Daily Bread 12-22-16

Luke 14:8-10

8 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;

9 And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.

10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.

ref. - Pr 15:33 - The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; an before honor is humility.

Job 22:29 - When men are cast down , then shalt thou say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.

Matt 23:12 - And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Too many men and women in the world today listening to self worth speakers who just pump up their egos. We all think that somehow we have something unique to offer God and that we are really necessary in carrying out his Gospel. We have the book educated theologians who are filled with vast knowledge, only this knowledge comes from book written by the opinions and heresies of man. We have aged Christians who want everything to go back to the good old days, when they themselves haven't gotten closer to Christ in several years. We also have the relatives of leaders who think that they automatically were born into the positions of leadership due to their blood line. None of these will sit in the high seats of God's court as they see themselves as having much self worth and are untrainable in God's eyes. They, just as all men, must be humbled and broken at the feet of Jesus before a seat even becomes open for them. Then, once it does, they must remain humble and be willing to take the lowest seat in the house. Today, we have too many generals and not enough soldiers. Not one wants to be a disciple, they just want to jump up and be seen and heard. On the other side of the spectrum, there are many who have had nothing to say for years but remain in the positions that they had acquired, not willing to go back and find where they left the most important thing in the world, what God had given them. Their pride will not let them repent or show weakness in front of the people because somewhere a man told them never to show weakness in front of people or they would not serve them. Yes, you read it right, serve them. These men are reserving themselves a special seat but it is south of anything that God has for us. When we come to Christ we need to be humble and stay humble. Not that the word of God is to be tiptoed around and the truth be untold. No, this must be proclaimed boldly when under the power of the Holy Spirit. But we must also be willing to take on the same things that we once started with. We must not get too big for our britches in that we cannot ever be corrected or learn anything new. We must sit in a low seat and then be invited into the higher seats. We must always remember where we came from and go back and visit the beginning of our salvation. It started with Christ and forgiveness and that is where we need to start, ever striving to keep this salvation. Then we are invited to be baptized. Then, if he sees fit to help us sanctify our lives we must still be willing to do as we did at first. If he decides to give us His Holy Ghost we must also remember that without the salvation there is no baptism, without baptism there is no sanctification, and without sanctification there is no Holy Ghost. As he give us gifts and allows us to be useful in his Gospel and His kingdom, we must always be first saved, then sanctified, then filled with the Holy Ghost, then given the gifts. Many fools today are praying the Holy Ghost into children and baptizing children without salvation. They are thrusting them into seats that they cannot occupy. This is why we have such confusion in the Church today. We already have this wonderful gospel to lead and guide us through. If we only follow it and remain humble through it all it will be then that we will sit at the Master's table and worship him as he is!!! Stay humble and have a great day!!!