Daryl’s sermon of Feb. 13th really left me with conviction.
Daryl has allowed them to be published in this blog with proper credits as to the original authors.

The following is from the workbook, “Seeking Him,” Moody Publishers, Chicago, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Tim Grissom.

Proud people have a critical spirit toward other’s faults.
Humble people Are compassionate since they are forgiven much.

Proud people must prove they are right.
Humble people are not argumentative

Proud people are self-protective of their time and rights.
Humble people are self-denying and generous.

Proud people are driven to be recognized and appreciated.
Humble people are thrilled that God would use them at all.

Proud people are self-conscious about what others think.
Humble people are free from people-pleasing fears.

Proud people keep others at arm’s length.
Humble people are willing to risk loving others.

Proud people are defensive when criticized.
Humble people receive criticism with openness and candor.

Proud people worry about what others think.
Humble people are concerned about what God thinks.

Proud people have difficulty saying, “I was wrong… forgive me?”
Humble people are quick to admit failure and seek forgiveness.

Proud people are sorry for their sins because they should be better.
Humble people are sorry for their sins because they know they offended God.

Proud people compare themselves with others.
Humble people compare themselves with God’s standards.

Proud people don’t think they have much to repent of.
Humble people are continually repenting.

Jonathon Edwards (paraphrase):

1. It makes you more aware of other’s faults than you are of your own, but humility disposes you to be more aware of your own faults than others. Therefore…

2. Pride leads you, when you speak of other’s faults, to have an air of contempt and disdain, but humility means when you speak of others faults, you do it with grief and mercy.

3. Pride leads you to quickly separate from people you’ve criticized or who criticize you. (That means you’re cold to them, or you avoid them.) But spiritual humility means you stick with people even through difficult relationships… you don’t give up on them.

4. A proud is person is dogmatic and sure about every point of belief. Proud people cannot distinguish between major and minor points of belief because everything the proud person believes is major.

5. A proud person loves to confront either because he likes winning, or he refuses to confront because he doesn’t like criticism. But a humble person confronts when it’s necessary. (If you over-love confronting or hate confronting, you do it too much or never, because you’re afraid, you’re not humble.)

6. A proud person is often unhappy and feels sorry for himself (self-pity) because either A. they’re so sure they know how life SHOULD go, B. they’re sure they deserve a good life. But humble people say, “I deserve to be cast off, but only by God knows what’s best for me.”

Without the blessing of the Lord, your best endeavors will do no good. He has the hearts of all men in His hands, and except He touch the hearts of your children by His Spirit, you will weary yourself to no purpose. Water, therefore, the seed you sow on their minds with unceas- ing prayer. The Lord is far more willing to hear than we to pray; far more ready to give blessings than we to ask them ; — but He loves to be entreated for them. And I set this matter of prayer before you, as the top-stone and seal of all you do. I suspect the child of many prayers is seldom cast away.
Look upon your children as Jacob did on his; he tells Esau they are “the children which God hath graciously given thy servant” (Gen. 33:5). Look on them as Joseph did on his; he told his father, “They are the sons whom God hath given me” (Gen. 48:9). Count them with the Psalmist to be “an heritage and reward from the Lord” (Ps. 127:3). And then ask the Lord, with a holy boldness, to be gracious and merciful to His own gifts.

“My passion isn’t to build up my church.  My passion is for God’s Kingdom.”

Ever heard someone say that?  I have.  It sounds noble, but it’s unbiblical and wrong.  It can even be destructive.

Suppose I said, “My passion isn’t to build up my marriage.  My passion is for Marriage.  I want the institution of Marriage to be revered again.  I’ll work for that.  I’ll pray for that.  I’ll sacrifice for that.  But don’t expect me to hunker down in the humble daily realities of building a great marriage with my wife Jani.  I’m aiming at something grander.”

If I said that, would you think, “Wow, Ray is so committed”?  Or would you wonder if I had lost my mind?

If you care about the Kingdom, good.  Now be the kind of person who can be counted on in your own church.  Join your church, pray for your church, tithe to your church, throw yourself into the life of your church with wholehearted passion.

We build great churches the same way we build great marriages — real commitment that makes a positive difference in practical ways.  And thus we build the Kingdom.”

Dr. Ray Ortlund, pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tn.

Isaiah 64:8

“Yet you, LORD, are our Father. 
We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

Recently a friend and I were talking; sharing what is going on in our lives. We were both kind of overwhelmed with “work”, there were also some additional trials, just the stuff of life and we began to wonder what lessons we might learn when the grind of life seems to be getting to us.

Pastor Tullian Tchividjian in his new book “Jesus + Nothing = Everything” talks of going through such a rough patch and what he came to see. Tullian says; “I learned much more of what it means for us to be God-centered, gospel-drenched people. I learned just how enslaved I was to lesser things and how Jesus had come to set me free. I saw with clearer eyes that because I’m a sinner – because we are all sinners – God has to do a lot of chiseling and cutting and sanding in your life and mine as he increasingly centers our hearts more tightly on Himself and the gospel”

Father, I cry out we are clay and you are the potter; Lord, I pray for increasingly centered hearts! Amen

Grace and Peace!

http://donsweeting.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/remembering-francis-schaeffer-on-the-occasion-of-his-100th-birthday/