Pride, the ultimate sin

We today are facing a time in history that has more trouble than ever before. We seem to be at the very beginning of what most would call the Apocalypse. The church has not been raptured and yet there is so much evil in the world, until I’m not sure if we as a church can truly have much of an impact on the world. I know that God is in control and that he won’t allow Israel to be harmed as the Muslim nations intend to do.

In light of all the news reports from the Middle East and from around the world, the condition of our world is truly bleak. Partially due to the influence of Satan but also due to humanity’s pride. Pride can be good but it can get out of hand. I am proud of my son and for what he has accomplished in school so far, but if I were to take that pride to a selfish level it would cause much heartache.

Pride is the cause of many, many failed marriages, friendships, partnerships in life and business, and it has torn apart numerous churches and denominations. It is also the main reason for so much conflict in the world between countries, religions, and people. Unlike money, which the lust for can cause much heartache, pride is something which cannot be used or sold. It cannot be spent or bartered with, and yet it can and will cause much dissension between close friends, marriage partners, business partners, clergy and congregations if allowed to.

Pride is a sin which was cultivated and nurtured before the world began by Satan himself. It is his work and his most prized tool to use against humanity. The only way to uproot pride is to empty yourself into Jesus or rather allow Him to pour Himself into you. Get your “self” out-of-the-way because while you are in the way, Jesus cannot have you fully. Cultivate your knowledge in His Word, pray about what you have read and ask Jesus to come into your heart, because once you do that He will move pride out and move humility in.

When pride is out-of-the-way and you have given your life to Jesus, you can be so much more than “just a Christian“. You will be a servant of the Most High and a disciple of His as well and it will show in and through your life so that others will see Him through you. God loves you far more than you can possibly realize and He wants you to return His love as well in service and in your daily life.

What should we do about Jesus?

If you are asking this question, of yourself or just wondering, isn’t it time that you made a decision for real? Your eternity hangs in the balance. The condition of your eternity, whether it is comfortable and with friends or terrifying and painful and alone, also hangs on your decision about Jesus. There was a preacher once who preached a sermon about humanity hanging by a frayed rope over the pit of hell and the only way that we could get free from that situation was by accepting Jesus as our Savior and into our life.

What will your decision be? Do you have an opinion about Him based on what the world tells you about Him and Christianity? Or have you got a relative or someone that has told you that it is a bunch of baloney and don’t worry about your “so-called immortal soul” because when we die, we are dead and that is it. That is some dangerous advice to listen to!

You know what really bothers me? It’s the fact that so many people in this country “claim” to be Christian when in actual fact, they are not! I am not judging anyone in this regard, but if eighty percent of Americans really are Christians, why is our country so messed up? When I say that I am a Christian, I mean that I believe that Jesus died for my sins and that the Word of God, the Bible, is true….all of it! Our world and the universe that He created is not billions of years old, and the Book of Revelation is not fiction nor is it allegory. The prophecies contained within it will come to pass at the appropriate time.

God sent His one and only Son to earth to be the sacrifice for all of mankind. If you cannot believe this, read the Bible and pray about it. Your life will never be the same once you accept Jesus as your Savior, it will be more alive and vivid than you can possibly imagine! Without Him, you can do nothing, with Him, you can do anything!

Humanity, the ungrateful child

A wealthy man had a son whom he loved very much. He gave him gifts. He spent every moment of the day teaching and caring for his son. But as the boy grew into manhood, he turned away from his father and came to despise him – yet his father continued to support him hoping that he would come around. He paid his bills, furnished him with a home and wrote to him. But, instead of being grateful, the son ripped up the letters, ended all contact with him and cursed anyone who dared mention his father’s name in conversation. However, he never stopped taking his father’s support.

Sadly, this ungrateful son illustrates humanity. God is our heavenly Father and many of us imitate the son’s attitude. God spends every moment with us, whether we know it or not: giving, teaching and caring – yet, many turn away. In spite of this, God still continues to care for us with the desire that we will come around. He supplies us with the riches of the universe, things that cannot be measured in wealth (like sunshine, oxygen, gravity, atmosphere, environment and more); He has paid our bills (Christ on the cross) and written to us (the Bible). We may curse God – but isn’t it ironic that we still expect Him to continue supporting – which, as the perfect Father, He does.

What would happen to us if we woke up one day and the sun had dimmed to one-tenth of its output? Or if the magnetic field which protects us failed and we were exposed to the radiation of the full spectrum, not just the visible light that we have come to know? Would we blame God or would we pray and repent, asking for His protection again? What would we do in that situation?

In the current condition that our world is in, we would look for all sorts of scientific reasons for what was happening. We would also attempt to find ways that we could protect ourselves, but if something like that happened to our world the only one who could do anything about it would be ignored. If any of the situations that are outlined above happened, the only One who could do anything about it would actually be blamed for it. God is the only one that we should be turning to, not Allah, or Buddha or anything else. God loves us all, far more than we would ever understand. He is outside of time, for He created time. That is why all of time is seen by Him, today, yesterday and tomorrow are all there for Him to see. He knows exactly how long each of us has to live and serve Him, and He knows if or when we will come to know Him personally.

Our Lord created everything and everyone who ever lived or ever will live on this earth. He also created those who were supposed to be born but weren’t for one reason or another and even though He is in control, He doesn’t because He wants us to have the freedom to choose. Whether it is the choice to live for Him or the choice to have a baby or to finish school and become a doctor or whatever you want to be. Our lives would not be what they are if He controlled us to the point of not giving us that choice. He even gave the angels the right to choose to serve Him or not, that is why Satan was cast out of Heaven. He chose to become greater than the Most High, knowing that he could not but that was his choice.

We are, as a people and a planet, blessed to be cared for by the Creator of the universe. Our “frail, blue marble” of a world would not be so perfectly positioned if it were not for His hand. If you consider for a moment that when we breathe and move around in our homes or on the street, there are trillions of chemical reactions and cellular processes which occur all of the time just to move you. If all of these did not work perfectly every day, you-we would die! For instance, in our brains, there are more than one hundred thousand chemical reactions happening every second. So in the time that it took me to write this, over ten million reactions have taken place just during the last few sentences and that is only one of the organs in the body.

The point of this is that we had to have been created by a Creator who loves us and knows what we will do and what we can do. We did not come to be what we are and where we are because of evolution. Random mutations and accidents do not create life as we know it, God does! Bring your heart to Him and offer your life as a sacrifice so that He can use you, you will never regret it, I promise.