He that believeth NOT is condemned already

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Read that a few times, let it all sink in.

So many love to say that people everywhere will be saved, no matter what they believe, but that's not what the Word of Truth tells us.

If we BELIEVE in the SON of GOD we will NOT be condemned.
If we DON'T BELIEVE we ARE condemned.
If we do not believe in the NAME of the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON of GOD we are condemned.

Can it be any clearer?

Do you believe in the NAME of the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON of GOD?

Right now in our world's current events we have numerous attacks and protests taking place against people who dared to be associated even remotely associated, with someone who made a parody movie against Mohammad. People are being KILLED by these protestors all in the name of a PROPHET, not God, but a PROPHET. Supposedly this prophet DOES not want violence and yet you see so much of it happening in his name.  Contrary to what these people believe, those of us who believe the Bible, believe that our GOD, sent HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON into our world, and HIS SON NEVER advocated violence.  Throughout our history people have chosen to ALSO use the SON of GOD to commit violence. Yet our BIBLE, the very word of GOD, the very words of GOD'S SON, tell us NOT to be violent but to submit to our enemies, to turn and offer our other cheek to one who would hurt us on one cheek, to do GOOD to those who despitefully use us. Over and over the Apostles and disciples of our SAVIOR were tortured and killed. People imagine that somehow God or their supposed prophets will be proud of them for hurting the unbelievers and yet that's not how it is at all. Those people are bringing GREAT SHAME to those they believe in when they commit violence. So why do they continue to commit the violent acts?  Why do they do these acts in the name of their God, their prophets? There is NO love in that violence, none. 

When a person disciplines another to correct them in error it's NOT supposed to be done with violent intent. When we HAVE to discipline it should be with nothing but LOVE. The correction is for LOVE isn't it? It's supposed to be about LOVE nothing else!  If you can't discipline another out of love then DO NOT discipline them at all!

Satan is a destroyer and all those that destroy are of HIM, they can be of NO OTHER.

We can NEVER condemn a single person whether they believe or not, Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Pagan, etc.. we cannot CONDEMN those individuals!  We can comprehend there are FALSE religions - many of them- but we cannot know the heart of ANY individual- that is for GOD ALONE!

If a person does NOT believe on the NAME of the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON of GOD we KNOW they are condemned ULTIMATELY by GOD- not us! We must have the HOPE for them that they'll ultimately come to the LOVE of God in Jesus Christ, this must be OUR HOPE for all- even the worst of the worst.

Only when we have this hope for others, even those we are tempted to believe are completely and utterly lost because of their acts and beliefs- can we truly say we LOVE them!

It's so easy to NOT love those who hurt us.
It's so easy to NOT love those who do NOT believe in Jesus Christ.
It's so easy to NOT LOVE period. Satan has made it incredibly easy for us to not love.

We talked yesterday about our creation and how we were created BY LOVE, redeemed by LOVE, and we have to LIVE by love in spite of the hatred that is in our world. The hatred is growing and growing and it will continue to grow until it has consumed almost everyone in one form or another. 

We must pray that we are not consumed by the hate so prevalent in our world.
We must pray for the LOVE of God to be in US!

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Even though we are living in a world where millions and millions do NOT believe upon the name of the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON of GOD, we must LOVE them and NOT condemn them- that is for GOD to ultimately do. We are warned, they are warned, and the choice will be theirs, not OURS..

Please God, help us to submit fully to YOU and YOUR love and to trust wholly in YOU all through YOUR SON JESUS CHRIST our LORD.

The world through Him might be saved

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

*******

If God wanted to condemn the world He would have done it at the beginning- when sin first began.  To condemn the world would mean condemnation to all. Truly it would be evil to have a world without any hope, wouldn't it.

Imagine it, no hope of eternity.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Imagine it, seriously.

When you have no hope you are truly left with nothing but despair.  It's ONLY because we do have hope that we don't despair.

Many, many people live their lives unconcerned with eternity. Many live just for the here and now. Many are content to live this way and their contentment is nothing but a great shroud of darkness that Satan has pulled over them, blinding them to the truth.  They don't realize that there is an eternity at stake at all, because they've made the choice not to care.  They don't care about hope for eternity and if they do, they usually have been incredibly deceived by Satan who has told everyone from Eve and Adam on down to the last living person, that they shall not SURELY die, that some part of them will live on and on and on and death in the body is really nothing to be concerned about because immediately their spirit is freed to live on forever.  This is the FALSE eternity Satan has made from those who choose to be deceived by Him. This is their false hope when they even allow themselves to think about eternity.

*

God did NOT send HIS SON here to this WORLD in order to have HIS SON condemn the world. 

Could Jesus have condemned the world?

Could He have lived among us and come to the conclusion that there is NOTHING good in us, nothing worth saving us for, nothing worth dying for us for? 

*

We have to REALIZE that JESUS was GOD with US. JESUS WAS GOD with GOD before HE ever became GOD's SON as IMMANUEL, GOD WITH US. JESUS knew the PLAN before man was created. HE knew that there existed a possibility of mankind's sinning, we were created with that possibility- by HIM. HE KNEW. And He agreed that SHOULD mankind sin, that HE would SAVE them! He knew that sin existed, He was there when sin first came into existence through Satan, an angel in heaven, an angel right beside Him who chose to embrace sin and let it reign.   Jesus KNEW the awfulness of sin as a first hand witness to it's beginning. Jesus knew that the angels would have access to the human beings, but there was hope that these new creatures would NOT choose to sin!

BUT knowing there was that chance, that the chance DID exist,  God with God decided there had to be a contingency plan should it happen. They knew that these new creatures could go either way, and the LOVE they put into their creation was incredible. We weren't just offhanded thoughts brought to life. We were PLANNED, we were by DESIGN. A LOT went into our creation, more than we realize, more than we truly allow ourselves to comprehend. We get so caught up in the fight over evolution vs. creationism and such that we fail to realize the true depths of our existence as created beings.

We are MIRACLES, every single one of us!

Anyone who has had a baby, or been responsible for creating a baby can comprehend to a tiny degree the miracle of new life.

Science has explained away the mechanics of it all right down to our tiniest cells, our genes, our dna making it all seem as if we were in fact created by a cold-hearted, matter of fact scientist of sorts. This scientist in His great lab engineered our dna, manufacturing it out of substances at his fingertips.  They want to take LOVE out of it all, but LOVE is the true DESIGN, without it we would NEVER have been created, never.

We were created BY LOVE. 

Remember this…

1Jn 4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

God created us, and God is love, love created us.

Taking LOVE out of our creation is something Satan loves to do.

The LOVE that created us could NOT condemn us.

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

The LOVE that created us would be the LOVE that SAVED us.

The LOVE that brought the world into existence would be the LOVE that would SAVE the world, not condemn it.

The plan of Salvation is intertwined with the plan of Creation, they were designed together. Had we been created without the plan of Salvation truly there would have been NO HOPE for us.  We would have had to have been placed in the scrap heap if there had been no plan to save us. We truly would have had to have been blotted out of existence, all of mankind, if there had been no plan to save us.

Love is the driving force behind everything that God has ever done.

LOVE.

We have to believe this, and trust in the LOVE of our God, our Creator, our Savior.

May GOD help us to comprehend all that we need to comprehend in HIM, in HIS LOVE.

Made HIM to be sin for us

2Co 5:18-21

'And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.   Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.'

Reconciled.

Reconciled to God by Jesus Christ.

There is NO other way to be reconciled to God, but through Jesus Christ.  People can come up with a million, trillion things but there is only ONE means of reconciliation.

Can we naturally of our own accord be reconciled with God? No. Any good thing we might think we have  in us is still filthy. We cannot clean our spiritual selves, we can scarcely keep our physical selves clean enough. We are constantly becoming dirty from the moment after we've bathed, aren't we? The first exertion after a shower can produce sweat. The air we walk through contains dust particles that will cling to us. Unless someone is living in a bubble (and unfortunately some people have to)we are constantly going from a state of supposed cleanliness to a state of dirtiness. If we can barely keep up with our outward cleaning how do we suppose we have any hope of cleaning our spiritual selves? We can't, there is no hope in US. The hope we have is centered OUTSIDE of ourselves and in the only PURE human being who ever existed, Jesus Christ.

We are ONLY reconciled to God by Jesus Christ and by NO OTHER.

And the MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION is our comprehending this fact, and sharing it with others.

Christ was made SIN for us.

Why?

That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

The BIBLE says this, not me! This isn't me making up stories.

2Co 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Christ alone knew NO SIN.  Christ alone was MADE sin for us.  How was He made sin?

When we look at the Sanctuary services of old they all pointed to the perfect sacrifice. We are taught that sin was placed upon the sacrifices being offered. The sin went from the sinner onto the animal being offered, then that animal was killed and the blood of that animal was offered, the life of that animal was given in order to complete the sin transfer.   No, we don't see it like we can see in so many movies and whatnot today of the science fiction/horror bent, where they allow you to see invisible diseases creepily transferring from person to person. The gesture is symbolic. The gesture is a shadow of things to come.  A type to an antitype. The figure to the realized.

All our sins are placed upon the SINLESS SON OF GOD the PERFECT SACRIFICE, He takes on ALL our confessed, repented sins.  Innocent blood was spilled.  He was MADE sin for US!

Having NO sin of His own, He was made sin. 

Our Savior wasn't made sin for us so that we could clean ourselves and make ourselves righteous before God. God will not even glance at us, if He did we'd be instantly consumed! God looks upon the righteousness of His Son, and we have to be in the SON if we hope to be covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

We can ONLY be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

So many today don't believe in Jesus, it's true. So many believe rather in some false god setting himself up to appear like a savior.

They've come to believe that they are somehow able to be clean outside of the Savior, that He gives them some special power of their own. They can go through life believing they are free of sin as long as they've uttered some magic words and called it prayer. The truth is, Christ has to KNOW us. How can Christ know us?  He will know every single person that He is covering with His righteousness. He will know every single person that He removes the filthy garment from and gives a garment of His righteousness.  This is a PERSONAL encounter, an exchange that is made that is UNFORGETTABLE. Not a single person who does not recognize their own sinful, filthy state will be known by Jesus. 

So many people are wrapped up in cleaning themselves and appearing clean, that they've totally forgotten that they cannot clean the sin stain from themselves. From the very first sin they committed to the very last, not a single sin can be cleansed by us. We can ask for forgiveness, we can repent, and we can go and sin no more, but the sin we have sought forgiveness for and repented of us has left a STAIN upon us and unless that stain is covered by the blood of Christ and made white, it will remain upon us.  All our self-scrubbing will do NOTHING.  Is it any wonder that we are to afflict our souls before God, that we are to recognize this state of ours?  Way too many think afflicting their soul is somehow believing that they aren't forgiven, and that their believing is paramount to all else. They believe they must go about confident, but all too often that confidence that starts out well placed in Christ's ability to forgive, is replaced by a self-confidence.

Recognizing our helplessness without Christ is something we must constantly do.

If we forget to recognize our own helplessness and become bold in ourselves we are in grave danger.

We are reconciled to God only through Jesus Christ, not through a single action of our own!

We are reconciled to God because Jesus Christ took on our sins and sacrificed Himself for us!

We can never believe that we've finally reached some place called 'good enough', never!

Christ will be able to say He know us, because He'll have personally forgiven us of every last sin we've committed and confessed. Think about that for a moment, let it sink in deep.

Before our Savior comes a second time He will have a people living here on earth who will be HIS, they'll belong to Him because they've given their lives to Him completely, recognizing Him as the source of their lives in all aspects-  their hope.  They will be sinless in HIM.  He will know their last sin because He will have forgiven that very last sin of theirs and placed them in the care of the Holy Spirit. They will be safely kept for Him and upon His arrival in the air above the earth He will call them to Him.

This is a PERSONAL, REAL relationship that exists, not some abstract figment of our imagination.

A REAL relationship! That is why Christ will know His people!  Christ will know US if we have a relationship with HIM-  sinner and KING, forgiven and FORGIVER, saved and SAVIOR!

To comprehend our true filth is to comprehend the true purity, the true righteousness found only in Jesus Christ our LORD and Savior!

Col_1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory!

2Co 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

All in YOU LORD, all in YOU!

To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Jas 4:17  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Sin is…

1Jn_3:4  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

If NOT doing good is a sin, and TRANSGRESSING the law is sin, then is stands to reason that  the law is good.

When we do good and when we keep the law, we are NOT sinning.

Too many people, way too many people want to believe God's moral law is a thing of the past. Those same people do not seem to realize that God's moral law embodies all that is good. You cannot do good and not keep the law because all that good is covered in God's moral law. 

When you know to do good and you choose not to do good- you sin, you transgress the moral law of God.

Remember this--

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

When you know to do good and choose not to do good you are either harming God or harming your fellow man in some way.  Some might say they are hurting no one but themselves but the truth is when you hurt yourself it hurts God.

We would rather make sin into something on a list. It's a sin to kill, it's a sin to steal, it's a sin to lie, etc.

Jesus came and told us that it's a sin to even desire to sin, without actually physically committing the act. Why? Because God knows our heart and we know that when something evil is desired in our hearts it isn't good at all. In some way it isn't loving God, or loving our fellowman. 

To love God fully is summed up in the first four moral commandments.
To love our fellowman fully is summed up in the last five moral commandments.

Yet people don't want to believe this, they'd rather just pick and choose the commandments they want to follow. Or they scratch them all and say they no longer matter, they'll decide what love is, and they'll decide what commands are truly important, if any. As long as they aren't hurting anyone or God they'll be just fine.

Truthfully, only God will be able to judge them, judge us all.
Truthfully, keeping all the law and having NO love is NOT really keeping the law at all in any way, shape, or form.

Is it any wonder this was written?

Jas 4:17  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

When we know to do good- we know what it means to love.
When you choose to do good, you are choosing to love.
Love is a choice and we make it every time we are in a situation that calls for us to do good.

Is it any wonder it's a sin not to do good? It's not loving! You are choosing not to love and…

1Jn_4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

God is love!

All by HIS grace may we be IN HIM, in LOVE!

Help us LORD we fall so short of what we should be.

All by YOUR love, through YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, YOUR FORGIVENESS and MERCY, we have hope!

All in YOU, always!

If the Lord will, we shall live

Jas 4:13  Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Jas 4:14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Jas 4:15  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

We OUGHT to say-

IF THE LORD WILL- we shall LIVE- and DO THIS or THAT.

We ought to say that, but do we? Seriously, do we say that? Do we get up in the morning and say today I'm going to do this and that, if the Lord wills and I live to do it? Generally we just get up and get about our routine, right? Most of us have some sort of routine upon waking. Some people might get out of bed and head straight to the bathroom, others might head for the kitchen and the coffee pot. Still others might drop to the floor and begin push-ups or some other sort of exercise routine. Then you'll find others pulling on their clothes first thing.  There are many different ways we can begin our days but shouldn't we begin them with God?  Perhaps that's easier said than done.

So many of us just assume that because God knows everything that there is no need for us to bother about telling Him stuff He already knows. Just as many will assume God knows that they love Him so they don't have to bother telling Him that. In fact they really don't have to communicate at all with someone who knows everything, it's pointless. So then why did our Savior find it extremely necessary to pray? Why did our Savior even teach us the proper form of prayer? If we weren't to communicate with God the Father, why bother praying?  We ARE to communicate with God the Father.  I can already hear people saying, what's the use He never answers back.  I agree-- for the most part. We do NOT get answered back as if we were talking to another person. God has in the past spoken to various people, but as a rule the majority do NOT carry on a conversation with GOD. Even some of God's most chosen people had an intercessory between them and God. Angels often played the part of intercessor relaying God's messages to those that needed to hear them. 

This is where our FAITH comes into play.

We can choose to believe we have a CREATOR, a REDEEMER, A GOD the FATHER and a SON, JESUS CHRIST, or we can choose not to believe.

We choose.

We are given the choice to believe or not to believe- we will NEVER be forced to believe, never. So if someone out there reading this believes for even a moment that they'll start believing when they are made to, well, you're in for a long, long wait because God will NOT force anyone to believe in Him, it goes against all that He is. 

Our God has provided enough for us to believe if we choose to, but He won't force anyone to make the choice to believe.

God requires us to live by FAITH, and faith is the SUBSTANCE of things HOPED FOR, the EVIDENCE of things NOT SEEN.  This faith is necessary as a declaration to our belief. 

By faith we will comprehend the necessity for us to put GOD first in all we do.

Tomorrow by the will of God I will rise up and begin my day, a day in which I desire to accomplish this and that. However, if it is NOT God's will I won't do this or that even though it's what I desire to do.

I know my life is but a vapor.  I can look back at history. I can look to my mother who is aging, and to my grandmother who is but a memory, and my great grandmother who is even a further memory, and then I cannot recall at all whatsoever in anyway my great, great grandmother. I have no memories of my maternal relatives going back before my great grandmother, yet I KNOW they existed. Their lives were but vapors- they are gone even from the memory of their relatives.  Our lives, all of our lives are but vapors- here and then gone. 

We need God's will to be done in our lives no matter what that will is.

The vapor that our life is right now will one day be something eternally existing through the power of our Savior, through His LOVE. If we do not choose to have God guide our lives then how can we have hope of eternity? 

Our Savior came to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom-  Eternity in God.

Truly we need to make all the plans we want to make, but do so with the understanding that they will only be accomplished if it's the Lord's Will.  Why would we ever want to do anything that He doesn't will? Is our will more important than His? NEVER.  Help us LORD to NEVER choose our Will over YOURS. Guide us, help us! PLEASE LORD, PLEASE.

Your will in our LIVES, always!

Speak NOT Evil

Jas 4:11  Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

Speaking evil…

How do we speak evil of others?  Evil is telling lies about another, right? Evil is speaking bad in any way about another, yes? Evil is daring to judge the eternal life of another.  We all talk about each other- that is human nature. Talking about another person in a good way is never deemed bad, is it? Is there any harm in talking good about another?  I can't think of any, unless it is received in a bad way, or the talk is meant to puff up the ego of another. If there is any deceptive element in the good things then it turns it into evil.  

We know how much it hurts another to be spoken of badly. Even if you've never been the victim of someone speaking of you badly, you've most likely witnessed the scenario on a television show or movie. Over hearing someone speaking badly about you cuts to the core, why? Because most of don't want to be spoken badly about. We want people to think good of us, not evil.   We don't want to be hurt in anyway.

When we speak evil of another person we are judging them, even if we say we aren't.  We are making statements that portray another person in either a good light, or a bad light. We do NOT know the heart of anyone, we can't know the heart of another.

While we might speak evil of someone who has committed awful acts and justify it by the fact they've done evil, we cannot know the heart of even the most evil of people. People we might want destroyed for their atrocities, even those people we still do not know their hearts and can't presume we do.

Can we speak of the evil done by people? We have to judge the acts of people in order to discern right from wrong, but we do NOT have to judge a person's eternal life.

We are NOT to speak evil one of another.
When we speak evil of another we are JUDGING them.
When we judge someone we are basing it upon the law of God.
When we judge someone's eternal life we are judging the law, because we are only judged by the law there is no other way to judge. If we JUDGE the law we are calling ourselves a judge rather than one subject to the law.
There is ONLY ONE LAWGIVER.
There is ONLY ONE ABLE TO SAVE.
There is ONLY ONE ABLE TO ALLOW DESTRUCTION.

Are we that ONE? NO!

If we presume to be the lawgiver or the Savior we are lost!

Do you see the danger in judging?
Then you must see the danger in speaking evil of another person.

We don't want to see that danger though. We'd rather keep that danger cloaked in our self-righteous, justification because we enjoy speaking evil of others, we call it harmless. We think we are somehow doing something good when we speak evil of others, and we don't even call it speaking evil- if we did- maybe we wouldn't do it. We call it 'just talking', 'just saying', 'just pointing it out', 'just passing time', 'just harmless discussing', 'just hurting no one, it's the truth'. 

We presume to KNOW the truth. We presume to know the HEART of another when we speak about them, believing we know the truth. We don't know the truth of another's heart. We haven't a clue about where they've come from t make them what they are, just as they have no clue about where we have come from and what makes us who we are.

We can pretty up the evil speaking all we want, but in the end, it is wrong and we will be judged ourselves by the way we are judging others.

Please LORD, please help us to recognize our evil speaking. Please don't let Satan color it pretty and wrap it in a bow so that we think we are doing good and not evil. PLEASE help us, let the Holy Spirit convict our hearts so that we recognize the wrong and seek to repent and ask for forgiveness for that sin.

Please LORD, bless us! HELP US! Without You we are NOTHING.

In YOUR LOVE ALWAYS!

Humble Yourself

Jas 4:10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

humble
  
1.
not proud or arrogant; modest: to be humble although successful.
2.
having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.: In the presence of so many world-famous writers I felt very humble.
3.
low in rank, importance, status, quality, etc.; lowly: of humble origin; a humble home.
4.
courteously respectful: In my humble opinion you are wrong.
5.
low in height, level, etc.; small in size: a humble member of the galaxy.

How often do you humble yourself before the Lord?

We need to be humble before God and way too often we lift ourselves up as if we have worth of our own. 

We grow up being told here and there that we have to have high self esteem, to have low self esteem is a bad thing because then we don't think we are of any worth and other people will walk all over us. We'll let ourselves be used and abused if we have low self esteem, or so it's said. Over and over we are told to find worth in ourselves, that we have to believe in ourselves. Yet to find worth in ourselves outside of our Savior is truly worthless, it means nothing whatsoever. To be cocky and self assured is so incredibly dangerous. There will be so many people who are lost because they do not feel their need of a Savior. They'll believe their own self-worth is more than enough to guarantee them salvation.  They won't feel their worthlessness in the sight of God and because of that they won't feel the need to humble themselves.

I'm NOT saying we have to be wimpy, cry babies, who never speak up. What I'm saying is we have to find our worth IN CHRIST! He is our RIGHTEOUSNESS! He is our WORTH. Without Christ we are NOT WORTHY and will NEVER be worthy. When we believe that we are worthy outside of Christ we are raising ourselves up when we have no right to.

Humble ourselves. Humble- NOT PROUD in ourselves. INSIGNIFICANT, INFERIOR to God ALWAYS! Subservient to GOD.

How dare anyone believe they are more significant than their CREATOR!
How dare anyone believe they are better than their REDEEMER!

Yet people do and they do it ALL the time.

We are NOTHING in and of ourselves. Of ourselves we will ultimately no longer exist. We did NOT bring ourselves into existence. Not a single one of us will ourselves to be, not the first human and not the last. We are by design, willed by God to exist.

Recently I saw a movie that had men seeking to find their creator believing this creator was an alien being. They ended up finding him and the alien being wasn't happy to see them at all, in fact he began to kill them. Men fabricate so much in trying to explain their existence. Some believe we came from ooze billions and trillions of years ago, that we descended from apes. Stories, so many stories. And these people call our God just a story as well.

Our God has proven Himself over and over and over again in so many ways. History attests to our God. Our God has given signs and many, many wonders time and again. Yet people want God to give them more and more rather than have faith, rather than believe. People want to blame God by saying He never revealed Himself to them. People want to believe that God has somehow ripped them off, fooled them, that if only HE did more then they would believe.

God is NOT to blame!

God has given ALL he needs to give.

We must humble ourselves before God.
We must humble ourselves in the sight of our God.

Only God will lift us up in the way that matters more than any lifting up upon earth matters. 

We can be lifted extremely high in the sight of men and it means absolutely nothing.  We can be lifted up as high as we want to believe we are lifted up, but it will mean nothing. If we are not lifted up by God then any lifting up is in all reality just a lie.

We don't need to feel GOOD about ourselves, we need to feel GOOD about our GOD!

Please LORD help to learn to humble ourselves in this crazy world where we are taught and teach our children that to be humble is an undesirable thing. Help us LORD to find worth ONLY IN YOU! You will give us any WORTH we need when we are YOURS.  You will give us YOUR WORTH and there is NO GREATER WORTH IN EXISTENCE!

All in YOU and all by YOUR LOVE, YOUR GRACE! YOUR MERCY!