A Light in the Darkness

  Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:   circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.   But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.   Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. Philippians 3:4-8 ESV             We have a bad habit of holding inordinate worth in worthless things. We have confidence in the flesh as evidenced by how we identify ourselves, what we are proud of, and what we count as valuable. We talk of our family name, of our reputation...

  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 ESV                 There are some verses in our Bibles which we know, but yet do not truly know. We have read them, heard them, perhaps memorized them, but we have not meditated on them, understood them, and applied them in our thinking and in our actions. Romans 3:23 is a good example of this. It tells us that no one has escaped the effects of sin. Still we are often surprised when sin appears in the lives of public officials, or church leaders, or celebrities, or children, etc. We should expect sin to show itself everywhere and in every situation.             The world is often surprised by sin, not because it went away for awhile and suddenly came back; but because they refuse to acknowledge the evidences. Christians, or so called Christians, follow along with this nonsense e...

  Of all the traps a man may fall into without knowing he has been captured there is none so great as pride disguised as self-loathing. What appears a contradiction in terms is in reality a brilliant combination of the evil influences of the depraved nature and the fallen world no doubt with some work of the enemy. It works in the following way, Firstly, there is created some ideal standard which is as high as it is worthless. This standard leans towards aesthetics. That is to say that the standard is easily quantifiable, and appreciable by the masses. Which is simply another way of saying that the ideas which compose the ideal are superficial. As such they are obtainable to a degree, and perhaps even to the fullest extent if conditions are favorable and sufficient exertions are made. That they lay within the realms of supposed human reach is important to their seductive appeal. The depraved heart already has such an ideal of itself at conception, and needs only the input of t...