Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Human Arrogance

 Testimony of Human arrogance begins right after the story of human beginnings. The second human created rejected the word of God for the shiny fruit of pride. It didn't take much encouragement from the serpent for Eve to ignore God's command and accept the evil premise that 'ol snake spewed forth. He said "you won't die, God is a liar, and when you eat that fruit, you will know as much as God." well, we know how well that worked out, don't we? or do we? Human arrogance is pretty blind, it can't see hardly anything outside itself. It's little wonder that this attitude brought forth it's offspring murder, the ultimate in selfishness. human arrogance mocked Noah, spending all that time building a big boat on dry land had the neighbors rolling in the street. Shortly after God singled out the nation of Israel those people grew rather arrogant against the very source of their strength, as the prophets testified. and even when Jesus, the Christ, the savior of the world was on this earth, the arrogant leadership of the Jews mocked and upbraided the very Lord they claimed to worship. 
 Many people today can look at these examples of human arrogance toward God and shake their heads and mutter against these people of the past, but consider this point, are Humans any less arrogant today than they were then? the chief priests even Mocked Christ as he was hanging on the cross, are there church leaders who would do the same today? 
 Atheists don't believe in God at all they believe all the complex systems that make up the universe just happened, believing against the most basic laws of physics. any scientist knows that is you see an effect, there has to be some cause behind it. is this not arrogance? just as many peoples of the past made a God formed with their own hands, molded by the will of it's human creator so do these folks form a God they can live with, their own delusion.
 even among those who would call their self true believers there can be found similar arrogance, there is a lot of confusion in the church just who the potter is and who's the clay. many people form a God in their imagination to fit their wants or needs. this is ass-backwards. It is God who should be playing the fiddle and it is us, that is, Humans that should be dancing. not the other way around. who gets to choose how to worship God? God? or man? if you say Man, then you don't worship God at all, just some figment of your imagination that you hang God's name on. this occurs not only in individuals, but groups as well, does a lie become a truth if many people believe it? Is truth measured by who accepts it, or how many accept it? I'm convinced truth has to be measured by a standard far higher than my, or any other Human's thought, feeling, or guess. God ought to be the standard, and we ought to be the clay to be molded in his hands. anything else is simply self-delusion on our part either individually or as whatever group we choose to adhere to. what of that question Pontius Pilate asked the Lord? "what is truth?". Did Pilate really want an answer? one could argue the guy was looking truth in the face when he asked that question, it is my hope and prayer nobody holds to, and then falls for, that cynical spirit that is even more prevalent today that it was in Pilate's era. one problem with truth today is few people see any value in it. One of the spirits of this age is relativism, this is the thought that there is no such thing as absolutes, not anywhere, not in truth, values, all is relative to the individuals perception. truth is whatever that individual says it is. well, that might work well until you have any meaningful relation with another individual, when you have a community who thinks that reality conforms to their desires, their many and varied desires, what will the end result be? to even believe such a silly notion as relativism one has to ignore a most basic law of logic. a self contradictory statement can't be true. if I say that "there is no such thing as absolutes", what am i saying? is THIS statement absolutely true? the statement is inferring the absolute truth that there is no absolute truth. the only conclusion one could draw from this is that there is, in fact, absolute truth and that absolute truth is knowable. 
 Humans can have a relationship with truth. 
 The Apostle Paul, in Romans ch.7 talks about the trouble of humans struggling with truth, he talks of seeing things he should do, that he doesn't, and seeing things he shouldn't do, that he does. we all have this dilemma. the carnal fighting the spiritual within us. we know what is good, do it not and we know what is bad, and that, we do. it seems the same problem plagues Humankind throughout history. take a look at the ten commandments as an example.
1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”


  Ask yourself what of these seem awful or grievous to you, imagine what society would be like if these were followed, you would not worry about being lied to, not have to worry about letting your children walk to school, wouldn't need locks on your doors as nobody would even think about stealing from their neighbor. look at the freedom Humans would enjoy by following a few simple rules, Put God first, the God who gave you this law, follow this simple law and you would have one incredible community free from worry and mistrust (and even a day off a week in the bargain). you can see how God wants us to live and it is strong evidence God Loves us a lot, seeing how he would like our world to be, it's a big difference from the world we created for ourselves, is it not? what with all the jealousy, envy, strife, arguments, selfishness, bitterness, destruction. all this, because we want to go our own way... seems like maybe God knows us better that we know ourselves, eh? Loving God would seem to have it's benefits. Jesus said if you Love me, keep my commandments. He also said my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. 
 Jesus said if we would humble ourselves, that is put God's will over our own, we could enter his kingdom. one cannot enter through any other way, not by following some plan contrived by other people, or some plan you made up yourself, You need to humble yourself and read the plan God made for us. 

2 comments:

Simokie said...

Well said Mark. I guess that is why we are told to come from the darkness to the light so we can see what is truth. Those that wander in the darkness of sin are under the illusion that they are having a good time that they are having fun and all of the time their life is a daily struggle with sin. When it comes to the 10 commandments I tell folks you don't have to remember all of them just one and 5 and the others just fall into place. If you are living to honor God you are not going to be sinning against him. If you honor your parents you are not going to bring dishonor to them buy doing the other things as stealing and killing and adultery. You bring honor to your earthly family by bringing honor to God. The devil fills our head with the idea we need a lot of money to get along and then we justify how we get that money and half of the time we are on the wrong side of honor doing things to get that money. Family members will go to great length to cheat one another out of money. God has been with me all of my life and I went to many places that I should not have been but God was there to take care of me and keep me from harm. I have no idea why he chose me and let my brothers fall deeper into sin but I am thankful that he pulled me out of the muck and into the light so I might see. I see my friends struggle and tell them to forget about all of that junk and come to Christ and you will see what I am talking about what do you really need in life? All earthy things suffer from the three R's Rust, Rot, and Ripoff. Things of God last for ever and you can take them to heaven with you. Things of the world last a short time and need to be replaced and you have to keep working harder and harder to get more stuff that has no real value in the eyes of God. When I was working I lived in a 1000 SQFT condo and I had to make sure that I had all my locks locked to keep my things. I had to pay taxes on top of taxes to keep a corrupt government running. When Ihad my first opportunity to get from that living I took it. Now I live in a place that I don't have to lock down all of my items. I live with honest poor folks that know how hard money comes and have respect for one another and take care of one another. I left my iPhone at walrmart by accident and I had paid for my purchase using my bank card. The people used that information and called my wife on her phone to find out if I was her spouse and let me know I left my iPhone at the store. If I was back were I came from that iPhone would have been history for me. The other day a customer at Walmart approached my wife and told her he found $100 bill laying on the counter.
What my point is when people try to live to God's plan life is so much better and so less stressful. When you have a live were you take care of your brothers and sisters instead of walk on them to get to the top of the heap you are so much better off. God's plan for us is so easy and we are so much better off when we follow it. Love and honor him and love one another you can boil it down that small and that is what it is all about. You do those two things you can't go wrong.

Simokie said...

Well said Mark. I guess that is why we are told to come from the darkness to the light so we can see what is truth. Those that wander in the darkness of sin are under the illusion that they are having a good time that they are having fun and all of the time their life is a daily struggle with sin. When it comes to the 10 commandments I tell folks you don't have to remember all of them just one and 5 and the others just fall into place. If you are living to honor God you are not going to be sinning against him. If you honor your parents you are not going to bring dishonor to them buy doing the other things as stealing and killing and adultery. You bring honor to your earthly family by bringing honor to God. The devil fills our head with the idea we need a lot of money to get along and then we justify how we get that money and half of the time we are on the wrong side of honor doing things to get that money. Family members will go to great length to cheat one another out of money. God has been with me all of my life and I went to many places that I should not have been but God was there to take care of me and keep me from harm. I have no idea why he chose me and let my brothers fall deeper into sin but I am thankful that he pulled me out of the muck and into the light so I might see. I see my friends struggle and tell them to forget about all of that junk and come to Christ and you will see what I am talking about what do you really need in life? All earthy things suffer from the three R's Rust, Rot, and Ripoff. Things of God last for ever and you can take them to heaven with you. Things of the world last a short time and need to be replaced and you have to keep working harder and harder to get more stuff that has no real value in the eyes of God. When I was working I lived in a 1000 SQFT condo and I had to make sure that I had all my locks locked to keep my things. I had to pay taxes on top of taxes to keep a corrupt government running. When Ihad my first opportunity to get from that living I took it. Now I live in a place that I don't have to lock down all of my items. I live with honest poor folks that know how hard money comes and have respect for one another and take care of one another. I left my iPhone at walrmart by accident and I had paid for my purchase using my bank card. The people used that information and called my wife on her phone to find out if I was her spouse and let me know I left my iPhone at the store. If I was back were I came from that iPhone would have been history for me. The other day a customer at Walmart approached my wife and told her he found $100 bill laying on the counter.
What my point is when people try to live to God's plan life is so much better and so less stressful. When you have a live were you take care of your brothers and sisters instead of walk on them to get to the top of the heap you are so much better off. God's plan for us is so easy and we are so much better off when we follow it. Love and honor him and love one another you can boil it down that small and that is what it is all about. You do those two things you can't go wrong.