DATE: 07/08/2008 12:43:00 / MOOD: Encouraging
My music drives my wife crazy. She loves to hear me play and sing, but I'm talking about the music itself. I print all of these songs off the internet and then they sit around in piles forever. Of course, they are sort of organized have a pile for country, another for Contemporary Christian and another for Southern Gospel I could go on and on but you get the picture. It got to the point that my Wife for last Valentines Day surprised me by placing all of my music alphabetically in different notebooks based on the type of music Babe!!!
Last night I broke out the Country notebook and started flipping through the songs. Some I printed before my seven year old daughter was even born!! Well, one of the songs I stopped on was Foolish Pride by Travis Tritt. If you are not familiar with the song it is about a man and woman who both are sorry for a fight they had, but their pride stops them from calling each other and saying they're sorry. As the song says "chalk another heartbreak up to foolish pride"
Now I have played this song a thousand times, but this time, for some reason, it really got me thinking. Not about the relationship between my wife and I or the man and woman in the song. It got me thinking about church and what a great tool our pride is for the devil.
We have all seen it and many of us have been guilty of it. Two people in the church get into a disagreement and our pride stops us from ever making it right. In a lot of cases one or both end up leaving the church. The same thing happens in our relationships with loved ones. There have been times my wife and I have had moments of intense fellowship (that is what we like to call it) that could have ended almost as quickly has it began with the simple words "I'm sorry" by one or both of us. Unfortunately, our pride gets in the way and what should have ended quickly needlessly goes on and on and on size=3>
God warns us about our pride:
- When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. - Proverbs 11:2
- Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those that take advice. Proverbs 13:10
- A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor. Proverbs 29:23
- To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Proverbs 8:13
These are just a few of the scriptures that talk about pride and the problems it can cause. It's important enough that the word pride is found in at least 63 scriptures in the bible.
A quick story..
A couple months ago I felt that the Lord wanted me to call someone that I hadn't talked to in years. The more I thought about it, the more I knew he wanted me to call him and tell him I forgive him. Now this was hard!! I knew that this person was wrong and they never once asked me for forgiveness. So I started off the right way tried (maybe not has hard as I should have) to locate the person and find their number. However, after a week or so I gave up. I know I could have tried a lot harder.
Well, a few weeks later I was notified that the person in question passed away. Now I will never have a chance to make it right. Never have another change to obey God and do what I truly believe he was directing me to do. God will forgive me, but how would I have felt if I just would have listened. Maybe he was still dealing with the issue too and that is why I needed to call. Now I will NEVER know >Try this next time you have a disagreement with someone in the church, even if you know you are in the right, go up and apologize. Trust me; this is easy for me to write, but just as hard for me to follow. By doing this we open conversation and have an opportunity to make things right. REMEMBER.. The other person may never apologize, but you have done your part. Now you need to pray that God will help you put it behind you so the two of you can move on. Now the devil loses maybe no one leaves and the Lords work goes on!!
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DATE: 07/06/2008 16:01:00 / MOOD: Theological
Take your pick...In the King James Version, Revelations 3:16 uses the word Spued and in the New International Version and many others the word is translated Spit. However, while doing research on this topic I found that the root word is from vomit. Any way you read it, this verse in Revelations should be a wake up call to many of us...Revelations 3 -15 - I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.Revelations 3 - 16 - So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. For me it is a reminder that God doesn't like people that try to walk the line between the World and Him. He would rather us pick one or the other. He wants us to say "I am a child of God and I don't care who knows". What witness do we have if we live our life one way on Sunday and another the rest of the week. If when someone mentions God we are unwilling to stand up and say we are one of His.If we are going to reach the world we must be willing to take a stand. If we want our churches to grow we need to go out into the community and bring people in. We can't be boat sitters!! We have to be willing to take the step of faith and walk out onto the water. We can't just sit in our pew and pray for people to come.As I look back, there has been many times in my life where God should have just spit, spued or vomited me from His mouth. I was a preachers kid, but I'm ashamed to say I was not always an example for others to follow. How many times have we been like Peter and either by mouth or actions denied him in front of others. Yet, like Peter, He is there to forgive us and still wanting to use us...FEED MY SHEEP!One of my favorite scriptures in the bible is Matthew 14:28-29:Lord, if it's you,' Peter replied, 'tell me to come to you on the water.' 'Come,' he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus"Today, God is calling us and saying the same thing He said to Peter. He is calling us to step out, keep our eyes on Him and let Him work through us. If you remember the story, the minute Peter took his eyes off Jesus he started to sink...We can't win if we can't stay focused on Him. To close my ramblings I want to share with you something that I read today.Are you willing to take a spiritual risk? Are you willing to leave your comfort zone? Are you willing to be stretched by God? If so, ask God to give you:- Eyes to see what you didn't see yesterday (the needs of others)- Hands to do what needs to be done- Ears to hear what is not being said (encouragement)- A mouth to say what needs to be saidAmen!!
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