America,
Open real wide! It’s time to swallow some of that American pride. Humble Pie is being offered up as a dish to throw some of our foolishness up. Gluttony can only last as long as the vessel is willing to expand. We must remember, the constant giving in to pleasurable food can make you fat and unable to move. Flesh desires that are continually fed, often lead to a life that goes against God. Desires of the flesh are in direct opposition Spirit of God. Selfish ambition, or self-absorbed pride opposes humility and lowliness of mind. Christ himself was an example to us; although He was God, he did not puff himself up. Jesus exhibited immense self-control; He emptied himself to take on man's toll. And although, He was absolutely divine, He became a servant to save humankind. Jesus wept when experiencing Lazarus’s death. and he performed many miracles like healing the sick and resurrecting the dead. He did this, as an extension of his love, and many had hope in who said He was. He was filled with compassion, for the lost, lonely, and broken-hearted. But we must remember the real reason why Jesus came, and it was not to perform miracles and show all kinds of signs; but instead it was to save us from ourselves. The Son of God came to be a living sacrifice to break the curse that God has placed on us. You see, back in Genesis 3, Satan was crafty, and got Eve to think. He enticed, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden?” The woman replied, “We may eat fruit from any the trees, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” Then Satan said, “You will not certainly die,” “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” Satan only had to tell a little a lie. He made her think, “surely you won’t die.” "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.” “When the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden." You see, prior to eating from the tree of good and evil, being naked was not an evil thing. It was not nudity that made Adam and Eve bad, it was by disobeying God that opened them to evil thoughts. The Lord God called to the man, and said, “Where are you?” Adam answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” Hiding from God is a typical response when we are not keeping his Word. God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Assigning responsibility for a fault or wrong, is often another sign that we are out of alignment with God. Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” What many do not realize, because they have not taken the time to digest the Word of God, is that their is a difference between the Seed of Adam and the Seed of God. "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Corinthians 5:22 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Woman was made a helper, to rule and reign with man, a perfect complement to what God had planned. But with curse, came dominion from man, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." But the Word of God says, "ALL who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:27-28 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain." This is because man despite hard work, nothing will remain. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” Jesus said, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36 “So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he had been taken.” “After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword, flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” You see, it is God who put the curse on Satan, and all of mankind. Because of their pride to want to be like Him, because of their flesh desire to know both good and evil, and because they chose to listen to advice of Satan rather than trusting in Him. But God is so good, He made a plan to redeem men. He sent his own blood to be atoning sacrifice for them. At any time, God could have totally destroyed us, but instead He always responded to the remnant! The remnant of humans who choose to be in fellowship with Him, and dwell in His presence. Hebrews 11 attests to those who have responded By faith they understood that the universe was formed at God’s command. They believe that what is seen was not made out of physical things, but by the very Word of God. By faith Abel still speaks, even though he is physically dead; By faith Noah warned about the coming rain, even though it rain from the sky had never happened. By faith, Noah built an ark to save his family from coming judgment. You see, the people who lived during the time of Noah were completely wicked and full of evil; Scripture says “the Lord was sorry he had ever made people.” It says our Creator’s heart was broken. But then, the Lord saw Noah. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living in the world at that time. Scripture said, “he walked in close fellowship with God.” This is a question we should all continually ask ourselves, "Are we walking in close fellowship with God?" We must also remember that Job is described in the same light that Noah is. “There was a man whose name was Job who lived in the land Uz. He was blameless in the sight of the Lord, for he feared God and stayed away from evil.” Job 1:1 “One day the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them." The Lord asked where he came from. Satan answered, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that is going on.” The Lord asked, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless. He fears God and he stays away from evil.” Satan replied, “Yes, BUT Job has a good reason to fear God. You have always put a wall of protection around him, and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. BUT take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!” At this point, the Lord allowed Satan to test him. Satan took away all Job’s possessions. He took his home, his income and his children. In all of this, Job did NOT sin by blaming God! Satan came a second time, to present his case before God. “Skin for skin! Reach out and take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!” “All right, do with him as you please, but spare his life.” This is the command that the Lord gave. “So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.” Job’s wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die!” But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only the good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all of this, Job said nothing wrong. But we all know, from the Book of Job, that he surely wanted to die. He cursed the day of his birth, but he never cursed the Word of the Lord! You see, we all have a gene of faith, as part of God’s spiritual DNA. But only a remnant will choose to express it. By faith Abraham responded when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance; And By faith Abraham went even though, he did not know where he was going. By faith Abraham made his home in the promised land, like a stranger; he and his family lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs of the same promise. Abraham believed he would live in a city of foundations, whose architect and builder is God, our Creator. By faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered Him faithful. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. Hebrews 11 Proverbs 25:28 says, “A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.” When Jesus came from Heaven to earth, as the Lamb of God who was worthy to open the scroll, He could have brought the wrath of God, but he offered himself as a living sacrifice, to save the spiritual remnant of the faithful. By his blood, we are justified for the curse of eternal death to Passover us; and instead we have access to the Tree of Life. And through the blood of Christ, we receive the God's Holy Spirit. And His Spirit leads us into righteousness. Now the works of the flesh are self-evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Galatians 5:17 We must endure this warning! Those who follow the flesh, instead of the Spirit are like those who have an anti-Christ spirit. They follow Satan instead of keeping the Word of God; and scripture says they will not inherit His Kingdom. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says, "Do you now know that unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not homosexuals, nor sodomites, not thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, not revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. BUT you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives, “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed their passions and their desires of their sinful nature to the cross. Galatians 5:24 “We must not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of another; And if another believer is overcome by some sin, You who are spiritual, should gently and humbly help that person back unto the right path.” Galatians 6:1-1 "And we must be careful not to fall into the same temptation, share each other’s burdens, obey the law of Christ, and do not think you are too important to help someone else, for you will only be fooling yourself! Pay attention to your own work, and get satisfaction from a job well done. That way you will not compare yourself to anyone else, for each person is responsible for their own conduct.” Galatians 6:1-5 And so, to the Christians who are reading this, It is time for us to eat some of that Humble Pie. “Do not mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant; Those who chose to satisfy themselves with the lusts of the flesh, will harvest decay and death. But those who live to please the Spirit of God, will harvest everlasting life.” Galatians 6:7-9 Remember, fake food can taste really good, but it does not compare to the bread of life, provided through the Word of God. Our God is so loving and good, that he calls the humble and opposes the proud. It is time to put our selfishness to rest. It is time to submit to the Lord’s request. It is time to stop putting ourselves first. It is time to develop a righteous hunger and thirst. External pride often looks like we expect - Self-confident attached to arrogant spirit America has defined the SELF as ALL important. Be Independent - and get what you’re can get! Achieve success through all kinds of accomplishments. Build a thriving business by working your mind and bones to death, Demand respect - and grow your sense of self-worthiness! Climb the ladder, and you will be able to see the worldly Kingdom that has been growing under thee. Internalized pride is much harder to recognize, because it doesn’t look arrogance and selfish strides. Internalized pride looks like pride turned inside out - often tied to shame from fear and doubts. But don’t be fooled, it’s all about SELF. Rejection can lead to perfectionism, and worry can lead to withdrawing from life; self-reliance manifests from distrust, internal walls are built to protect oneself. People pleasing takes precedence over following the Word of God. Insecurity is built on sand and your house will fall down. Inferiority forces YOUR demands, and before you know it, your insisting on self-righteousness. It’s hard to love, when anger stands in the way; It’s hard to forgive, when hurt is at bay. When your depressed, it hard to think of someone else; and when your anxious, it’s hard to experience God’s peaceful rest. When you see another person who has what you want, you grow a heart of covetousness; Jealousy can make YOU the guard of your heart, instead of relying on the Word of God to do it's work. Envy creates feelings of discontentment - and often leads roots of resentment. Internalized pride can almost be worse, because it keeps one hidden in the dark. It’s very hard when the sin of another has stuck to you like bread and butter! Complex trauma is a great example of this. Pervasive abuse and profound neglect often changes a person’s temperament. It's hard when you don't know how to be in relationship, because love has been distorted, and there's often fear of abandonment. The core of a person is often distorted when the foundation is made of fear and mistrust. We must always look to Christ, and believe what the Word of God says. Internalized pride can stop us from forgiving, because the hurt inside makes us feel justified. But scripture says, we must learn to forgive if we want God to forgive us. We must believe that we can love and forgive because God first loved us. Scripture says that we must not present a sacrifice, without first going and being reconciled to the one that has hurt us. And I believe the only way we can do this, is by submitting to law of Christ. Being last is not of the flesh, and dying to self is humility at it's best. Humble Pie is being able to take a good look inside. For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but fail to notice the log in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye, while there is a still a log in your own eye?" Matthew 7:3
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