Saturday, April 25, 2009

Humility

Humble yourself before the Lord and seek his heart! People humility
before God is not some word the pastor says but it is a condition of
the heart! You will never be able to worship God until you soften
your heart so that you can hear God! The Lord wants to speak to you
but you have all these walls built of pride and idols you have made (gf/bf, sports, clothes, movies, rebellion, sin.) You will never me able to change until you are humble and bow low face down on the floor saying God make my life a prayer to you. You have to be willing
to give it all up before you will be able to go anywhere! You have been dragging things in this race that we have been called to! Paul said to throw off all things that hinder, but we have put more things on! The Greeks when competing in the Olympics would be naked, they would have nothing that would hold them back from being all that they could be. Now Paul knew what he meant when he gave those people that visual, there is to be nothing that holds us back from the race that we are going to run. Why do you think that Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything, giving it the poor, and then to follow him. Jesus knew that when you hold on to the things of earth you will not be willing to lose them, and will instead lose Jesus in an effort to keep it. You know this is true, how many times have you heard a call to missions work in a third world country, but you don’t want to go cause that means that you have to give up your stuff! This was something that Jesus was serious about and we know that for how many times he tells people this! There is the account in Luke 9 that lists two men who are holding on to earthly things unwilling to give it all. The first one wanted his fathers money before he would go out to serve and the second wanted his family before he would go, but Jesus said, “NO.” Jesus told the first, “let the dead bury the dead” and then to the second that once his hand is on the plow that he ain’t going to turn his head back. Why can’t we turn our heads back once we have our hand on the plow? If any of you have ever tried to turn around and look in your backseat while driving and then you know that you take your eyes off the road and some of us turn back so far that we jerk the wheel, swerving. We can’t turn back with out consequence. Once we have set our eyes on Christ we can’t take them off or bad things will happen! Look at Peter and what he did when his eyes were on Christ, but yet as soon as he turned his eyes away he sank! People we can’t take our eyes off Christ if we are going to serve him, not for a relationship, not for a car, and certainly not for ourselves.
If we don't come to the alter in humility then we will never be able do the work that the alter has for us. It is a place where we lay down our faults and admit that we are less then perfect, but give that imperfection to God! Saying "God I can't do this on my own! I need you!" but not you! You have come to the alter of God and spit on it! You have come with pride! You have come with apathy! You have come with complacency! You idiotlters! God has called us to a relationship with him and only him. He is a jealous God and will not share a thrown with anyone! So why have you turned your hearts from him? Come to him, but come with an open heart. Come to him and ask him to open your eyes to the things in your life that you hold onto. The ones that the devil has blinded you too. The Word of God is called a “light” for the Bible says, your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. You have taken God’s holy light and let it collect dust on your self. You have opened that DVD case 100 times before you think of opening that Bible. You have fallen asleep in the light of God, you have fallen asleep in the warmth of the “good feelings” or the “mountain top.”
"Oh bless me Lord, bless me Lord"
You know it's all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts
No one even sheds one tear

But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds
And He cares for your needs
And you just lay back
And keep soaking it in,
Oh, can't you see it's such a sin?
The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just can't fight
Cause it's asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When you've been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, you can't even get out of bed

Oh, Jesus rose from the dead
Come on, get out of your bed
Oh Church of the Most High God! Wake up! Come to God and open your hearts that you might hear what he has called on your life!
The message is oh so very simple
You gotta be like a child to see
'Cause Jesus said "Let the little children
Come unto Me"

You try to make things too complicated
But you really don't have to be so smart
You don't learn a thing
Until you soften your heart

Soften your heart! Dear children of God, come to in humility that you might hear the beautiful calling on your life. Quit acting like you live in this country?! “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4) You are not an American! “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:20). So let us not live like we live here, but instead let us “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:20) For we have no need for worldly wealth or things, for they are worthless and the Bible says, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare” (Isaiah 55:2) "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:25-34)

1 comment:

  1. JERMAINE,
    I love this. This is ON MY HEART too.
    First of all, I LOVE Luke 9:62 ... and I love the illustration of the car that you put with that... makes so much sense. Did you think of that or hear it from somewhere?

    I've been thinking a lot lately about how we cannot belong to or love this world. I have been reading something that is really stirring my mind on that... I will have to show you that sometime.

    I also love the part in the Keith Green song that says,
    "Oh, can't you see it's such a sin?
    The world is sleeping in the dark
    That the church just can't fight
    Cause it's asleep in the light"

    HOW TRUE! HOW SAD :(
    I want to see the Church of God rise up from amongst the darkness of this world and actually hear the calling of God. It seems so silly that we all come to Christ and stop at the same spot of complacency and comfort... why don't more KEEP going?! There is obviously MORE to God... things that haven't even been revealed yet...

    I love Isaiah 55:2... It's in a song that I love on a CD I recently found after I lost it. So I have been thinking of that lately too!

    I want humility too Jerome.
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts again.
    I pray that you and I and whoever else reads this will be humbled before the throne of God.
    And revere Him as He deserves.
    I have been thinking about the lack of reverence that the Lord receives from Christians today... I want to see him exalted in the way that He desires to be from His creation. I don't want people to forget His HOLINESS.

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