THE GLORY OF THE HAPPY GOD!

"...in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted."

1 Timothy 1:11

Do you think God is a happy being? Have you ever thought of Him in that way? Phillip Yancey writes in his book "The Jesus I Never Knew",
"What we think and believe about God matters-really matters-as much as anything in life matters.”

One of the most life changing moments in my life was when I read from the word with new eyes what the apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:11, "in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed (happy) God."

I discovered that God is the happiest of beings. So often I used to think of God as non-enthusiastic or even gloomy. The god of religion is cold, calloused, cantankerous, mean-hearted – in a word he, is just plain unhappy – and he is out to make your life miserable. But the true God of Scripture is revealed as being “the happy God”! 

We desperately need a sharpened biblical focus of whom God is and what He is really like. Because, when we know the truth, the truth sets us free! One of the reasons our witness to God’s reality is minimal is because our understanding of God’s reality is minimal. Like J.B. Phillips said early last century,” Your God is to small.” Oh how diminished God can often be by our little or ignorant understanding of Him! What we need is a big picture of a great God who is the happiest of beings.

Unlike the religious views of God, our God is truly a God of joy. He is not an old angry man with a scowl upon His face. He actually is a happy God, and we have Scripture that teaches us this wonderful truth! He loves to be God, He takes great pleasure in all that He does, and He is enthusiastic about serving His people and working for their welfare. For example, God says in Jeremiah 32:41, "I will rejoice in doing them good." Jesus said in John 15:11, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you."  And Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:11 of "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God." Blessed (makairos in Greek) can mean happy. So Paul is literally saying: "the good news of the glory of the happy God." 

When I say God is happy, I mean that He is supremely or infinitely happy. He is the happiest being in the universe. A great part of what makes God God is his happiness. To be infinite glorious is to be infinitely happy. He uses the phrase, the glory of the happy God, because it is a glorious thing for God to be as happy as he is. God's glory consist much in the fact that he is happy beyond our wildest imagination!

I love the way Jonathan Edwards put it, 

"part of gods fullness which she communicates, is his happiness. This happiness consist in enjoying and rejoicing in himself; so does also the creatures happiness."

And this is the gospel; "The gospel of the glory of the happy God." Isn't it just fantastic news that God is gloriously happy? Would you want to spend eternity with an unhappy God? If God isn't a happy God, than the goal the gospel is not a happy goal and that means it is not a gospel, i.e. "Good news" at all. But, the fact is, Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a happy God and enter into that happiness when he says, "enter into the joy of your master"(Matthew 25:23).

Jesus lived and died that his joy-God's joy-might be in us and our joy might be full (John 15:11;17:13). 

God's happiness spills over in mercy to us. Can you imagine what it would be like if the God who ruled the world were not happy? What if God were given to grumbling and pouting and depression like some Jack-and-the-beanstalk giant in the sky? What if God were despondent and gloomy and dismal and discontented and dejected and frustrated? Could we join David and say, "O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is" (Psalm 63:1)? No way!

Perhaps some of us relate to God like little children relate to a gloomy, dismal, discontented, frustrated father. They can't enjoy him. They can only try to avoid him and maybe try to work for him to make him feel better. Children cannot enjoy the company of their father if he is gloomy and dismal and frustrated. But not God, He's the happiest of all beings.

We have a God who is the opposite of the gloomy, dismal, disinterested father. Consider this encouragement from Jeremiah 9:24, "'I am the Lord who performs mercy and justice and righteousness in the earth, because in these things I delight' says the Lord." God shows mercy because it makes Him so very happy! 

Listen to the heartbeat of your happy God in Jeremiah 32:40-41,

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good,and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

God does good to you because he enjoys it so much! He pursues the business of loving you with all his heart and with all his soul. 

"Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32)

Oh what a happy God you have! Listen to these words:Isaiah. 62:5, “as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”Psalm 35:27, "The LORD be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant."Psalm 149:4, For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation. ”

Psalm 147: 10-11, "His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love."

Zephaniah 3:17, "The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." ".

So, enjoy life! Wake up every morning and bask in the goodness and grace of “the happy God” Who loves you and lives in you. Embrace His happiness throughout the day, regardless of the situation or circumstances in which we may find ourselves.

Whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he (Proverbs 16:20).

Happy in His happiness,

Pastor Bill

WEAKNESS AND INABILITY:A LAUNCHPAD TO GODS POWER

I am turning 64 in a few weeks. As I evaluate my life O can honestly say I have never felt more inept,inadequate,  and impotent. Do any of you feel this way?  This is an all to familiar place for me in my life to be. I have developed an aversion to inadequacy and impotency. In the past I was a high achiever, a self sufficient loner, very self disciplined, focused, highly ambitious, in control, a planner, a success driven striver. I always made sure my ducks were lined up and that I had alternatives to my alternatives to fix and solve any problem that I had. But not any more. Too much failure, too much brokenness, to many broken dreams, too many bad decisions, too much humiliation. Today, after 43 years of being a Christian, I have truly learned that before God I am truly helpless.

The truth is that if we are really honest with ourselves,, we are always inadequate. Our Lord said so in John 15:6, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing." This statement and believing it are foundational to understanding the kind of person who will be most used by God. Life, in fact, is too much for us. This business of living in awareness and response to God, to live for His glory, to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to live in caring attentive love to the people around us, and to do that for 70 to 80 years with joy and perseverance, utterly exceeds our capacities. We aren't smart enough; we don't have enough energy; we can't concentrate adequately. We are unbelieving, apathetic, fragile, weak, and fickle.

Not all the time, to be sure. We have spurts of love, passion, risks of faith, moments of heartfelt caring, and extraordinary courage; but invariably we slip back into laziness, dullness, fatigue, unbelief, selfishness, or greed. That is why a ruthless honesty before God and ourselves will always leave us shattered by our inadequacy.

There is an enormous gap between what we think we can do and what God calls us to do. As long as I think that God calls me to do only what I think I can do (i.e.control, manipulate, contain, play it within my own self made safety nets) I am fine. In short, as long as I live within the confines within my own self imposed limitations and abilities all is well. But what happens when your ideas of what we can do or want to do are small and trivial in comparison to God's idea of what He can do in and through us, whether you are 18 or 64?That is where we often times get afraid, doubting, discouraged, despair, and feel hopeless.

God does not call us to do only what we can do, He calls us to do what He can do! Christianity is supernatural or it is nothing!!!!! Jesus says in John 15:5-6, ""As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." Do you hear that? Do you believe that? It will either bring you down to utter discouragement in your pride or lift you up to draw you to his supernatural help.

I am motivated to come to God because of the reality and the deep conviction that I am completely helpless to do my life on my own. I have come to see that my impotency, my helplessness, my weakness, my brokenness, and my neediness is a precious gift from God, because this is the place that releases the true flow of God's omnipotent power, strength, and grace in my life and ministry and it will be the same for you. God knows where His power and glory thrive and where it is diminished

Oh the promises in the bible to what He wants to do to us, for us, in us, and through us! God's ideas for us are divine, supernatural, extraordinary, and utterly disproportionate to who we are! What God desires to do is to intersect divine omnipotence with our impotence and together produce extraordinary miraculous and supernatural lives.

Listen to these promises and reach out to believe them over your life!

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Romans 8:31-32

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory
2 Corinthians 1:20

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us
Ephesians 3:20

"Nothing is impossible with God"
Luke 1:37

When you understand this extraordinary God and the extraordinary work that He desires to do through your working you can begin praying a bold prayer prayer like this:
“Lord, let me make a difference for you that is utterly disproportionate to who I am".

Bold prayers like this honor God, and God honors bold prayers. God is not offended by your biggest dreams and boldest prayers. He is offended by anything less. If your prayers are not impossible to you, they are insulting to God. Why? Because they don't require divine intervention.But ask God to do the miraculous and God is moved to omnipotent action. Ask God to move His omnipotence over your life. Ask God to do something utterly disproportionate to who you are. The greatest moments of your life are supernatural, miraculous moments.

There is nothing that our supernatural God likes more than keeping promises, answering prayers, helping his beloved children, and performing miracles. that is who He is and what He does.

So this is how I desire to pray each and every day of my life. This is a prayer that any one of you who feel passionless, loveless, weak, inadequate, can pray boldly without fear of presumption.The wording of the prayer contains a disclaimer:

"I am not great. But you, Lord, are very great. So in your astonishing sovereignty and glorious omnipotence and according to your mighty promises you can flood little, inadequate, impotent me with love, passion, and power and let my little life make a difference far beyond all my little powers. Let my little timid prayers be expanded into big sweeping prayers like these:

Lord, I have heard of your fame;I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known
Habakkuk 3:1-2

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil,come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him
Isaiah 64:1-4

O Lord, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.
2 Chronicles 14:11

Jesus is not asking you and me to do anything that He is not already doing and cannot do. He is inviting us into His life of helpless impotent dependence upon our heavenly Father. To become more like Jesus is to feel more and more that you cannot do life. The very thing we often times try to escape, our own helplessness, becomes the launch pad to prayer and then to God's omnipotent supernatural help and grace.

Calling for God to do things that only He can do!
Pastor Bill

 

Field Guide to Pride Part 3 HUMILITY, PRIDE’S PHOTO NEGATIVE

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble"
James 4:6 ESV

For the past two blogs I've been talking about pride. In essence,  pride wants to be the center of attention: for good or for bad. Pride’s fixation with self can only be countered with one thing:
humility’s forgetfulness of self. Humility is the photo-negative of pride.

We will begin killing pride when we experience more and more of pride’s photo-negative: humility. If pride puts us in a position of opposition to God, then humility delights in taking a posture of dependence upon God. This posture of dependence puts us in a position to receive grace from God.

The apostle Peter expounds upon these points in illuminating ways in 1 Peter 5:5-7 (read also James 4:6), "Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you."

First Peter says,“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). This the promise of humility. God is personally and providentially- supportive of the humble. And the grace He extends to the humble is indescribably rich. Nothing could be better than to have an infinitely powerful and wise God treat us graciously. Grace is a wonderful word. It means we are recipients of the favor of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When we are humble, we are in a place to receive His grace which He lavishes upon us. Isaiah 57:15 "For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Peters wording here again speaks of continual action. God has always and will forever continue to give grace to those who humble themselves before the Lord.

Next, he defines humility more spatially. Humility pitches its tent in a certain place: “under the mighty hand of God” (1 Pet. 5:6). The word “humble,” as it’s used in verse six, is not only a reference to an attitude, but to a position as well. God gives His grace to those who recognize their lowly position in the presence of a holy and righteous God by honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holi­ness and our sinfulness. That is the twin reality that all genuine humility is rooted in: Gods holiness and our sinfulness.

Fenelon explained, "A peasant shut up in his village only partially knows his wretchedness, but let him see rich palaces, a superb court, and he will realize all the poverty of his village. He cannot endure its hovels after a sight of so much magnificence. It is thus that we see our ugliness and worthlessness in the beauty and infinite grandeur of God.” In the same way, it's easy for a man or woman to be proud until they catch a glimpse of God's holiness. John Piper says, “Humility can only survive in the presence of God. When God goes, humility goes. In fact, you might say that humility follows God like a shadow.”

John Calvin wrote, “It is evident that man never attains to a true self knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look at himself.” Without an honest awareness of the reality of God’s holiness and our sinfulness, all self-evaluation will be skewed and we'll fail to either understand or practice true humility: We'll miss out on experiencing the promise and the pleasures of grace that God offers to the humble. That is why I want to direct you to God's help for evalu­ating your life honestly, to understand whether you're growing in the humility that draws His gaze and attracts more of His grace.

Finally, Peter then answers the most obvious question: how can someone be humble? Answer: we humble ourselves by “casting all [our] anxieties on him” (1 Pet. 5:7). If pride stubbornly insists on carrying our own cares, then humility is quick to cast our cares on God. Humility even knows what to do when we don’t know what to do: keep looking to him!

When faced with impossible odds, king Jehoshaphat knows enough to look at the King Eternal and say,“we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chron. 20:12).

In the quest for humility, we must be sure to avoid pride’s counterfeit version of humility: self-deprecation. What’s the discernable difference? Humility is not obsessed with tearing ourselves down. C. S. Lewis stated the distinction memorably: “Humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less.” In other words, humility is fundamentally a form of self-forgetfulness as opposed to pride’s self-fixation. And humility’s self-forgetfulness has a certain flavor: joy. It’s not dour or sour. The joy of self-forgetfulness comes when a superior satisfaction in God overpowers our self-preoccupation.

Humility does not join pride in treating others with contempt. We are too busy looking up at God’s glory to look down on others or feel smug about ourselves. And unlike pride, humility does not have to be the center of attention. Humility is not self-promoting; it enjoys pointing out evidences of grace in others. It can celebrate their accomplishments.

What are you building with your life? A marriage? A family? A business? A church? A career? A ministry? A friendship? In all your ven­tures, are you aware of your need for God's grace to give your efforts lasting value? So many human ventures have failed because humility was lacking. Ultimately, there can be no effective expansion of your life’s mission and ministry, no growth and maturity, no fulfillment of the specific purpose that God has called you to, apart from the cultivation of humility in your heart and the weakening of pride in your life. But I don’t want you rooting out pride because of its perils and pitfalls. Our pursuit should be driven by the amazing promise Peter and James gives that humility holds out to us: God gives grace to the humble!

Do you long for God's providen­tial help and blessing? Then let's allow the promise of humility to shape our life and choices, so that your life will begin to be colored in every area by grace. God clearly states that He is drawn to the humble. He's also clear that He opposes the proud. These two, humility and pride, cannot coexist. Where one is fostered, the other is defeated. Which will you pursue? If you feel convicted of pride in any form, of failing to humble yourself or failing to glorify God, take the time right now to flee to the cross and receive the forgiveness for this sin of pride that God hates. Humble yourself before Him and confess it specifically to the one whom you have offended. And receive the grace of His forgiveness. Tell Him that you want to declare war upon pride in your life- that you want to declare war on this active, daily tendency towards self-sufficiency, this desire to live independently of Him when in truth we are dependent upon him for every breadth. Gladly announce make a declaration of dependency. Make this confession humbly and daily for the rest of your life. Hold on to the promise God gives to those who are humble before Him: GOD GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE!

Pastor Bill

A Field Guide to Pride Part 2:3 Surprising Forms of Pride

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble"
James 4:6 ESV


it comes to diagnosing our hearts, those of us who have the disease of pride have a challenging time identifying our sickness. Pride infects our eyesight, causing us to view ourselves through a lens that colors and distorts reality. Pride will paint even our ugliness in sin as beautiful and commendable.
We can’t conclude that we don’t struggle with pride because we don’t see pride in our hearts. The comfortable moments when I pat myself on the back for how well I am doing are the moments that should alarm me the most. The moments when I am holding a pity party are equally as dangerous.

What we need is a field guide for pride. So, let us survey pride’s various forms to provides a clear line of sight so that we can place pride in our crosshairs and shoot to kill.

can appear in forms that look like polar opposites summed up in 2 categories.

The Pride of Building up
The Pride of Tearing down

Here are six interrelated forms:

Building Up:
Self-Exaltation,
Self-Promotion,
and Self-Justification

Tearing Down:
Self-Degradation,
Self-Demotion,
and Self-Condemnation

Last week we looked at the most common views of pride which are tied with building up self. But today I want to discuss the subtle forms of pride which involve tearing down.

The common denominator for all six species of pride is self-preoccupation. Pride wants to be the center of attention: for good or for bad.

The surprising yet equally dangerous forms of Pride.
Self-Degradation
Self-Demotion
and Self-Condemnation

pride can shift into the shape of self-degradation and self-demotion when we beat ourselves up for our failures. We are still obsessed with ourselves. In the first form, we are obsessed with our successes; in the second, we are obsessed with our failures.
for our failures. We are still obsessed with ourselves. In the first form, we are obsessed with our successes; in the second, we are obsessed with our failures

Self-degradation, self-demotion, and self-condemnation all come when the shoe is on the other less fortunate foot. They are the opposite of the forms of Pride where we build up the self. They emerge as we stew over our losses and others’ successes. Rather than raising a toast to successes, these three forms of pride throw a lavish pity party.

1.Self-Degradation
First, where self-exaltation elevates and builds up the self, self-degradation is a form of demolition which tears down the self.

2.Self-Demotion
Second, self-demotion throws a public and pathetic party to highlight the fact that we have performed worse than others, we have it worse than others, or we have less than others. Self-demotion plans the funeral for our ego. Why would we want others to see these things? Ironically, self-demotion can be a sneaky form of self-promotion because we’re actually fishing for the affirmation and reassurance we believe we deserve.

3.Self-Condemnation
Third, self-condemnation passes judgment on us when we fall short of our own standards. Sometimes we carry out the painful judgment on ourselves. We can mentally replay poor performances in order to beat ourselves up repeatedly over our failures. Self-condemnation does not feel vindicated in the sight of others, but feels shame for falling short.

Pride is wholly consumed with self. Pride may shout out to every person it sees, “Look at me! I am amazing!” It also might shout, “Look at me, I am horrible. I am ugly, I am no good. I am dumber than anybody I know!” Pride is so inwardly focused that even when it hates self with utmost vehemence, it cannot remove its burning eyes from self! It continues to utterly abhor self, even to the point of suicide. This is not humility. This is pride; pride in its most pitiable, sorry form.

Pride seeks everyone else’s sympathy and pity, and is angry when it does not get it. If someone does need encouragement in their trial, Pride would only defend its position as having the worst trial there is, leaving the other crushed and without hope. It relies wholly on other people to pity it, and perhaps build it up for a while to keep it from total self-destruction. This form of pride is subtle, and builds slowly. It leaves you helpless and entirely unhelpful to the rest of humanity. It may be the most subtle, most deadly form of pride.

So how do we fight pride? Don’t be suckered into thinking that to battle the first kind of pride you must use the second.

The common denominator for all six species of pride is self-preoccupation. Pride wants to be the center of attention: for good or for bad. Pride’s fixation with self can only be countered with humility’s forgetfulness of self. Humility is the photo-negative of pride.

To be continued...

A Field Guide to Pride Part 1

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble"
James 4:6 ESV

Pride is a cosmic crime. As finite creatures, we cannot fully grasp God’s infinite revulsion against pride’s rebellion. God hates pride.
When James says “God opposes the proud”, the verb here is the Greek antitassetai, which literally means 'to arrange against'. It is a military term which could be translated `to set in array as in a battle', and the picture it conjures up is vivid and terrifying. Whereas the humble, godly man has the hosts of God encamped around him, the arrogant, godless man has the God of hosts arrayed against him! James is saying nothing less than that.

But is his language too strong? Is he overstating the case? Not in the least. From God's perspective, pride seems to be the most serious sin. There is nothing God hates more than this. God righteously hates all sin, of course, but biblical evidence abounds for the conclusion that there's no sin more offensive to Him than pride.

His Word reveals that there are seven things "that the Lord hates and that are an abomination to Him” It is the proud man’s haughty eyes that head up the list (Proverbs 6:16-17). Another time God speaks out, "I hate pride and arrogance" (Proverbs 8:13). And consider the divine perspective on pride revealed in Proverbs l6:5, "Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished." Stronger language for sin simply cannot be found in Scripture

What makes pride so singularly repulsive to God is the way that pride “contends for supremacy” with God himself. Pride sets itself in opposition to God. The only fitting response is for God to oppose the proud ( James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5). That is probably why pride is not simply another sin among many, but a sin in a category of its own. Other sins lead the sinner further away from God, but pride is particularly heinous in that it attempts to elevate the sinner above God. The heinousness of pride means that it really does deserve to die.

As seriously dangerous as pride is, it’s equally hard to spot, much less kill. Jonathan Jonathan Edwards said pride is “the most hidden, secret, and deceitful of all sins.

So, when it comes to diagnosing our hearts, those of us who have the disease of pride have a challenging time identifying our sickness. Pride infects our eyesight, causing us to view ourselves through a lens that colors and distorts reality. Pride will paint even our ugliness in sin as beautiful and commendable.
We can’t conclude that we don’t struggle with pride because we don’t see pride in our hearts. The comfortable moments when I pat myself on the back for how well I am doing are the moments that should alarm me the most. The moments when I am holding a pity party are equally as dangerous.

What we need is a field guide for pride. So, let us survey pride’s various forms to provides a clear line of sight so that we can place pride in our crosshairs and shoot to kill.

On a general level we could sum up what pride looks like in three ways:

1.The self-preoccupied person. This is the person who thinks continually about himself. He might be a self-effacing person, and so look in a way humble. But inside his cocoon all he is consumed with is thoughts about himself. He may not even like himself.But he is still the center of his attention. His self-hate has no power to produce humility, it just makes his pride pathetic and miserable.That is a subtle and deadly form of pride.

2. The self-infatuated person. This person really does feel quite good about himself. He is not only occupied with himself, but likes being the center of his own attention and thinks others would probably like it as well. He may or may not be outgoing,but he finds himself entertaining or intelligent or handsome or shrewd and enjoys preening himself, even if nobody is impressed.

3. The self-exalting person. This person goes beyond self-preoccupation and self-infatuation to active efforts to display his qualities. He does care if others see and admire. He wants praise.

But I'd like to go even deeper in identifying pride because fighting pride is like fighting a shape-shifter. It can appear in forms that look like polar opposites summed up in 2 categories.

The Pride of Building up
The Pride of Tearing down

Here are six interrelated forms:

Building Up:
Self-Exaltation,
Self-Promotion,
and Self-Justification

Tearing Down:
Self-Degradation,
Self-Demotion,
and Self-Condemnation

The first three responses usually show up when we succeed and others fail. The latter three are more common when others succeed and we fail.

First, pride puts on the smug face of self-exaltation when success comes its way. Self-exaltation takes credit for the good things in our lives. Second, self-promotion is an extension of self-exaltation because it puts those good things forward so that others will give us credit for them. Third, self-justification is more specific in that it focuses on taking credit for morally good works as a way of being right before God or in the sight of others. Taking credit for being in the right makes it more likely that we will blame others for being in the wrong. The Pharisees displayed all of these species of pride. For instance, they paraded their self-righteousness before people to get praise from others (Matt. 6:1–2). Jesus said everyone who exalts himself (like a Pharisee) will be humbled (Matt. 23:12). These three forms of pride all propose a toast to self, celebrating and showing off our successes. And they often raise their glasses with an acute awareness of the failures of others. The Pharisees not only “trusted in themselves that they were righteous,” but they also “treated others with contempt” (Luke 18:9)

...Yo be continued. Next week we will look at 3 surprising forms of pride.

HOW LONG,OH LORD?

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." 2 Peter 3:9

The apostle Peter tells us that “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness” (2 Peter 3:9).

I must confess I am a frequent member of the "some" group. In my humble opinion, God moves as slow as molasses at times in my life. As a matter fact, at times he seems to move even beyond slow, he has stopped dead in his tracks!  Sometimes, I wish he would pick up the pace and I advise Him about this on a regular basis.

At some point, each of us joins the “some” group. We reach places where it’s painfully clear that our sense of time and feelings of urgency must be very different than God’s. And it is. We prefer to measure time in minutes, rather than months.

But Peter tells us that God has a very different way that he measures time. He measures time by millennia,
"But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. " (2 Peter 3:8).

Our loving and caring God compassionately understands and knows that he sometimes appears slow to us, which is one merciful reason he has given us the Bible. This book, which God took a thousand years to assemble, shows us that God is not slow, but patient in working out his redemptive purposes in the best ways (2 Peter 3:9). And it shows that he is compassionate toward us when we wait for him for what seems like a long time.

Abraham and Sarah were not only the parents of all of God’s faith-children (Romans 4:16); their lives are perhaps the most famous picture of God’s redemptive purposes in what seems like his painfully slow pace.

Abram (as he was first called) was already 75 years old when God promised to make him a great nation that would bless all the families of the earth and to give his offspring the promised land of the Canaanites (Genesis 12:1–3).

However, there was a problem: Abram had no offspring. His wife, Sarai (as she was first called), was barren (Genesis 11:30).

Years passed. Still no child. So Abram prudently planned to make his servant Eliezer to be his heir. But God said, “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir” (Genesis 15:4). Then he took Abram out and showed him the night sky and told him that his offspring would be so numerous it would be like counting stars.

But years later, it was still just Abram and Sarai in the tent.
Sarai became desperate and gave up on waiting. She decided that her maidservant, Hagar, could be a surrogate child-bearer for her. This sounded humanly reasonable to 86-year-old Abram, but he did not consult God and the solution backfired, big time.

Thirteen more years went by before God finally told the 99-year-old Abram that 89-year-old Sarai would bear a son, and he changed their names to Abraham (father of a multitude) and Sarah (princess). A year later Isaac is born.

It was 25 years of waiting, while any earthly reason to hope for a child went from highly unlikely to impossible. Their only hope was God’s promise, which was precisely God’s purpose in the long, confusing wait.

Paul describes this in Romans,
"No unbelief made [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." (Romans 4:20–21)
God determined that all of his true children would be born again through faith to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3) and then live by faith (the faith of Abraham, Galatians 3:7) in his promises alone (Romans 1:17). So God took patient pains to cultivate faith in Abraham and Sarah, and he does the same for us.

One of the most profoundly comforting things about Scripture is how it reveals God’s compassion for us impatient waiters. He knows that he can appear slow to us. He knows that at times we are going to feel like he’s forgotten us and is hiding his face from us. He knows that as he patiently works out his purposes, we will experience circumstances so difficult and confusing that we cry out in bewildered pain.

And so he not only gives us stories like Abraham and Sarah to help us see that we are not alone; he also gives us songs like Psalm 13 to sing.

 "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1)

One of the many reasons I love the Psalms and spend so much time in them is because they are so full of raw poetry, more raw and blunt than many of us are, even when confiding our pain to a trusted friend.

Think about this, Psalm 13 was a congregational song! The people of Israel would sing them and cry out in lament together.

"HOW LONG?"

Could you even imagine today in our typical churches with light, happy, upbeat, positive sing-alongs if suddenly the entire church lamented together and cried out "how long oh Lord?"? But that's exactly what the Jewish community did over and over again as they would sing out and pray the Psalms of lament

And from this, we are to hear from God that he knows our waiting for him can be hard. He knows it can feel to us like he is is taking too long. He gives us permission to ask him, “How long is this going to last?” He reminds us that when we feel like he’s forgotten us, it is an experience common to all his children, common enough to warrant congregational singing about it.

And as we pray or sing such psalms, they remind us that God, in fact, has not forgotten us, that what we feel isn’t always real, and that God’s promises are truer than our feelings.

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Waiting is learning to adapt to God’s chosen pace, as well as submitting to his chosen place for us. Because, that bewildering, confusing, painful place where we feel like we’re stuck is redemptive even more re than we know. There is more at stake than we can see and more going on than meets our eyes.

But here are two gracious promises God gives to us when we are waiting long:

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:29–31)

Like Abraham and Sarah, God is working for you as you wait for him, and he will bring renewal to your weary heart.

So “be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD” (Psalm 31:24). He is able to do what he has promised.

Watching and waiting,
Pastor Bill

HOW I AWAKE MYSELF TO GOD

I am very thankful for alarms. My iPhone is equipped with a fantastic alarm and always keeps me from staying in my slumber when I need to get up. There have been days that without that alarm I would've missed my sunrise weddings or even slept so long in my fatigue that I would've missed my day. Alarms are necessary to rouse us out of our sleep state and get up out of bed. Are you awake or asleep to God? To put it another way, are you cold or hot to God? Are you dead or alive to God? Every day of our lives we are engage in a battle to be awake or asleep to him, to be cold or hot to Him, and to be aware, alive, or dead to Him. The battle rages daily for the world and the things of this world to lull and keep us in a sleepy state, a cold state, and a dull state where God is not trusted, cherished, treasured, loved, and exalted in our hearts, minds, affections, and lives .

Lately I've been asleep, cold, and dull,and it has shown. It shows in my thought life, my attitudes, my emotions, and behaviors. The way I know I'm asleep is this; I will spend way too much time thinking about myself, my problems, my circumstances, my regrets, my fears, my anxieties, my future. and when I do I will I find  myself in a very low place. The fruit of those thoughts was depression, discouragement , despair, doubt, unbelief, loneliness, emptiness, and feelings of hopelessness. I found myself overwhelmed and overcome with darkness as I look all around me outside and inside. Most of all, I find out a serious deficit in my thoughts and heart towards God because I am so asleep. No wonder, for when all of our thoughts are centered upon the world around us and ourselves it will make it difficult for our hearts to burn with passion for God.

I need something  to wake me and to renew my heart from my spiritual dullness and sleepiness. How do I wake myself up and stay awake and alive to God. How do I turn s cold heart into a burning heart? This is what I do. This is my strategy to keep me awake and alive to Him.

It is very simple. I look to great biblical truths to fuel the fire to awaken me to remain a God-centered soul. One of the most powerful  means I use is Colossians 1:15-20.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

The Apostle Paul has just prayed for the Colossians that they would “be filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:9–10).

In verse 14, he begins a litany of amazing truths about Jesus Christ that are probably the most concentrated description of the glories of Jesus in the entire Bible. I will mention all fifteen of them.

In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (v. 14).
He is the image of the invisible God (v. 15a).
He is the firstborn of all creation—that is, the specially honored, first and only Son over all creation (v. 15b).
By him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities (v. 16a). All things were created through him (v. 16b).
All things were created for him (v. 16c).
He is before all things (v. 17a).
In him all things hold together (v. 17b).
He is the head of the body, the church (v. 18a).
He is the beginning (v. 18b).
He is the firstborn from the dead (v. 18c).
In everything he is preeminent (v. 18d).
In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (v. 19).
He reconciles all things to himself, whether on earth or in heaven (v. 20a).
He makes peace by the blood of his cross (v. 20b).

This is worth memorizing. This is where you want to visit over and over again to awaken you to the excellencies and supremacy of Christ over all things. If your heart ever wavers and grows cold, come here. Memorize this litany of glories, and prayerfully ask God to give you affections that correspond to the measure of this supreme greatness, infinite in beauty, immeasurable, incalculable in its worth. If any person or any power or any wisdom or any love awakens any admiration or any amazement or any joy, let it be the greatest person and the greatest power and the greatest wisdom and the greatest love that exists—Jesus Christ.

Pastor Bill