But he (God) gives us more grace to stand(resist) against such evil desires (sins that tempt us). As the scriptures say(As God's Word puts it):
"God opposes(resists, pushes against, puts up a wall to) the proud but favors(delights in) the humble."
God puts a wall up against the proud. He opposes them. The wall that is put up hinders the relationship we could have with God. It doesn't stop the relationship. It just keeps it from being what it could be. Pride keeps the relationship from getting any farther.
****
Jeremy Kingsley spoke at our Revival at church this week. Last night for his finishing message he talked about pride. He talk about how Jesus has angels in heaven designed just to tell him how cool, awesome, wonderful, great, he is. Just so you know if you have angels to do that then that means you're pretty cool.
Anyway, from there he started talking about how even though Jesus is the most awesome man who ever was, he chose the humblest of things to do. Jesus wasn't born to a king and queen in a fine palace and layed in a diamond encrusted crib. No he was born to Joesph of Nazareth and his young wife Mary, in a stable with animals and everything and layed in a feed trough. Yep, not exactly what a dude with angels designed to just tell him how awesome he is, would be born there, but he was.
Okay then, so he was born in a stable, he must have done something awesome when he chose his career. You know some kind of assistant to nobility or the rich. Nope, he was a carpenter, like his earthly dad. A little low key right?
Okay, now it'll happen, now he's thirty, he's about to start his ministry, now he'll do something awesome. He'll go and speak to the rich, the influential, the leaders, the kings and the queens. Nope. He ministers to the poor, the sick, the unwanted. Not exactly what you think this HOLY OF HOLY'S Jesus would do. But he did and he ministered to more in a more effective way than ministering to any leaders would bring.
OKAY NOW he'll do something. It;s the triumphant entrance. Now he'll have a big shabang and show everyone just he is. He'll come in a blazing white horse surrounded by people singing and dancing and shouting his praise. Nope. Wrong again. He comes in on a baby donkey walking over palm leaves with a small group of followers shouting "Hosanna." Not exactly that triumphant.
NOW he'll do it. He's running out of time. It's the Last Supper. This time he'll show his disciples just how he is. He'll say some miraculous thing that opens their eyes to who he really is. He'll say something that clears everything up. No, he doesn't say that. All he does is he gets up and he grabs a towel and a bowl of water and says, "I'm going to wash your feet." Humble. As always. He was always HUMBLE.
To really understand how much the feet washing thing demonstrated humbleness you have to know a fact about the Jewish culture then. The job of washing someones feet was the job of the slave of the slave's. The lowest of the low. It was there job to wash the grim off the feet of guest in the house. Jesus did that job. That's why the disciples had such a hard time letting him wash their feet. He was doing the job that no one else wanted to do. He was doing the job that in that time the lowest of lows did. That's pretty humble. That's extremely humble. Jesus became last. We are told to be like Jesus, imitate him.
"The first will be last and the last will be first." Be Last. Like Jesus was.
No comments:
Post a Comment