Do you think you could impress God?

Have you ever considered trying to impress God? I haven’t but, the only possible way that we could do it would be to become more like Jesus. Humble and being a servant to others, not with your “accomplishments” or with prideful boasting, and with humility. Those are the qualities that would impress God about you and me. Why would that impress God you may ask?

Because humans like us are not made to be humble. It is not easy for us to be humble and not prideful, especially when we have done something to be proud of. We want someone to reward us, to be proud of us and we want to be recognized. We don’t have the true ability to be humble until we are born again into God’s family. You may know some people who are humble but I would bet that they are Christians.

Luke 18:9-17

9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
15 And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
16 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
17 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

Jesus tells us in these situations that the man who is humble, who knows that he is a sinner and who comes to God confessing his guilt and asking for mercy and God’s forgiveness is the one who will be justified and forgiven. Why?

Because of his humility and his humble way of coming before God. He didn’t come before God as if he was God’s equal or acting like God was lucky to have him in his house! He came before his Creator, knowing that he was the created and that he had nothing to give to God except for his repentance and his life. God accepted him, just as He did with the offering of Abel so long ago.

When I wrote this, I don’t intend to give the impression that we have to be humble to the point of allowing people to walk over us. Humility and meekness are not to be confused with weakness. Being humble is part of your character that is evident when you don’t brag and boast about things. Humility doesn’t have to boast. Just as someone with a Corvette doesn’t have to race people to know that they could beat them in a race. It would take an extraordinary car to win against a Corvette don’t you think?

Now, I don’t mean to say that people who buy a Corvette are humble. Most of the people who buy one are not, they want to be seen, they want to let everyone to know that they have the means to get this car. It is very likely that the Pharisee would’ve been the one who owned the Corvette. The publican was usually a tax collector and he may have had more money than the Pharisee, but I would bet that he had a donkey or a used car, if you want to make it a bit more modern. He wasn’t flashy nor was he one who boasted about what he had or who he was, he just knew he was a sinner and he knew he needed God’s forgiveness.

This next story is something that you may recognize someone who you have met at some point in your life. I read this on a website that I use for sermon ideas and I think it applies here as well:

There was a very lost, wicked, and rebellious man who decided it would be good for business if he went down to the church and joined it. He was an adulterer, an alcoholic, and had never been a member of a church in his life.

But when he went down to place membership, he gave public testimony to the church that there was no sin in his life, and that he had grown up in the church, and they readily accepted him as a member.

When he went home he told his wife what he had done, and his wife, a very godly lady, exploded. She condemned him for being a hypocrite, and demanded that he go back to the church the next week and confess what he really was. Well, God used his wife to really break him, and he took it to heart.

The next Sunday he went back to the church, walked down to the front again, and this time confessed to the church all of his sins. He told them he was dishonest, an alcoholic, an adulterer, and that he was sorry. They revoked his membership on the spot.

He walked out of the church that day scratching his head and muttered to himself: “These church folks are really strange. I told a lie and they took me in; and when I told the truth they kicked me out!”

How about that? Would a church today do something like that? Some would and some would accept him and forgive him when he came and told them the truth.

What about you? Would you forgive him for lying to you and your church?

Sometimes we want to believe the best about people when we meet them and then when we find out that our perception was wrong, we feel hurt and angry. Where would we be if God felt hurt and angry when people reject Him and His Son? Thankfully, God is much more patient with us than we are with each other, Amen?

If there is anything in your life that needs to be brought to God’s attention, be like the publican and bring it before God. Ask forgiveness and confess whatever it may be so that you can walk out and be at ease and at peace because you have taken that pain or whatever it may be and you have given it to God. Then, give yourself to God and decide that from this point on…from today forward you are going to walk in humble obedience to God and listen to Him as you pray and study His Word.

Amen.

Wisdom is….

Wisdom is the most useful gift which God gives graciously to those who ask to understand His ways and His Word. Wisdom is like love in its ways. It is not proud, nor does it seek its own exaltation. Wisdom is the most useful of graces which we are given by God, but don’t consider your wisdom as being yours alone. It comes from God and His Word alone. Schools cannot give you wisdom, only life and living can give you wise counsel to carry with you all of your days.

Wisdom is humble and not proud. It is meek and seeks not its own pleasure. If you consider your wisdom is great and that you have gained this of your own accord, then you have not wisdom but prideful feelings about your own abilities. This will bring you to a place where only wisdom can gain your exit, if you are able to use it in such a fashion.

Wisdom is from God, knowledge is from man and the two of them are separate. It is true that knowledge used in the right way could be seen as wisdom, but just as Solomon asked only for wisdom to be king over Israel, it is given to each of us in our portion. We can’t gain it from someone else, and it is only useful if we put it to use in our lives and our ministry, whatever that may be.

Proverbs 4: 5-9

⁵Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

⁶Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.

⁷Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

⁸Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.

⁹She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

Wisdom in life usually comes with experience, if you apply what you have learned in your life’s work. Wisdom is not easily forgotten, but pride can shut down your own wise ways. So, what should a man do about gaining wisdom? First, he should seek it out from the very Book that contains words given by God to man, which is the Bible. Why do I say this? Because, the Spirit moved men to write God’s Word and His wisdom down as they were prompted to do so. Even if it was written by the hand of man, the words and the wisdom contained in it came from God

Man couldn’t have written the Bible out of their own imagination because there is prophecy in the Old Testament which has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled today, which man cannot know the future in order to make those predictions. God gives us a portion of His Wisdom in the Bible, all that we need to do is pray to Him for guidance while reading it so we can glean all of His wisdom from what we are reading. If you don’t do that, then you are just reading it as a book and nothing more.

By doing so you are missing the entire reason for which God’s Word was written in the first place. Reading the Bible as “just a book” is like reading one of the Greek writings as just a book, it shouldn’t be read that way nor can it be learned from in that way! I don’t mean to say that you can’t learn something from the Bible by just reading it but you are missing out on so much more that is in it if you read it that way.

God’s wisdom is eternal so His Word is eternal too. We can’t add anything of value to it and we had better make sure that we don’t take anything from it, especially if we are teaching from it. Wisdom is what is needed today in our society, but when you are found to have wisdom from the Bible, many people want to shut you up. Why? Because deed down, they know that your wisdom comes from God’s Holy Word and it can’t be dismissed because it is the Truth.

Meekness

I used to wonder what that was. What does it mean to be meek? Then I read a definition from the perspective of a horse trainer. He said that meekness is strength under submission. Like a horse who responds to a bridle and rider. The strength of the horse is many times that of the rider, yet a well-trained horse will be able to respond to the slightest touch or twitch of foot or bridle and will turn to the left or right or speed up or slow down in response. This is what meekness really is.

Regarding the life of a Christian, in today’s world, meekness is not so easy. Why do I say this? Because it implies that we are attentive to the will of God and will obediently follow His lead, His Word, His direction in our everyday lives. The problem is that we are not that attentive to Him. Some followers of Jesus may be, but on the whole most are not. We are too much like toddlers in that respect. We tend to say to God, “Me do it!”, even when we are not sure we can do it whatever “it” might be.

One other person who was described as meek was Moses. The man who led the people of Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness by God’s direction. Meekness is not a description of someone who is weak, but of someone or something that is completely submitted to the One Who is in control. God loves us deeper and more completely than we can imagine, even when we haven’t accepted Him as our Savior or even acknowledged that He exists!

He knows each of us because He created each one of us and He accepts us for who we are, but He wants to become yours too! We belong to Him because He is our Creator, but He patiently waits for us to accept Him and He gives us a chance to learn to love Him for Who He is! It is our choice. Love cannot and will not be forced and that is why God created each of us and gave us that choice. Not because He doesn’t care, but mostly because He does!

All that God asks of us is that we decide to give our hurts and our pain to Him and understand that the pain won’t go away but His strength will be with us from that point on. Asking Him to come into your heart and mine is not a hard thing to do, but you have to come to a point where you feel the need for Him. He doesn’t push His way into your life and He won’t but when you ask Him to come in and make you a whole child of His…He will.

From that point on life will not be a bed of roses and it won’t really be better in physical ways, but spiritually you will be different. The person that you are, the one that God sees, will be whole and pure and your soul will be singing even if you can’t! Some people think that when you give your heart to Jesus and ask Him to come into your life that you won’t ever have any problems ever again. That is when the forces of this world take notice of you. Satan will not let you get away with being a voice for Jesus because he is going to try to stop you every way he can.

The best part of it is that you have Jesus on your side now and all you have to do is walk in step with Him every day. It sounds like a hard road but it isn’t, it is narrow and you do have to watch your steps some times because Satan will try to trip you and make you fall. Jesus will pick you up and carry you when the going gets particularly hard and He will give you strength to get through those times as well.