"Before his downfall a man..."

Though the four month mark is coming up since Josh's death, I felt that I should write now as well as Tuesday. First of all, the last subject still doesn't make me feel as good having it up in the forefront, and I feel as if there's been to large space in between posts. So I'm going to post on something I think is important and can be found in the Proverbs.

"Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but before honor comes humility." Provebs 18:12

If you look at every sin ever invented, done, redone or thought of, all of it will link back to this one thing: pride. Basically we just say that we know better than God and can make a better decision than Him. When I decide steal something I decide that God isn't fulfilling my needs. He said He would, but we decide He isn't. Same with any sin, it all links back to pride. Which is interesting, but is kind of broad for this verse.

This verse talks more along the lines of testing the heart. If your attitude is to be proud a downfall is sure, simply because that's a law that God has set in place. You try to take God's place you will be a contender against the true God, and He's pretty good at games. Another verse that comes into mind when I hear this is: "A man sees right in everything he does, but God tests the heart." I don't know if that's word for word, but you get the general idea.

Jesus speaks many times in the gospels about being humble, but have you ever wondered why? The example He makes of Himself by taking the place of the least servant and washing the feet of His disciples, why is it such a big deal? I know that when I hear it the message kind of goes over my head, or the in-one-ear-out-the-other deal. It doesn't seem to me to be that big of a deal, but it is. All sin is founded in this one problem we each have, it's pride.

Think way back before Adam and Eve, back to where Lucifer was the biggest and baddest angel around, I mean, you just didn't even mess with this dude. He was the angel "that covered." He was the most beautiful of God's creations and because he was the best God appointed him as the angel that would cover God's glory. This sounds to me that God gave Lucifer a physical position that was higher than God, over God, covering God. By all practical standards God didn't have to more than flinch and Lucifer would be toast, but still Lucifer was allowed this position. It was a position that allowed for pride.

Do you think this was a mistake? Did God give Lucifer this position because He didn't think Lucifer would betray and make a rebellion in heaven? I doubt it. First of all, at any point God could just end everything. He's God who started this whole thing, He doesn't need to justify anything to anyone...move a finger and He could wipe the whole slate clean. There was war in heaven, and Satan was cast down with the third of the heavenly hosts. Mistake? God allowed it to happen just like He allowed us to be tempted. But that's getting off topic.

Think now about the figures in the Bible that we most often talk about: Noah, Abraham, David, Peter...and I can name more but lets just start here. Noah doesn't take too much visualization since we have the movie Evan Almighty, but take it a step further and imagine a whole bunch of people that don't mind killing someone just for the heck of it. No moral code whatsoever, anything goes. Noah was taking big steps trying to minister to these people as well as building an ark unmolested. God definitely did some stuff with him, and Noah was more than willing to listen to direction while risking his life for it.

Abraham, a humble, righteous man. Talk about moving out on a hunch. When we move from say Michigan to say Texas, it's like taking a stroll compared to what Abraham was going to do. He was basically moving a small kingdom and they were walking from Michigan to Texas, with Egypt and a whole lot of nastier things in between the two spots. God makes good on what He says He will, He just needs someone who doesn't think he knows better what God is talking about.

David...ah David. Now you could argue he was not a humble man, but I still think he was, he just isn't perfect. That's okay, not many of us are. But he was an extremely bloody King. When God told him to attack David did, then he sat back and played the harp and wrote a poem about it. It doesn't sound to me like it was that big of a deal to him, but he didn't make war without consulting God. It wasn't like he was looking around like, "That land over there looks good, take it for me Gamlealebaba (or whatever the officers were called) and bring me back the head of the leader by nightfall." It wasn't anything like that, although his faith in God's ability to give them the battle was just about the same. Mustering men together and sending them somewhere is a huge order, especially in those days with the amount of men that they sent. You'd think some of the people would balk at the amount of sacrifice they would have to make for it all. David couldn't have done all that he did without the direct help of God, and David took no credit for what he did. Read the Psalms any day and you'll find a lot of talking about how God delivered, and God was amazing...etc.

And finally Peter. It was always amazing to me to hear how Jesus called Simon to become Peter. With such subtle work he transforms a fisherman into a legend of Christianity. Peter was the one who denied Jesus three times, he was a zealot who was ready to destroy the Roman forces. Up until a certain point his heart was set on himself and the victories he was going to accomplish with Jesus. Only after Jesus' crucification do you see a change in Peter to where he really starts to get wall this humility stuff. There is a noted change, and from there Peter is basically the leader of the movement like Jesus was the start of it.

Power is in humility because God is the holder of power. Those who want to be like God won't be getting any help from God, He doesn't need another contender. If you think you're good enough to take on the world you obviously don't need my help. But in humility you will find amazing things happen. People naturally want to be better than you, but when you step below them and make them feel as if they are better than you. You'll find in the end, after everything is done, they will be the ones feeling regret, not you.

I think we can all agree we had an amazing example of this in Josh.