To Be Seen By Men

Jesus mentioned how the Pharisees loved to be noticed praying on the street corners to be seen by men and said they have lost their reward (cf. Matt. 6:1).  We need to keep our righteousness between us and God as much as is our control.  I remember the first time I witnessed of my faith after being saved in the Army and found out that being a braggadocio is a no-no. God is not impressed with our filthy rags and we shouldn't be impressed by them either.  Caveat:  "For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends"  (2 Cor. 10:18, NASB).

Ironically, the way up is down like John the Baptist said:  "He must increase, and I must decrease." The person who humbles himself shall be exalted, not the person who presumes to be someone when he isn't.  We are not to have low self-esteem or to think less of ourselves, but to think of ourselves less!  Like the actor who gets one role and thinks he is a star or the person who writes one poem and thinks he is a poet or the person who preaches one sermon and thinks he is a preacher, so we all tend to think we've arrived, even though Paul never assumed this:  "I do not claim to have laid hold of it yet..." (Phil. 3:12).

When you've preached a hundred sermons dare call yourself a preacher, though others can and may--don't toot your own horn; or if you've witnessed hundreds of times call yourself a faithful witness--let others praise you and not yourself, or if you have done whatever God has called you to and been faithful in it--success doesn't come overnight.  It is paramount that the Lord give His blessing to your endeavor and you be called to it, because you must have an anointing to do it in the Spirit--there are even preachers who do it in the energy of the flesh and are just great speakers or very scholarly, but not called by God or filled with the Holy Spirit.  I do not think preaching is a production or a show but a calling that must be blessed by God.  I know of storytellers, great public speakers, or even comedians who parade as charismatic preachers but are wolves in sheep's clothing and should get out of the ministry, despite their following--preaching is not just academics but spiritual.

Some people serve for the applause of man as people-pleasers (cf. Eph. 6:6, KJV), and some seek the glory of God and give it back to Him.  Praise is merely the test of a man's spirit to see what he is made of.  I make it clear when my Bible class claps for me that it is of God and He is the one to praise, but they still insist because they really believe it's a good Bible study; but I have learned not to trust the opinions of man and I seek only to please God and not man--I certainly don't want praise to go to my head. Watch out for those who want the approbation of man, and not God's favor and smile on their endeavors.   We don't do favors for one another as if they might owe us one in return, but we are servants of Christ doing it out of the pure motive of love for Him.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Is Invictus Right?

Are we the "masters of our fate" and the "captains of our soul?"  According to this famous poem Invictus, penned by William Ernest Henley, and recited at a many a graduation ceremony, we are unconquerable and just don't realize it all the time.  We should thus thank God for our own success.  The irony of modern man is that he ruins his own life and blames God (cf. Prov. 19:3) however, he becomes a success and gives himself the credit. Like the definition of an Englishman:  "A self-made man who worships his creator."  There is no such animal as a self-made man.  Isa. 64:8 says God is the potter and we are the clay.  We should remember the rock from which we were hewn and the stone from which we were cut, says Isaiah in chapter 51:1.  We are all a byproduct of all those we've been influenced by in our circle of friends and family.   Very little of our personality or success is due to genetics per se, but the sovereignty and providence of God and, of course, environmental factors.

The psalmist says in Psa. 31:15 the following claim:  "The course of my life is in your power."  Another translation reads, "My future [my times] is in your hands."  God can, and does control the king and sovereign of the state just like the course of a river according to Prov. 21:1.  "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way,"  says Psa. 37:23.  The most devastating blow to think that we are in control of our lives and destiny is two verses that essentially say the same thing:  Jer. 10:23 and Prov. 20:24.  "I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his steps."  "A man's steps are from the LORD, how then can a man understand his way?"

 Did you know that your life was already planned out by God and written in a book before you were born, just like an author writing a play and you merely have a role to play?  Psa. 139:16 says precisely this:  "....in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as yet there were none of them."  Fate is impersonal, like the blind "kismet" of Islam, but we have a destiny, which is different:  We have a part to play and must cooperate with God to reach God's best for us.  For instance, if your destiny was to be a piano virtuoso, you must practice diligently.

Isaiah says in Isa. 26:12, "...all that we have accomplished you have done for us...."  Paul says he will not "venture to speak, but of what Christ has accomplished through him,"  in Rom. 15:18.  Amos 6:13 speaks of Israel being proud of accomplishing nothing by themselves:  "You who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar [nothing] and say, 'Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?'"  All our fruit comes from God (Hos. 14:8).   In summation, our destiny is ultimately in God's hands, but it isn't a blind, mechanical, impersonal fate that some seem to think--our input matters!  Soli Deo Gloria!