Faith and Pride, First Cousins (Poem)

See the Faith and Pride series here

Faith and its first cousin, pride,

In life are closely allied.

They appear to be indistinguishable,

Because to us, they're indeterminable. ¹

 

They both share the same taproot: 

Godly faith we 'gave the boot’.

With Godly faith corrupted,

From its root, pride erupted!

The Lord gave us a measure of faith to believe Him,

But satan’s crew convinced us, The Lord’s Glory to dim.

As leverage, they played upon our selfish nature.

Deceived, it’s since been our own glory that we nature.

The Lord is faithful to beat devils at their game!

Thus, He will not allow His faith to be defamed.

In His Word, He cites ‘faith’ much more than ‘pride’,

And affirms from it, His Glory won’t hide! ²

Pride glorifies self and stirs strife among faith’s enemies.

Thus, it’ll eventually attract The Lord’s enmity.

Godly faith glorifies Him, and will attract His Glory,

Which might only be perceived by people He calls, ‘holy’. 

So to the astute among us, do you ‘see’ what I ‘see’,

How between faith and pride, we can discern accurately??

With Godly patience, all we really need to do,

Is wait to perceive His …ensuing Glory hue. ³

Since from the same taproot, faith and pride sprout,

On the surface, they look alike, no doubt!

We can’t see people’s hearts, but this we certainly see,

Their words and actions …serving whom they serve, fruitfully. ⁴

Pride, the taproot of Godly faith to us, sin-defective,

Whether stealthy or boisterous, it’s highly deceptive.

Godly faith that remains pure, by Heaven is admired,

Will likely, by those who are un-Godly, be bemired. ⁵

So let’s stay attuned to The Lord’s accent on faith,

Leaving the results to Him, and give pride no place.

As we do, keep in mind what He says we CAN be proud about:

His Grace, judgment, and righteousness, Earth will never be without! ⁶

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¹ Godly faith is faith in The Holy Trinity and Their Word. Selfish pride is faith in self, apart from all things holy. The both stem from our heart’s deep-seated motivations, which onlookers cannot easily or always clearly discern.

² Ponder this: The words, faith and pride, are cited 695 versus 55 times, respectively, in The Bible. (NKJV). Moreover, there are countless examples in which Godly faith is actively demonstrated, and gloriously rewarded, though the word, faith, is not mentioned therein.

³ See: What’s Glory? (Series).

⁴ We cannot ignore or discount the clear links between Godly faith and fear. Essentially, they are the same spiritual force or energy. Fear is Godly faith, moving in reverse, operating contrary to The Lord’s intended design.

⁵ Ponder this: The Bible is literally chock full of historical accounts in which Godly faith was regarded as selfish pride by onlookers, especially by folks who were un-Godly, and even folks who were like babes, spiritually. As a man, Jesus attracted incredible scorn and derision from Jewish leaders who were well-schooled in Old Testament laws, to the point that they schemed to have Him crucified by Rome! How’s that for a gross failure to discern Godly faith?! So don’t worry about people today, believers or sinners alike, who may be motivated to deride your Godly faith. Just wait for The Lord’s GLORY to be revealed …in you and in what you do faithfully and in earnest for Him, and the Glory of His Kingdom.

⁶ Thus says The Lord: ‘Let not the wise person glory (be prideful) in his wisdom, let not the mighty person glory in his might, nor let the rich person glory in his riches; but let him/her who glories, glory in this, that he/she understands and knows Me, that I am The Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the Earth. For in these I delight’, says The Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24, NKJV) To whom has The Lord directed His ‘Let…’ commands?? I thought I knew, until this happened…Missed Insights from Jeremiah 9. 

 

That I do. Do you, too? This is my favorite Scripture. Gratefully, a gracious lady offered to design and gift to me, unique version of verse 24, in the form of a Morse code-beaded bracelet. I now wear it proudly as an abiding reminder of The Lord’s command, glorying in Him and His presence in my life. See: WearATouchofSpirit.com.

anti-Christ Missed Insights (Part 2)

See the anti-Christ Missed Insights series here

In Part 1, I introduced the concept, a parade of anti-Christs. That a phrase is my effort to distinguish, clarify and then combine a unique example of ‘people warnings’, about whom Apostles John and Paul wrote, and Jesus spoke. Could the people in this exceptionally long parade possibly be The Lord’s ‘highest, most significant’ warning to us (a) during this current, 3^rd age of history, especially during its closing years, and (b) during the first half of the next (4th) ages of history?? 

Let’s dissect this parade into three sections: (1) the Christ-deniers, (2) the false christs, saviors and messiahs, and the (3) the parade's tail-enders. 

 

1. Christ-deniers

 

John called them anti-Christs (plural). This is the largest contingent of the parade of anti-Christs that began in the early first century AD, and likely continues today. Colloquially, this is a label some people have long slapped on men whom they deemed to be overly threatening, charismatic, lawless, or simply opposed to their worldviews. You may have heard it applied in this manner. As such, it has been hijacked and seriously mis-applied, when compared to John’s original meaning—people (not just men) who deny that Christ, The Lord and Messiah, has already ‘come in the flesh’ (2 John 1:7); i.e., has already been born as a man, just as He signified He would in Genesis 3:15. In denying His past human birth, these people signal their belief that He ‘is yet to be born' as a man, and thus, they spread their expectation that He ‘will be born' as a man. As such, they:

     A. Deny the most significant, accomplished works of The Holy Spirit; and

 

     B. Become stumbling blocks to the faith of people who might otherwise have believed Scriptural declarations and testimonies of The Lord’s human birth.

 

Scripture iteratively affirms that, if/IF their denial constitutes blasphemy against The Holy Spirit, these people can never be forgiven for that unique sin. (See: Matthew 12, Mark 3, and Luke 12.)

 

Please ponder these questions:

-- What groups today deny Jesus, The Lord God Almighty and Messiah, was born as a man, and who yet believe, someday, a final savior for mankind will be born? Name them out loud.

-- How should and will your answer to that question reshape…

(a) your evangelism to the billions who await a savior who isn’t The One Who already came?

(b) your discernment, if  much of the world is being spiritually-groomed to receive the wrong messiah??

(c) your theology, if denying Christ’s incarnation isn't merely an error, but a defining trait of the anti-Christ spirit???

 2. False Christs/Messiahs 

Ancient Hebrews and modern Jews experienced episodic periods of oppression, both in and away from the land of Palestine. This history has spawned endless faith that deliverers, saviors or messiahs would arise, and miraculously save oppressed and captive peoples from their woes. Their faith birthed hopes, and across the millennia, their hopes birthed schemes of many false deliverers, saviors, and messiahs. (See: List of Messiah Claimants.) Interspersed with these false claimants, The Lord did send an array of men who achieved various levels of relief for their constituents. The Bible is clear that The Lord was willing, and would have sent more, with greater relief. But He didn’t! Here’s why.

Hebrews and Jew are a unique, special people through whom The Lord intended to fulfill His veiled, Genesis 3:15 promise to be born as a man, to redeem humanity from the eternal curse of sin. Yet generation-after generation longed to be ‘just regular people, like everyone else'. Thus they lived and sinned as such. The Lord judged them only when they had exhausted His amazing, long-term Grace. Yet they continually failed to connect the dots between their sinfulness, and their judgments, just as the whole world still does today! (See: Ezekiel 14:12-23.) This conundrum feeds peoples' hope and demands for political and military deliverers and saviors, just as it does across the whole world today!!

 

Throughout history, and especially in our days, this same conundrum has birthed a multitude of false political and military deliverers, whose promises echo the cries of desperate nations and disillusioned people. Some are crowned by conquest, others elected by emotions. They arise, commanding armies, or draped in flags, or waving new constitutions, issuing commands, orders and decrees. Many promise to tame economic catastrophes, restore national greatness, uphold (their versions of) justice, or preserve freedoms (of their supporters)! 

 

But who among them, call people to repentance from sinfulness that The Lord declares are seeds that bore fruits of their problems?!! (See: Ezekiel 14:12-23, which He says applies to ‘a land’, meaning ANY land, including yours and mine.) Whether rising from democracies, dictatorships, or spiritualized movements, these false saviors gain power through charisma, fear, lying deceptions, and/or brute force. Yet in The Lord’s eyes, they ALL belong to the same parade of pretenders, His 'people example warnings' that we all historically ...ignore. These false saviors merely offer earthly solutions to spiritual problems they deny, are blind to, and could never fix.

 

Stay tuned for Part 3

The Parade'sTail-enders

The Covenants' Cries (Poem, Part 2)

The Magna Carta and U.S. Constitution,

Mirror each other, and have a lot in common.

Both reflect laws of God, and man, alike,

For tyrants who would against them strike.

They both stood against tyrants’ heels,
As scrolls to make the mighty kneel
For centuries they bore the weight—
That laws, not power, guard the state.

The Lord, unseen, yet firm, not far,
Preserved theses creed through trials and wars.
Not man alone, but Heaven’s hand,
Inscribed its brakes on lawless lands.

Through kings and presidents, their truths held fast—
As nations’ bulwarks from the ancient past.

Now behold the nation, once most blessed,
Has mocked its roots, and betrayed its crest!!!

 

Her time to wear the hegemon’s crown

Is seen by all as winding down!
America, a land once hailed as free,

Is hardly recognized, by folks like me~

The Lord's Hegemon Parade

See the Hegemon Parade series here

For the very first time, in Daniel chapter 2, Jesus, The Lord God Almighty (pre-incarnate), revealed His multi-millennial plan for a succession of Gentile world powers -- hegemon nations that would predominate the growing, global, populations during the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th ages of our history.

Here are some totally shocking things about this revelation:

1. The Lord gave the first clues of it in a dream to a pagan king, not to a prophet like Moses!

2. He gave the interpretation thereof to a young, Jewish slave in Babylon, sometime after its fearsome army had thrice invaded Jerusalem, then spread across Judea, and captured the best of the 2 tribes of Judah (people and things), for service to the King of Babylon -- echoes of Hebrew slavery in ancient Egypt!!

3. He 'connected the dots' between the dream, and its interpretation in an ASTOUNDINGLY EPIC manner!!! 

4. To date, THIS succession of global hegemony, has formed the SPINE of the history of nations!!!!

5. Today, as we near the close of this 3rd age of history, age-wise, we are at the mid-point of this lengthy progression of global hegemony, BUT we might be at the point at which only the last two, hinted hegemons remain in this multi-millennial parade!!!!!

My deep, abiding hope is that this summary will inspire and spark your interest to do just as I did---to read, study, meditate and pray in earnest about what this means in context of (a) how the past few centuries of history have unfolded, and (b) how history daily continues to unfold ...at the speed of time.

Selah...

Parade of Hegemon Fears (Poem)

See the Hegemon Parade series here

They rose like mountains from the plains,

Built towers, fleets, and global chains.

Their banners flew as trumpets screamed.

Of lasting empires, people dreamed.

But power wanes when rivals stir,

And debts mount high, as leaders err.

Empires once proud, begin to fear,

When real contenders draw too near.

~0~

Babylon feared its eastern threat,

Yet made sure, it’s gods needs were met.

Its walls were thick, and its gates rose high,

But that same night, Persia terrified!

 

Persia was mighty, but feared the West,

While kings and nobles lived life in zest.

Attacks on Greece left lots of debt,  

But Greece bounced back, Persia’s regret!

 

Greece, divided, feared its own,

As generals seized private thrones.

When Rome advanced with steely pride,

Greece splintered. Its dream …then died.

 

Rome feared its savage border rim,

When Barbarians grew fierce and grim.

It taxed, it purged, it lied, then killed,

Till by Rome, Roman blood was spilled.

Britain feared ‘colonies American’.

To safeguard its rights, it crossed the ocean. 

Fractional flames shrunk its empire.

Then global schisms left it dire.

 

One hegemon now rules, yet not for long.

Its Grace abused, and policies wrong!

It fears the East; threatens allies,

Its founding law, leaders belie.

~0~

We ALL now see the telltale signs,

When, for glory days, hegemons pine. 

Then they wane, blame, bluff and bully,

Often acting out …with furry.

When over their shoulders, hegemons peer,

Their knees then shake, they react in fear. 

Yet as hegemons, the continue to act,

Till the day they learn, their role’s been hacked!

 

When God’s Grace to hegemons will have been spent

To history’s trash heaps, they will be sent!  

Heaven’s command won’t be ignored:

Now bow before The Sovereign The Lord!!!