Luke 1:51 “He hath shown strength with his arm, he hath scattered the (proud) in the (imagination) of their hearts.” Comment: This verse is part of Mary’s song of praise to God! So who are the proud? Remember the first sin in the Garden of Eden was pride! Eve you can know what God knows! You can be like God! Just eat of this fruit! You surely will not die? Pride is elevating yourself above your fellow man preferring yourself! They believe they are better than anyone else! They think they are the MVP of humanity! The word imagination means the thoughts of men. They believe they are the elites of culture! So why does God scatter them? They make themselves God! Why do the rock stars die on drugs? Why do the self-exalted ones come to not? Simple! They reject the author of humility! They reject God! We are all created in the Image of God! We all have different abilities yet equal in the eyes of God! None of us are the basket of deplorables! We are not the smelly Walmart shoppers that love our religion and our guns? That is what the elite think we are! When we put down one of God’s created beings we put down ourselves! We then exalt ourselves over God! Charles Darwin the atheist and promoter of Evolution is the biggest culprit in American culture and European and Asian cultures responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths in the 20th and 21st Centuries! It is the political divide in America today between the Republican and Democratic party! The battle lines are drawn between Creation and Evolution! Socialism, Communism, Fascism, Nazism and Imperial Japan had their ideological roots in Evolution! Survival of the fittest! In competition among the races each trying to prove one race is superior to another race! Abortion is alright since there is no God! Anything goes! Mary was singing praises to God because she knew her offspring Christ would defeat the godless theories of this world promoting pride against Christ and His Kingdom! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Tag: pride
Wise Men! 536 B.C.
Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having Salvation: lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Comment: Yes! Zachariah lived 5 centuries before our Messiah’s arrival yet he saw him coming! He saw Christ as many other prophet’s did with great detail hundreds of years before this event! Yet 2000+ years after Bethlehem many do not see him? The alternative to a wise man is a fool! There are no fools in Heaven! The fool has said in his heart there is no God! Many still deny God! Why? Pride! There are millions of little gods running around on planet earth trying to be God! The WANNABE’S of Hell! If you try to replace God you displace yourself away from God separated forever! You forfeit your place in Heaven! Two King’s are present at Christmas! King Herod and Jesus our King! The Kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of light! No star is following us around! Zachariah looked forward and the wise men looked back! Both confirmed the truth of God’s Word! Do you want to be confirmed? Believe his word! Take Christ at his word! History confirms him how about you? Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Cry unto Repentance! Isaiah 58:1
Hebrew Translation: “Cry, preach, roar, proclaim, summon to the judgment seat, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show by bringing to the front, bring to the light, confess and profess openly my people, the nation of servants of your Master your National moral rebellious revolt of sin against the living God and show the House of Jacob their sins.” Comment: Sounds like a good old fashion altar call! To be transparent with God is to confess your sin! Sometimes I hear a request to make Jesus Lord and Savior but what is missing sometimes is a valid reason for doing so? Muslim’s do not believe they are sinners! So why repent? Who needs a Savior? Atheists do not believe they need a savior! Whatever your message as a Pastor at the end and hopefully laced throughout your message it must be made clear that transparency before God requires a confession of your sin! Both the Old and New Testaments have the same theme! Repent! Repent of our sin! Pride in the church can separate us from God! I would suggest more frequent Communion services for your congregations! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Are You Stoned? Ezekiel 28:13
Lucifer had it made! The praise leader of Heaven! He had every precious stone in his covering! Sardius, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, emerald, carbuncle and gold! Lucifer was equipped with praise instruments! He had the tabrets and pipes like a pipe organ to make music to the Lord in worship! Lucifer was a created being like us! That is why we are not to worship angels! Pride entered Lucifer and rebelled against God and was cast down to earth with 1/3 of his followers! When he impacted the earth his precious stolen stones from Heaven were scattered throughout the earth! So when you find a precious stone in the earth think where it came from! According to verse 13 Lucifer had been in the Garden of God, Eden! That is where he met Adam and Eve the first humans on earth! You might say Lucifer had a touch of heaven for in heaven the streets are paved with gold! It is not rare stuff up there! So why do we labor for the stolen goods Satan left here on earth when the jems and gold are as common as dirt in the earth up there? Some humans have worked for them but others have stolen them committing evil sins against God and man! Worship of God by humans involves the precious elements of the earth! Let us look at the Ephod Breast Plate in Exodus 28:18-29. The 12 tribes of Israel each had a precious stone of a significant color representing each of them before God! These stones represented earthly people. Most of these colors are in the rainbow across our sky! The rainbow has 7 colors! This sign in the heavens reminded us of God’s covenant to never completely flood the earth as in the days of Noah. It is interesting it takes water to activate the rainbow! It takes sin to activate the blood! When we look at the breastplate the tribe of Judah was represented by an emerald. The green emerald stone is used in engagement rings representing fidelity, harmony and loyalty! In Revelation 21:19-20, we see these precious stones appearing in the New Jerusalem! In the 4 entry gates of the city! Our Messiah came through the Tribe of Judah! God’s engagement to man began here and was consecrated in marriage which produced a Son named Jesus Christ! Remember Jesus always existed before creation and was incarnated into the earth as a human! The church today is the bride of Christ! My Bible says he is more precious than silver and more costly than gold! Why? Because he created this stuff! Remember the Ephod Breast Plate was for judgment! Judgment begins at the House of God! If you let Christ take your judgment then you are saved from it! Christ the eternal judge will not condemn his own! Another notable here is the eastern gate of the mobile tabernacle was guarded by the Tribe of Judah! When the Muslims controlled Jerusalem centuries ago they heard that Christ would re-enter the city through the eastern gate! So they sealed the eastern gate closed with brick and mortar to try to stop Christ at his second coming! The eastern gate is still sealed today and it looks like the Muslims believe some of the scriptures! In the New Jerusalem the eastern gate will have a green emerald stone on the gate representing the Tribe of Judah! If you have accepted the offspring of Judah Jesus Christ you will be able to enter this gate! Only God who created us is able to deliver us from sin! You cannot save yourself! It takes the God who never sinned to deliver you from our sin! He sacrificed himself for us! In the New Jerusalem there will be 12 gates, 12 angels, 12 tribes, 12 foundation stones, 12 names, 12 apostles, 12 thousand furlongs (dimension of city), 12 stones, 12 pearls and 12 fruits! This is going to be a fascinating place to live! Can I wait to see the mansion he has for me? Not really! It will certainly beat this stone age earth! There are a lot more scriptures available describing the New Jerusalem! Isaiah 54:11-12 is a good one! The windows are dressed with agates which are of every color representing the induction of every race into heaven! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Humility Versus Pride! Isaiah 53:2
Hebrew Translation: “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of the dry inhabitant’s of the earth, he has no form nor beauty nor majestic excellence and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we desire him as we did the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden that brought death to the human race.”
Divisional Unity! Acts 2:4-6
Divisional Unity? Sounds like a contradiction or an NFL playoff game where winners move on! What is the Holy Ghost? Ghost translates Spirit of God or the breath of God! God breathed His life into us! We see here at Pentecost or 50 days after His Resurrection and 10 days after His Ascension to Heaven that all the disciples gathered together waiting for the promise! What promise? Remember Jesus told us that He must go to the Father so He could send us the Holy Spirit unto us! To dwell in us! The Holy Spirit is like an escrow or down payment made to us to guarantee our preservation until Jesus second coming back to earth! The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity and was present even at Creation! The Holy Spirit given to His Church at Pentecost is to endue us with power! Power to promote the Kingdom of God here in the earth! When the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples they began to speak in other tongues! The word tongues translated here from the Greek means to speak in a foreign language. Then we see in verse 6 that the disciples were confounded because every man heard them speak in his own language? The disciples were a diverse group gathered representing many languages! They had difficulty understanding why men that did not know their language could speak their language? Remember the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis? God divided the one language spoken there into many languages to confuse this civilization from their prideful project of building a tower to heaven! Thousands of years later God by His Holy Spirit brings all the different languages together so they can all understand each other! God brought unity in worship! Man’s efforts at the Tower of Babel brought separation! God’s efforts at Pentecost brought unity of worship to God! The barriers were removed to enable corporate worship! If you go to Heaven your language will be understood by all. If you go to Hell your language will understood by no one! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Pride & Shame Proverbs 11:2
Hebrew translation: “When pride with it’s haughtiness, arrogance, rebelliousness, presumptive will taking authority from God in disobedience then shame comes: but with the lowly is wisdom in knowledge, intelligence, insight and judgment from God as your source.” Comment: The Bible says that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom! My Bible also says the fool says in his heart there is no God! The belief spectrum ranges from there is no God to there are millions of gods! Pride will always be the first cause of sin! Whether in the Garden of Eden or today in the 21st century pride is the root cause of evil. Remember Jesus humbled Himself even to death on the Cross! The international problems of today are the family problems of today! Pride is simply you making yourself God! You trust in yourself rather than God! How many billions of people get up every morning trying to outsource God? Trying to rob God of His sovereignty? Many say if I were God I would do things this way? But you are not God and neither am I. Let God do His job and you do your job! I learned this in the military! If every member does his or her job and does not try to do someone else’s job victory comes in battle! God owns the whole universe of heaven and earth! We belong to Him! One of God’s job’s was to fix our pride and sin! He made a way through His Son Jesus Christ! Accept His pardon and live for Him! Prayer is the best way to let God do His job! We pray and do our job and leave the results to God! This is living by faith! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Pride! Isaiah 39:1-2
The Babylonian Ambassadors came to King Hezekiah in Israel to give him gifts for they had heard he had been sick. Hezekiah showed them all the treasures in the Temple and government treasuries! He gave them a tour of all his stuff! Isaiah inquired after they left and asked the king who were these people and what did they want? After Isaiah learned who they were he warned the King he had made a grave error! He told the King the following generations would be taken captive to Babylon as slaves and all their wealth carried away! Pride before the fall? It is good to give a testimony to people for how God has blessed you! However some will become jealous and try to steal your goods! Sometimes treasures can draw the wrong people into your life! If you have a loyal faithful friend when you were poor they will be faithful when you are rich! Someone like Jesus! Remember Job after he lost it all? Miserable friends! God recovered Job! The real treasures God has given us can never be taken away! We have this treasure in earthen vessels! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Someone Else Baked Your Cake! Isaiah 2:19
“And they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth as dust blown by the wind, for fear of the Lord, and for the Glory of His Majesty when He ariseth to the terrorism of the Lord’s judgment!” Comment: In Isaiah Chapter 2 God is contrasting His love and peace with the foolishness, pride and sin of man! Why is this important? Salvation means nothing without Judgment! If you leave out the Judgment of God as some modern day preachers do then there is no reason for Salvation? Saved for what? Saved from what? There are two sides of the coin when in comes to the Gospel. Salvation on one side and Judgment on the other side! You will have Judgment without Salvation but you cannot have Salvation without Judgment! Christ took our Judgment on the Cross! The problem with the prosperity Gospel is that it can lead people to believe that their success is based upon their works rather than God’s work! If we leave God’s Judgment out of the equation then good works circles around again and can lead people to a false Gospel! The challenge today is witnessing to Muslims! They do not believe they are sinners! They believe they have no need of Salvation even though they kill people following their Koran! Did you ever notice no condemnation comes from the Muslim community following these terrorist attacks? Why? They believe they are instruments of Judgment for God to remove the infidels! If we do not include Judgment for all men and only present a prosperity Gospel we will not get their attention! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Pride!
It is the eyes of other people that ruin us! If I were born blind I would want neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture! Franklin D. Roosevelt Comment: Think about the Queen of Gospel Music Fanny Cosby! She was blind but yet wrote thousands of Gospel songs to our Lord and four books of poetry! If you value God more than what people think of you then most of the time people will not value you! However people cannot save you only God! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com