I've noticed a trend among my many friends that attend Christian Church's. The trend seems to be that we, to include myself are quarreling in church. We are fighting among ourselves and wasting our energies and resources. Seriously, this is happening not just in small town Oneida, but all over the country and in church house, after church house, after church house. I've not met one, listen to me, NOT ONE pastor that hasn't or isn't currently going through some type of quarrelling at church. I don't simply mean the occasional flare-up over carpeting or paint, I mean quarrelling that divides Church's. Quarreling that leaves men spent and finished or so demoralized they don't want to come to church to do the Lords work. Quarreling that has driven men to anger, and left friendships in disrepair. Quarreling that has made Godly men leave the ministry. So what is it that we quarrel over.
It's simple, the issue is Pride. Oh now you can name a million things it could be, but in 99% of the cases, it comes back to pride. The definition of Pride is a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. The universal truth "Pride will come before the fall" fits here. Let us look quickly at Proverbs 16:18 "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall". We can't teach the proud, they will see destruction. Pride is the issue causing us to quarrel and fight. Pride will be the reason some of us are sent to Hell.
So how do we rectify this situation. Lets go to James 4:1-3 "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures".
This is a pretty good comparison to US in the church. You see, with the pride in our life's, we battle for what we want in the Church. We may want a better youth, maybe a new vehicle, a new Pastor, even new better faithful members. All of this is of the Devil. We ask for selfish, prideful reasons. Sometimes we use the saying "oh, things will be better after this and that happen". Wrong, we still will have the same problem once we look in the mirror. The problem of US is still there. We are that person in the mirror, we are those people at church, and we are the problem.
James tells us how to fix this situation later on in verse 7. "Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will wash your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up." For us to solve this problem James tells us we need to worship God. Look at verse 9 again. We are to Grieve, mourn and wail, and in verse 7 we are to Submit to God. If we want to get rid of Pride in our life's we need to make some easy fundamental change. 1. Submit to God, 2. Worship God, 3. Resist the Devil. That's why Pastor after Pastor, and Christian after Christian told me to Pray before I do anything. Put my heart in the right frame of mind. As we pray, we aim ourselves in God's direction which should allow us to ask of our Lord with all the right motives.
One last point. In James 4:6 it says "God opposes the proud". We are in for a tough road if we don't get rid of our pride and point our hearts to God our creator. Make the easy changes and enjoy the worship in God's house, not the quarrels.
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3 comments:
Glad to read that you understand itis pride. So swallow yours and admit that people can fall away from God and that Once saved doesn't mean always saved. James 5 19-20. How can a person bring a person back to the truth and save them? If Grace covers them for all time and that "once saved always saved" is true, than how can someone be brought back to the truth. Food for thought. Just swallow your pride and admit that I am right. Admit it. ADMIT IT!! What were you blogging about again? Oh yeah. : )
Once saved, always saved. But that does not mean that we, as humans, don't make mistakes or turn in the wrong direction. Just like making a wrong turn on the highway, we find our way back to the correct road. That doesn't mean we stopped driving, we just corrected the problem and brought ourselves back. We are by nature, sinners and if we lost our salvation for every sin, then no one could ever be completely saved. Once saved, always saved. Yes we make mistakes but by grace we are still saved.
Actually, I hate the term OSAS, although practically speaking, I agree with it. It just leaves the impression that no matter what someone does, as long as he claims to have "asked Jesus in his heart" at one time, then he should have assurance. I much prefer the term "Preservation of the Saints" which says that God will preserve true believers to the end. It teaches that though a true believer will fall into sin, God's preserving power will always grant repentance and not allow the believer to live the lifestyle of a non-believer. A true believer may sin, but he hates his sin and will always be brought to repentance.
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