Seek Good -- Amos 5:14-15

Amos 5:14-15


"Seek good and not evil, that you may live; so the Lord God of hosts will be with you, as you have spoken. Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." (NKJV)

"Seek good and not evil."

There is an active sense in the word "seek." You can’t seek by randomly just walking along, hoping that whatever you seek will fall into your path. You have to diligently search for what it is, looking carefully, persevering until you find it. Amos isn’t telling the people to do good when it’s convenient or easy. He’s telling them to make doing good their lifestyle.

There is also a sense of the covenant relationship with God in this Hebrew word, darash:

"This word is often used to describe the ‘seeking of’ the Lord in the sense of entering into covenantal relationship with Him. The prophets often used darash as they called on the people to make an about-face in living and instead "seek ye the Lord while he may be found …" (Isa. 55:6)" (Vine’s).

Seeking good is then a specific and deliberate act. For Christians, seeking good should become a way of life every moment of every day. The prophet Isaiah wrote:

"Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow" (1:16b-17 NKJV).

"Learn to do good." Doing good is both something we choose and something we can learn how to do. We aren’t born good. Babies are innocent in the sense that they are not yet responsible for their sins, but we are all born sinful. We are ego-centric from birth, wanting to rebel against God and against every authority. But once we are saved, we are given the ability to choose whether or not we want to obey God, whether or not we want to do good. We can learn to do good, we can choose to do good, we can seek to do good rather than evil.

"It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious . . . "

God never stops being gracious or loving toward us. He never stops wanting for each person to be saved.

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV).

But there is a point—the point of judgment—when God will judge justly and there will no longer be salvation, not because God doesn’t want to extend it, but because the person will have so hardened his heart toward God that he will refuse to accept it:

"You are storing up terrible punishment for yourself because of your stubbornness in refusing to turn from your sin. For there is going to come a day of judgment when God, the just judge of all the world, will judge all people according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who persist in doing what is good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and practice evil deeds" (Romans 2:5b-8 NLT).

One of the first things that the American Church "gave up," back in the mid 1950s was an active understanding of hell and eternal judgment. Preachers previously had actively preached about hell and folks who didn’t want to repent got tired of hearing it. So preachers changed their message to one of love. The problem is this. It isn’t that God doesn’t love each of us; He does. We saw that in 2 Peter 3:9. It’s that God doesn’t love us in a way that allows Him to tolerate sin. God can’t tolerate sin because sin is basically anti-God. (If you’re a sci fi buff, think of the concept of matter and anti-matter. The two can’t exist; they cancel each other out. It’s the same with God and sin except that God is all powerful and sin is rebellion against Him.)

Don’t be deceived. There will be a day of judgment for every soul who has ever lived and if that soul isn’t trusting on the mercy of God, then the judgment will be terrible and final and eternal. I’ve read a lot of articles from nonbelievers who joke about and even say they welcome being in hell. They won’t once they are there, but it will be the only choice for them because their hatred of God will be so complete, so final that they will eternally continue to refuse to bow down to Him in worship, even if it meant releasing them from the punishment they are suffering. Hell is worse than anything we can image, worse than anything anyone has ever experienced. But the only time to make a conscious choice of where we will spend eternity is now! Now is the time to seek to do good. Now is the time to put away evil. Now is the time to throw ourselves on the mercy of our loving Father.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

The One True Enemy -- Ephesians 6:10-13

Ephesians 6:10-13


"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." (NKJV)

"And Jesus, answering them, began to say: ‘Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many. But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows.’" (Mark 13:5-9 NKJV).

We live in distressing times. Not only are there many instances of wars and fighting going on, particularly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, but with the advent of technology, we can hear and see examples everyday. We can also share opinions and ideas and "facts" of all these conflicts.

It saddens me that I see Christians taking sides in such conflicts against other Christians, not only those Christians involved in the direct fighting, but even more so, Christians on the sidelines, demanding that their opinions are right and trying, in many ways, to coerce other Christians to agree with them against those they believe are in the wrong.

We are the ones who know the Truth, not only the written Truth (the Word of God), but the Truth embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ! We know that the battles being fought are first, and most importantly, spiritual battles. The people who are involved are simply pawns being used by our one adversary, the devil, and all his minions. "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood!" In any conflict, whether it is a nation-against-nation war or a person-to-person fight, as believers we have the obligation to remember this! "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood!" The Lord Jesus died for everyone, Russian and Ukrainian, Iraqi and Kurd, Jew and Palestinian. He loves us all! It is God’s will that "none will perish, but all will come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

As Christians, our weapons are spiritual, not carnal. Our primary weapon, first and foremost, is prayer . . . and then prayer with fasting. The Lord never said that our weapons were public opinion or voting or demonstrating. And while the Lord may ask you to peaceably do any one of those things, it will always be through the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we begin to war against other Christians in order to promote our opinion about the rightness of something, we are warring against the Body of Christ.

I would plead with my brothers and sisters, in this desperate time, to begin to fall to their knees, to give up their recreations and other pleasures, and seek the face of God. Living as a Christian is never about being right, but always about being righteous, worshiping at the Throne of Him who loves us. We worship the God of the universe who is in control. We fight against one adversary, the devil. All those who are unsaved aren’t our enemies, but rather our harvest field. We are commanded to pray for even the most evil of them for it’s our Father’s will that none should perish. Pray that God will soften our hearts that we can love as our Lord Jesus loved. "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8 NKJV). While they are still sinners, let us at least be willing to pray for them.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Judgment and Salvation -- Amos 5:8-9

Amos 5:8-9


"God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion; He changes darkness into the morning light, and the day into dark night. He calls for the waters of the sea to pour out on the earth. The Lord is his name. He destroys the protected city; He ruins the strong, walled city." (NCV)

There is nowhere to hide.

I look around at the godlessness that surrounds me. Even from those who claim to be Christian, even from those who regularly attend church. I read through history at the godlessness of cultures, of the cruelty that we thrust on each other, of the escalation of self-indulgence and self-interest. Last night, I read the tale of Noah, of the evil that people were compounding and the anger of God for their doing so.

God will not be mocked.

We can try to logically talk His existence away. We can use "scientific tests" and philosophical debates. We can listen to celebrities and "experts" declaring that He doesn’t exist. We can ignore the tug of our hearts until we no longer feel it. We can desensitize ourselves with alcohol and drugs and television. In the end, none of that will matter; none of that will be successful.

God is able and will bring judgment upon the people He created.

Amos uses three strong images to demonstrate the power of the Almighty God: God made the stars. He placed them in specific positions and He continues to control them. God created the night and the day. He specifically placed the sun and moon to create day and night and He continues to control them. The Lord created the seas and the dry land. He created seas to be salty and lakes to be fresh. He controls their boundaries and their purposes.

God is in control of all of this universe.

He determines whether or not the laws of science continue to work because miracles themselves are often events that occur outside of these laws. These laws don’t rule God; He rules them.

God can and will destroy anything that we think will protect us from His judgment.

Amos describes two strong cites. The first city is described (in Hebrew) as "greedy, power, mighty, strong, fierce." (Strong’s H5794). And translated literally, the connotation could be made that these are descriptions not of the physical city, but rather of its inhabitants. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you are a powerful person with great influence and control over thousands or perhaps even millions of people and resources. God can and will destroy you in judgment if you continue to refuse to submit to Him.

The second city is a "fortification, fortified city, castle, stronghold" (Strong’s H4013). The connotation here is that it doesn’t matter where you go. There is no physical structure that can hide you from God’s judgment.

So, there is no person you can become and no place you can go that you can hide from God. There is nothing that will prevent Him from exacting judgment at the time of His choosing.

In between describing God’s might and His ability to judge, Amos writes: "The LORD is His name." The Hebrew is actually YHWH, which is the name that God has given Himself. It is a name that describes the covenantal relationship that He has with His people; it contains all the promises of Who He is and Who He will be when we trust Him. It’s as if Amos interjects in between two pronouncements of judgment that God Himself will be our salvation.

The Lord never warns of judgment that He doesn’t also offer salvation. His justice and His mercy are equally offered to us. In fact, the warnings of judgment are mercy because He doesn’t have to even tell us we are disobeying Him. But His love and mercy compels Him to warn us—usually again and again and again—giving us opportunity to turn from our sin and seek His forgiveness. In all things, in all situations, He loves us! He is waiting for us to love Him back.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

The Sign of the Stars -- Amos 5:8

Amos 5:8a


"God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion . . " (NCV)

Have you ever checked your horoscope? Most of us, at one time or another, whether in "fun" or when we were too naive to know better, bought into the idea that the stars could guide our lives. However, there is truth in the stars, perhaps more than we ever realized.

In this passage of Amos, there are the names of two star constellations, Pleiades and Orion. (Constellations are groupings of stars that make a particular shape or form in the sky).

The Lord could have positioned the stars in any manner He chose. Their relationship to earth could have been ever changing, even random. But God positioned the stars in such a way that their relationships to each other, in a three-dimensional manner, presented such obvious shapes and forms (constellations) that mankind was able to both identify and name them. Joseph Seiss, in his book The Gospel in the Stars written in 1882, proposed that these star positions, known as constellations, were specifically created by God as signs: "these astronomic figures, in their original integrity and meaning, are from God." He continues in his premise that the constellations which comprise the Zodiac, rather than being signs of pagan religions, actually tell the story of the Lord Jesus, tell the story of salvation.

The star group, Pleiades, according to Seiss, is a grouping of seven stars often known as the Doves and is associated with Noah and the Great Flood. In other words, Pleiades is associated with judgment and salvation from judgment.

Orion is a constellation which depicts a great hunter. In his hand is the head of a lion, and the handle of his sword is the head of a lamb. This constellation is the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, both the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5) and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8).

Amos wrote: "God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion." These two constellations weren’t named at random, simply to prove that God made the stars. These two constellations specifically symbolize judgment and salvation. It’s particularly interesting that Amos mentioned Pleiades which is associated with the "ultimate" judgment, the complete destruction of the world (by a great flood). Amos had been prophesying about the evils embraced by God’s people. And now he reminded the Israelites that God had already—in the history of mankind—brought about a cataclysmic judgment through the Great Flood. Amos also spoke of Orion, foretelling the Great Salvation in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Great Judgment and Great Salvation.

Our God is so good! He never warns us about our sin but that He provides a way for us to escape judgment through His never-ending mercy.

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV).

Here with the comparison of Pleiades and Orion, the Lord is again reminding us that while He is a just God and will bring about judgment for sin, His love is ever yearning toward us. These reminders light the sky above us at night. In those hours of darkness, when our lives seem to be most illuminated to our souls, we can look up and know that our God has provided a wonderful salvation for us through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the promise that is in the stars can also be within our hearts.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Everything's Upside Down -- Amos 5:7

Amos 5:7


"You turn justice upside down, and you throw on the ground what is right." (NCV)

Things are crazy in America these days. There are so many changes in our culture and I am constantly hearing about or reading about how right is becoming wrong and wrong is becoming right.

Well, it’s true. There’s no getting around it. There is more concern for criminals than victims. There is more concern for sexual rights than for the lives created through sexual relationships. Children want to be bad in order to be respected. The list goes on and on.

The problem with all this is that the Church has fallen with the culture, perhaps even before the culture. And so we criticize those without (the unsaved) while we continue to accept the sins from within (the saved). That in itself is backwards. Paul was very clear in Romans that those who are unsaved are simply acting according to their natures, the natures to which they are enslaved.

"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:16-18 NKJV).

A slave has no choices. A slave must do what the master says. Prior to salvation, people are slaves to sin. When they do sinful things, they are doing what their sinful nature commands that they do. They can’t do otherwise! Even when they do what appears to be right (or righteous), it is still sinful because it is done with the wrong intentions. Only the Holy Spirit can "clean" someone up and first must come salvation.

We seem to spend a lot of time and energy on trying to "clean up" the unsaved around us. We would be much more comfortable if they adopted a culture that emulated righteousness, even if they themselves weren’t righteous. This entire thought process is backward! First, we should be concerned with saving the unsaved, not somehow dressing them in a "Christian" culture. And second, any cleaning up process that occurs should and must happen within the Church! And boy, do we need cleaning up!

When Amos wrote God’s prophesy, God was speaking to His people, not to the Gentiles who lived around them. It was God’s people who had turned justice upside down and thrown what was right on the ground. It is the same today. We live in a Church that would rather throw a party than pray, rather divorce and remarry than submit to each other, rather look for villains without than deal with the demons within, rather leave in a huff than confess sin, rather spend money than meet the needs of others, rather practice "tough love" instead of sacrificing indulgence. And on every point, we are wrong.

The problem in America isn’t about villains or the other guy or some group’s agenda. The problem is America is with us, the Church. We have stopped being what Christ intended for us to be:

　

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they slight a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:13-16 NKJV).

We are supposed to be the light of the world. And Jesus ends this teaching with "Let your light so shine before me that they may see your good works."

Where are our good works?  Often Christians excuse their bad behavior with "Well, I’m just a sinner like everyone else except I’m forgiven." We have so diluted what it means to be saved that the world truly believes that we have embraced sin. Here is a cartoon I copied from an atheist website:



　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

(Cartoon from http://www.thinkatheist.com/photo/forgiveness-1)
　

　
Most unbelievers are convinced that we take sin lightly. That we believe we can do anything we want and "poof" we get into heaven by just saying a few words. That is a terrible commentary on the life of the Church, but we deserve it because we have turned our judgment onto those outside rather than learning to judge ourselves (and judge ourselves aggressively). We are no longer the salt of the earth or the light on the hill. We are the nuisance that everyone would like to see gone!

If we are ever to become a spiritual force again on this earth, we need to get back to the basics. We need to repent of all those things that have kept us from God. We need to focus our attention, our energy, and our resources on the things that please Him rather than hoping He’s pleased with us simply because we showed up for an hour on Sunday. We need to get brutal with ourselves in confession, repentance, and restoration. We need to get on our knees and pray and pray and pray until the Holy Spirit begins to shine again through us. Until that day comes, we will continue to be the people that Amos condemned.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Come to God and Live -- Amos 5:4-6

Amos 5:4-6


"This is what the Lord says to the nation of Israel: ‘Come to Me and live. But do not look in Bethel or go to Gilgal, and do not go down to Beersheba. The people of Gilgal will be taken away as captives, and Bethel will become nothing.’ Come to the Lord and live, or He will move like fire against the descendants of Joseph. The fire will burn Bethel, and there will be no one to put it out." (NCV)

"Come to Me and live."

There is life, there is safety, there is provision only in the Lord. Nowhere else. From no one else.

We often change our situation in order to try to change our lives. We get a new job in order to improve our financial situation. But only God really provides for us. We get a new partner, a new family, in order to improve our relationships. But only God can improve how we interact with others. We change our situation in order to get rid of our problems. But only God deal with our sin. We change where we live in order to protect us from disaster. But only God can protect us.

We are only safe in Him.

I think as Christians we don’t always understand how crucial it is to live in the center of God’s will. And, in fact, we talk about the "center" of God’s will when that actually is a misnomer. There isn’t an "area" of God’s will where we can be at the center or to the right or left or at an edge. There really is only in God’s will or out of it, in sin or in righteousness.

Psalm 19:12-13a talks about the kinds of sins we commit:

"How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep me from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me" (NKJV).

There are two kinds of sins in our lives, the sins that we don’t know are sins and the sins we choose. The psalmist acknowledges that our knowledge about sin is so limited that we don’t even know everything that is a sin. These are hidden faults. Perhaps it’s an arrogance in our lives. Maybe it’s a self-centeredness. While the Holy Spirit is revealing other sins to us, these still exist and wreck havoc with our relationships with God and each other.

This is why it’s important everyday (if not more often) to confess our sins. This doesn’t mean just confessing that we are sinful or making some kind of blanket confessional statement ("God, forgive me of all my sins"). It means spending time before the throne allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal, slowly but surely, all the sins in our lives. It takes us trusting Him for this to happen. If God revealed to us, in one quick moment, all of our sins, it would destroy us. We are too egotistical to stand such revelation. We also wouldn’t believe Him.

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts" (Proverbs 21:2 NKJV).

We often believe we are doing right, but if we ask the Lord—if we simply ask the Lord—we may find that we are living in disobedience (sin) when we didn’t even know it. Hidden faults.

The other kind of sin is sin that we choose to do, deliberate sin. It’s interesting that the psalmist then says, "Don’t let them control me." It takes only 5-7 times to make something a habit. It takes 37 times to change the habit. We are so often controlled by our sin! Have you found yourself, even without thinking, doing something you had decided you weren’t going to do? "Don’t let deliberate sins control me." The Lord knows how difficult it is for us to change our behavior. He wants to reveal our sins and to continue to convict us so that we will change. He uses all manner of devices to compel us to change including His love and His justice.

Lord, don’t let our deliberate sins control us.

The apostle Paul, perhaps the greatest writer of all the writers of the Bible, at one time wrote this about himself:

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief" (1 Timothy 1:15b NKJV).

I never understood why he would say this about himself . . . until yesterday. It’s so easy to get into that mode of really not believing that you are sinning until God begins to once again dig into your life with you. I’ve been studying Amos, with a side trip for a study in humility, and the Lord has been revealing all kinds of sinfulness in my life to me, things that I truly didn’t believe were sin. "Every way of a man (or woman) is right in his own eyes." My ways seemed right in my eyes . . . until the Lord began showing me that being right is very different from being righteous. And I so long to be righteous!

There is really no place for me but in God’s will. While others around me, encouraging me to do this or that, have the very best of intentions, I have to follow what the Lord says. The Lord says to us, "Come to Me and live." There isn’t life anywhere else, only a pretense at life. Where do you want to live?

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Learning to Live Humbly -- Luke 18:9-14

Luke 18:9-14


"Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

"So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 14:7-11 NKJV)

What is humility? What does it mean to be humble?

"For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation" (Psalm 149:4 NKJV).

When is the last time you heard a sermon on this topic? A long time ago? Never? To be honest (and I’m getting up there in years), I’ve never heard a pastor teach on humility, never attended a Bible study that focused on this quality, never read a book that taught me how to be humble. When I did an Internet search, I found two books available, one by Andrew Murray (written over 100 years ago) and one by C. J. Mahaney.

And nothing else.

Now of course, that doesn’t really mean anything. There could be more books out there, but it seems to me that this is a topic that isn’t discussed, isn’t taught, isn’t even considered very much. And yet, when doing a search through scripture, it became clear that humility is the hallway to God. Salvation is the door, but humility is the hallway. We open the door and there’s this hallway we must travel to get to God. And it’s not about earning about salvation; it’s about becoming more like Christ.

One of my favorite verses is 2 Chronicles 7:14:

"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV).

It’s interesting that God combines "humble themselves" with "and pray" as if prayer is impossible without humility. At least in this instance, of wanting our land to be healed, prayer and humility are part of what the Father desires.

• Humble ourselves

• Pray

• Seek His face

• Turn from our wicked way

First we need to humble ourselves.

Do you know what that really means? I certainly didn’t and even after all this study, I’m still not sure all of what it means. I know that part of humbling myself before God means trusting Him fully, allowing Him to work through a situation rather than throwing myself into its midst (as if I had enough wisdom to solve it). It means being patient (suffering without complaining). It means reaching out to others in love, regardless of how they treat me. It means living out the fruit of the Spirit every day, everywhere, with everyone.

What does the Bible say about humility?


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

As Christians, we are to choose to live humbly.



"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:5-8 NKJV).

"Let this mind be in you." Choose to think this way. Choose to direct your life as Christ did. And what did Christ do? He humbled Himself.

As God of all the universe, the Lord Jesus obviously has rights! After all, He’s the creator, the master, the Lord. He’s the boss of it all! He can do what He wants and He has the right to administer mercy or justice whenever and upon whomever He chooses.

He chose to die.

Not only that, but He chose to allow Himself to be executed. Not just murdered (though it was murder), but executed for crimes He hadn’t committed. He was innocent and He never defended Himself.

"He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth" (Isaiah 53:7 NKJV).

"And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to Him, ‘Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?’ But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly" (Matthew 27:12-14 NKJV).

"He humbled Himself and became obedient to death."

He didn’t defend Himself . . . which He could have. He didn’t rescue Himself . . . which He had every right to do. He didn’t escape . . . which He could have easily done. He allowed Himself to be humiliated, to be punished, to be executed because this was what the Father wanted! He was obedient regardless of the situation, regardless of the outcome . . . because He trusted the Father!

He chose to trust God. So, in choosing to live humbly as Christ did, we first have to choose to trust God, to trust that He is powerful, that He loves us, that He is working it out . . . and that He doesn’t need our help to intervene. He needs us to trust, to be obedient, to pray! But He doesn’t need us to manipulate or coerce. He needs us to live the fruit of the Spirit—to be Christlike—and allow Him to be God.


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

(2) Live to serve others.

What might be a second step?

"But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Matthew 23:11-12 NKJV)

"Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:507 NKJV).

We need to live as servants. Not as servant leaders, but as servants. Real servants.

"Servant Leadership is exercising real, godly leadership, as Christ did when He used a towel, and influencing, equipping, and empowering people to accomplish God's purpose and plan. It is serving others unselfishly while influencing and empowering them to grow in a Christ-directed, purposeful direction. This was an uncommon trait in Jesus' time, just as it is in ours; do not let it be uncommon for you! Being a leader in the church, or in the home for a husband, is never a force of personality; it is earning that respect because you love and care" (from http://www.churchleadership.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=41928&columnid=4540).

This sounds good . . . except for the fact that the Bible never teaches about servant leadership, only about being a servant. Servant leadership is, unfortunately, a secular concept developed by a nonbeliever named Robert Greenleaf. This concept was embraced by the Church. And it sounds good! (In fact, in most articles you read on Servant Leadership in the Church, you would ask, "Why wouldn’t we want this?")

The problem is that the Lord didn’t teach Servant Leadership. He taught servanthood, being the least, being humbled. Our only leader is the Holy Spirit. Everyone else is commanded to service, to mutual submission.

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but fin lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself" (Philippians 2:3 NKJV).

The word translated here "better" is huperecho and it means to be superior in rank, authority, and power (Strong’s G5242). Think about that for a minute. If you are at work and you and your boss disagree, who gets to make the final decision? Your boss! Obviously. Well, as Christians, we are to treat others as being superior to us in rank, authority, and power. In other words, they get their way. (Now, of course, if they are insisting we sin, we refuse. But in everything else . . . ) We defer to others.

The problem is . . . rights.

Americans are big on rights. Citizenship rights. Basic human rights. Our rights. And as American Christians, we often confuse "rights" with "righteousness." The other problem is that we often decide ourselves what is righteous without spending a lot of time in prayer. And then we justify our actions and our beliefs with scripture without ever asking the Lord what it is He wants. Let me present two scenarios.

In several states in America, various wedding vendors who are practicing Christians have refused to provide services to gay people who want to get married. They have done so stating that their beliefs prevent them from participating in a gay marriage. What does scripture say?

"I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner— snot even to eat with such a person" (1 Corinthians 5:9-11 NKJV).

This is an interesting scripture because Paul is basically saying that he expects Christians to associate with (to keep company with, to intermingle with) sexually immoral unsaved people. And in doing so, we know that we are to live out the fruit of the Spirit in our lives all the time. So how is refusing to bake a cake or take pictures being loving, or kind, or gentle?

What these well-meaning Christians are doing is actually trying to force unsaved people to act like they are saved, to act morally . . . which we know from scripture is impossible for the unsaved. So they are actually demanding that these unsaved folks do what is impossible. How is that being loving or gentle or kind? How is that righteous?

Here is another scenario:

Dozens, if not hundreds of Christians, protest abortion clinics everyday. (Now, please don’t get me wrong. I’m totally against abortion.) Yet, where are these Christians on Friday and Saturday nights when these young women are alone and wanting companionship? When they are settling for sex because they feel unloved? Where are the Christians during the day while their children are taught in public schools that sex is natural?

What I’m saying is that we are attacking the symptoms of several underlying foundational problems. And when we attack symptoms, we ignore faces, real human beings who are lonely and hurting, real human beings who have been emotionally abandoned by a Church that is more into hype than substance.

Abortion is horrible—murder, genocide—but as Christians, if we are truly servants to those around us, we need to look at what causes someone to seek out an abortion, to look at these women as real people with real lives and real hurts and deal with those issues. How much church money goes into the community in an effort to meet real needs? Less than 10%! The remainder of the funds go to the things that serve us! We need to rethink what it means to be servants.


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

(2) Live to serve others.

(3) Live with the realization of our own sinfulness.

"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up" (James 4:7-10 NKJV).

The most difficult thing about sin is that we can be trained by instruction or experience to believe that our actions are not sinful.

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts." (Proverbs 21:2 NKJV)

"Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil." (Proverbs 3:7 NKJV)

Since the 1960's, psychological and sociological ideas have become to permeate Church thinking. So many ideas followed, many taught from the pulpit, but others taught from Christian conferences, books, television shows, and the Internet. Then other things happened and Christians just fell into the wave: Lives became busier and people stopped going to Sunday evening services, Sunday School, and Wednesday prayer meetings. (So the church cancelled them). Then technology came around and people stopped bringing their Bibles to service because the scriptures (or at least some of them) were projected on the big screens. Then the Internet came and people began believing whatever they read or watched without checking it against scripture and prayer.

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them" (Matthew 7:15-20 NKJV).

"You will know them by their karpos." The same word used in Galatians 5:22 to describe the fruit of the Spirit. "You will know the false prophets by whether or not you see the fruit of the Spirit in their lives." Well, how can you do that if you are simply reading a book or watching a TV show or reading an Internet article? You can’t unless you have researched that person’s life thoroughly! You can only know what they want to show you. So what happens? People begin to judge the "work" of the person, rather than the person’s life. Only, the Lord Jesus warned us that false prophets come in sheep’s clothing. They will LOOK AND SOUND AND ACT like Christians! So what they say or present or write will seem to make sense. And if you don’t know scripture well enough (who does?) and you don’t know what these folks’ lives are like, you can’t know whether or not they are false prophets. And false prophets prophesy falsely. It’s what they do. The Lord Jesus told us to "beware," but instead we just eat up what we hear. Why? Because it seems to make sense to us.

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes . . . " (Proverbs 21:2 NKJV). "Do not be wise in your own eyes . . . " (Proverbs 3:7 NKJV).

We need to humble ourselves before the Lord in prayer and in serious study of the Word. We are sinners and we have sinned. We may even been sinning now! David talked about "secret faults" (Psalm 19:12), sins that he didn’t even know he was doing:


"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults."

"Who can understand his errors?" Which of us can truly see ourselves as sinners and know that we are sinning without the Lord to reveal our sins to us? We are wise and right in our own eyes! Each of us. In order to live humbly, we need to admit that we are sinners—that we sin everyday—and that we desperately need the Lord to reveal our sins to us so that we might be forgiven.


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

(2) Live to serve others.

(3) Live with the realization of our own sinfulness.

(4) Understand how helpless we really are

"At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me" (Matthew 18:1-5 NKJV).

I recently visited my two very young granddaughters (a baby and a toddler). One only has to be around the very young (a little child) to understand how helpless children really are. They need to be fed or reminded to eat. They need to clothed or helped to choose appropriate attire. They are strapped into car seats, strapped into shopping carts, strapped into high chairs. They are carried or held by the hand. They are supervised and cared for.

Little children are helpless and need adults.

We are helpless and need the Lord. Humility requires that we acknowledge that we aren’t as smart, aren’t as able, aren’t as talented as we would like to present ourselves. Humility requires that we stop trying to run our lives (and everyone’s around us) and begin to pray, pray, and pray some more to find out what it is that our loving Father wants for us. My oldest granddaughter (not quite 3) would spend all or most of her meals using the food as wonderful art supplies to make designs on the dining room table. But after a few days of that, her health would begin to suffer. She needs her parents to make sure that she’s fed and fed properly. We need the Father to take care of us. We aren’t capable of taking care of ourselves. We aren’t any more capable than little children. We need to submit to the Father for His care.


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

(2) Live to serve others.

(3) Live with the realization of our own sinfulness.

(4) Understand how helpless we really are

(5) Understand that when we learn, we must learn in humility

As a teacher, I know that there is learning . . . and then there is learning. I think back to most of the weekly spelling tests that I’ve given in my career. I bet, even if you’re not a teacher, you remember taking those tests. You would cram like crazy on Thursday night to memorize the words, do as well as you could on Friday on the test, and then promptly forget most of the words by Monday.

There is learning . . . and then there is learning.

Sure, students "learned" those words enough to probably pass a test the next day, but the learning didn’t stick; it certainly didn’t change their behavior because they were still misspelling those words in their writing assignments a year or two or three later.

There is learning . . . and then there is learning.

One of the first steps of learning is coming to the realization that you need to learn (whatever it is). Without understanding that there is a need for you to know what it is we’re learning, we tend to forget it as soon as the immediate need has passed. In order to learn the lessons that God wants us to learn, we have to admit that we don’t know it all, that we don’t have it all together. We have to realize that we need teaching, that how we’ve done it—even all these years—just isn’t working the way that our Father wants it to work. We need to become like little children and understand that there is Someone Who knows far more than we do and Who is desperate to teach us if we will humbly submit to His teaching.

Sometimes we are so stiff-necked, arrogant, and stubborn that God will lead us into a desert experience just to get our attention! He did that with the Israelites when they first were liberated from Egypt.

"And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you" (Deuteronomy 8:2-5 NKJV).

God chastens us so that we might learn. (Did you know that chastening was a form of teaching?) I have a very wise pastor who often says: "God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you just the way you are." Our Father isn’t content with just saving us; He wants to teach us how to become more like our Savior, how to grow in the knowledge of His Word and of the Holy Spirit. He wants to teach us so that we will be prepared to truly be the Bride of Christ.

"Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He teaches sinners in the way. The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way" (Psalm 25:8-9 NKJV).

"He teaches His way." We need to learn God’s way, His way to live, His way to serve, His way to love. It isn’t enough for us to just live for Him, we need to live His way! It isn’t just enough to serve Him, we need to serve His way! It isn’t just enough for us to love, we need to love His way! He so wants to teach us His way, but He can only do that if we approach the learning humbly. We can’t demand certain learning experiences or bring to it our own ideas or knowledge. We must kneel at His feet, admitting that we are powerless to truly understand anything aside from His teaching, and then submit ourselves to the instruction of the Holy Spirit.


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

(2) Live to serve others.

(3) Live with the realization of our own sinfulness.

(4) Understand how helpless we really are

(5) Understand that when we learn, we must learn in humility

(6) Humility must become a lifestyle

"For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isaiah 57:15 NKJV).

"I dwell . . . with him who has a humble spirit." Do you want God to live with you? Do you want to live with Him? God promises to dwell with us if we have a humble spirit. What does that mean? This Hebrew word, shakan, is the same word used for tabernacle (the worship tent in which the Ark of the Covenant was placed). It means that God will reside with us, taking up His residence in our hearts and lives. When we live humbly, God lives with us and we become able to hear His voice, to move at His direction, to trust Him above all else.

Walking humbly is what God expects of us. Why? Because this is how we access the Throne of Grace. We can’t walk into His presence thinking we know what’s right. We need to come to Him humbly, willing always to admit we were wrong and to seek His wisdom and His will.


"He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8 NKJV).

How do we walk humbly? Paul outlines this in Romans 12.

"Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Therefore ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:14-21 NKJV).

Humility is the robe which clothes the believer. In humility, we freely admit our sins, embrace the fact that we frequently make mistakes, and thankfully live under the mercy of God the Father Who loves us. In humility, we learn to love and pray for those who seem to be our enemies, submit to those around us, and esteem others as better than ourselves. In humility, we learn to live like Christ.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com