“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Jesus tells us not to worry and instead to trust in Him. He presents worrying about even basic life necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing as a sinful mistrust in the Lord. I remember still the first time I read these words and truly understood them. They had a profound impact on me. With only a few exceptions, I have largely purged worry from my own life because of them. Sometimes, though, I have let this intention to not worry drift too far in the other direction which is laziness. This prompts and interesting (at least to me!) question in my mind: What does it look like to live free from worry in such a way that honors Christ? Read the rest…
“For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
God wants to be close to us. There is no one so low who is yet seeking God to whom He is not as close as their next breath. Although He is the high and exalted God, yet He is near to us. He is transcendent, yes, but He is also immanent. Read the rest…
“Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
This is one of those verses that seems in most English translations to limit the role that women can play in the body of Christ. I don’t think it actually does that and here’s why. Read the rest…
“Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.” (ESV)
We live in the day of the self-made, internet-created celebrity. YouTube has been the source of numerous stars today. So have Instagram and Snapchat. To become such a person you must promote yourself. Relentlessly. You must be constantly on the lookout for opportunities to get other people to pay attention to you. And, if you have the right blend of talent, gumption, and luck, you can make a lot of money this way.
And yet, what is ultimately the fruit of such an endeavor? Given the stories about or often the character of such folks, it’s not good. We live in a celebrity-worshiping culture. We are constantly on the lookout for people to elevate to celebrity status in order to give them our devotion. In doing so, we not only debase our own lives, but also the lives of the people being worshiped.
Still, many recognize this celebrity worship and crave it. They crave it and so they do whatever they can to gain it for themselves. Yet again, what good does this do? Wisdom and observation would again answer: Very little.
What Solomon calls for here is a much better way: Do your best where you are and let it be recognized naturally. Let your godly character be the thing everyone notices about you first and foremost. Become known as a person who can be depended upon when things get tough. Produce work that lifts people up and points away from you to God.
If you are advancing yourself and your image, you just may get the acclaim you seek, but there is a very good chance it will come at the expense of your soul. And with that sold away, when the acclaim departs (for self-sought acclaim nearly always departs much sooner than we expect it to) what will you have left? Instead, glorify God in all things and let the chips fall where they may. He will receive the acclaim now, and you will receive acclaim from Him when the time is right. That will be a fame that won’t fade.
“But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Uzziah’s punishment can seem awfully big in light of his apparent offense. I mean, he burned a bit of incense in the Temple. Why should that have drawn a punishment of leprosy? But, the light external offense was only a symptom of the much more dangerous internal issue. As faithful as he had been throughout his reign as king, he eventually started to see himself as the source of that success. Once he did this, his downfall was nigh. <!–more Read the rest…–>
This poses a stern reminder for all of us. The perils of success are great. We should run after it with all we have, but if we begin worshiping it as our god, it will lead to our doom. We never escape the necessity of being wary of this temptation. Pride, or a belief that we are sufficient in and of ourselves for, really, anything, will always eventually lead to our undoing, and not only ours, but often for all the people who have attached themselves to our wagon as well. This is never pretty. Instead, let us always remember who is God and remain humbly reliant on Him; constantly aware that apart from Him we are nothing.
The Nexus 