catch me if you can?

on my way home from a few hours of 'promisedland' moments a couple of nights ago, i had the rare privilege of learning something about leadership.

we were on a convoy, heading out from the 'recesses' of campo trexo to manila..

the lead car's driver was driving so fast, we almost lost him twice. we tried to catch up with him and it is on one of the last few left turns that we almost got hit by a speeding car. right at that moment, i muttered in my breath, "thank God!"

saying that we missed death by a thin hairline could be an understatement, but i don't want to dwell so much on the mishap that could have ensued -- if our driver was so intent on following the lead driver's pace.

i was reminded of John Maxwell's words in 'The Maxwell Leadership Bible': "If you call yourself a Christian, you are called to lead others."

i am not so much of a leader, i am still growing on the area of self-leadership. i was given, however, the task of shepherding my family -- including my mom -- into a growing relationship with Jesus. i also take it as part of my 'responsibility' as a Christian to share Jesus with my closest friends. as i have learned that God is after not my religion but my intimate, personal relationship with Him, i have learned that leading others to a knowledge of His merciful love and never-ending grace entails one big C: COMPASSION.

the way i understand things, pretty much in the same way that it isn't healthy to dwell on the hurts of our past, it is also not that helpful to rest on the laurels of our spiritual victories.

it is a privilege to have been "saved by grace, by faith.." and as i "lead" others to Christ, i am always reminded to pace WITH them and not let them put up with me. i am guilty of sometimes being too deep to be grasped, sometimes so self-righteous and when that happens, i am grateful to be reminded to humble myself in God's eyes.

the Christian's race "against" the world, though an endurance race, is not about who finishes first. it is a lifestyle of training and pacing with siblings in the faith, helping one another up and encouraging one another: not one of comparison, competition or "catch me if you can" spirituality.

what i really loved learning that night was the fact that it also helps to know CLEARLY who we are following. we were following the right car just before that nearly-fatal-left turn but at some point during the long drive, for some unknown reason, we lost track of him and followed the wrong one!

in my walk with God, He has blessed me with people who pray for me, pray with me and tell me up front when i seem so frazzled and need to loosen up. when i lose my focus and tend to be looking at the wrong picture (or model) of leadership, i am reminded:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2-3)

JESUS gave out the invitation, "Come, follow Me." but never did He say.. "catch Me if you can," did He?

JESUS became man Himself yet, when He was here, He "did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant," (Philippians 2:6-7).

with these, i rest.

a reminder to share...

thank God for copy-paste...


Undiscerned Spiritual Pride
by Jonathan Edwards
(from SermonIndex.net)

The first and worst cause of error that prevails in our day is spiritual pride. This is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christ. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit to darken the mind and mislead the judgment, and the main handle by which Satan takes hold of Christians to hinder a work of God. Until this disease is cured, medicines are applied in vain to heal all other diseases.

Pride is much more difficult to discern than any other corruption because, by nature, pride is a person having too high a thought of himself. Is it any surprise, then, that a person who has too high a thought of himself is unaware of it? He thinks the opinion he has of himself has just grounds and therefore is not too high. As a result, there is no other matter in which the heart is more deceitful and unsearchable. The very nature of it is to work self-confidence and drive away any suspicion of evil respecting itself.

Pride takes many forms and shapes and encompasses the heart like the layers of an onion- when you pull off one layer, there is another underneath. Therefore, we need to have the greatest watch imaginable over our hearts with respect to this matter and to cry most earnestly to the great searcher of hearts for His help. He who trusts his own heart is a fool.

Since spiritual pride in its own nature is secretive, it cannot be well discerned by immediate intuition of the thing itself. It is best identified by its fruits and effects, some of which I will mention together with the contrary fruits of Christian humility.

The spiritually proud person is full of light already and feels that he does not need instruction, so he is ready to despise the offer of it. On the other hand, the humble person is like a little child who easily receives instruction. He is cautious in his estimate of himself, sensitive as to how liable he is to go astray. If it is suggested to him that he does go astray, he is most ready to inquire into the matter.

Proud people tend to speak of other’s sins--the miserable delusion of hypocrites, the deadness of some saints with bitterness, or the opposition to holiness of many believers. Pure Christian humility, however, is silent about the sins of others or speaks of them with grief and pity. The spiritually proud person finds fault with other saints for their lack of progress in grace, while the humble Christian sees so much evil in his own heart, and is so concerned about it, that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He complains most of himself and his own spiritual coldness and readily hopes that most everybody has more love and thankfulness to God than he.

Spiritually proud people often speak of almost everything they see in others in the harshest, most severe language. They frequently say of an other’s opinion, conduct, or coldness that it is from the devil or from hell. Commonly, their criticism is directed against not only wicked men but also toward true children of God and those who are their superiors. The humble, however, even when they have extraordinary discoveries of God’s glory, are overwhelmed with their own vileness and sinfulness. Their exhortations to fellow Christians are given in a loving and humble manner, and they treat others with as much humility and gentleness as Christ, who is infinitely above them, treats them.

Spiritual pride often disposes persons to act different in external appearance, to assume a different way of speaking, countenance, or behavior. However, the humble Christian, though he will be firm in his duty--going the way of heaven alone even if all the world forsake him- yet he does not delight in being different for difference’s sake. He does not try to set himself up to be viewed and observed as one distinguished, but on the contrary, is disposed to become all things to all men, to yield to others, to conform to them, and to please them in all but sin.

Proud people take great notice of opposition and injuries, and are prone to speak often about them with an air of bitterness or contempt. Christian humility, on the other hand, disposes a person to be more like his blessed Lord, who when reviled did not open His mouth but committed Himself in silence to Him who judges righteously. For the humble Christian, the more clamorous and furious the world is against him, the more silent and still he will be, unless it is in his prayer closet, and there he will not be still.

Another pattern of spiritually proud people is to behave in ways that make them the focus of others. It is natural for a person under the influence of pride to take all the respect that is paid to him. If others show a disposition to submit to him and yield in deference to him, he is open to it and freely receives it. In fact, they come to expect such treatment and to form an ill opinion of those who do not give them what they feel they deserve.

One under the influence of spiritual pride is more apt to instruct others than to ask questions. Such a person naturally puts on the airs of a master. The eminently humble Christian thinks he needs help from everybody, whereas the spiritually proud person thinks everybody needs his help. Christian humility, under a sense of others’ misery, entreats and beseeches, but spiritual pride commands and warns with authority.

As spiritual pride disposes people to assume much to themselves, so it disposes to treat others with neglect. On the contrary, pure Christian humility disposes persons to honor all men. To enter into disputes about Christianity is sometimes unseasonable, yet we ought to be very careful that we do not refuse to discourse with carnal men because we count them unworthy to be regarded. Instead, we should condescend to carnal men as Christ has condescended to us--condescended to be present with us in our unteachableness and stupidity.

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Love never fails.