Jesus

choosing maturity, choosing forgiveness

September 19, 2006

After reading yesterday’s post on praying for our enemies, Not Saussure was kind enough to point me to the blog of Rachel of North London, a woman who survived the terrorist train bombings on July 7, 2005. In her post “The F Word,” Rachel explores the meaning of forgiveness in very real, very practical terms. […]

Read the full article →

encouragement for the journey

September 6, 2006
This entry is part 7 of 10 in the series humility

This is #7 in a series on humility.

I’ve got a sinus infection, so I’m going to keep this short.

I thought about writing a post today titled “help me, I’m dying”–not because I’m sick (though my head does feel as if it’s about to explode) but rather because practicing humility is killing my flesh, and it’s hard. It’s easy to get discouraged. Murray offers some much needed encouragement:

Let us be content with nothing less than taking each example of Jesus’ humility as the promise of what God will work in us, as the revelation of what the Spirit of Jesus will put within us. Allow each failure and shortcoming to only the more quickly turn us to the meek and lowly Lamb of God in the assurance that where He is enthroned in the heart, His humility and gentleness will be the streams of living water that flow from within us.

This is a timely reminder to me that I’m not doing this on my own–can’t do it on my own, in fact. Only by the power of the Spirit can true humility be worked in me. Praise God that it is His desire to do that work!

Read the full article →

humility: measured by everyday relationships

September 5, 2006
This entry is part 6 of 10 in the series humility

Yesterday’s post on Jesus, humility, and relationships anticipated the next step in Andrew Murray’s teaching. Murray moves from his foundation of humility in the life of Jesus to consider how it will be borne out in the life of the believer. He begins with 1 John 4:20: “for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Murray contends that humility will be seen in relationships with people and not just with God…

Read the full article →

Jesus: humility in relationships

September 4, 2006
This entry is part 5 of 10 in the series humility

I’m seeing that a large part of growing in humility is learning to love people. I started to write “deal with people,” but deal sounds so…unloving. I don’t want to be one who sees others as something to deal with, as if people were obstacles; I want to love people as if they are the most important thing around. And that requires humility, total dependence on and trust in God. As my family will tell you, humility does not come naturally to me, and I know that only with God’s help can I walk consistently in humility and love in my relationships.

Reading Luke 4 today made this all the clearer. Jesus returns to Nazareth, his hometown, and goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath. It suddenly occurred to me: Jesus had history with these people–decades of history…

Read the full article →

Lazarus, Night of the Living Dead, and the joy of surrender

September 2, 2006
This entry is part 4 of 10 in the series humility

Just in case I was uncertain about focusing on humility right now, the Holy Spirit provided ample confirmation Thursday afternoon. I was a little discouraged and decided to read Oswald Chambers’ Utmost and Martin Luther’s By Faith Alone. Here’s what I found–

Luther, writing about Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, says, “Of all the sacrifices we can make, the one most acceptable to God is this: getting rid of sin, living a holy life, obeying God, and killing our corrupt nature.” I love how Luther finishes: “This is very painful and unpleasant for us to do.”…

Read the full article →

the fruit of pride

August 31, 2006
This entry is part 3 of 10 in the series humility

Yesterday, I wrote about the start of Andrew Murray’s book Humility and the tremendous blessing that humility brings. Murray states that humility is “being clothed with the very beauty and blessedness of Jesus.” Having offered this enticement, he moves in the second chapter to graphically describe the fruit of pride.

As Murray sees it, we will either walk in pride because we are bearing the fruit of sin, or we will walk in humility because we are bearing the fruit of Jesus Christ living in us. Adam and Eve walked in humility–total dependence on God–until they believed the lie of Satan and allowed pride in. Murray writes that the life that came from Adam and Eve

Read the full article →

humility: our participation in the life of Jesus

August 30, 2006
This entry is part 1 of 10 in the series humility

Yesterday, I got out Andrew Murray’s Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness, a wonderful and powerful little book (just over 100 pages). I read it back in early 2004, and it seems like a good time to read it again.

Murray starts by making the point that all most Christians know of humility is in regard to sin: we are humbled when we realize our sinfulness, but once we are saved, we hear nothing more of humility. In response to this misconception, he writes:

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →