The Power of Perspective: Finding Balance through Humility and Knowledge
Deut 9:6 Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
“Understand therefore....”; it is amazing how that, when we keep things in proper perspective, our whole life stays in balance! In Hos 4:6, God says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:” If therefore a lack of knowledge yields destruction for even the people of God, then likewise an abundance of knowledge shall build them up and sustain them! When God says “understand therefore”, pay attention, for He is about to impart unto you certain knowledge and wisdom, without which you will not be able to survive!
What is it our Lord wants us to understand? Read it again: “The LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.” God knows how frail we are! He knows that it is man’s nature to let success go to his head. How dare we, the people of God, who have been washed by His blood, filled with His Spirit, called to His service, and sanctified by His Word, forget our humble, small, weak, sinful beginnings without Him!
It would be easy for us, after having been made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in our lofty position, to look down upon those who are yet as pitiful as we once were before Christ came to us! Nothing will re-ignite the flickering coals of the soul-winner’s heart for his lost colleagues like that of relating to their present affairs with his pre-Christ estate.
It is the ex-drug addict who has the greatest zeal to bring the gospel to the streets of the inner city! It is the ex-harlot who desires nothing more than to see God take another lady of the night, wash her with His precious blood, and make her a child of the King! It is the ex-religious that is most burdened for those who attend church every week, but who have yet to experience the second birth!
Are we now so pious that we care not for those who are no more a sinner than what we were before Christ came to us? Let it never be so!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
“Understand therefore....”; it is amazing how that, when we keep things in proper perspective, our whole life stays in balance! In Hos 4:6, God says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:” If therefore a lack of knowledge yields destruction for even the people of God, then likewise an abundance of knowledge shall build them up and sustain them! When God says “understand therefore”, pay attention, for He is about to impart unto you certain knowledge and wisdom, without which you will not be able to survive!
What is it our Lord wants us to understand? Read it again: “The LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.” God knows how frail we are! He knows that it is man’s nature to let success go to his head. How dare we, the people of God, who have been washed by His blood, filled with His Spirit, called to His service, and sanctified by His Word, forget our humble, small, weak, sinful beginnings without Him!
It would be easy for us, after having been made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in our lofty position, to look down upon those who are yet as pitiful as we once were before Christ came to us! Nothing will re-ignite the flickering coals of the soul-winner’s heart for his lost colleagues like that of relating to their present affairs with his pre-Christ estate.
It is the ex-drug addict who has the greatest zeal to bring the gospel to the streets of the inner city! It is the ex-harlot who desires nothing more than to see God take another lady of the night, wash her with His precious blood, and make her a child of the King! It is the ex-religious that is most burdened for those who attend church every week, but who have yet to experience the second birth!
Are we now so pious that we care not for those who are no more a sinner than what we were before Christ came to us? Let it never be so!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill