On Keeping a Humble Heart

Luke 18:9-14 MSG  He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people:  

“Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’ 

13 “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’” 

14 Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.” 

 Observation

Pharisees demonstrated their piety by strict adherence to the Law and the oral traditions.  They were educated in the Law and their commitment and dedication were commendable. Being judges of the matters of the Law was their full time job, so among the “common people” Pharisees were well respected and considered pious spiritual authorities, ones who kept themselves separate from the profane and secular. However, over the centuries in their zealous desire to define what is obedience to the Law, they developed hundreds of additional necessary actions required to comply with the Law. (I am told that there were 60 pages on how and when to wash your hands in the Mishnah, the written version of the oral laws!)

You can see that it would be a full time job to try to live up to all the requirements. It was truly impossible for those who had to work for a living, those common people. So, the Pharisees were put on a pedestal by the people. Because they allowed themselves to become prideful and take the praise for themselves, they got off track and tended to set themselves up as judges of the spiritual worth and physical compliance of everyone else. Unfortunately, no one else was good enough to please God. This was one of the issues they had with Jesus’ teaching, a teaching of redemption, mercy, grace and a Heaven open to the common people and, oh no!, even the profane and secular wicked sinner. Jesus said of them, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”  For more on how Jesus judged the Pharisees zeal, see Matthew 23.

These two were probably in the Temple Court, a common public place for people to come to pray.  It was also customary to pray out loud, so these two very probably heard each other’s prayer.   This Pharisee wanted to make sure that everyone within hearing was aware that he strictly obeyed all the rules. His prayer would have sounded right to others listening as he was a Pharisee, a step above them spiritually and in God’s sight .  He was shaming the tax man and praising himself for all his godly works. Jesus expressed His opinion of this attitude of “nose in the air” in the Gospels calling these religious snobs a brood of vipers and hypocrites (see Matthew 23 above).   

The tax man, on the other hand, was despised as a Roman collaborator and oppressor of the people (the profane and secular wicked sinner to be avoided).  He would have been scorned by both the Pharisee and the populace who would believe he had no hope of ever making his life right with God.  The tax man’s prayer would have surprised them as he recognized and confessed his sinful state and cried out for God’s mercy.   

Even more astounding would be Jesus’ statement, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God.”  We hear the echo of the reformed prostitute, the thief on the cross, the lepers and others who found that same hope, mercy and redemption at the hand of Jesus.  If this tax man can be justified before God, then there is hope for all.   This was truly good news.  Jesus is teaching that the way to salvation and righteousness is not earned by good works, but rather by confession, humble repentance and embracing  the free gift of salvation provided by the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus. 

Impact on Me 

Parables are stories that teach a lesson requiring heart searching and a response.  Jesus is not teaching me here about the mechanics of prayer, but rather is giving me insight into maintaining right standing with God by contrasting the attitude of prayer between the two – the proud and pious Pharisee and the broken and humble tax man.  This parable is not about what I do as I pray or the specific words I pray, but rather about the condition of my heart when I pray.   

I don’t need to list all the good things I have done.  God knows what I have done in His name, but, more importantly, He also knows my “why” (the motivation of my heart) in the doing.  If I do good works so that others will see me as devout, spiritual and worthy of praise, I am the Pharisee above.   The praise of people will be all the right standing I get for all my efforts.  5 “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for fifteen minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat? 6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.” (Matthew 5:5-6 MSG)

If I approach God with a humble and contrite heart to seek what it is He asks me to do and be – seen or unseen, recognized or unrecognized, approved or disapproved by others, submitting myself to His will, plan and purpose rather than my own – I am like the repentant tax man who found right standing with God.  This does not give me license to sin nor does it tell me to be lazy in my worship and ministry for God. This story challenges me to recognize that there is no one so vile, secular and wicked a sinner (including me) that cannot be redeemed.

So, in response to this parable, I ask the Holy Spirit to search my heart for the prideful places, the selfish and arrogant pieces of me, those places where I have become the Pharisee, so they can be revealed, removed and replaced with humble, selfless and Jesus-like meekness and submission to God’s plan and purpose for my life. 

Prayer 

Lord, You are my Creator, my Redeemer.   I come to You as the tax man asking for mercy and grace to keep me in right standing with You.  As David prayed, so do I.  Make it so in Jesus’ name. 

Psalm 139:1-3, 23-24 NIV You have searched me, Lord, and You know me.  2 You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar.  3 You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways…23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 
 

On Being Good and Faithful

Philippians 2:12-16a (PHILLIPS) So then, my dearest friends, as you have always followed my advice—and that not only when I was present to give it—so now that I am far away be keener than ever to work out the salvation that God has given you with a proper sense of awe and responsibility. For it is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose.  14-16a Do all you have to do without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be God’s children, blameless, sincere and wholesome, living in a warped and diseased world, and shining there like lights in a dark place. For you hold in your hands the very word of life.

Observation

Paul is writing this letter from prison.  It is a letter filled with the joy of serving his Master.  He encouraged the Philippians “to work out the salvation that God has given you with a proper sense of awe and responsibility.”   This is the work we are called to allow and encourage within us because “it is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose.” 

Paul is telling us that we are responsible for the obedience and cultivating a life of worship, praise and prayer.  God is responsible for the results – in us and through us.  Working out the salvation that God has given us may (and usually does) require a sacrifice of our pride, our rights, our wills, our comfort, our reputations. 

  • Paul had such clear perspective, kept his focus on the purposes of God while ignoring the cost to himself – the mark of a good and faithful servant. 
  • Paul did not concern himself with what people said, did or thought about his actions; his reputation was expendable if it’s loss was necessary to obey and faithfully serve his Master.
  • He did not grumble or complain about his circumstances or experiences (at least not out loud), but, rather, gladly, even joyfully, endured whatever was necessary to faithfully and fully serve his Master.
  • Paul constantly sought God for His instruction on how to honor, glorify and fulfill His will and purposes in every situation, trusting that he was there to be used by God, content in the assurance that God was in charge of the results of Paul’s obedience.
  • Paul didn’t waste time or energy in prayer asking to have his situation improved, but, rather, prayed that he might be effectively used (good and faithful in service) wherever he found himself. 

He allowed God to do the cost/benefit analysis, trusting in the wisdom, grace, power and plan of His Master.  Jesus was the ultimate good and faithful servant – the innocent bearing the pain and shame of the Cross for the guilty (all humanity) that the plan of God would be fulfilled.   Jesus is our example in setting aside rights, reputation, comfort and even life itself to have the faith to trust and serve the Father’s will and purpose, fulfilling His plan to redeem whosever will come.

Impact on Me

Oh, my!  Paul tells me to imitate him only in the ways he imitates Christ. This is a tall order when I consider his life and ministry.

  • Learning to be content in all circumstances – whether abased or abounding – with no grumbling or complaining
  • Always seeking to keep my feet in the footsteps of Christ, following His example as He marks the way He would have me go whether the road appears easy or tough
  • Letting God judge whether the cost to me is worth the benefit to His kingdom
  • Gladly, even joyfully serving when faced with a painful or difficult task
  • Being willing to sacrifice my pride, my rights, my will/wants, my comfort, my reputation to fulfill His will and purpose

These are all characteristics of a good, obedient, loyal and faithful servant. This is what I profess I want to be. Am I willing to pay the price?  Will I risk my reputation, my financial security, my rights for His cause, for the souls inhabiting the darkness of this “warped and diseased world”?  How much do I really trust God?  How much do I really believe that all I own is His?  How much of me and mine am I willing to spend if He asks me to do so?  These are questions that will determine what I truly treasure, count as precious and worth owning, and where my heart truly is.

Prayer

Lord, You are our Creator, our Redeemer, the only wise God. You made a perfect plan to redeem us before the foundation of the world. You are the only Master who can be trusted to be just and right in all You do and ask. Give me the wisdom to submit to You in all things, to seek You always for what You would have me do and be. Give me the courage to always choose obedience to You and Your will regardless of the cost to me. May I consider obedience to You the treasure worth all I am or possess. In Jesus’ name, make it so.

On Being a Humble Servant

 Mark 10:43-45 ESV But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. 

John 13:1-17 PHILLIPS 1-5 Before the festival of the Passover began, Jesus realised that the time had come for Him to leave this world and return to the Father. He had loved those who were His own in this world and He loved them to the end. By supper-time, the devil had already put the thought of betraying Jesus in the mind of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son. Jesus, with the full knowledge that the Father had put everything into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from the supper-table, took off His outer clothes, picked up a towel and fastened it round His waist. Then He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel around His waist. 

6-9 So He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”  “You do not realise now what I am doing,” replied Jesus, “but later on you will understand.”  Then Peter said to Him, “You must never wash my feet!” “Unless you let me wash you, Peter,” replied Jesus, “you cannot share my lot.”  “Then,” returned Simon Peter, “please—not just my feet but my hands and my face as well!” 

10-11 “The man who has bathed,” returned Jesus, “only needs to wash his feet to be clean all over. And you are clean—though not all of you.”  (For Jesus knew His betrayer and that is why He said, “though not all of you”.) 

12-17 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His clothes, He sat down and spoke to them, “Do you realise what I have just done to you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘Lord’ and you are quite right, for I am your teacher and your Lord. But if I, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you must be ready to wash one another’s feet. I have given you this as an example so that you may do as I have done. Believe me, the servant is not greater than his master and the messenger is not greater than the man who sent him. Once you have realised these things, you will find your happiness in doing them. 

Observation 

The point of the Bible is to tell us God’s story and His plan for our redemption.  All of the passages are there to reveal Who He is, what He desires of us and for us, and how He responds to our choices.  Jesus the Christ, the manifestation of God in human form, called Himself “gentle (meek) and humble” (Matthew 11:28-30), defined servanthood as the path to pleasing God, and spoke of Himself as serving all of us by giving His life as a ransom for us all (God’s redemptive plan to restore the intimate relationship He desired with us and intended from the beginning).  In the passages above, Jesus demonstrates for His disciples the type of servant they are to be if they want to be like Him and considered great and first in God’s Kingdom.   Footwashing was an important element of hospitality for the culture of the time as feet became dirty walking on dusty roads.  As important as it was, the lowest, almost always Gentile, servants were the ones to do it.   When Jesus “took off his outer clothes, picked up a towel and fastened it round his waist,” He took on the persona of a menial foreign slave.   

This is why Peter protested.  Disciples were supposed to serve their Master/Rabbi, not the other way around.  Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of Man, God, was demonstrating the kind of humility and servanthood He required to truly be one of His disciples.  “But if I, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you must be ready to wash one another’s feet. I have given you this as an example so that you may do as I have done.”   Jesus had come to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah regarding the servanthood of Messiah (Isaiah 42:1-4, Matthew 12:16-21), the bowing low of God to redeem His creation, His people, so that He might restore the intimate relationship with us disrupted in the Garden of Eden.  

Did you catch that He washed ALL of the disciples’ feet – including the feet of Judas who was about to betray Him?  This level of humility requires more that setting pride aside temporarily.  This level of humility requires complete surrender, total submission to the will and purpose of God Who does not want any to perish (2 Peter 3:9).   This was a powerful discipleship lesson which was apparently caught and embraced as His disciples later identified themselves as servants (or slaves) of God and committed even to die in His service – John (Rev. 1:1), Paul (1 Cor 3:5-6), Peter (2 Peter 1:1), James (James 1:1), Jude (Jude 1:1).   

Impact on Me 

I have participated in footwashing services and it is a very humbling experience.  However, this passage is not meant to tell me how important footwashing services are, but, rather, that I need to be willing to set aside my pride and any status provided by my position to gladly and humbly serve those who have nothing to give me in return.  Jesus is demonstrating to me (and us all) the kind of humility and service I am to emulate if I want to be like Him in this day and age.  

Merriam Webster defines “humble” as “not proud: not thinking of yourself as better than other people.”   A servant is simply one who serves others.  Servant in the New Testament is often translated as slave.  We don’t like that word as it has a bad taste in our historical context.  The position Jesus took above was as low as He could go in His culture.  What is the lowest I can go in service today – an unpaid volunteer in homeless ministry, serving orphans in a foreign land, working to change the lives of the poorest so they can have a better future?  I know people who do all these and will never have any recognition on earth but much treasure in heaven. 

Jesus is showing me that it’s not a sign of weakness to serve someone — it’s a sign of love, strength and humility – all treasures in His kingdom.  Jesus is saying to me, “Don’t view yourself as better than other people – even your enemy – for I died for him/her, too.”   This is a hard lesson to embrace and live. 

Prayer 

Father God, You are Love and created us in Your image.  You gave Jesus to walk this earth as a human to show us how to live in and for You.  I am humbled by how lowly Jesus stooped, how much He sacrificed, to restore intimacy between us.  I am woefully inconsistent in my attempts to emulate Jesus’ example.  However, I pray that as I find each new pocket of pride, You will, by Your Holy Spirit, help me to place that pride on Your altar to be burnt up.  I truly want to be more like Jesus day by day as I journey through this life.  Make it so, Lord, in Jesus’ name.   

On Choosing God’s Side

Joshua 5:13-15 MSG And then this, while Joshua was there near Jericho: He looked up and saw right in front of him a man standing, holding his drawn sword. Joshua stepped up to him and said, “Whose side are you on—ours or our enemies’?” 14 He said, “Neither. I’m commander of God’s army. I’ve just arrived.” Joshua fell, face to the ground, and worshiped. He asked, “What orders does my Master have for his servant?” 15 God’s army commander ordered Joshua, “Take your sandals off your feet. The place you are standing is holy.”  Joshua did it. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 MSG  Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.  Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track. 

Observation 

Let’s consider who this commander of God’s army might be.  I believe it was Jesus.  He allowed Joshua to fall down and worship Him, something an angel would not do, and Jesus is identified as the commander of God’s army in Revelation (Revelation 19:9-16 NIV).  Regardless, any meeting with any angel must have been a jarring, overwhelming experience since the glory of God often accompanied them (Luke 2:8-10).  This man must have exuded the appearance, confidence and presence of a mighty warrior for Joshua to accept his self-identification as the commander of God’s army.   

It was a common practice for armies to take their gods with them into battle.  The gods worshipped by mighty conquering armies were seen as fearsome and powerful.  The Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant into battle, but the Ark was more than some weapon or token of supernatural backing.  The Ark carried the presence of the one true almighty God who gave them victory as they engaged the battles He called them to fight.  When the man says, “Neither,” he is giving Joshua a third side to choose. 

“What orders does my Master have for his servant?”  Joshua took the third side – God’s side – and did not hesitate to submit his authority to God’s commander.  He had seen enough of the ways of God in Egypt, in the wilderness and crossing over Jordan to adopt God’s plan without hesitation.  The battle plan for Jericho was going to be fought with the weapons of obedience, faith, and submission to the same God who brought them out of Egypt and through the wilderness. 

Impact On Me 

How often do I only see or consider two sides – my side and the opposing one?  How often do I assume that God is on my side rather than ensuring that I am on His?  How often do I launch into battle without seeking God for His battle plan?  Jesus consistently shocked His disciples by challenging what was considered pleasing to God, choosing His side.  Which of us would come up with a salvation plan that starred a meek and humble man, a troublemaker rejected by the accepted religious authorities, a crucified Savior?   

“Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.”  In my experience, choosing God’s side is not always easy, comfortable, safe or logical.  I had to learn the hard way that I was not always going to understand or be my version of successful or even be liked in my faithfulness.  At the very least, my pride will have to die in submitting to Jesus as Lord.  I want to be like Joshua at this moment and like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when the time comes to choose sides. 

Prayer

Almighty, All-Wise, Merciful God, Your battle plan for redeeming humankind may not make sense to me but I choose Your side, Your plan, Your weapons.  Train me to recognize how to use love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, humility, kindness and all Your other virtues as weapons to fight Your battles for the souls You desire to save.  Change my definition of success to align with Yours.  May I clearly hear and quickly obey Your commands on each and every battlefield where You send me.  I ask it all in the name of Jesus.  Make it so. 

On Proclaiming His Truth

1 Corinthians 14:1-5 NIV Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.

1 Corinthians 1-5 MSG. Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim His truth. If you praise Him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and Him. But when you proclaim His truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience His presence with you. The one who prays using a private “prayer language” certainly gets a lot out of it, but proclaiming God’s truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength. I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don’t stop with that. Go on and proclaim His clear truth to others. It’s more important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God’s presence in a mysterious prayer language—unless, of course, there is someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all.

Observation

Corinth was highly influenced by Greek culture, sitting on a land bridge providing a major trade route between Greece and the Peloponnesian peninsula. From the time of Socrates and Plato (about 400 BC/BCE), the Greeks began to preach and teach that laws, ethics and morals should be determined personally rather than by society or government. By the first century AD/CE this experiment in freedom of thought and celebration of individual rights had produced a culture generally known for being argumentative, divisive and polarized around issues. This resulted in the worship of many gods (who treated mortals as expendable pawns in a game), contentious philosophical debates and high incidence of litigation (hmmm, this sounds a bit too familiar…).  

The city’s patroness god was Aphrodite (aka Venus), the goddess of licentious love, whose priestesses served as ritual prostitutes; thus, Corinth became infamous and a byword for sensuality and prostitution.  When pagans in this city converted to Christianity, they had to be completely rewired regarding:

  • freedom and their rights (sacrificing individual rights for the benefit of the Body of Christ),
  • godly love (exchanging erotic for agape),
  • spiritual manifestations (recognizing the difference between demonic and Holy Spirit activity),
  • obedience (learning to trade what seemed right in their own eyes for Scripture as their legal/ethical/moral foundation),
  • submission (living by Christ’s example of sacrificing individual rights to fulfill the will and purpose of God) and
  • so many other redefinitions of cultural, religious and spiritual disciplines.

This passage in Paul’s letter is dealing with a lesson in discernment, and the exercise of humility, submission and good judgment in the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the public expressions of Prophecy and the gift of Tongues (which requires its twin Interpretation of Tongues). 

Impact On Me

Early on in my Christian experience, I was confused about the differences between (1) Tongues as my prayer language and the Holy Spirit Gifts of Tongues and Interpretation and (2) the difference between the prophetic messages of the Old Testament Prophets and the Holy Spirit Gift of Prophecy. I was so blessed to sit under a teaching by Jack Hayford that helped me to put these in proper perspective. You see, because I had grown up in a denomination that did not encourage it, I had never read the Bible for myself. My family were loving, generous, honest, responsible, law-abiding, caring and kind to others, but we had no understanding of how to discern what spirit was responsible for any manifestation, resulting in either considering all manifestations as God-inspired or mistrusting all manifestations just in case one was not. 

When I embraced a personal relationship with Jesus, I was so new to reading the Bible that I didn’t even know the real difference between the Old and New Testaments and needed the Table of Contents to find a book’s location.  Because our first non-Catholic church was pastored by a former tent preacher who had a deliverance ministry, I was highly motivated to learn from the Word about how the Holy Spirit operated so I could discern the true spirit at work around me.  One of the very important lessons was that the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit are meant to serve and glorify God, not draw attention to or elevate in status the one through whom they flow. 

Side note:  There is a very distinct difference between magic and the miracle power of the Holy Spirit. Both have to do with the exercise of supernatural power through a person. Magical power serves the person exercising it; it is power that originates from the devil, is used to control others and draws attention to and glorifies the magician. Holy Spirit power serves others; it is power that originates from God, sets people free and glorifies God.  Magic powers operate according to the whim of the magician; Holy Spirit power operates when, where and how the Holy Spirit wills it. Magic powers provide wealth, power, status to the magician; Holy Spirit power brings glory to God.  

Apparently, in their enthusiasm, the Corinthian services had become chaotic and clamorous because of an overabundance of uninterpreted messages in Tongues.  Remember, they come from a culture where the focus is on individual rights and status. So, Paul is instructing them in the purpose behind these vocal gifts of the Holy Spirit and reminding them that they are transitioning to Jesus culture, sacrificing individual rights for the benefit of others to fulfill God’s will and purpose. 

Paul encourages them to privately pray often and long in their  prayer language (Tongues) so that they may deepen their relationship with Jesus and be built up in the power of the Holy Spirit. However, when speaking in public, the Holy Spirit gift of Tongues is only exercised with its twin, Interpretation of Tongues, so that the message can be understood by the audience.

Paul is also instructing them in the use of the Holy Spirit gift of Prophecy, which has a different function and purpose than the prophetic messages of the Old Testament Prophets.  In Christ, we are under a new covenant, one between God and the man Jesus, a covenant that Jesus will never break, and, therefore, when we are in Christ, guarantees us grace. So, the function and purpose of prophecy under this unbreakable covenant is to strengthen, encourage and comfort others (“letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you”). 

Prayer

Lord, You are the most amazing and awesome God, Who seeks intimacies with us and even provides the resources, tools, and encouragement to us regardless of where we are in the transition from earthly culture to Jesus culture. I thank you for providing me with a prayer language and for the ways that You reveal Yourself, the mysteries of God, to me as I set aside time to pray.  I thank You for all the gifts and Ministries of the Holy Spirit and ask You to school me (and us all) in the proper use of these. Lord, search me, instruct me in humility, meekness and obedience, and destroy any hindrance to the pure and powerful operation of those gifts and ministries in and through me so that You May be glorified and others may “grow, and be strong and experience His presence”.  I pray this all in the name of Jesus.