Word for Today, Thu, 02 Mar 2006: Puffy Pride or Lowly Humility?
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was one of the great preachers in an era when people
were willing and eager to examine themselves honestly. The thing that gets
most in the way of any person from doing that, regardless of the period of
history you are looking at (including, and perhaps especially today) is the
original sin of pride. The pride of Satan was the original sin - I want to be
just like the Most High God! Well, when we move the opposite direction, and
realize that we are much closer to a worm than we are the Most High God, then
we are in a lowly position, from which our gracious God can and will lift us
up. Nothing separates us from God more rapidly than our own pride.
Spurgeon understood this, and he wrote a great message, which Crosswalk.com
publishes. The reference to their site and Spurgeon's evening message follow
below. Ponder it in your heart and humble yourself before the Lord, as I
realize I must do.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
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http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/devotionals/morningandevening/
Ephesians 3:8
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I
should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
The apostle Paul felt it a great privilege to be allowed to preach the gospel.
He did not look upon his calling as a drudgery, but he entered upon it with
intense delight. Yet while Paul was thus thankful for his office, his success
in it greatly humbled him. The fuller a vessel becomes, the deeper it sinks in
the water. Idlers may indulge a fond conceit of their abilities, because they
are untried; but the earnest worker soon learns his own weakness. If you seek
humility, try hard work; if you would know your nothingness, attempt some great
thing for Jesus. If you would feel how utterly powerless you are apart from the
living God, attempt especially the great work of proclaiming the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and you will know, as you never knew before, what a weak
unworthy thing you are. Although the apostle thus knew and confessed his
weakness, he was never perplexed as to the subject of his ministry. From his
first sermon to his last, Paul preached Christ, and nothing but Christ. He
lifted up the cross, and extolled the Son of God who bled thereon. Follow his
example in all your personal efforts to spread the glad tidings of salvation,
and let "Christ and Him crucified" be your ever recurring theme. The Christian
should be like those lovely spring flowers which, when the sun is shining, open
their golden cups, as if saying, "Fill us with thy beams!" but when the sun is
hidden behind a cloud, they close their cups and droop their heads. So should
the Christian feel the sweet influence of Jesus; Jesus must be his sun, and he
must be the flower which yields itself to the Sun of Righteousness. Oh! to
speak of Christ alone, this is the subject which is both "seed for the sower,
and bread for the eater." This is the live coal for the lip of the speaker, and
the master-key to the heart of the hearer.
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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