The Importance of Humility

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, writes about the importance of humility among the brethren of the church. I would submit to you that a little humility would go a long way in helping every aspect of your life.

Is it easy to not honk your horn and shake your fist, or even keep from screaming explicative’s at the driver who carelessly cuts you off because his or her destination is much more important than yours? Not at all.

What’s the benefit of humbling yourself in that situation, and just forgiving them, backing off and allowing them in? Well, for one, there’s a health benefit. It’s common knowledge that stress is a detriment to your health. So, by humbling yourself and making it a point every time you get into your car, that you will not let other drivers get to you, is one of many ways that you can improve your quality of life through humility.

In Philippians chapter two, the apostle Paul gives us some benefits that are evident among the brethren when humility is present. In Philippians 2:1, we read of these benefits; first we have, comfort of love. In 1 John 4:8, John tells us, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” When you see a genuine love among the brethren, there’s a good chance that humility is at work.

Next we have fellowship of the spirit. This benefit is a direct result of love. Human love would never come without the potential for jealousy and strife. Why? Because human love is a direct result of self-centeredness. You love something or someone to benefit yourself; an inward form of love.

In Galatians chapter 5, Paul talks about works of the flesh; Selfish ambition or self-centeredness is a work of the flesh. Works of the flesh work opposite of God. Nothing good can ultimately come out of anything resulting from the flesh.

When self-centeredness is involved there cannot be fellowship of the spirit among the brethren. Only a godly love, which is the only love that is focused outward and not inward, can create an atmosphere that is conducive for fellowship of the spirit.

Next we have affection and mercy. These two benefits are also a direct result of a godly love. If there is affection and mercy between all the brethren, without any exception, humility is at work in that church.

Humility itself, is a direct result of godly love; as a matter of fact, anything good is a direct result of godly love. There is nothing good about anything that does not come from God, regardless if it is something worldly that we may enjoy.

This particular weekend that I am writing before, is Super Bowl weekend. People will plan their lives around this annual event. More time and effort will be put into enjoying this event by many people, than any event that may encompass the will of God for their lives throughout the remainder of the year.

You may enjoy the Super Bowl, but what ultimate good does it serve in your life? Nothing, but that moments enjoyment.

We should seek those things that are of God that fulfill His will for our lives. His ultimate will for all of us is Salvation, which is everlasting life in the Kingdom of God. In Paul’s letter to Titus, in chapter two, verses 11-12, he writes, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.”

Living the way Paul describes here, would take humility. It would be impossible to possess this kind of humility living opposite of God’s will for your life. With God, humility is good; in the worlds viewpoint, humility is an attack to your dignity and personal pride.

Let’s let the apostle Paul conclude here, when he tells the church at Philippi what he expects of them in order to facilitate humility. We read in Philippians chapter two verses 2, 3, and 4, “fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

If we can get all the brethren in our churches on the same page, and focusing on these principles set forth by the apostle Paul, which was first displayed through the earthly life of Jesus, we would be well on our way in developing a church in true humility, and better lights for those living in the darkened world around us.

Humility; A Virtue that Sometimes Gets Lost, Even in the Church

When you talk about humility, rarely do you hear of this quality in the secular world of business. As a matter of fact, humility in the business world is looked at as a weakness. There is no place in corporate society for humility.

If you were to ask someone, “What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word ’business’?” Long before humility is ever even considered, you would probably say something like, “Dog eat dog world,” or something to that effect.

What is disappointing is when this same humility-less mentality is found within the walls of the church. Now, I am not naïve; the church is made up of people. Many, if not most of those people, at one time, were living a secular lifestyle, with all the ills of that lifestyle permeating their personalities.

The Bible is clear, that even though we may be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, there is still a process of change that needs to take place within our being. The Bible refers to God as the sculptor, and us as the clay. This change that God is working in us, is a lifetime process. Not because God cannot do it instantly, but because God wants us to work through this process ourselves, by seeing the need to change aspects of our lives, as we realize our spiritual shortcomings, through the example set by Jesus.

This why it is so important to heed Joshua 1:8, which reads, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

I know many Christians who have accepted Jesus as their personal savior, yet I see very little change in the way that many of them conduct their everyday lives. This should not be the case. You might be asking, “I thought you said that God will work the change in us?” I did, and He will, but He also will not force you to change.

The Word of God is powerful; the Bible calls it a two-edged sword. God expects us to utilize it to our benefit; to cut through the darkness and enter His light. I don’t think God would have wasted 5,000 years in the completion of having the Word documented for us, for us to neglect it.

As you read the Word it will transform your mind to think like Jesus, hence, you will begin to become aware of worldly things in your life, that you didn’t think twice about before, that are now convicting you in your heart, and you will want to rid yourself of those worldly things.

That is how God changes you. It is not that God is working every minute manipulating circumstances as you walk into them; it is a principle or a law of creation, that God had established in the creation process, that if you seek God, only good can come out of that. If you seek the worlds way, which is morally corrupt, only bad can come out of it.

Recently, I had the unfortunate first hand experience of how, even in the church, you have to deal with this secular mentality. This particular person, who I had dealt with does not yet see this flaw in their being. There are personality differences, as well, that make it hard for some people to change.

A strong-willed person will find it much harder to soften their hardened heart. There is a much greater warring going on in the spirit and soul of a strong-willed person in regards to this hardness of heart. It is much more difficult for them to humble themselves in a situation that they deem to be a competitive situation; even when such is not the case.

These little things that we all have in our personalities, are the things that need to be changed in order to grow into the perfection of Christ. We all need to realize these areas that need to change. It is only through God’s Word that He can effectively communicate to us the way that He wants us to live our lives, and interact with our fellow man.

Time to Stop Blaming God...

It’s amazing to me how many people when things are going good in their lives, rarely do they give God the credit for it, but as soon as trouble comes along, the first one to get the blame is God. Even worse, there are ministers out there telling people it’s O.K. to get angry with God. This just boggles my mind.

I am really not sure how they rationalize that, but just read the last few chapters of the Book of Job and then tell me that it is O.K. to be angry at God. God scolded Job for his self-righteous attitude, and this was before God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to the Cross for us.

Now, even more so, we should not be getting angry with God. Through Jesus’ sacrifice the penalty of our sin has been waved, our sentence pardoned. We have become heirs to the Kingdom of God. By accepting Jesus’ sacrifice we are assured of living in the Kingdom of God for all eternity.

The book of Job starts out with Job being tested by God; God allows Satan to attack everything Job had, but God forbid him to touch Job physically. Not only did Job lose all his livestock in this first test, but he also lost his sons and daugthers.

God allowed Satan to go and test Job a second time, but this time he was allowed to physically attack Job with painful sores all over his body. Job still held fast to his righteousness, which was not selfish as of yet. Even Jobs wife wanted Job to curse God; how did job respond? The way we should all respond when trials and sufferings abound; he said in Job 2:10, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

Up to this point, Scripture tells us Job has not sinned yet in his response to these tests, but that would all change as we move on when Job begins to grumble about God and how he deserved better because he was a righteous man. Sounds a lot like what many of us go through when a series of trials begin to attack us. At first we may hold fast to our faith, but as those trials begin to become relentless, we turn to an attitude of the “Why me?” syndrome.

We begin to justify how we don’t deserve what’s befalling us, and we throw ourselves a little pity party, and the only ones who are invited are us; the innocent victims of God’s wrath. But ironically, when we go through bouts of trials throughout our lifetime, many don’t realize that those trials are not from God. The fiery darts (trials) that come your way, are that of Satan, not God (Ephesians 6:16).

Oh sure, God allows Satan to attack you, but who was the one who created Satan? Many believe it was God. God did not create Satan, He created Lucifer, the guardian cherub. Mankind created Satan when he allowed Satan to deceive him into sinning against God; and we continue to allow this deception in our lives everyday.

Whatever trials befall us, whether it’s sickness or disease, death of a sibling, loss of job, whatever it may be, we only have ourselves to blame, not God. God did everything in His power, short of breaking His own Law, to try and persuade us to not sin. The whole premise of the Old Testament was about that. Since man would not heed God’s plea to them, God instituted plan B; which was the first coming of Jesus Christ to begin the redemption process for mankind.

So, the next time a trial comes into your life, try to remember why that trial is there in the first place. It’s there because we, through sin, have separated God from His creation. This separation left a spiritual void which Satan easily vacated. By allowing Satan to enter our lives through sin, we gave authority over to him; authority to create havoc in our lives and our world, which God gave us dominion over, but we gave up that dominion via sin.

As hard as it may be to do so during any trial we face, if you look upon Jesus, and get to know Him, and build an intimate, loving relationship with Him, the trials you face will be a lot easier to cope with. If you stand firm on the Words of Jesus Christ, there will be no trial to difficult for you to overcome. Praise Jesus!

A Divided Jerusalem; Is This Biblical?

Recently I wrote an article titled, “Are we Living in the Beginning of the End,” in the article I talked about the prophecies of the Bible that are unfolding right before our eyes. We are finding out more information about a proposed peace plan, that would include the division of Jerusalem.

I mentioned in my article, that Israel was not even considering dividing Jerusalem, but that has appeared to have changed. In a recent article in the Jerusalem Post, Prime Minister Olmert, of Israel, Stated that a division of Jerusalem was inevitable. That was the first public comment, regarding Jerusalem by any top Israeli official.

This proposed peace plan is back by the United States Bush administration, but is a huge mistake. There are many biblical Scriptures in the Old Testament to substantiate this belief. If Israel does go through with this division, which they will sooner or later, God Himself will correct this situation supernaturally, during the end time judgment on the world.

In Zechariah 14:21, we read, “Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the LORD of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.” Who are the Canaanites? The Palestinians. (For more information on this topic, check out my article, “Jerusalem Divided; Is it God’s Will and Will it Bring Peace?)”

The Bible prophesies that whoever goes up against Israel will pay the price; in the above verse we see that God is going to remove the Palestinians from Jerusalem. Why? Because of their hatred for God’s chosen people. We read in Joel 3:19, “Egypt shall be a desolation, And Edom a desolate wilderness, Because of violence against the people of Judah, For they have shed innocent blood in their land.”

Edom is also a reference to the Palestinians. The majority of the Palestinian people have embraced the Muslim religion, which is out to destroy the Jewish people, as well as any other society that doesn’t accept their radical beliefs.

If Israel gives up land, especially Jerusalem to their Muslim enemy, this may very well begin a downward spiral of events that brings on the prophecies of the end times. So, is dividing Jerusalem biblical? No; not only is dividing Jerusalem not biblical, but giving up any land to the Palestinians and not taking back the Temple Mount, which is biblically theirs, is unbiblical.

We need to keep a close eye on the unfolding events of the Middle East, to be sure that we don’t miss the fulfillment of these end time prophecies which will lead to the return of Jesus Christ. Come Lord Jesus, Come!

Once I was Lost and Now I Am Found...

Decisions, decisions, decisions; to be successful in life, it’s all about making the right decisions. Unfortunately, some of the most important decisions that one will make, and could very well impact you well into your adult life, are made in your teenage years.

I know from experience that poor decisions will lead one down a path of broken hopes and dreams. One of the biggest struggles I dealt with in those early years, was with career choice. I had no clue what I wanted to do in life (see my full testimony). I mean, how can a child in their teenage years possibly know what they would want to do for a living for the rest of their lives?

Oh sure, you will have those teens who were born with an obvious gift, that really stands out in those early years and they just seem to gravitate to that field. But, for the most part, most teens struggle with this decision and wind up in a career that they really weren’t designed for.

That’s exactly what happened to me, and it didn’t take long out of high school, before I became disillusioned with my early choices. Out of high school I chose to work rather then go to college. I had worked since I was fifteen years old with the same company and I was offered management coming out of high school, so at that early age it seemed like a no-brainer. Who needs college?

Even though the money was nice, in a very short time I felt very unfulfilled. Within the few months of graduations, I already realized that college might not have been a bad idea after all. The following January I enrolled in my local community college to go to night school for accounting.

My next poor decision was not returning to college for the following semester, because four years of night school to finish a two year course, seemed like an eternity for me. I wanted something to satisfy me yesterday; I didn’t want to wait four years. So, for the next twenty years I live well below God’s best for me.

During that twenty year period of searching for purpose and direction in my career and professional life, I decided to start reading the Bible, to search for that purpose and direction that I was sorely lacking. Here I am ten years removed from that twenty year period and I am finally in line with God’s will for my life.

What happened? Where did I go wrong? I had to make life changing decisions before I was mature enough to make them. In Proverbs 22:6, we read, “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Although my parents were good parents, they themselves were not prepared to follow this principle; they themselves were not trained according to this Proverb. Joshua 1:8, tells us, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

I can’t stress how right this verse is and how important it is for people to understand this principle and to put it into practice in their lives. If only I had come into this understanding for God’s will for my life twenty years ago, I could have been so much more productive in spreading the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and saving souls for Christ.

I am not saying everyone is destined to be a minister, but everyone of us is destined to have our own little ministry, right in whatever career God has designed you for. To proclaim Jesus Christ and to be a light for the truths of God, so you can bring home those prodigals who are lost within their own lives and one day proclaim, “Once I was lost, but now I am found!” Praise Jesus! Amen!