The Plight of the Proud (Part 2)

In The Plight of the Proud , the Propensity to be Proud was discussed. We saw how, because of our fallen nature, we are going to have the tendency to be proud. Thankfully, through Christ's death on the cross, we can be free from these natural tendencies of sin. That doesn't mean that we won't sin any more, but that we are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:6).

Now, lets take a look at pride versus humility.

The Proud Performer (Serve or be Served)

God hit me over the head one day. I had refused to let someone get up and get me a drink. "No, I'll do it myself," and I did. When I sat back down, the same person informed me that I had just refused them the opportunity of letting them serve me. Ouch. That's when God hit me over the head, and began stirring in my heart this concept that I had never realized before. It takes more humility to be served than it does to serve.

See, the proud performer may have convinced themselves that they are humble, because they are serving others. However, they are not allowing anyone to serve them. Their servant hood is really a mere performance, since their heart is not in the right place. Humility that will not be served is not humility, but self-righteousness. Self-righteousness? That sounds a lot like pride.

God slowly began revealing this truth to me, and He began bringing to mind the time when Jesus washed the disciples feet. In John, chapter 13, we see where the disciples are having their last supper with Jesus. They of course do not know that this is the last time that they will be eating with Him, yet they realize something is different when Jesus gets up from the table, takes off his outer garments and begins to wash the disciples' feet. Most lessons that I have heard come from this passage deal with our being servants. Jesus came to serve, so we should also serve others. (Verse 14) However, Peter and his response stand out to me.

Imagine what it might have been like. Peter is sitting there eating a meal with Jesus and the twelve, like they have so many times before. Suddenly, Jesus gets up from the table, and the next thing that the twelve know is that they are watching their Master do the job of the servants. First, He washes the feet of Thomas. Then Andrew, James, and Matthew are next. Peter watches as Jesus works His way closer and closer to him. Finally, Jesus gets to Peter, and Peter says, "Are You going to wash my feet too?" Jesus stops for a minute and looks into Peter's eyes. "You don't understand what I am doing, but soon you will." "No, Lord! You will never wash my feet!"

I think that there are two lessons to be learned here. The first is often taught, the second I am still learning.
It takes humility to serve. Jesus, God Himself, was humble enough to do the job that was left for the lowliest of servants.
It takes humility to be served. Peter's pride would not allow him to be served by Jesus.

Humility that will not be served is not humility. Acts of servant hood without humility are just performances. One who will not allow others to serve them is a performer in their service to others. Jesus' act of service towards the disciples was not a performance. He did it out of humility. We know this, because Jesus served, and He was served.

Shortly before His washing of the disciples' feet, Jesus was served. Mary took some expensive ointment, and began to anoint Jesus' head. She also washed His feet with her hair. You can read this great act of humility in John 12. Jesus had the humility, not only to serve, but to be served be others.

So, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:5-8

Are you serving? Are you allowing others to serve you?

The Plight of the Proud (Part 1)

I'm a proud person. No, really, you can ask any number of my friends if I am proud. In fact, when there are things in my life that are wrong, they will usually boil down to one of two problems, distrust and pride. Even with this, my lack of trust often comes down to pride. I think can do something, but I don't trust that someone else can take care of it. God has been teaching me a lot about pride and how much of it there is in my life.

We know that the Bible says, "When pride comes, then comes disgrace..." Proverbs 11:2, and also "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" 1 Peter 5:5. Finally, and probably the one that comes to my mind the most, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" Proverbs 16:18. So, since it's pretty obvious the plight of those who are proud (disgrace and destruction), let's take a Dr. Hufty approach and take a closer look at pride.

The Propensity to be Proud

Don't you just love when people alliterate, and use big words that no one understands? The propensity of pride, or the tendency to be proud began with the fall of man. Think about it. What was it that caused Adam and Eve to first sin in the garden? Their pride made them want to be like God. They thought that they were pretty good, but they wanted to know the difference between good and evil. They forgot who they really were, the created ones, and proudly believed that they could be like God, the Creator.

Every since that time, we too have the propensity, or tendency to be proud. How often do we try to take the place of God?

"That's ok, God. You don't have to worry about it. I've got it all under control."

That's pride speaking, and pride is all about me, nothing about God.

There's a great cinematic classic for children that tells the story of a friendship between three different animals. I've learned a lot about pride from this movie, in fact I've come to learn about a disease that I call the "Thumper Syndrome." You may remember a scene from this movie on a frozen lake. Bambi has found himself in a snow drift, and Thumper jumps up and yells, "Look what I can do!" He proceeds to fling himself out onto the frozen lake, and boastfully displays his ice sliding skills. The cute little bunny was displaying a wee bit of pride. Well, actually, as he fluffs his puff (or whatever it is that he has) he seems to be displaying a lot of pride. For some reason, this scene stands out in my mind. Whenever I decide to do things on my own, without God, I can just imagine what I would look like to Him. "Hey, God! Look what I can do!"

There are many examples in the Bible of proud people. Take a look at the Rich, young ruler. Seriously, this guy had a lot going for him. I mean, he was rich. With all of that money, he could do a lot. Secondly, he was young. He had not spent a long life trying to obtain his riches, and he was still young enough to enjoy his wealth, in whatever ways he wanted. He thought pretty highly of himself. The young man came to Jesus and said, "What good thing must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus replied, "There is only One who is good. Obey the commandments." You know what word stands out to me in the question of the young man? I What's the little riddle that talks about what's in the middle of "pride"? I The young man said, "What can I do to have eternal life?"

When Jesus responded to him and told him to obey the commandments, the man replied, "I have kept all of those. What do I still lack?" When Jesus told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor, the rich young man turned away. He was not able to give up himself, his identity, his I.

Yes, as humans, we have the propensity to be proud. It's part of our nature, but as a Christians, we have a new nature. The old is gone, and the new has come. Pride can no longer have a place in my life. The problem with pride is that it is incredibly deceptive. Just when you think you have it conquered, you don't.

However, I do have to end with "But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus!" 1 Corinthians 15:57

The Pacifier Parable

Nehemiah loves his pacifier.  He has since he was born.  In fact, we often use his pacifier as we burp him, because it helps to keep his screaming to a minimum.  There is a problem with this, though.  See, when it's time to him him his bottle back, he hates to give his pacifier up.  I pull and pull on it, but he he clings tight.  I explain to him, there is nothing nutritional in his pacifier.  What I have his much better for him, but he doesn't care.  (Ok, really he just doesn't understand yet.)

Every time he and I go through this cycle, I am reminded how much we are like this little baby.  See, there are lots of things in our life that we really like, and we don't want to give them up.  God asks us to give them to him, but we don't want to.  We just know that what we have is pretty good, and we want to keep it.  What we are missing out on is that God has something even better for us, something that is actually beneficial to us, something good for our body, or soul.  However, we can't  accept it until we give up our "pacifier."  God is standing there, holding the bottle, waiting for us to give up our pacifier.  This pacifier can be many things, like a comfortable job, nice paycheck, your tv time, car, essentially, the item can be anything that God is asking you to give to Him.  He has something better for you.  Are you willing to give up your "pacifier" and accept what He has?

Cap That Well!

Some people may be aware of a leak of disaster proportions. For weeks and weeks we've heard about the toxic, harmful oil spewing into our oceans. Unfortunately, there's a more overlooked leak that has been spilling out for longer than weeks. Actually, it's being spilling, spewing, and spurting for years and years. This leak also spews harmful toxins. You, have been directly influenced by these toxins. You have spread these toxins.

There's no way that we can escape the news of the oil leak in the gulf, and as I sat thinking about the leak, I was reminded of something that seems somewhat similar. We have a similar problem in our lives. Every day words flow from out mouth, spreading toxins, harming those around us. The flow, often unhindered, out into the air, where the can never be retrieved. There's a bigger problem there though than just dangerous and hurtful words coming out of our mouths.

Matthew 12:34 says, "For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." Hurtful words flowing from our mouths point to a more serious problem, a heart problem. Often this is a lack of love or an exhibition of our own selfishness. When we say harmful, mean, stupid things, it's pointing to a heart problem. We can't just focus on not saying those things. We must examine our heart, and work to change it with God's help. Imagine what it would be like if all the people in the Gulf were doing was cleaning up the oil from the ocean, but no one tried to stop the leak. It would be a full-time pointless task, because they weren't trying to fix the source of the problem. It's the same way with our words. If you are finding it hard to say nice thing about that annoying co-worker, or to not spread the juicy gossip that you heard at church last Sunday, try fixing the source of the problem, the heart.

A Story about a Man and a Wall...

There once was a guy named Nehemiah. He was a pretty good guy, with a pretty good job. Nehemiah worked for the king. One day Nehemiah got word that the walls that once surrounded his homeland were broken down and the gates had been destroyed by fire. When Nehemiah heard this, his heart was broken and he wept. After discussing the matter with his boss, the king, Nehemiah got permission to return to his homeland, for a time, in order to rebuild the walls.

You may have heard this story before, you may have not. Whatever the case may be, the story of Nehemiah has been one that has fascinated me for awhile now. I am currently re-reading through the book, and there is so much that God is showing me. However, today I was reading from chapter six. As soon as Nehemiah and the others started rebuilding the wall, the people around them started to "oppose the work." Opposition came, yet the work on rebuilding the wall continued. When the opposition could not stop the rebuilding of the wall, they tried another tactic. They decided that they would just attack Nehemiah.

Can you imagine what this must have been like for Nehemiah? What an exhausting and emotional drain this would have been on him. First he finds out that his homeland is in need of help, so he goes to help them, only to find strong opposition. Then he has to chastise his own people for their opression of the poor, and on top of this, the guy is coordinating a massive construction project. All of that is enough to make him weak. While this is speculation, I would venture to say that Nehemiah was probably at one of his weakest points during this time. Then, it is at this point, that the opposition started to personally attack Nehemiah.

You can read in chapter six of Nehemiah what they tried to do, and how Nehemiah would not fall for their traps, but finally, in verse nine, Nehemiah says, "For [the opposition] wanted to freighten us, thinking, 'Their hands will drop from their work, and it will not be done.'" The whole point of the opposition was to distract Nehemiah and the Israelites from completing the task assigned to them by the Lord.

That happens to us so often in life. God has given us a task to complete, yet we are attacked from all sides. Sometimes the attacks are more personal than others, but the purpose of those attacks is to distract us from the work to which we are called. I love what Nehemiah says at the end of verse nine. "But now, O God, strengthen my hands." Nehemiah was weak and tired, and he was still being attacked. So, he cried out to God, "Strengthen my hands."

So, learn a lesson from Nehemiah. Persevere through the trials and temptations. Be prepared, for when you are at your weakest point, you will still be attacked. Most importantly, make sure you are not facing them on your own. Nehemiah knew where his strength came from. Know where your strength comes from and cry out to God, for that strength.

The story doesn't stop with Nehemiah crying out to God. In chapter 12 of the same book we see that the wall is being dedicated. That means the task was completed! Nehemiah did his part, he was strenghtened by God, and the task was completed. If you read those verses, Nehemiah shares about what people were present at the dedication of the temple, and what they did, but I love the line at the end of verse forty-three. "And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away." The result of the completion of the task was joy and thanks to God. Not only was joy heard in Jerusalem where the people had completed the task, but the joy was heard far away. The completion of the task was felt in more than one place. When we persevere and complete the tasks God gives us, others will know. God's name will be glorified, for He is the source of our strength.