The rumors about the disappearance of "The Warrior's Table"are greatly exaggerated. But the delay of this post somewhat plays into this posting TODAY, the day before the 3rd Anniversary of my wife and I (I love you, baby). First off, The Word of God is a living book, folks, plain and simple. It is more than just a string of words in chapter and verse form. Jesus told us the words that He spoke were spirit and life (John 6:63) and if you truly study this Word daily, it will add life to your, uh, life. Since I met my wife almost 7 years ago, I learned that the biggest problem I had was pride. I always thought myself to be better than everyone, lived on a higher plane of existance and because of who I was, I was the man to which you should genuflect. But she loved me enough to tell me, uh, bring it down, bruh. It's not that serious. I had two choices to make: either I hold on to my pride and continue to think myself a legend in my own mind, or I step back, take a good look at myself and say, "huh. I guess she's right. I do need to bring it down, and more than just 1 notch".
So, then, let's really take a look at what that state of mind had brought me: No close friends, the people of whom I thought I was better actually went on to realize great success in their choice of career, not just working a job, and I had nothing that I said I would have by now. Putting fear to the side for a minute, this is the fruit of pride, ladies and gentlemen (Psalm 59:12-13, Proverbs 13:10, Proverbs 16:18). It accomplishes nothing, it is fruitless, it requires too much energy to operate through pride, folks. And, above all else, it keeps God out of your life (1 Samuel 2:2-4, Psalm 12:3, Psalm 138:6, Proverbs 6:16-17). It causes family arguments, marriages to break up, friendships to be destroyed, and people who were prominent at a point of time to be vanquished. Look at King Nebbekinezzer, Moses, John The Baptist, Hitler, Stalin, Al Capone, just to name a few.
Have you taken a look around at the things that have been happening in our world, in our country, in our city? I would truly be afraid to live this life without God having my back. So I had to learn that the best way to stay under God and His protection is to humble myself before Him. If I am going to win the fight, I need to "lose it" by giving it and ME over to the Lord (Proverbs 3:5-6). I am sure that you would agree that if our carnal nature wasn't something with which we need to contend (Romans 8:6-7, Romans 7:5-6) it would be an easy thing to do, yes. But check this out: you don't need to rely on your own strength to humble yourself (Matthew 19:26). I think that is the coolest thing around. The Lord God that created the universe wants to help us through the Holy Spirit to humble ourselves before Him. The thing He wants us to do by choice gets propmted in us by that which is not carnal. That's awesome!
OK, so what does this have to do with humility being the greatest offense? Well, think about it:
can a contentious person continue to be so if you remain humble and do not raise your voice? Does it make you a reliable employee when you always show a positive willingness to take on every task you're asked to assume? Aren't disagreements settled faster when one decides to stop trying to "win"? and what room does the devil have when you choose to do things in humility? Proverbs 17 pretty much says it all because humility is a misunderstood form of love. What does love, patience, and humility do? It forgives (Proverbs 10:12, 17:9), it endures hardship (2 Thessalonians 1:3-5), it brings about promotion and great reward (Job 22:28-30, Proverbs 29:23, Matthew 23:11-12), it bows out of a fight gracefully and let's God fight the battles (Isaiah 54:17-18, 2 Chronicles 20:15, 1 Corinthians 6:7), knows who they are, no matter what words of hate and lies are thrown (Ezekiel 2:5-7, Galatians 3:26-27) and it gives room for God to get and stay involved (2 Chronicles 7:14-15, Psalm 10:17, Isaiah 57:15, Colossians 3:12-13). If you stay on your knees and cry out to God, how can you lose?
It is the man who refuses to bend that gets knocked down first. It is the stiff-standing one that the stiff wind can topple. It is the one who tries to rise above everyone by standing on their heads that has no where else to go but down. But if you bow down and stay down, you keep yourself on steady and sturdy ground, with your enemies tripping over you and each other. Why not? Isn't God bigger that everything life can throw at you anyway?
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