There are people who attempt to be "spiritual" in their flesh, ultimately becoming phony, in order to exude a "holier than thou" mentality. These people tend to be hyper judgmental, harshly assessing the flaws of others while refusing to look at their own.
When we equate spirituality with overly sweetness all the time, we have a wrong view of God's Spirituality.
God is all about transparency, His desire is for us to grow in holiness, most often through acknowledging our weakness to be able to ask the Lord for cleansing.
Those who think they have no need to face their flaws, will not grow in holiness. They are deeply invested in "appearing" righteous to others, far more than they are invested in actually "being" righteous through the power of Christ.
When we encounter those who cannot admit to their flaws, even believing they have none, we are looking at someone who struggles continually with hiding their real selves. These people are enraged when anyone manages to expose a flaw that they worked so hard to repress in their hiding.
Want to find out what's really inside of a person? Just correct them or disagree with them, what comes out of them will give us a clue and it will reveal themselves to themselves.
Those who will confess will be cleansed, those who refuse to admit will not confess and will not be cleansed, it's really that simple.
1 John 1:9
"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
If we want to grow in holiness, it is imperative that we confess quickly, even the slightest flaw. It is interesting how speaking about our flaw openly helps us to move forward in resolving what is wrong.
Monday, October 9, 2017
Superficial Relationships Do Not Last
Job 28:18
"Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned; And the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls."
Job 12:12 "12 Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?"
It has been diabolical that the devil managed to isolate grandchildren from born again believing grandparents. I see this all the time, those who love the Lord, walking hard after Him, are being seen as boring and a little crazy, so that the grandchildren are not interested in these grandparents.
I see the grandparents that are deeply worldly getting some attention, as long as they are giving their money, their homes and constant praise to the children who have been trained to think that pleasure and accolades are a normal life experience, that it is owed to them.
This modern generation of grandchildren are invested in the idea that everything must be enjoyable. Sitting around on the porch in a rocking chair learning things from their grandparents is not very interesting to them. In fact the grandchildren actually believe they know more than their parents and grandparents, it would be laughable if it were not so sad.
I never knew my grand parents, they died when I was very young. Now many, if not most, grandchildren have living grandparents.
I had the sense when I was growing up that my grandparents might have loved me, the love that was missing in my home growing up. It may or may not have been true, but I indulged the fantasy as a way of grasping at love that was absent.
This generation of millennials and younger know their grandparents well, have even been raised by them. Since the mentality has been that life is all about making sure they enjoy themselves, they cannot tolerate moments of reflection and learning unless it is personally enhancing.
Of course there are exceptions to this phenomena, however, it seems to be the norm these days. Back in the day, when I was growing up, we didn't have all the continual pleasures that we see today. There were far fewer distractions in our lives.
The electronics keep young people in a catatonic state, they have difficulty focusing on a task without checking their phones every few minutes to see if they are missing something. People standing right in front of them seem less interesting than the people on the other end of the phone whom they cannot see. And, the foolishness in the texting is beyond idiotic, nothing important, nothing edifying or informative, just foolishness.
Again, back in the day, there was no "call waiting", when we received a phone call from someone, we were excited to get it, the phone didn't ring all that often. When it did, we visited with one person until we were finished and if anyone was calling us during that visit we didn't know it. Our phone would give a busy signal to the caller telling them we were on the phone and they would have to call back later when the phone was no longer busy.
Relationships seemed more valued then, because all our attention was on the one we were visiting with. The visit was more honest, open and full of personality. In our day now there seems to be more phoniness, impression management and disinterest in the other person than I have ever seen.
I had to laugh at a recent phone call in which the caller asked me a myriad of questions concerning my family, what they were doing, where they lived and on and on. Not one question was about me, no questions about what I was doing, what I enjoyed, what I thought, only about "what was going on." Whenever I get a call like this from someone who has demonstrated for years they had no respect or sense of affection for me, I have to wonder if this was an information only call, to be able to gather tidbits for the purpose of gossiping.
In the superficial phone conversations those speaking will not reveal things about themselves, they are very guarded so as not to give any negative or difficult information. When I see this happening I realize that those who are this guarded are afraid to reveal anything real, because they know what they are going to do with our information and think we will do the same with theirs.
When I get a call like this, I like to choose a Biblical topic and run with it, talking on and on about that, soon ends a probing phone call, because these things are not of interest to these callers.
I have some lovely friends who do not call very often, they live a long way from me, even hundreds of miles, but when we talk we connect in openness and honesty, they are a blessing to visit with because of their interest in important matters. It's not that the call is all about me, it's about us and Christ. We share with one another for the purpose of support and information to work out problems and share blessings. Those calls seem valuable to me, they bless me because of the transparency of the conversation.
Authenticity is the key to close relationships. Superficiality has it's place but serves little for spiritual growth and greater wisdom, and the superficial relationships do not last, they are based entirely on impressing others, this does not build a relationship, it actually tears it down over time. There must be substance to a relationship, something of value that two people share.
Sharing wisdom, learning wisdom with our brothers and sisters in Christ is of far greater value than information about "what they are doing", unless it relates to gaining these things.
"Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned; And the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls."
Job 12:12 "12 Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?"
It has been diabolical that the devil managed to isolate grandchildren from born again believing grandparents. I see this all the time, those who love the Lord, walking hard after Him, are being seen as boring and a little crazy, so that the grandchildren are not interested in these grandparents.
I see the grandparents that are deeply worldly getting some attention, as long as they are giving their money, their homes and constant praise to the children who have been trained to think that pleasure and accolades are a normal life experience, that it is owed to them.
This modern generation of grandchildren are invested in the idea that everything must be enjoyable. Sitting around on the porch in a rocking chair learning things from their grandparents is not very interesting to them. In fact the grandchildren actually believe they know more than their parents and grandparents, it would be laughable if it were not so sad.
I never knew my grand parents, they died when I was very young. Now many, if not most, grandchildren have living grandparents.
I had the sense when I was growing up that my grandparents might have loved me, the love that was missing in my home growing up. It may or may not have been true, but I indulged the fantasy as a way of grasping at love that was absent.
This generation of millennials and younger know their grandparents well, have even been raised by them. Since the mentality has been that life is all about making sure they enjoy themselves, they cannot tolerate moments of reflection and learning unless it is personally enhancing.
Of course there are exceptions to this phenomena, however, it seems to be the norm these days. Back in the day, when I was growing up, we didn't have all the continual pleasures that we see today. There were far fewer distractions in our lives.
The electronics keep young people in a catatonic state, they have difficulty focusing on a task without checking their phones every few minutes to see if they are missing something. People standing right in front of them seem less interesting than the people on the other end of the phone whom they cannot see. And, the foolishness in the texting is beyond idiotic, nothing important, nothing edifying or informative, just foolishness.
Again, back in the day, there was no "call waiting", when we received a phone call from someone, we were excited to get it, the phone didn't ring all that often. When it did, we visited with one person until we were finished and if anyone was calling us during that visit we didn't know it. Our phone would give a busy signal to the caller telling them we were on the phone and they would have to call back later when the phone was no longer busy.
Relationships seemed more valued then, because all our attention was on the one we were visiting with. The visit was more honest, open and full of personality. In our day now there seems to be more phoniness, impression management and disinterest in the other person than I have ever seen.
I had to laugh at a recent phone call in which the caller asked me a myriad of questions concerning my family, what they were doing, where they lived and on and on. Not one question was about me, no questions about what I was doing, what I enjoyed, what I thought, only about "what was going on." Whenever I get a call like this from someone who has demonstrated for years they had no respect or sense of affection for me, I have to wonder if this was an information only call, to be able to gather tidbits for the purpose of gossiping.
In the superficial phone conversations those speaking will not reveal things about themselves, they are very guarded so as not to give any negative or difficult information. When I see this happening I realize that those who are this guarded are afraid to reveal anything real, because they know what they are going to do with our information and think we will do the same with theirs.
When I get a call like this, I like to choose a Biblical topic and run with it, talking on and on about that, soon ends a probing phone call, because these things are not of interest to these callers.
I have some lovely friends who do not call very often, they live a long way from me, even hundreds of miles, but when we talk we connect in openness and honesty, they are a blessing to visit with because of their interest in important matters. It's not that the call is all about me, it's about us and Christ. We share with one another for the purpose of support and information to work out problems and share blessings. Those calls seem valuable to me, they bless me because of the transparency of the conversation.
Authenticity is the key to close relationships. Superficiality has it's place but serves little for spiritual growth and greater wisdom, and the superficial relationships do not last, they are based entirely on impressing others, this does not build a relationship, it actually tears it down over time. There must be substance to a relationship, something of value that two people share.
Sharing wisdom, learning wisdom with our brothers and sisters in Christ is of far greater value than information about "what they are doing", unless it relates to gaining these things.
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