Living On Credit

Scripture

No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.

~John 5:44, NLT

Quote

The man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells does not talk about himself.

~Martyn Lloyd Jones

John tells us in chapter 12 of his gospel,  Many people did believe in Jesus, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn’t admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God. Everyone looks for approval. Even small children like Jackson and Titan love being applauded by the grown ups. Children thrive for the approval of their parents or starve from the lack of it. Due to our inherited nature from Adam, we all crave recognition but our lust for approval can become a hindrance to our spiritual development. When we are born from above, God by His grace and the death of His son, makes us a new creation and begins to form Christ in us. This transformation takes a life time. We refer to this process as sanctification.

As this transformation continues; we think less and less of ourselves and more and more about Jesus. As John said, “I must decrease and He must increase.” One of the things that changes is our desire for approval. More and more, God gives us the desire to please Him and live for His glory and this means we care less and less about man’s approval. Ultimately, our joy is derived from seeing Jesus get glory. This is why worship is so exhilarating. It is a thrill to hear folks praising Jesus. Our Heavenly Father loves us unconditionally and His grace works through our weakness and insecurities moving us to the point where we trust and obey Christ. As we trust and obey, Christ gets glory and we get joy in seeing Him get glory.

Extra

Very warm outside today; too warm for this time of year. Storms are probably on their way. Sorry about being late today. I did the blog yesterday and got up at 4:00 this morning with headache but I got to reading C.S. Lewis and forgot about the blog. I hope you have a great FRIDAY and a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for reading the blog.

Teddy: can we still get those vacuum packed roast from Pascagoula?

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