Do you ever find yourself arguing for argument’s sake? Do you feel like it’s your job to point out the other side of the issue or like you have to have the last word? If so, could you be a contentious woman, at least at times? And if you see this tendency, what can you do to become more Christlike?
We were made to worship. And we all worship something. When we refuse to worship the One true God and acknowledge His authority, we simply create false religions that allow us to appease our consciences while we continue to live life our own way. But false religions never take us anywhere good. They simply take us farther and farther from God.
Ahaz was one of Judah’s wicked kings. Can you imagine a king so evil he would sacrifice his own children in the name of his false religion? Yet, instead of repenting when God brought judgment, he turned to other ungodly people for help.
And sadly, the people of Judah as a whole became increasingly unfaithful until God in His perfect judgment allowed their destruction.
Our nation, too, seems determined to go down the road of increasing unfaithfulness. We shouldn’t think that if God judged His own covenant people, He won’t judge us as a nation, as well. The question is, will we heed the voice of godly people or continue in our unfaithfulness and false religions.
Stuart Scott says, “Pride is the opposite of humility and it is one of the most loathed sins in God’s sight.” He adds, “We all have pride … The question is not ‘Do I have it?’ but, ‘Where is it?’ and ‘How much of it do I have?’”
Our Old Testament reading gives us a great illustration of what pride can do when not dealt with. So, where does pride show up in your life? Check Dr. Scott’s list of the manifestations of pride listed below. You might be surprised.
What does your spending reveal about your heart? It’s easy to look at the lives of idolaters like the grandmother we’ll talk about today and see how their idolatry corrupted their hearts. But idolatry didn’t end with the Old Testament. And it isn’t exclusive to pagan people. The New Testament constantly warns believers about the idolatry in our own hearts.
And one revealer can be our spending. If we’re willing to pay $4 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, $25 to go to the movies, or $80 or $100 for a pair of tennis shoes, but give grudgingly or not at all to the work of God, what does it say about our hearts and what we truly worship?
We’ll also look at:
How God protected the Messianic line of David and kept His covenant promise to him.
The value of godly counsel in the life of a leader.
And how God was able to use a brilliant and eloquent man who was willing to humble himself and receive truth from a couple of tentmakers.
Anger and an attitude of disrespect are running rampant in our culture. There is disrespect for cultural norms, disrespect for authority, disrespect for the law, disrespect for our history and its context, and disrespect for others. And anger seems to permeate everything. At the root of it all, is disrespect for God and His Word.
These attitudes have already cost us all a great deal and show no sign of stopping. That cost is more than temporal. There are eternal consequences, as well.
In the first century, a small army of believers turned the known world upside down in a matter of a few years without TV, radio, or mass media. They simply believed in the power of the gospel to change lives and the Holy Spirit working through them. And they did it in the face of intense opposition.
Today our world is being turned upside down but not by the gospel. How should we respond? What can we do? What is the ultimate answer? These are questions that haunt many of us.
In today’s post, you’ll also read about:
One of the greatest evils in our nation and our accountability before God.
And finally, we’ll look at one of the greatest prayers ever recorded. It was prayed by a man who fell short like us, but who understood where to turn for help.
How can we fight back against false accusations, suffering, and mistreatment? And what about the ordinary, everyday hurts that come to us all? How should we respond to them? Is there a way to fight back that is honoring to God?
What makes you a Christian? Is it going to church, giving up certain habits, or keeping the ten commandments? Is it based on taking certain sacraments, belonging to the right church, living a godly life, or doing good deeds? Does God have something of a divine scale where He’s weighing our good deeds versus our bad ones? Or is salvation and the Christian life based on something else?
Also:
What does God have to say about our off-handed promises to our children and others about doing this or that only to change our minds when we don’t feel like it?
God gifts us all differently and those differences not only enable us to do a variety of things, but they will also cause us to see things from different perspectives. Even in ministry, we may disagree. And as with Paul and Barnabas, those disagreements can cause us to go in different directions. But when understood rightly, just as in Paul’s illustration of the body in 1 Corinthians 12, people with different visions can not only work together but complement each other.
All believers receive at least one spiritual gift at the time of their salvation and more often several in varying amounts. Do you know your spiritual gifts and are you using them for God’s glory?
And from our Old Testament reading:
Are there times when you feel completely overwhelmed by the circumstances in your life? Read about a man who was completely outnumbered in battle and how he turned to the Lord in prayer.
Have you ever wondered if God has a formula for parenting? Some of us may have thought so and done our best to raise our children “in the discipline and admonition of the Lord,” only to have them wander from the faith or fail to make a genuine commitment to the Lord. This often leaves us confused, discouraged, and wondering if there is something we missed. There’s an important principle to remember in today’s reading from Psalms that may help.
And from our New Testament reading, we’ll see that “Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone”—This truth is central to our faith and must be strongly guarded and taught.
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