Scripture

“What injustice did your fathers find in Me, that they went far from Me and walked after vanity and became vain?

~Jeremiah 2:5, LSB

Quote

No man can bear witness to Christ and to himself at the same time.

~John Denny

Vanity is kin to pride and conceit. It is the corruption of self which inspires self-seeking. Vanity is pursuing worthless things that have no eternal value. Things like popularity, success,  and wealth. A person spends their entire life climbing the ladder of success and then when they get to the top, they discover they are on the wrong wall. The song writer said, “Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my LORD was crucified, knowing not it was for me He died at Calvary.” When Adam and Eve fell, their souls became vain. Mankind became egocentric with everything revolving around self. We became ‘selfish’ and every thought and intent of the heart was vain. We are capable of doing good things but not with pure motives. There is within us a secret desire to be praised; to be recognized; to be the center of attention. It is in all of us.

One of the many things God is doing in our sanctification is to save us from our vain selves. Even our worship can be vain [Matthew 15:9, Isaiah 29:13]. Warren Wiersbe said, “The greatest sin in the perversion of good is to use Christianity to promote yourself.” I attended a COLS many years ago and the deceased had requested a certain preacher that she idolized to do her service. He spent little or no time eulogizing her, he used the time to promote himself. Every thing he said was related to himself and his ‘ministry.’ What amazed me even more was that the family was not offended by his narcissism. Christianity is not about you or me. We have to make a choice, we either promote the cause of Christ or we promote our own cause, but we can’t do both.

Some years ago, a family from DBC went on a trip with one of these cultist churches where everyone is excited about what their church is doing and their pastor is the greatest. I asked them one question: What did they talk about most; their church and their pastor or Jesus? We are not here to promote a certain church; we are here to be witnesses for Jesus. We can promote every bible believing church. You may lead someone to Christ who would fit better in another fellowship other than the one you attend. Sometimes this promoting ‘our church’ is promoting ourselves.

Extra

Cindy Seaver’s dad was promoted last night. Doug text me after I had gone to bed which was fairly early. I don’t know any arrangements. Good crowd at church last night and we got a rain during the service. It was a local rain. No one got it except Florette. If we get one today, that will be great but if we don’t, we are not hurting yet. More spring like weather today.

I finally got a chance to listen to Charlie Kirk debate a liberal. The liberal asks Charlie to denounce fascism {Hitler} and Charlie said, “I will after you denounce marxism.” The lib refused to denounce marxism. When Charlies asked him which was the greater threat to America: fascism or marxism, the lib said fascism. He must have been smoking something strong. There are no fascist in either party but the democrats are practically all marxist.

Have a great day: thanks for reading the blog.