Tag Archives: pride

Fantasy is Fallacy

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If we want butter we are forced to go to the cow for its milk.

If we want metal we are forced to dig at the ground.

If we want rain we are forced to wait for the clouds.

If we yearn for day, in the darkness of night, we are forced to wait for the rising Sun.

If we want to learn we are forced to observe the things that are.

Fantasy gives birth to fantasy.  Lies give birth to lies.  Truth gives birth to truth.  And only God can give birth to what is godly.

Why do you look for godly righteousness in places where he is not?  Why do you search in your own heart for the things that God demands?

God is forever, never fails, and will never cease.  This is the nature of the righteousness you seek.  You do not possess it, nor can you create it.  It belongs exclusively to the Most High God in his Holy Son Christ Jesus.

Pride lies to itself and says,  “I will create what I do not have.  Then I will be perfectly acceptable and glorified.”

To the proud I say this:

“Make your own milk that you may have butter. 

Create your own ground that you may make metal. 

Go make your own sky and produce the clouds for rain.

Speak to the black universe and create your own Sun. 

Do these things, and vastly more, and it will be granted that you are righteous; able to save and sustain yourself.

But you observe what God has done and call it your own.  Let foolishness be what foolishness is.

Fantasy gives birth to fantasy. 

Lies give birth to lies. 

Truth gives birth to truth. 

And only God can grant what is God.

Line of Sight

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We try to perceive what is.  And if one will carefully follow his lines of thought there is a progression in our perceptions.  Finally we reach fullness of our perception.  “Thus far will come and no farther.”  Says the Lord.

How then can a man say that he knows what is true?  At best, he can only say he knows he who is true; and this to severe limitation.  For the wisdom of God and His glorious nature are hidden from man by his excellent will.

We are forced, by the constraints of his creation, to wear humility instead of pride.  So it is for us, so it was for the Holy Lord Jesus; who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped.

Where is the pride among men that divides and destroys?  Not only among the men of the world but of the children of God.

But men compare themselves to other men, thus pride lives among them.  What would relationships look like if our comparison were exclusively between ourselves and the living God in Christ Jesus?

Humility would be the rule.  Pride would be the anomaly.  But as we look at the nature of people’s interactions that is not what we find.

Truth is truth.  Who dares to live the promise of eternity today?

The Little Boy

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In his striving to understand, man finds himself woefully lacking in wisdom.  By this perceiving, a man is forced to humility.  Pride grows tall on ignorance; a fertilized garden for weeds.

Shall we then make no attempt to understand?  Shall we close our lips lest our ignorance be revealed?  How should such a thing be, when all men are of the same stock?

The folly of men will judge other men.  By all means then, judge me.  Read my words and point your finger.  What is that to me?

———————-
I am but a little boy. 

My understanding is so small.

So I gladly display my severe lack. 

That my God maybe great in all.

The Impending Wreck

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One by one he connected the couplings.  Moving forward then backing up.  By the length of his day, 200 loaded cars stretched out behind.  To rest and prepare, he bid his eyes sleep.

Just before dawn the engine roared again.  This time not for idle speed.   Black smoke billowed toward 70 miles an hour.  His mind focused on what must be done.

It is too expensive to waste time fretting; what loss may come along the way.  Evening, and he will reach his destination.  He sets his mind like steel.

Doing all he can, the wheels pounding, whining, whirling.  A blast of noise pierces the air:  “I’m coming through and you can’t stop me!  Let all who bleed beware!”

Heed is taken normally.  But this time life’s awry.  There’s someone stuck upon the tracks.  This someone’s about to die.

What happens next is not worthy of words.  The judgement has come for one.  And in his wake great tears will flow.  What justice can be done, with words written here?

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O’ man, you are like that train.  You couple your days together with sin.  All day long you do what you think is best.  You have believed the lie that every man does as is right for himself.  Come morning you push the throttle full, mindless of what comes next.

“There is danger.  Yes.  But I am here, and I will do the best I can.  Competition demands my excellence.  And I will give it to them in spades!”

You do not let God guide you.  You do not submit to His Holy way.  Therefore you speed, with all intensity, toward the gates of hell.

Who will stop you now.  And how long does it take to stop the train?  Would it not be wise to stop as soon as you can?  Would it not be wise to slow down and consider?

“I do not have time for your nonsense!  I have babes to feed and clothe!  Away with you!  You distract me from my goal.”

What do you think the engineer would give to allow his prey to live?  What precious thing might he own that will dry up the wells of tears?  What repair can he make to put salve upon regret; that his ruptured heart may heal?  All the while you believe it will not come to you.

Is Jesus Trustworthy?

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It is impossible for God to sin.  To sin is to deviate from perfection.  Such an action can only be done by anyone who is not God.  God himself is the standard of perfection forever (a redundant phrase for perfection and forever are synonymous).

There is one who decided perfection was too high to hold.  Both in word and deed, an accusation was made against God: “You demand too much of us.  You do not provide what is necessary for us to obey.  Therefore sin is our only alternative.  If not now, it is only a question of when.”   (Isn’t this what man is saying even today?   And by saying this aren’t we questioning the trustworthiness of Christ?)

By this he shattered the love of God.  By this pride he spit in the face of the one who made him and granted him his place.  (You can read of his demise in Ezekiel chapter 28)

The result of that choice is chaos and death.  This “other” fell from glory and took one third of the angels with him. Anywhere you find the creatures who willingly fell from perfection, (or man who has never known perfection) you will find chaos and death.  They were banished from heaven and now make their place among us.

This is the reason for the decay of the world.  Wickedness was born long before the birth of the first man at the hands of God.  And it finds its display among our words in the temptation of Eve.

But the gospel tells us of One who cannot sin.  This One has been with the Holy Father from the very beginning, and will never deviate.

How do we know we can trust Jesus?  Because he has been tested and found faultless.  He has been with the Holy Father from the beginning.  Perfection has been the mark of his character.  Unlike “the other”, the Lord Jesus has never questioned his Father’s will, nor had pride in his glorious position.

This One who is from eternity, has lived among us in this place of testing; the place where the hearts of men are tested to see if they will love God or self. 

In obedience to his Father’s desire, Jesus took on a body of flesh.  If you read the account of the gospel you will find him tested viciously in every possible way, yet it was found to be without fault.

Pride in his glory is the instrument of condemnation for the “other” who fell.  But no one will find pride in the Holy Lord Jesus, the Christ of God.  Instead we find him full of humility and obedience.  Even though he has been with the Father from the beginning.

Unlike the adversary of God, you will never find fault in the Son of God.  The test for “the other” was his life.  The pride of his own glory destroyed him.  But the test of the Son of God was in his death.  In this he arrived at a place “the other” could never hope to attain.

We can trust the Lord Jesus because he was beaten viciously by he who cannot be trusted, yet was found faultless.  Even man was incited to add his own blows to the Holy Son of God. 

He was sent to his creation to speak of the love and righteousness of God, and to endure the ultimate testing.  But instead of being received, he was horribly abused.  Still no pride rose up in him.  He submitted to their accusations, hatred, violence and rejection.  And by this his faithfulness to the father was proven.

By His love and righteousness God has granted him all power and strength and glory and honor.  “The other” will die but Christ lives on forever.

Yes you can trust the Lord Jesus! 

The few

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When men reach the end of their days; when their time in this place to testing is done, they will find that everything the Lord’s people have said to them is true.  They will leave this place only to enter the most hideous of circumstances.

I do not say this to laugh at them.  I say this as another means to wake a few. 

I know that most men will receive what is hideous, because the Lord Himself has testified so.  He himself has said that the way to destruction is broad and many go in there by.  And he has said the way to eternal life is narrow and few there are who find it.

Will you listen?  Will you let your ears hear these words?  For the sake of your own life will you give a moment of consideration?  Or you will you continue in the broad way to respond as most will?

All things in this world are either a warning of curse or a test for those who will live.  Which camp do you desire to enter eternity belonging to?

Certainly you want to live.  Even the most wicked among us desires life.  Have you asked yourself, “Why then don’t I take it?”  Or have you walked through time oblivious to all these things?

The Lord’s people stand still and testify day and night.  Who will hear and cease scoffing?  Who will eat at the Lord’s people’s table?  Who will remain?  Who will feast with us and find strength to live?

If there are few who understand and enter in, who are they?  If the majority of men do not consider these things and die in hideous shame, who are they?

You are urged to ask.  You are urged to separate yourself from those who die.  We are dead in our sins, even as we live with the majority.  It is by the prevail of holy struggle that we live eternally.

I did not write this to those who will die.  I wrote this to those who will hear, understand, grasp and do.  Is that you?

Will you humble yourself and receive?  Or will you retain your pride and die in hideous shame?  The door of salvation stands wide open to those who will enter in.  But it remains concealed and eternally locked to those who refuse.