Friday, August 28, 2015

GOD BLESS YOU!!!!

I stopped by Safeway tonight because I realized that I forgot to get a couple gallons of water, seeing as how I drink about 1 a day. I grabbed the gallons off the shelf and walked to the check out, trying to decipher which lane would go the fastest as opposed to which one was the shortest. After a moment of assessment, I decided to just go to the line where the lady seems to always know my face and is happy to see me. As I stood there glancing at magazine racks and people, I winced at something drumming up Robin Williams death and the lady in front of me reading the entire magazine as she waited to check out. That is when someone, across the store sneezed.

"GOD BLESS YOU!!!" I yelled after a good 4 second lapse. The guy sneezed and with 30 people around me nobody had even thought to say God bless you to a stranger.

"YEAH, GOD BLESS YOU MAN" The man right behind me added. I smiled as I turned back to the cashier to see how the line was progressing.  "Or Yeshua bless you" He said. This caught my ear and I turned my head to take inventory of the man. He was about 40 to 45 with a younger female, both Caucasian. his weathered eyes poked out under his shaggy sandy brown hair that seemed to blend with his sun beaten skin.  "What was that you said?" I asked intrigued, because it isn't every day you hear someone use the correct name of the Savior.  "Yeshua, " He said, and for a moment I wondered if I just happened to stumble on someone of like mind. But the moment passed as soon as he continued. "Or in Hail Zeus if you want to go with the greek way, the way of the Pagans. It's Yeshua in HEBREW, HIS REAL NAME,"  He went on espousing how the Hebrew name is the only name He should be called and how everyone who calls on Jesus is praising zeus.  I exhaled a heavy sigh.


I've been praying about what to write about this month because I was watching days drop and usually I have something to say by now. One theme kept coming up. Pride.
The subject comes up with conversations that I have had with some young men. The subject comes up with talking about ministry and being an example even when you don't realize it. I'd be the first to admit that I struggle with pride.

One of the things that I think about is an old saying "If you were on trial for being a believer, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"  Is there intent in your life? Is there opportunity? Are their eye witnesses to not only your words of confession but those who can testify that you are guilty of the ACTIONS of being a believer.  Or would the case fall apart because the evidence is circumstantial?

"Yeah, I saw the defendant put money in their hands and they said 'GOD bless you'" But then cross examination shows that the defendant then hounded them for the money, Lorded it over them the fact that they had extended such generosity. When the persecutor says "they have been in church every week, and then help out and can quote some verses" Can that too  be explained away by keeping up appearances because when others tried to relate outside the walls, they were dismissed for being awkward or belittled because it sucks to suck or some other self exalting quip.  At your trial, would it be a short deliberation before you are convicted of being a believer, or would they dismiss the case

Pride is an abomination

Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord;
Though they join forces,none will go unpunished.- Proverbs 16

Everyone who is going around trying to assert their dominance or superiority over other people, everyone who says that they are of God and are with God and they're doing this... Their way..
People are watching. They see the ego, and as much as the ego is exercised, that may be the only think that they really see.

Pride is poisoning the message. It's poisoning the Gospel.  You don't tamper with the message that you were lost, and you were broken, and you were unable to save yourself , and you were supposed to die, and you were powerless and then God saved you. You don't add to that when you present it. Your efforts, using the Gospel, is not what redeems men. Your efforts, using God, is not where the power of the Almighty and the Holy Spirit reside. You do not save people, The truth of God does that on it's own.  To add yourself to that, in your superfluous knowledge and your Gnostic contextualization, and your understanding of words into that message, and that truth at its very core...
Is usually far more about you and pride than it is about God and advancing His kingdom.

“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols." - Isaiah 42

That idolatry can be self exultation.  It's the character of the adversary.

Think about that trial, Will there be enough evidence to convict you?
The only way that the answer is yes, is if the world sees MORE of CHRIST in you than they do of You in you. It's only by His blood.


And if someone sneezes in a grocery store, 1) don't be one of the 30 people that says nothing. 2) say God bless you. 3) don't go and a huge rant about paganism or souls trying to escape through booger holes and the history of the practice and how smart you, because they wont look at you and think " this person can bring me closer to knowing God"


... They'll probably think, that person is a weirdo and who drinks Steel Reserve anyway.

"It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels."
- Augustine

"Selfishness is one of the more common faces of pride. 'How everything affects me' is the center of all that matters - self-conceit, self-pity, worldly self-fulfillment, self-gratification, and self-seeking.
-Ezra Taft Benson
"A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride."
-C. S. Lewis

" Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.Live in harmony with one another.Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited" Romans 12

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