Tag Archives: pride

Define Accomplishment

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They say:
I’m a good dancer.
I know how to make lots of money.
I can do cartwheels.
I know how to drive fast.
I know all the fashions.
I know why everything works.
I can predict a storm.
I know human nature.

They say, an endless bevy of useless accomplishments.  For certainly age and death will come to take them all away.

Can they say:
I know how to dance with the Living God in the Gospel of His Holy and Righteous Son.
I know how to trust that God is in control, no matter what comes to me, no matter my expectations, no matter my understanding.

Can they say: death and old age cannot rip away from me the hope that is displayed in every corner of my life!

Can they say they see Christ in you?

Value-Driven Truth

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I have not yet parsed the following truth into an edible format.  So please forgive me if it isn’t a cute little saying.  I’ll try to keep this very short, but it’s packed with volumes of understanding.

Pride and education are firmly bound together.

If I try to give free advice to someone, they are not likely to consider it very valuable.  It doesn’t matter how priceless the advice may be.  If it cost them nothing they equate free advice with trivia.  Or perhaps worse, that I’m meddling in their affairs.

On the other hand.  If I make someone pay tuition to sit in a classroom and receive that same advice, they are likely to consider it priceless.  Having said that, I could make someone pay tuition and feed them nothing but lies and they would think it is priceless truth.  Oh wait, that’s what most modern colleges are doing.

If I speak the truth to a stranger, he thinks I am proudly wielding wisdom.  He considers me to full of myself.  If I put that same information in a fortune cookie, the receiver thinks he has found gold.

I’ll say it again and let the reader stew over this.  Pride and education are firmly bound together.

Consider:
The message of Jesus is free to any man who will listen.  He has come to us from heaven and given us heavenly words.  What he gave us is beyond any possible price.  But the world treats his words as if they are useless.  Or at best, they are useful for children only.

If he had charged admission, I suspect the world would treat his words greatly different.  And if the church would charge admission on Sunday mornings, I would guess the pews would be packed full.

You think that’s too much to say?   I don’t.

Talk About My Dog

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People ask me what kind of dog I have in the truck.  I tell them it’s a hairy dog that sheds.  But how I would love to tell them what I’m really thinking.

“Why do you ask me what kind of dog it is?  I think it’s visually obvious.  It’s a dog with a hairy body.  That’s what kind of dog it is.”

What they want to do is strike up a conversation with the owner of the dog.  Got it.  But why can’t we talk about things that really matter?

I’m not into social competition.  BECAUSE: No matter what I say, someone’s bound to judge me.  If I do drugs, the druggies love me, but the straight folks despise me.  If I’m a straight dude the druggies hate me.

If I say something vile, the vile will love me.  If I keep my mouth separate for pure words, the vile despise me.  And often times before I open my mouth I am hated simply because I exist.

The question about the dog has to do with competition.  If the dog is of “special” breed then the conversation is noteworthy and admirable.  But if its just a hairy dog that sheds, there is no value to the conversation at all.  The speaker goes away empty-handed and disillusioned.  The people aren’t interested in me.  They’re searching for noteworthy information.

This is true with everything that man has or doesn’t have.  This is why I am not into social competition, and I sincerely prefer to speak of heaven and the Holy Son of the Living God.  But no one asks me, “What kind of God do you worship”.

The funny thing is, apparently no one but me even thinks about this.  Really, is it funny?

That Illogical Challenge

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I remember the old challenge of the schoolyard bully, “Are you calling me a liar”  (That was said to me many times).  The only thing you could say and possibly avoid a beating, was nothing.

If your answer was no, you let him live without any repercussion.  He smelled weakness already.  You were going to get your butt beat.  If you said yes he found justification to do the same thing.

But the school yard is no detainment facility for bullies.  They graduate and move on into life.  I see them everywhere.  I even see reasonable people use their tactics.  It doesn’t matter: their social upbringing,  their age, or what possible justification they might imagine.  People will vent their hatred on anything they don’t understand.  And they absolutely abhor any other man telling them they’re wrong.

Let anyone challenge homosexuality and the challenger becomes a putrid stench.  Regardless what the godless say in response, they use the same challenge.  “Are you calling me a liar?”

This is their time.  Isn’t it?  They get to plot and rant and rave about everything wicked.  And there’s nothing any of the so-called weak can do about it.  Fine.  It’s your party.

Honestly I look so forward to leaving this place forever.  Jesus has put in me a desire for truth.  I wouldn’t have desired truth but the Lord had mercy to grant me that wisdom.  I yearn to leave behind these stupid idiotic challenges, in which neither side can win.

Yes the bully injures himself every single day he draws breath.  But he also spreads his venomous and innocuous “pride” to everyone he meets.

Look and see how he is praised for challenging truth.  “What a grand and brave soul to come out of the closet against the Most High God (and the people who love the Lord).  See how immensely he is praised.  I yearn to praise the Living God’s Holy Son.

Errant Blind Souls

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If I could train my foolish brain to recognize people as errant blind souls wandering in a suit of flesh, I believe forgiveness would flow like a river.  Though there is forgiveness as I live in Christ, it is often by compulsion.  It’s rarely the first thought.

I think about the reason for this inability to perceive correctly and consistently.  I think it has something to do with the deluge of trinkets and baubles which mask the true Man. 

Perhaps it was slightly easier in early Christianity, where there were less objects of affection to be had.  I can’t possibly know, and I don’t think anyone will ever be able to say for sure.  Only God truly knows.

Pride certainly holds a relevant kingship when it comes to masking the true soul of a man.  And doesn’t pride come in such a variety of shapes, sizes, colors and intensity?  But Pride’s robe is made up of all the things a man may amass to declare his kingship over his own soul.  To get to the heart of a man you have to slice through the garbage.  Undoubtedly, recognizing people as blind errant souls gets far more difficult as the abundance of wealth gathers to hide them.

And I think it’s appropriate here to mention that the abundance of things that hide a soul need not necessarily be costly items.  There is the wealth of social alienation.  This alienation relies chiefly on violence as its display.  From ignoring to  physical violence, such a man says, without speaking, “Get past this if you can”.

Regardless all these things, it is to the Christian’s benefit to perceive his fellow Man as an errant blind soul (just like himself).  Certainly something worth thinking on.

From my own perspective, here is a small list of shills people use.

Politics
Religion
Social position
Tradition
Jokes
Rude behavior
Foul language
A pleasant countenance
Apathy
Social intelligence
Clothing
Makeup
Race
Creed
Exclusive clubs
Deviant behavior
Drugs and alcohol
All manner of things that can be bought

All these things mask the true Man.  Who is capable of perceiving past these things on a consistent basis?

15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me.” (John 8)

My memory is renewed to consider that God in Christ alone is able to reach any soul.

A Sequel, (personal observations)

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I wrote a post called “Dear Active Atheist”.  It was not quite as successful as I’d like, though it wasn’t a completely worthless venture.  I tried to offer a platform of reasoning.  But no one seriously took the offer.

So what have I learned?  I learned that men call themselves atheists because they love the idea that there is nothing to be accountable to.

I learned a crucial side benefit for them in their godless thoughts; with no conscience to hold them down, they allow themselves to seek all possible notoriety (regardless the cost to anyone else).

And lest I had forgotten, I am reminded of what selfish brute beasts they are.  If they are not busy pursuing selfish pleasure, they are actively destroying the lives of those with hope.    In the best of my estimation, they are not a benign tumor in the body of humanity.

If it is a pursuit of pleasure you desire, why don’t you just call yourself a hedonist?  Why go so far as to say there is no God?   So on that note, honesty just isn’t enough.  I don’t think you’re an atheist, I think you’re just willfully ignorant.  In which case you are nothing special at all.

I have also learned that the atheist is a thief.  If he is not actively doing damage to those with hope, he is stealing from the mass of humanity by failing to take into account the larger picture.  A man can only teach what he knows. 

The majority of mankind at least recognizes that there is a larger picture.  Denying the portion of religion and the supernatural, the Atheist robs his fellow man of what is apparently crucial knowledge to all.

Let me finish this by addressing self aggrandizement.  There’s no God in the atheist’s mind.  So he raises himself to fill the void.  If others don’t agree with his newfound royalty, the atheist becomes livid.  It is because of simple posts like this, that I have been witness to explosive outbursts that fall just short of the legal line.

Once again my conclusion is correct.  At best the atheist is a worthless member of society.  At worst he is violence in the waiting.

I have reported my observations according to what I witness.  If you atheists have something else to offer that can soften my observations toward you, please present it.  I am not hard hearted.  I simply lack any proof of your value.

And please, be wisely aware that displaying any of the things I have already mentioned will do absolutely nothing to change my observations.  What credible value are you to humanity?

By His Grace