God-Jesus

Just a quickie today. I was reading John 12. Well, I've been reading John for a little while now. And I'm so impressed with how John really expresses Jesus' connectivity with the Father God. His teachings describe how He and the Father are one, He works in the will of the Father, He gives glory to God, etc. In John 12, He talks about how God gave Jesus His words and actions, He was simply following His Father's desires. That's how we need to live...following after the desires of God. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and He will take you down the path of speaking and walking in God's purposes and plans. Psalms 31 says "For Your Name's sake, lead and guide me." God deserves all glory, just like Jesus expressed in John 12 (then a cool voice from Heaven responded!!) The more we tune our minds, heart, words, and actions to be in line with God's desires, the more we will be like Christ. Make that your plan for today. Love!

Need for Redemption

We’ve all heard it before: pride is the root cause of all sin. Before we knock that off as cliché in our minds, let’s consider that root. The reason why Satan is no longer a ruler with God is because of pride. Pride was the root of his falling because he thought he could do better than God. Therefore, when he spoke the poison of pride in Eve’s ear and she fell into the temptation to become like God, the poisonous pride seeped through every fiber of humanity as her offspring. Humility, naturally, is the opposite of pride. It is pride that made redemption needful.

But how often do we overlook the need for redemption, because we don’t understand the true depths of pride? Pride originated with Satan and therefore while we must confess our pride it is also imperative to understand that there is a supernatural force surging pride through our beings. Therefore, we can’t fight it on our own…we need the redemption of the One who deserves our total dependence.

It is in the root of Christ’s humility that we need to stand and grow, not the root of pride.

“If this be the root of the tree, its nature must be seen in every branch and leaf and fruit. If humility be the first, the all-including grace of the life of Jesus—if humility be the secret of his atonement—thent he health and strength of our spiritual life will entirely depend upon our putting this grace first too, and making humility the chief thing we admire in him, the chief thing we ask of him, the one thing for which we sacrifice all else…until such a humility be what we seek in Christ above our chief joy, and welcome at any price, there is very little hope of a religion that will conquer the world.” (Murray, p. 11-12)

To finish off, I’m reminded of the song, “Empty Me” by Chris Sligh: “Empty me of the selfishness inside, every vain ambition and the poison of my pride. And any foolish thing my heart holds to. Lord empty me of me so I can be filled with You.”

Humility is the Root

Hey y'all. I had this revolutionary idea to post a little devotion online. I'm hoping for everyday, but don't get angry with me if it's not everyday! =) I just thought maybe y'all would like to read something to help us all grow deeper.

I started reading Humility and Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray. It's crazy good, and I've only read the Preface and Chapter 1! So here are some thoughts...

Humility is the place of entire dependence on God and it is the first duty and highest virtue of mankind. It is the root of every virtue.

Jesus, of course, is our primary example of living out humility. Check this: His humility is our salvation. His salvation is our humility.

Without humility there can be no true abiding in God's presence, or experience of His favor and the power of His Spirit. Humility is the sense of entire nothingness, which comes when we see how truly God is ALL, and in which we make way for God to be all.

Humility needs to be our mark, our badge, our identifying factor as Christians. Too often we think humility means putting our selves down, not taking credit, etc. But rather, it's putting ourselves in the place of being an empty vessel that God can flow into and through for His glory!! So it doesn't mean self-degrading comments or shirking away from compliments. Instead, it means having the right ATTITUDE.