Dear Steve;
If I may I would like to comment on some of your discussion of pride.
The Lord has been dealing with me lately about self sufficiency, self righteousness, pride, and how he is still dealing with his church i. e. the leaven of the pharasees, how men were going behind Pauls back to set the record straight on works ect. and grace, that much aligned scripture in James on faith without works is dead , and how he is now dealing with this "problem".
In a moment of quiet meditation I began to gain some insight.
At the moment of salvation (think about it), it is the first time in our lives we act upon the belief that our self sufficiency is just not going to be enough in our relationship with God. We need something else. Because everything we have tried to that point has come up lacking.
While the thought may have crossed our minds, while we may have been brought up in a church that exemplified correctness, our own idenity with God was more or less intertwined with the relationship our parents or guardians had with God, or the preacher or a sunday school teacher ect.
So, at the moment of salvation for the first time , anyone, becomes convinced enough to act on that belief. The belief that flesh will not be good enough, that your own deed will not be good enough, that your personality, good looks or intelligence , whatever is just not going to be good enough.
So, your faith (belief) brings you to action, or a decision. And repentence and salvation follow.
But here is my main point. That faith, that belief, that new dimention that has sprung upon you. That new work that the Lord has begun in you is only in it's infancy. And as long as we live, that work is ongoing. We should as maturing Christians increasingly realize our own lack of suffiency, our own prideful nature, and conversly realize our growing realization of our dependency on the Lord in new and different areas of our lives.
IN CHRIST Greg Krupey |
