Tag: humility

Categories
Daily Post

Ridding Myself of James

I may have mentioned before that I follow the Luther Principle on the Biblical book of James.  Well probably not exactly for the same reason.  I have torn out the book from my Bible before and have even done it publicly as an illustration when teaching from the book.  Why?  because it hits home and hurts!  It would be so much better if it didn’t exist and you would not be challenged by its words.  Well, not really!  Challenge is good.  And the book of James packs a bunch.  For instance, this paragraph about being full of proud and striving to take what others have.

4-6 You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.” James 4:4  MSG

Later on in this chapter, the Message translation says this “Get serious, really serious.”  It’s almost makes you want to laugh when you read it, until you realize that it’s really a locker room speech for us to focus on the things of God and let him give the marvelous gifts of life – which he will – instead of taking it from others with a heart full of evil.

Let’s be humble today and exalt the Creator!

and keep reading the words of the brother of the Christ!

 

Categories
Daily Post

Step Down

Sometimes I think that I think it’s all about me.  And that frustrates me to no end.   As much as I like myself, I find that when it’s all about me, it usually ends up in the ditch.  So I  have really been thinking about the “your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”  stuff from Philippians, and man, when you spend some time in that chapter, it really is quite condemning and positively motivating at the same time.

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3-4 New International Version (NIV)

 

I tell Alex all the time that high school is the time in most teenagers lives where kids have to tear down others to build themselves up, and of course I challenge him to reverse that trend. Today, I challenge you as well. Step down and life others up. Spend some time today thinking how you value yourself compared to others, and see what you can do to make others better by lowering yourself.

Categories
Daily Post

AntiSocial

It is always an interesting debate for me on days like today as to whether I should work from home or not.  I actually have a day with limited scheduled meetings, and I feel pretty good I could bang out some good work today from my home office.  But there is one thing that is missing – people.

Yes, and that a pretty important part of life – especially for those who follow the Christ.

For the last year or so Andrew and I change the background of our home computer each month from to a background from the selection of month themed backgrounds at Smashing Magazine.  This month we could not find something we really liked, so I removed the August background and replaced it with this one:

Yes, it’s a great reminder to live with intention and get out and actually meet with people.  I’ll tell you, I need this reminder on a daily basis, because personally I am content to sit in my cube and interact with my monitors.  But the Christ as encouraged us to impact people, and we do that with interactions.

To wrap this up on this Friday, I thought this verse from Philippians would be perfect.  It seemed even more so since it happens that both boys were assigned this verse as their memory verse this week!!!

 1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

 5In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:  Philippians 2:1-5 New International Version (NIV)

Categories
Daily Post

Checked in at Lame

I love this whole social media concept of checking in.  I haven’t used Foursquare, or Yelp yet, although it’s on my to do list.  I have been using the check-in feature on Facebook and it’s a great way to let people know all the cool places you go and where you are.

But one thing I notice is that no one checks in at work.  Whats up with that?  I guess we have Adam to blame! You know the whole work curse thing!  We spend the majority of our lives at our place of employment, but we don’t allow ourselves to acknowledge the significance.  As a matter of fact the one time that I did notice that one of my friends ‘checked-in’ at his workplace, the one comment on that post was “Lame”.

So I was thinking today that I would check in at work, and I would check in with one thought on my mind – this one from Micah:

8The LORD God has told us what is right and what he demands:

“See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God.” Micah 6:8 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

I determined this morning that this may help take some of the lameness out of the whole work thing, since it might just possibly help me look past the curse and to the influence I could exert on those people around me.  Maybe those concepts will make the work check-in just as interesting as the other fun places we go.  Well, who am I kidding, checking in at work will probably always be lame, but considering  justice, mercy and humility might change the way we consider the time we am there!

Give it a try.

Oh and here is an alternative ending!

 8But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,

what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously. Micah 6:8 The Message

Categories
Daily Post

Colorful Frosty Friday

Colors on a Frosty Morning ( click for a larger version)

After I slapped out a plate of frozen waffles for my eldest to consume for breakfast this morning, I took a gander out to back windows to see this magnificent view above.  There’s nothing like the winter sunrise, especially when the sky is clear and dark blue.

It’s pretty impressive each day to see the light overcome the darkness each morning.  Its such a sign of hope and newness and in some ways a remember of our smallness.

Anyway, I hope that you find some enjoyment from that this morning, and that your Frosty Friday gets off to just as much of a colorful start.

And since it’s Friday let’s get the weekend going with a little Psalm of humility and praise from good ol’ King David.

4 “Show me, LORD, my life’s end

and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.

6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
without knowing whose it will finally be.

7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you. Psalm 39:4-7 (New International Version, ©2010)