woman who retired to Virginia. Living alone at her rural home, nestled in the foot hills of Appalachia’s Blue Ridge Mountains just outside of Roanoke, she enjoyed her golden years in fellowship with God. As a woman of deep faith, her prayers were copious; she and Jesus had many conversations, discussing everything in life. 

This vibrant widow woman made a habit of praying out loud each morning, while stationed on her front porch overlooking a beautiful mountain meadow, dappled in wildflowers. Heedless of her advancing years and petite form, she had a robust voice that reverberated through the mountains and valleys. 

To the south, the prayer warrior’s property adjoined a neighbor’s lot where an avowed atheist, a sexagenarian, had recently moved in. It didn’t take the man long to tire of the daily irritation—hearing the widow’s morning praises to the Almighty. So, he began to push against it. 

The first time it happened was on a sultry Tuesday morning that sported a commanding sunrise. Standing beside the front porch post, she began to pray. “Oh Lord, what a beautiful day you’ve given us! Thank you for revealing such splendor that You have created. I praise you Father, for you’ve provided everything I could possibly need.” 

Suddenly the atheist’s voice sounded with contrived laughter from his concealed position behind a hedge.  “Aha-ha-ha-ha—there is no God! You’re just talking to the air.”  

But the woman simply kept praying. “Lord Jesus, please grant my neighbor faith. Bless him real good. Take the blindfold off of him and let him see.”  

Further irritated, the atheist went back inside, only to return the next morning, shouting the same words, “Aha-ha-ha-ha—there is no God!”  

This went on for many days, but one morning the heathen thought he’d found a crack in the woman’s joy-filled armor.  

She had prayed, “Heavenly Father you are so very faithful. Thank you for your tender mercies. You, Lord, have always provided me with all I could possibly need, and even those secret things I wanted. Father, as usual, the bills are all paid, and You’ve given me this wonderful home and clothes. But this month is different, because I have no money left to buy groceries. I know that You, Lord, will provide somehow, just as You always have.” Her prayer continued with praises and talk of her past work and her family that was mostly all in heaven now. 

Oddly, her difficult neighbor did not shout his usual diatribe against God—he simply went back inside.  

As the sun rose the next day, the widow came out onto the porch to offer her morning praises. There, sitting on the porch were five bags full of a variety of food. Instantly, she began to thank and praise God. “Oh, holy Father, you are such an awesome God! Thank you, Lord for providing these groceries…” 

 Once again, she heard her rival taunt. 

“Ah-ha-ha-ha,” roared the neighbor, this time bursting through the hedge to stand akimbo in front of the woman.  “I bought you those groceries, Lady! You see, I told you, there is no God.” 

Without missing a beat, the woman simply continued her prayer. “Oh, this is so wonderful, Lord. I thank you for providing all of these wonderful groceries…and You even made the devil pay for them! ☺

What an inspiration it is when we meet people of great faith like the widow woman in our story—what great power we witness in their lives. Her story came to mind as I read about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. 

We’re all familiar with the Christmas story and all the characters involved: the inn-keeper, Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus, the shepherds in the field watching over their flocks, heavenly angels, and later on the three wise men from the East. And we even remember ‘Herodes Magnus’, Herod the Great, infamous for the slaughter of the innocents. 

Interested in knowing more about the three wise men—the magi, I dug into a bit of a word-study. The word “magi’ is from the Greek ‘magus’, from which our word “magic” is derived. Technically these three who visited Jesus’ family were practitioners of foresight into the future, usually, the immediate future. We also know from the bible as well as from many fine historians, researchers, scholars and biblical detectives that these three wise men were astrologers…not to be confused with astronomists. This point does have its detractors. Some people reject the idea simply because they think the wise men had to have been righteous men, which is not at all necessary for God to use them in the way that He did. There are multitudinous examples in the bible of God using heathen idolaters and terrible sinners to advance His grand plan. Besides, all of us are born into sin. 

We’ll get back to these particular astrologers momentarily, as the need for a word of caution about astrology is profoundly needed here. 

Astrology is the earliest recorded type of formal, systematized idolatry—the same thing was practiced by the people who’d gathered together in biblical Shinar, aka- Babylonia, to build the Tower of Babel. Perhaps it would not be improper to call the Tower of Babel the first elevated observatory to the heavenly constellations. Could that have been the birth of astrology, some 4200 years ago? Some historians believe astrology to be only 2400 years old. I’m still digging, but I think the older date might hold true. For now, I’ll forego stating it dogmatically. 

What we know for certain is that in Old Testament times, kings from every nation, with the exception of Israel, would not go into battle before checking their fortune in the stars—they hoped for the heavenly luminaries to portend victory in their conquests. All across the known world people idolized the sun, moon and stars, and presaged their futures from them, encouraged through the subtlety of Satan’s agents of darkness. The spiritual realm is quite real, so, of course, there’s real supernatural power there. Two sources of supernatural power, that’s all there are—God, and the fallen angels, led by the Prince of Darkness.  

Today, people think reading their horoscope is harmless fun. But be advised, God forbids it and warns of the dangers associated with astrology, also called horoscope. It’s probable that by looking to astrological signs we inadvertently give demons permission to attack our minds—to oppress, depress and deceive us. An apt name for it would be “horrorscope”, yikes! 

The spiritual realm is just as real, if not more so, than the material world of matter, time and energy to which our earthly bodies are confined. But often in scripture, the veil between these two worlds has been pulled back so that a finite person could see spiritual things, places and beings. Prophets received knowledge of future events from God and His messengers. The heavenly angels heralded the birth of Messiah in spectacular audio-visual fashion. Evidently, fallen angels or demons are also, in a limited capacity, able to see some future events.  

Now, let’s get back to our original topic. 

We know that Jesus’ mother and earthly father, Joseph were not among the aristocracy of their day. In fact, Mary and Joseph were considered poor, as evidenced by their offering of two young pigeons for the sacrifice instead of a lamb: recorded in Luke 2: 24. (See Leviticus 12:7-8 to see God’s directives concerning this sacrifice.) 

The gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh that the three magi gave to Jesus and His family were all extremely valuable commodities. It is my belief that God was providing for the material things Jesus’ family would need. God always provides for all His children, so certainly He’d provide for His only begotten Son.

We just never know when God may cause the devil himself to foot the bill.  

Meekness Not En Vogue

 

 

In a world that understands power, influence and material wealth, self-assertion is king. Jesus’ words were completely counter cultural to the crowds around Him. But it’s even more so in our society today. 

 

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5: 5

 

It takes no great cognition to understand that meekness requires humility, but some may not yet understand the distinction between these two virtues. 

Essentially, humility is an inward virtue or characteristic, while meekness is an outward demonstration of the humility one possesses within. We are meek toward others. While, humility is more in keeping with our personal view of self. Romans 12; 2b ‘’Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. In other words, be humble. BTW, to God, the measure of your greatness is the size of your faith.

Note how this verse confirms (along with other passages) that faith comes from God. Salvation is of the Lord, even the part about us having faith. It too, is a gift from God. And yet, we are responsible to nurture the faith He’s given us that it may grow. But back to meekness. 

A meek soul will lift up and edify others. Meekness, restrains one’s own power, in order to make room for others, so that they can use their gifts, talents and abilities too. For example, I’m good at cooking, but that doesn’t mean I have to be the one to cook every time we have a church dinner. Others know how to cook too. 

It often helps to understand a concept by looking at its opposite. The opposite of showing meekness can be perceived in people who must always control others, and constantly be the one in charge, vaunting themselves over others, demanding that others capitulate to their way of thinking and their self-perceived superiority, which is usually quite false. It’s the assertion of one’s will over others, or being demanding. Basically, these are narcissists. The outworking of narcissism is antithetical to the actions of meekness. 

 

The Promised Reward for Meekness 

When eternity is ushered in, there will be new heavens and a new earth. It is this new eternal earth which the meek shall inherit as a reward that will last forever. The entire earth will be ours. There will be no narcissistic behavior, nor greed in eternity. All may own the same thing and be perfectly at peace with being a co-owner of all things along with Christ and all of the redeemed. No competition, no disputes, and no pride or arrogance. Everyone there will be both humble and meek. What a wonderfully awesome existence we will have in eternity! 

From Sorrow to Comfort

Continued series on humility in relation to the Beatitudes

I have asserted the premise that humility is the foremost godly virtue required before any growth in Christ-likeness can be manifested. In fact, I don’t see how one could repent and be saved without first humbling themselves before God. There also appears to be the necessity of humbling ourselves associated with each of Christ’s commands. but this comes naturally when one receives a view of the One true omnipotent, infinite and sovereign God of the bible, and then compares self to Him. 

We’ve been gauging this assertion by recognizing the relationship between humility and the Christian qualities Jesus expounds in His manifesto on the mount in Matthew five—the Beatitudes. We now move to verse three. 

 

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  

 

Our knee-jerk responses gravitate towards the word “comfort” while the natural reaction of the flesh is repulsed by the notion of “mourning.”—that doesn’t sound so pleasant.  

 

Let’s think of comfort first. 

A softened comforter heaped playfully on a comfy bed. 

Ice cream and apple pie, chicken soup, biscuits and gravy, chocolate…comfort food. 

Late spring in a mountain meadow painted in wildflowers against an azure canopy.  

Relief from intense pain—there are many kinds of comfort. 

 

A sky full of fuzzy-type things may pass through our minds when we hear that word. One soul may go to thoughts of tender kisses from a beautiful woman with whom they’re deeply in love, her caresses. For another, it could be a bottle of booze—a self-perpetuating and unfulfilling pursuit. The human spirit will always seek to be comforted; with leisure, fulfillment of purpose, self-indulgences…there are myriads of them. The thing is, all of these offer an incomplete comfort, and as slight as that comfort may be, it’s always temporary. It does not last.   

 

Thank God for His comfort! I’ve tried a lot of different things and nothing comes close to the permanence of the comforts God lavishes upon those who seek Him with their whole hearts. There’s a world of joy that I never before knew existed, until I did. The Lord allowed me to go down a road of great hardship, suffering and grief. I lost everything, including my reputation. My good name was no longer so good. You can read a small sample about that at the following link.  Dancing With the Devil

How did I end up there? By seeking comfort, pleasure, relief from mental anguish, and doing whatever felt good. I was doing it my way—the way of, what the bible calls: “the natural man,” referring to our sinful nature. Food, worldly success, position, honor, sex, alcohol and a lot more, and finally opioid pain pills. None of that provided the comfort I sought. Oh, I felt good sometimes, but it was so very temporary, and it always left me needing more. Instead of scratching the itch, those things merely intensified my yearning for comfort. 

“Okay God, I’ll try it Your way,” I decided one day. But I thought Christians were supposed to be joyful, rather than weeping and mourning. Blessed are those who mourn? Then I read James 4: 9 and was really baffled. “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.”  

While praying over this seeming contradiction to the Christian experience, the Lord taught me of its meaning and of the tremendous power that was available for me to finally receive the comfort and joy a Christian is supposed to experience. And it came through mourning, weeping and deep sadness—the very things I’d been trying to avoid. But what was I mourning over? Let’s read the verses preceding and following James 1;9, beginning with vs. 8.  

“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you (lift you up).”  

I won’t go into a full exegesis of these verses here. 

Verse 8 is speaking of seeking God and repentance from sin. I cannot properly repent until I understand how deeply I’ve offended a holy God. When we finally receive a clear view of God’s nature of holiness and purity, we are greatly humbled and saddened over how far short we fall from His glory. My sin was truly something to cry about. I wept and wailed over my iniquities and transgressions, acknowledging how deeply egregious they are to God.  

When I did that, something amazing happened! He took my sorrow and grief over my own sin and He supernaturally transformed it into elation and joy! He forgave my sin, cleansed me, and lifted my spirit to soar with the clouds of heaven. It was the greatest joy I’d ever experienced, and it never left—it remains today.  

It took humility to really look at, and see myself from God’s perspective. It brought great sorrow, but that was essential in order to experience the true supernatural joy that comes from the Lord. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 

 

God Knows

By studying history and being armed with the pertinent data, we possibly could apply deductive reasoning to predict certain aspects of what the future might hold. And yet those two words “possibly” and “might” remind us that we have no capacity to know the future with any semblance of certainty. The unknown has long been deemed a frightful thing to many. But we don’t have to fear the unknowns of our future, because we have a transcendent God who know all things, past, present and future.

“I know who holds the future, and I know He holds my hand.” From the Hymn “Because He Lives”..

I like the way a poet worded it in 1908 in one of her popular works.

And so, I found this New Year poem written by Minnie Louise Haskins, published in 1912. King George VI brought the piece to the fore by quoting it in his 1939 Christmas address to the nation. It was titled “God Knows” by the author, but made popular under the title The Gate of the Year. Enjoy!

 

 

THE GATE OF THE YEAR

‘God Knows’

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.faith, unseen,
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill. 

Epitomy of Humility

God the Son left His home in glory, condescending to come into the world as a baby and grow to manhood. Imagine, the one great omnipotent God, humbled Himself, the greatest King of all, being born and laid in an animal’s feeding trough. He came to save sinners—to become the once for all time sacrifice for the sins of the world. It’s impossible to imagine anything more humble than that.

His name is Jesus.

 

Emmanuel—God with us.

God’s love is demonstrated in the most supererogatory act in all of history—the just, dying for the unjust. Jesus Himself said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Then He did that very thing for us. As finite beings, it’s difficult to wrap our minds around the monolithic love of God.

 

Romans 5: 8

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

 

Hard to be Humble

The stuff God teaches delivers the most enduring wealth of spirit.

Continuing the subject of humilty, there’s a few statements that need to be made. So I’m taking this opportunity to fill in some gaps on the topic, and this will come with greater detail and explanation in later posts as well.

It’s in the deep recesses of a man’s convoluted thoughts where his hubris often takes up secret residence. Behind a façade comprised of false humilities, where he’s convinced Himself the projection of meekness casts its glow, he seeks the final jewel in his crown of grandiosity.

There’s not a single soul among us who’s not been influenced by the sin of pride. Developing an enduring humility, the antithesis and nemesis of pride, is a lifelong pursuit. It took tremendous tragedy, conjoined with the devastation of my reputation, before I could even perceive the pride that resided in my own heart.

So elusive is this virtue of godliness, that one’s life must often be reduced to rubble before the genuine attributes of humility can shine forth as diamonds peeking out from a mud pie. For me, it took an unfaithful spouse, divorce, and finally a term in prison to prep the soil of my heart for God’s loving humility to merely begin sprouting. When a man’s life turns to poo, he finally finds the handle, but even then, its residence is often as momentary as the proverbial travelling salesman’s night with the farmer’s daughter. Perhaps humility’s a bit like unto Bigfoot, never being captured with any certainty, so we may begin to doubt its very existence.

But we have a paragon of humble servitude, a perfect role-model in Christ Jesus. Isn’t it a fantastically ironic thing that only God Himself can perfectly model humility?

As Christians, it’s a trust issue. Can we trust our Lord to hold and mold our character, to provide our satisfactions, and bank our accolades, and finally our rewards? There are scads of attributes and accomplishments for which we hunger to be recognized.

After all, what’s wrong with the tasting of notoriety in the here and now? Am I supposed to be poor, unknown and miserable all my days? Will we really find contentment without being known as the great mind behind this or that? How do we appease this longing to be recognized, lauded and celebrated?

Like many youngsters, I endured the chicken pox as a toddler. I can still recall the incessant itchiness, and mom refusing to allow me to scratch it. That’s what this feels like, doesn’t it? We want to be awarded, noted, or at least afforded the credit we’re due, yet the Lord calls us to patiently endure the itch without scratching?

Better yet, what has the Lord promised in return? Do we know the secret that’s not so secret? That He offers complete and total satiation while still in this life below? The Lord desires us to discover the absence of want—to know the “I shall not want” of David’s 23rd Psalm, and how it’s realized both exclusively and comprehensively through total dependence upon our Lord.

 

Apostle Paul was used by God to convey the means of applying the truths expounded in Christ’s doctrines, that we may grow thereby and emulate His glorious attributes and virtues, including humility. “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:11
It is solely through Christ Jesus that we are made alive unto God. When we are dead to sin, it loses the power it once had over us. On the other side of that coin, being alive to God, love now compels us to obedience to His word and to the Spirit of Christ within.

I believe the key to humility lies in accepting our complete and total inadequacies to develop humility on our own. We must sacrifice our pride, including how proud we are of our education and intellect, to Jesus.

 

“Father in heaven, we ask for our eyes to be opened to pride in each of our lives. Pride that so often we’re not even aware is resident within us. Help us to die to self on a daily basis, that we may truly live in and for Christ. Teach us, Lord, to be humble. In Jesus’ mighty name, amen.” 

 

Next, we’ll look at “those who mourn” from Jesus’ sermon on the mount, and see how this too relates to humility.

Poor in Spirit

In the spring of 1980, the pop and country artist Mac Davis made a hit song titled “It’s Hard to be Humble.” By the fall, another artist named Stout recorded a version of the song in the U.K. that made the top 20 list there.

 

With a haunting mantra, the song becries “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way. I can’t wait to look in the mirror—I get better looking each day.”

 

A satirical relief about the laughable male ego, this musical hit touts an exaggerated hubris that we find easy to recognize in each other. The problem is, it’s more difficult to detect in ourselves. When it comes to godly virtues, humility is probably the toughest godly characteristic to achieve and it can be challenging to maintain.

 

As we wade into our continued study of “The Beatitudes with regard to Humility,” You may want to read the introductory post titled: “Humble Pie.”

We’re going to sit down to a big slice of that pie right now, because nearly every good action we take requires some degree of humility. If you’re reading this post with an open mind, you’re demonstrating humility.  Those who are growing in wisdom are keenly aware of the need to hear and assess information, where utilizing humility becomes requisite.

Whenever errors in our thinking are brought into the light, it takes humility to embrace the truth. This is the concept behind that word we’re all so familiar with: repentance. To repent is to undergo renovation in the mind—to change what we believe in a way that impacts a change in our desires. As a result, we turn away from sin and towards God. If we don’t humble ourselves before God, becoming poor in spirit, our minds cannot be changed; our spiritual eyesight will be incarcerated by darkness.

The bible teaches that every person is born under the deceptive powers of sin. But when we’re born of the Spirit, saved, we’re given new eyes and ears to perceive truth, and a new heart that will accept it. God has given us His word to correct our thinking, so that He may inculcate you and I with truth. He gave us His Son Jesus who is truth personified. In Matthew 5: 3, Jesus spoke these words:

 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 Here, the word Blessed means happy and divinely favored. Sons and daughters of the King must become poor in spirit before being granted citizenship in the “kingdom of heaven.” We are need oriented creatures, dependent upon God. Being poor in spirit is indicative of heaven’s residents.

 What does Jesus mean by Poor in Spirit? 

 It means to humble ourselves, to acquiesce to the truth about mankind’s condition without Christ—the truth that the bible teaches concerning mankind in his unregenerate state.

 “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.” Romans 3:11-12

Here’s where our understanding of grace is so vital to our new lives in Christ, as well as our knowledge of what it is to be poor in spirit. Everything God does for mankind is a grace of God. He proffers many graces, which perform a plethora functions, gifting us in every aspect of life. Grace is technically defined as unmerited favor.

There’s nothing we can bring to God, nothing we can do for Him, and no good works that mankind could perform that would merit eternal life and curry His favor. We must humbly accept that fact.  Without God doing something for us simply out of His love, mercy and grace, we’re hopelessly lost. Isaiah informs us that to God “…all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” What may appear as good to you and me in our finite thinking, is pitifully inadequate when contrasted against God’s true goodness.

God is holy, righteous and pure, and we are not. We must come to Him completely broken in spirit and aware of it. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. Psalm 51:17
If you’ve ever been close to a herd of horses running wild, you may have noted how spirited they are, strong and proud. A wild horse is not at all useful for riding or working. Their spirit must be broken before they can be tamed, trained, and their strength put to good use. If we’re going to be of any usefulness to God, our spirit of pride must be broken too. We have to pull back on the reins of our hearts, and realize the truth.

We’re totally helpless to help ourselves become good and holy and righteous. Our self-sufficient thinking must change, be broken, our pride broken, and we come to God completely dependent upon His grace. This is being poor in spirit, cognizant of our complete helplessness. We cannot save ourselves.

 

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9a
For the sake of brevity, I’ll merely point you to a good passage of scripture to read as a follow up to this post. The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18: 9-14.

Cold Joy

Going through some old files, I stumbled on this little poem I wrote about wintertime. May it bless someone, as I share it below.

The continuation of the study on the Beatitudes with regard to humility, is forth coming. I just had a good friend pass away, placing unexpected demands upon my time, for now.

 

The following is my last tweet announcing the death of my friend, and my grief.

“I need strength as I mourn the passing of a close friend who sat in my class at church. It’s things left undone that bring the sharpest pain. Yet, one of my last conversations with Jeff was about the great value of our friendship—I’m thankful for that. Prayers appreciated.”

Cold Joy

The hoary head of Old Man Winter

O’re my shoulder rises

His old gray eyes, the silver skies

His body, crystal white ice prizes

Perfect cleansing proffers he

To all outside their houses

Defecting ones, from coffers free

They froze to death their louses

Tis but a frame of reference
Icicles from the eaves
To free the mind to deference
The inner man to please

For one sees winter’s dismal gray
He hangs his head and mopes
Another sees with beauty gaze
The splendor of new hopes

For every kernel corn to sprout
What it was before must die
A senseless bane, your winter pout
I love those old gray eyes!

Beatitudes & Humble Pie

A Series on Humility

(Lord willing)

 

Coming to Christ first requires humility: we must acknowledge our need for someone else to save us. But then, each virtue of righteousness, all of the characteristics of a godly life require increasingly greater humility. A problem presents itself, however, for it seems the more we try to be humble, the more prideful we become. What we seek is a humble, servant mindset which Jesus demostrated so poignantly.

 

“The proud man can learn humility, but he will be proud of it.”

Mignon McLaughlin

 

My assertion is that absolute dependence on God is the only means to successfully obtain any degree of humility. Focusing on Christ: the paragon of all heavenly virtue, self is progressively swallowed up by His glory as we become one with Him. By comparing ourselves vertically to God, we depart from the horizontal and skewed comparison of ourselves to each other, opening a clear view to our personal inadequacies—our need for continuing grace.

 

I’ve discovered a hazardous pitfall in my own walk—one that’s difficult to detect. It’s called false humility. Something I’d done in te past , which, I thought was making me humble, was self-deprecation. I’d put myself down, or launch a bad spin on my actions, talking about the bad stuff I’ve done. But it only produces a false humility—not at all conducive to eliminating a hunger to be noted. While I thought it would be destructive to my pride, it only fed my ego. If we’re honest, we’ll see it’s the same for all of us. I’ve been doing a deep dive on the subject, and found that nearly every great thinker down through history has percieved the importance of this trait and written on the topic of humility.

 

 “Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.”

C.S. Lewis

 

“A great man is always willing to be little.”

Ralph Emerson Palmer

 

Bryant H. McGill is more stoic, stating “True love is quiescent, except in the nascent moments of true humility”

 

Only by emulating the love of God do we transform into humble servants, which in turn elevates our eternal ranking.

 

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. 1st Peter 5:6

 

The assorted virtues of Christ-likeness expounded by Jesus in His great manifesto on the mount are all rooted in, and dependent upon a prior condition of humility. Assuming we all agree that the antithesis of humility is pride, we can easily recognize pride to be the primary, or root sin which so deceives mankind in its many forms. Pride hinders our growth in Christ-likeness.

It’s the #1 sin—not merely the first sin perpetrated chronologically, but also the sin which underlies all others. Pride and humility can never coexist in the same arena, that’s why Satan promotes pride in mankind. He knows it to be the root from which springs every form of ungodliness.

 

“Let us carry ourselves as God’s children in humility. ‘Be ye clothed with humility’ (1 Peter 5:5). It is a becoming garment. Let a child of God look at his face every morning in the glass of God’s Word and see his sinful spots. This will make him walk humbly all the day after. God cannot endure to see his children grow proud. He suffers them to fall into sin, as he did Peter, that their plumes may fall, and that they may learn to go on lower ground.” Puritan, Thomas Watson

 

Each week I hope to spotlight one heavenly virtue from Matthew 5: 3-10, demonstrating how every righteous trait flows from, and is anchored in, humility.

 

This is one trait that appears to act as a huingepin for developing the godly traits Jesus talks about.

Since humility is the condition of heart and mind every soul must possess, if they hope to approach God and be reconciled to Him through trusting faith, learning to lean on this virtue becomes paramount.

In chronicling the characteristics of citizens of God’s kingdom, Jesus seems to demand we presuppose humility as a type of key to all of them. Certainly, if I am to become “poor in spirit” I must first humble myself. Note how essential humility is in becoming what Christ calls us to be.

It will be fruitful for us to disseminate the precondition of humility that’s common to each of the virtues Christ provides. I’ll do so by first defining each characteristic Jesus extols, then by considering examples in the context of current culture, and finally view the whole matter in relationship to ourselves as individuals—making personal application to our hearts.

 

Bring your bibles and join us for the next post as we look at the first virtue found in Matthew 5:3. Please click on notifications and watch for “Poor in Spirit.” 

 

 

Worship

Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness;

tremble before him, all the earth.

Psalm 96:9

 

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A common misconception among Christians is that music & singing is Worship. Certainly, these are expressions of worship, but true worship takes place in the heart and mind.

Worship is adoring God, praising Him, being grateful to Him, loving Him. There are many ways to express this worship, just as there are many ways to express love for your spouse. If a man gives his wife flowers, certainly we look and say, “See, look, he loves her.” But the flowers are not the love itself, they are an expression of the love.

Our faith nurtures love for God, and we express that love in the way we live and by what we say to Him and how we want to please Him. When we assemble to worship and praise God He is pleased. Sing to the Lord, tell of His excellent greatness!

I suppose we could add a bottom line here. Yes, God loves music that honors Him. But it is the heart and attitude behind our singing and music that He’s looking at. Blessings.