Let my pride fall down

I have many non-Christian friends. I have many lukewarm Christian friends. Yet I have never been zealous in sharing the gospel with them. I pray generally for them, and that I may be a light to them, but there are so many opportunities that I let pass by. Does this make me lukewarm, too? I don't hesitate to recommend music or books or movies to a friend, but when it comes to speaking to them about eternity, I put it off. Maybe it's not apathy on my part. Maybe it's pride. I am afraid they will reject me. yet, is it more important that I keep my good name, or that I risk it all to help one? I'm not a perfect Christian, and many have seen that. But instead of letting that be a hinderance, perhaps it can be a help. People will see my imperfection and realize that we all have faults. I don't like that I am so comfortable. Then I am willing to step out of my comfort zone to do what needs to be done. It is my prayer that I learn to sacrifice my comfort for the sake of others, that I lead others to Christ, not for selfish gain, but because I love them, and I love Him.

Action!

James 4:7-10 - These verses are full of verbs: submit... resist... draw... cleanse... purify... humble yourselves. To truly live a life that God wants, we must be people of action. The desire to be good is not enough. Temptation will always be there, and we must be active in squelching the desire to give in. We are inherently sinful, and it doesn't taken any effort to give in to our sinful nature. It is when we desire to go against the worldly view that we must work hard. We must be people of action, and recognize that the strength that is necessary can come only from God.

Submit - allow God to take control, and show us the way to go. We do not have the power to resist temptation, yet He does. Thus He is the only one who knows the right way to go about it, and we learn by following Him.

Resist - recognize temptation. We do not just find ourselves in sin, there is always a time of temptation, yet many of us do not recognize it. Satan's techniques rarely change. if he can get us to sin one time, he will continue to tempt us in the same way, until we learn to resist his advances. If we keep our eyes focused on God, we will be able to see when Satan is tring to trick us. only by focusing on God can we resist the devil.

Draw - we must actively work to be close to God. It is not enough to think of how we want to be Christ-like. Daily we msut work to draw near to Him and learn more about Him so that we can live by His nature.

Cleanse, Purify - when we reist temptation and draw closer to God, He will cleanse us and make us pure, so that there will be no sin found in us.

Humble yourselves - none of this is possible if we are proud people. We must become humble in order to accept God's direction. Satan loves our pride, because it disillusions us into believing we are stronger than we are, and Satan uses those weaknesses time and time again. We must submit to God in complete humility, so that we do not give in in any way, but are always able to stand.

Suffering Savior

Much emphasis is put on how much Jesus suffered on the cross (and for good reason). But there is not much attention given to his emotional pain, both on the road to the cross and while he was hanging. The walk to the hill, he had to carry his own cross, while guards whipped him and harassed him. Surely he passed bystanders whom he had taught or healed. Many were probably confused, or hurt, or perhaps even angry. Maybe they thought he had deceived them. Maybe they were upset he didn't fight. When he became too weak to carry his cross, many may have thought about how he had the ower to heal even raise people from the dead, but now he could barely stand. His time on the cross was equally humiliating, as people stood around to watch the spectacle. How hard it must have been to be filled with such love for these people, and realize they had no idea what was happening, to them it was just a show.

Am I willing to humble myself to do the work of God, knowing that the world won't understand, that to them I may seem strange? Do I value their life and their salvation more than I value my name and reputation?

Righteous faith

Abraham was credited as a man of great faith (Hebrews 11:11-12, 17-19; Romans 4:3; Galatians 3:6-9). Yet he was not a man of perfect faith. After God called him to leave his country and go to the place God chose for him to go, at least twice he took matters into his own hands by saying that Sarah was his sister, instead of trusting God to keep him safe (Genesis 12:10-20, 20:1-18). And instead of trusting God to allow Sarah to have a child, Abraham listened to Sarah and had a child with her maidservant, Hagar. Yet God did not hold these misgivings against him. We will never live perfectly and trust perfectly in God. But, like Abraham, we can be sure that our focus is constantly on Him, and we too can be credited as ones of great faith.

Cain's downfall

"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." - Genesis 4:7

Cain's biggest problem was not that he did not present an offering that pleased God, but that he allowed this rejection of his actions to cause him to become downhearted, instead of using it as a wake up call to change his ways. Cain could have repented, and found favor with God. Instead, he let his anger take over. Yet God did not give up on him. Even though Cain turned his back on God, God promised to grant him protection (Genesis 4:15). This is a great demonstration of God's love for all of us, even those who reject Him and refuse to acknowledge who He is.

Inspired by Steve's sermon

In Matthew 14, Jesus was saddened by the news of John's beheading. he tried to go off into a solitary place to mourn and to be alone. But instead of that happening, the crowds followed Him. Instead of sending them away, He paid no mind to His desires, but only of the desires of those who came to Him.

Matthew 14:29-30 - Peter's focus was solely on Jesus, and because of this, he was able to walk on the water. But then he noticed the winds and the waves - his circumstances. By shifting some of his focus to these things, his sights were taken off of Jesus, and that is when he began to sink. but when he cries out for help, immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him.

Hebrews 12:1-2 - We can overcome trials when our focus is on Jesus (Proverbs 3:5)

Matthew 14:29 - Peter stepped out of the boat. Are we - am I - willing to defy the odds and do what goes against logic?

1. Peter went against popular opinion - Are we more influenced by the world, the church, friends, family, than we are Jesus?

2. Peter defied modern wisdom - Are we too analytical? Do we rely more on logic? (Gideon, Joshua @ Jericho)

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

3. Peter stepped out of the boat, into the storm - He left what was safe, went into the midst of their problems. 

Jesus left the comforts of heaven into the turmoil of this world so that God's will can be done.

Peter asked, received and acted. Often we ask for God to work, and when He shows us His will, we make all sorts of excuses as to why we can't do them. Things didn't work out perfectly for Peter. But the worked out. And he walked on water.

"Why do you care so much?"

"You see, at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly die. But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through life!" - Romans 5:6-11

When I worked at camp, there was a kid there that I loved a lot. Sadly, I can't remember much about him, other than he was, in most rights, a "problem child." He was always getting into arguments with other campers, always in trouble with his counselors. But when I came around, he was always on his best behaviour. Well, the best you'll get from an 11 year old. We played and joked around, and I encouraged him to participate (fairly) in the activities they were doing. But I also rebuked him when he needed it, taking care not to yell and scream at him, but to use reasoning and speak to him with respect. And it seemed to work well. 

One night I was on my way to visit a friend who was on duty to sit with his cabin. When I walked by this kid's cabin, he was sitting outside on the porch, sulking. I walked up and sat with him while his counselor went back inside to deal with the rest of the cabin. I asked him what he did to be sent out here and he told me. And I asked him if he knew that he should have been sent outside. We talked a bit more, and then he looked at me and asked "why do you care so much?" It was a sincere question. And one I didn't know the answer to. I just knew that I had a lot of love for that kid, and he needed to be shown a lot of love.

As I've grown, that quality in me seems to have all but disappeared. Now I can't be bothered to go out of my way to even be nice to people, let alone go out of my way to show them that someone cares, even though it may seem the rest of the world has given up on them. And perhaps not everyone is like my camper, they don't have the same situation or the same rebellious nature that needs to be diffused. But they still need that extra bit of attention. Yet now I become exasperated and write them off as hopeless. When did I become so uncaring and bitter? I suppose this is not the time to get into some Freudian psychoanalysis of myself, as it is not important. What is important is that I get back to loving others.

"Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." - John 13:34

This story is also a good lesson in the love God has for us. We are sinners, we are troubled. We are people about whom God could just raise his hands and say "it's hopeless!" Yet, even though the world may have given up on us, God is always there, always loving us, always showing He cares. It's something we'll never understand. But with God, we can always look up when we've gotten ourselves into a mess, and He's there. And we will constantly wonder "why do You care so much?"