What it Boils Down To

Have you ever really analyzed why people don’t get along?  Majority of the time it boils down to a person’s personal desires being put ahead of another’s.  We want what we want when we want it and it doesn’t matter what anybody else needs or wants.  Yet God gives us some wonderful encouragement with these next few verses from James 4: 2 and 3-

^“2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask.  ³ You ask and don’t receive because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your desires for pleasure.”

When we think we want something, all we need to do is go to God and ask.  We don’t have to fight it out with others to get what we want.  We don’t have to claw our way to the top.  The key for receiving what we ask for is to ask for it correctly with the right heart.  Selfishness and seeking to fulfill our own pleasure filled desires is not the way to gain God’s approval and blessings.  Yet to know that all we have to do is to ask for what we think we need with a right heart is such an encouragement and beyond that to realize that God says we don’t have because we do not ask is even more of an encouragement to ask.

American Idol Attitude

How many of us have known someone who was arrogant or proud?  How did you feel about them?  Did they annoy you?  Did you feel bad for the person they were being arrogant towards?  Did you feel that their pride was making them look self-centered, vain and egotistical?  In the end did you think that the person was making more of a fool of themselves?  Do you feel that all the skills or knowledge that they bragged about was really just disgraced and made null and void by their attitudes?  Now think about yourself?  How do you behave with others?  Do you think you are better than them?  Do you think they are equal with you?  Do you think maybe you have some skills or knowledge that makes you more important than others? Do you ever let pride build up in you over an accomplishment?  Are you ever braggadocious? I have seen that attitude several times lately on American Idol. I am knew to watching it.  Seemed like a lot of great talent had been found this season and I wanted to see what happened.  However, I have seen some pretty proud people vying for the top spots. It really made them look bad. Took some points off in my mind for wanting them to win over the others.  Proverbs 11:2 says,

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

The writer of this proverb is telling us that pride will just make us look bad.  All our skills and knowledge are lowered with an arrogant attitude.  However, he balances it out with an answer to the problem  If we want to not be shamed by our behavior, than we need to be humble. Instead with our humility, we will gain wisdom.  So common sense should tell us to learn to be humble and we will gain wisdom and not be embarrassed.  In the process people will still see our skills and knowledge and perhaps seem them even clearer, because they won’t be standing there with their mouths opened looking at us thinking what a disgraceful attitude.

Overtaken by Pleasure

Have you ever heard that saying, “Whatever floats your boat”?  It basically means do whatever you feel like doing.  The saying doesn’t really give any room for thought on consequences for what might happen when you do what you feel like doing.  You are not to worry about such things.  It is a saying that helps you to focus on yourself, your pleasure and only the here and now.  Unfortunately everything we do can have an effect on us and other people.  There are always consequences for our decisions.  Some things we may do can seem harmful and only enjoyable.  Yet even these “little” things can have physical and/or spiritual ripple effects in our life. 

The Apostle Paul warned Timothy in II Timothy 3: 1-5 about how people would start thinking more about themselves and their pleasures as we approached the last days:

¹ But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days. ² For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, ⁴ traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people!

I think as we look around us we see this very thing happening.  We are consumed with making ourselves better through gaining knowledge (from our internet research, books and universities).  We are consumed with looking good in every area of our lives.  For example we are not satisfied with labor jobs, we must improve and have a career.  Or maybe we need to look good by working out at the gym, wearing the best clothes or having Botox treatments.  Or maybe our food must be “plate” presentable or our homes must be up to “HGTV” standards.  We are consumed with leisure activities.  We have to have the latest game console, tech equipment, 3D TV, or go on the most elaborate vacation.  We have to have our weekly massage or trip to the Salon.  This has happened to society before and Jesus made some warnings about it in Revelation Chapter 2:

¹² “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. ¹³ I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality (Pleasure Seekers). ¹⁵ Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans (Knowledge seekers). ¹⁶ Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. ¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

¹⁸ “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹ I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. ²⁰ Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess (Tolerant of Sin). By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²² So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. ²⁴ Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): ²⁵ Only hold on to what you have until I come. ²⁶ To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ²⁷ ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’— just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give him the morning star. ²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

We as a society and as individuals have become just like the churches in Pergamum and Thyatira.  We have tried to fill our empty bellies with things we weren’t meant to eat.  We have used knowledge and pleasurable activities to fill our spiritual voids.  We have become tolerant of sin, so we do not hurt anyone’s feelings or make ourselves look like the meanie.  By doing these things we have cheated ourselves and others out of the joy of knowing God and letting Him fill the hole in our lives.  We have hindered the work of the Holy Spirit.  We have caused ourselves to not grow in the Lord like we could have.  We have prevented others from experiencing true pleasure by not teaching them about God and His ways.

Jesus did share with these churches and us some good news and instructions in these passages.  It is never too late.  We can turn things around with God’s help. If we flee from the temptation to tolerate sin in our lives and others, we can turn this World around.  If we stop being seekers of knowledge and pleasure we can grow in the Lord and be effective in His Kingdom work. If we do God will feed us with the heavenly manna that will truly satisfy our empty bellies.  If we stop tolerating sin to be accepted in the World, then God will accept us and let us rule the nations with Him.

So what will it be?  Will you be overtaken by pleasure or will you be an overcomer that is satisfied?

American Idol Attitude

How many of us have known someone who was arrogant or proud?  How did you feel about them?  Did they annoy you?  Did you f eel bad for the person they were being arrogant towards?  Did you feel that their pride was making them look self-centered, vain and egotistical?  In the end did you think that the person was making more of a fool of themselves?  Do you feel that all the skills or knowledge that they bragged about was really just disgraced and made null and void by their attitudes?  Now think about yourself?  How do you behave with others?  Do you think you are better than them?  Do you think they are equal with you?  Do you think maybe you have some skills or knowledge that makes you more important than others? Do you ever let pride build up in you over an accomplishment?  Are you ever braggadocious? I have seen that attitude several times lately on American Idol. I am knew to watching it.  Seemed like a lot of great talent had been found this season and I wanted to see what happened.  However, I have seen some pretty proud people vying for the top spots. It really made them look bad. Took some points off in my mind for wanting them to win over the others.  Proverbs 11:2 says,

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

The writer of this proverb is telling us that pride will just make us look bad.  All our skills and knowledge are lowered with an arrogant attitude.  However, he balances it out with an answer to the problem  If we want to not be shamed by our behavior, than we need to be humble.
Instead with our humility, we will gain wisdom.  So common sense should tell us to learn to be humble and we will gain wisdom and not be embarrassed.  In the process people will still see our skills and knowledge and perhaps seem them even clearer, because they won’t be
standing there with their mouths opened looking at us thinking what a disgraceful attitude.

Balancing Our Self-Worth

Sometimes as Christians we let our egos or our lack of egos lead us astray when judging our worth.  We start trying to figure out where we fit in to the scheme of things.  Are we as good as our fellow Christian brother or sister?  Or are we better?  When in reality we should be using some good common sense and faith supplied to us by our Heavenly Father to determine that we are not better or worse than anyone else.  Romans 12: 2-6 says,

“2 Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. 3 I realize how kind God has been to me, and so I tell each of you not to think you are better than you really are. Use good sense and measure yourself by the amount of faith that God has given you. 4 A body is made up of many parts, and each of them has its own use. 5 That’s how it is with us. There are many of us, but we each are part of the body of Christ, as well as part of one another. 6 God has also given each of us different gifts to use.”

We can balance our self-worth by using the good common sense God gave us to realize that He created us all the same.  We are all humans with the ability to do good or to do bad, to make mistakes or to learn from our mistakes, etc.  We can finish balancing out our self-worth with the faith that God has given us.  He has not played favorites and given gifts to some people to do His work, but He has given one or more gifts to each of us to use for His glory.  We just have to choose to use them.  When we do, He will bless us and we may even receive more gifts from Him.  So it is up to us.  No one has a better chance to please God.  We all have equal opportunity to love and serve Him.

So when determining your self-worth by balancing the scales with sense and faith you will soon realize we are all the same on God’s scale.

What it Boils Down To

Have you ever really analyzed why people don’t get along?  Majority of the time it boils down to a person’s personal desires being put ahead of another’s.  We want what we want when we want it and it doesn’t matter what anybody else needs or wants.  Yet God gives us some wonderful encouragement with these next few verses from James 4: 2 and 3-

^“2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask.  ³ You ask and don’t receive because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your desires for pleasure.”

When we think we want something, all we need to do is go to God and ask.  We don’t have to fight it out with others to get what we want.  We don’t have to claw our way to the top.  The key for receiving what we ask for is to ask for it correctly with the right heart.  Selfishness and seeking to fulfill our own pleasure filled desires is not the way to gain God’s approval and blessings.  Yet to know that all we have to do is to ask for what we think we need with a right heart is such an encouragement and beyond that to realize that God says we don’t have because we do not ask is even more of an encouragement to ask.

Walking To Get Somewhere

It’s just common sense to realize that to get somewhere we need only to start walking.  It’s even more common sense to realize beyond just walking to get there that our legs require our whole body and mind to get us there.  So if we want to get somewhere, whether it is a good place or a bad place, it is going to take the commitment of our whole body.  In other words, if you end up being somewhere you shouldn’t and doing something you shouldn’t, it wasn’t just because you happened to walk in to it. Your mind started the process, then your heart, blood, muscles, and bones had to follow suit.  It took all of you to get there.  On the flip side of the coin, it is going to take all of you to get to the place where Jesus wants you to be.  He wants us to become like Him.  So to become like Him, you are going to need to start getting your mind focused on Him through His Word, His Church and His People.  Next you are going to have to make sure your body is in the right places at the right times based on what He tells you to do.  You can’t just expect to casually walk in to church one Sunday and suddenly find yourself the perfect child of God.  You are going to have to put your whole self in to the process.  So make the whole committment with your whole self to walk the walk.  Psalm 128:1 “How happy is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways!”