In the last couple of articles we looked at how pride can destroy you and make you look small, despite anything you may wish to do. In essence, if you choose a prideful direction, count on the Lord to see that you fail. By that I mean, if you belong to the world, you will be exalted, up-held, a contributor, aligned with their beliefs and thoughts. Therefore they will love you.
By the way, enjoy these years until your end as a human being. After that, the Lord already has plans for you! IF by chance, you belong to the Lord and you still choose to go with your prideful direction, count on the Lord to humble you as a disobedient child. It is to my discredit to have been humbled by my Lord a few times already. HE always knows what is and what isn’t righteous and good, for each of us.
My wife and I had a rather unusual “friend” (if you will) that was most manipulative in every- thing yet she would never lift her own finger to help herself, even if it was for her own good. One day her daughter was driving in a very hostile part of the city. She had car troubles and left the car where it began to fail. The friend then called me and asked me to go and get the car for her. Being born-again and a Vietnam Vet does not preclude me from getting shot for being somewhere I do not belong, thus I told her I would not go.
She then became verbally combative and I tried to explain my reasoning, for the most part to no avail. Finally I had to get a little loud and explain it again, a little more forcefully to which she then said that, “I talked her like I was a sergeant.” (Her husband had been in the army 30 plus years). Indeed the Lord loves you and has a purpose for you, but if you choose to be ignorant, HE may allow you to receive a most humbling experience. Ignorance is a very good teacher, if you survive its lesson. My dad used to say, “One should never let his mouth overload his skill level.”Pride…anyone?
Psalm 145:16-20: “Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.”
To walk with the Lord on a daily basis, requires that you adhere to HIS Word, the Bible and I do NOT mean only on Sundays, for an hour. It is to be a 24…7…365. To walk with the Lord, means for you and me to READ HIS Word and make it our everyday goal, to do as HE asks us to do. To paraphrase the last two articles on pride into one sentence, it would be that all things are for the glory of the Lord! If you notice there was no mention of you or me, receiving any thing. Suffice it that pride has no place with the Lord. Therefore it does NOT belong in us either.
Let’s stop and consider who created the universe, this planet, and you, and me. It was…it IS…it always will be…The Lord God Almighty! It should be no secret that the Lord works in everyone’s life, in every second of every day, and that applies to whether you or belong to HIM or not. Our president and the Congress, as well as you and I, can NOT have so much as a single thought…without God’s say so. It is also evident, we can NOT take the next breath of sweet air, without HIS consent to do so and this probably more evident with Christians than others, or at least it should be.
It is also evident that the majority of people living today do not adhere to that mindset, as is evidenced by the actions in their lives. The age old saying, “The bigger YOU think YOU are, the harder YOUR fall.” Trust me my friends, the Lord knows who they are and it would be wise to consider how many are in the pulpits of this nation teaching some other form of the gospel…than Jesus Christ!
Galatians 1:6-9: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 13-14: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtly, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”
I don’t know about you, but the last three verses say what the Lord expects them to say and then leaves no stone unturned. Those of us who are born-again believers, already know that Satan and his ilk were thrown out of heaven, for their prideful endeavors to put their thrones above that of God. It didn’t work for Satan and it will NOT work for you or me! That being the case, it should be all the proof in the world, that we should NOT be pridefuleither…it will NOT be acceptable to the Lord God.
Is it not enough that our lives and its effects…already tell us this? You go out and have a party and drink booze to excess and what happens the next morning…a hangover! And to think for a moment, that you in your infinite wisdom…chose this for yourself. Pain should tell you this is NOT good for you. Let’s be honest here, I take a ball peen hammer and smack you on the pinky-toe, what’s going to happen? You are going to recoil in pain and then in some manner or the other, you will persuade me of the error of my way, right? How is that any different than the result of drinking? It isn’t.
I simply do not understand how the majority of the world, who think they are so intelligent and so enlightened…miss this simple concept. I remember as a kid, I saw a juggler at the fairgrounds, juggling while running chainsaws. Did the thought ever run through his mind that maybe that isn’t such a good idea? I know, he thinks he knows what he is doing. Stop and think for a moment, one slip is REALLY going to cost this guy! Same thing goes with the Bible. We are to search for that narrow path to heaven, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. If you miss the one correct choice of turn-offs to that narrow path, you miss the entire eternal life situation.
Let it be known, the Lord does not do that “spatial thinking thing.” HE leads you. HE does not come and tell you, like so many others, “Well…you go out this here road two miles and hook a left, nope…it’s a right, sorry. Then you just follow your nose and the beach will be right there in front of ya!” He says, “Well, I was looking for the narrow road to salvation in Jesus Christ, not the beach!” You reply, “Oh, oh, oh, sorry, I don’t know that!”
The Lord is there with you every step of the way, day in and day out, night in and night out, without end. You never have to worry about making a wrong turn.
There is one other thing, you may want to know. Walking with the Lord means you give up everything about you…to HIM! Because HE created everything, deals with everything all the time, HE gets the glory! Not YOU or me! Having said that, you now see how pride and prideful ways are absolutely against the Lord God.
Now you should understand why the “prosperity gospel” and the “feel-good gospel” as taught in so many churches are wrong; those who fall into any other gospel other than Jesus Christ whether in the pulpit or not—are lying to you. Read the Bible…and KNOW for sure. Then never take a single step away from the Lord. YOUR eternal life depends on it.