BE HONEST...WE ALL WANT TO BE EMPEROR OR POPE

When someone rejects and denies God, they become their own God and eventually begin to see themselves as everyone else’s God.  When someone rejects and denies authority, they become their own authority and eventually see themselves as everyone else’s authority.  The consequence of this is that there are a lot of individual gods and authorities running around on earth these days and that leads to disorder and chaos, which leads to violence, and eventually destruction.

Rejecting and denying God’s Spiritual direction results in operating in and out of human Fleshy direction which is always self serving.  A self seeking and serving self cares very little for anyone or anything else, even though it thinks it does.  The self thinks it is being benevolent to others but it is really only feeding itself; hence the pride and arrogance of acting humbly towards others in the mind but not the heart.  This is true both in the secular world and in the church.  Truth be known, we all want to be Emperor or Pope!  That is self at it’s most honest.

God always shows up, for both the secular and for those in the church.  To the secular world, “He who sits in heaven laughs as the kings of the earth set themselves up against the Lord.” (Psalm 2)  To the church, those who claim to speak for God, He asks…”Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”  (Job 38).  Our human history since the beginning of time, up to this very day, reveals that we just don’t get it!

God made us simply to BE with Him and enjoy being in His Presence.  He gave us all we need and ever would need to live an abundant and flourishing life.  But right out of the gate we thought we could do it on our own and have been messing up ever since.  We know deep inside that we can’t because we keep going back to God, repenting and promising to do it His way; but it doesn’t take very long until we’re going out on our own, again and again and again.  God is loving and patient beyond my understanding and comes to our aid and rescue again and again and again.  Behold, what manner of love is that?

Day by day I get it more and more.  Simplicity comes from being silent and still before God.  Simplicity comes from yielding and being yoked to the One who knows best.  God made us simple.  Lord, help me live in that simplicity that lives within me.