Three "Nevers" Having To Do With Humility

It is true. Lately, I've posted much about humility. I know not why exactly except that it has been on my mind. It just seems I am reading about it and also hoping that God will knead it deeper into my soul and that I will do (or be) my part, too.

That said, here is a morsel I gleaned from our Renovare discussion thread. It is from my friend in Huntsville, Texas, Helen.





1. Never pretend
2. Never presume – that you deserve things.
3. Never push – standing for what is right is different than sticking up for your rights. Standing up for what is right is not a personal issue. Get out of the business of making things happen. You don’t push…you let God do it. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God means let him carry the load. Don’t trust your best.

This is from a discussion about Dallas Willard's book, Renovation of the Heart.

God Works in the Now --Where We Are

Some of us are tempted to despise the present because we are unhappy with our circumstances...anywhere else is better than here. (I am not directing these remarks to victims of abuse. May God and we help those who are in such situations! And if you find yourself in such a situation, may you flee to safety at the closest opportunity ... seek help. And I do pray that Christ is with you and protects you and gives you strength and that he uses others to help you).

For those of us who are discontented because we are not where we want to be and thus despising where we are, let us remember that God works in the now. Here are the words of Dallas Willard:

"We must accept the circumstances we constantly find ourselves in as the place of God's kingdom and blessing. God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are, and if we faithlessly discard situation after situation, moment after moment, as not being 'right' we will simply have no place to receive this kingdom into our life. For those situations and moments are our life." The Divine Conspiracy pp. 348-349.

Thinking Christianly About Death

These words are from Dallas Willard in his book Divine Conspiracy:

"So as we think of our life and make plans for it, we should not anticipate going through some terrible event called 'death,' to be avoided at all costs even though it can't be avoided. But, immersed in Christ in action, we may be sure that our life--yes, the familiar one we are each so well acquainted with--will never stop. We should be anticipating what we will be doing, three hundred or a thousand or ten thousand years from now in this marvelous universe . . . . Of course something is going to happen. We will leave our present body at a certain point, and our going and what we leave behind will not seem pleasant to those who care for us. But we are at that point simply 'absent from the body and present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8).' . . . To those who remain behind there is an obvious, if superficial, similarity between the body of one who sleeps and that of one who has stepped into the full world. But there is no intention in this language to say we will be unconscious. Consciousness continues while we are asleep, and likewise when we 'sleep in Jesus' (I Thess. 4:14, Acts 7:60)."

Willard then goes on to describe two pictures for death:

"One was made famous by Peter Marshall some years ago. It is the picture of a child playing in the evening among her toys. Gradually she grows weary and lays her head down for a moment of rest, lazily continuing to play. The next thing she experiences or 'tastes' is the morning light of a new dewy day flooding the bed and the room where her mother or father took her. Interestingly, we never remember falling asleep. We do not 'see it' or 'taste' it.

Another picture is of one who walks to a doorway between rooms. While still interacting with those in the room she is leaving, she begins to see and converse with people in a room beyond., who may be totally concealed from those left behind. Before the widespread use of heavy sedation, it was quite common for those keeping watch to observe something like this. The one making the transition often begins to speak to those who have gone before. They come to meet us while we are still in touch with those left behind. The curtain parts for us briefly before we go through."

pp. 86-87 from the Divine Conspiracy

I hope you find this comforting like I did.

God's Joy

"We  should, to begin with, think that God leads a very interesting life, and that he is full of joy. Undoubtedly he is the most joyous being in the universe. The abundance of his love and generosity is inseperable from his infinite joy. All of the good and the beautiful things from which we occasionally drink tiny droplets of soul-exhilirating joy, God continuously experiences in all their breadth and depth and richness . . . . Great tidal waves of joy must wash through his being . . . . Now, Jesus himself was and is a joyous, creative person. He does not allow us to continue thinking of our Father who fills and overflows space as a morose and miserable monarch, a frustrated and petty parent, or a policeman on the prowl . . . . So we must understand that God does not 'love' us without liking us--through gritted teeth--as 'Christian' love is sometimes thought to do. Rather, out of the eternal freshness of his perpetually self-renewed being, the heavenly Father cherishes the earth and each human being upon it. The fondness, the endearment, the unstintingly affectionate regard of God toward all of his creatures is the natural outflow of what he is to the core--which we vainly try to capture with our tired but indispensable old word love."

~ Dallas Willard in the Divine Conspiracy pp.62, 63, 64

Not A Prosperity Gospel ~ No!

Yes God seeks to bless us and yes we will suffer. Here are Dallas Willard's words from his book Hearing God:

Any voice that promises total exemption from suffering and failure is most certainly not God's voice. In recent years, innumerable spokspeople for God have offered ways we can use God and his Bible as guarantees of health, success and wealth. The Bible is treated as a how-to book, a manual for the successful life in the way of the Western world, which if followed will ensure that you will prosper financially, that you will not get cancer or even a cold and that your church will never split or lack a successful minister and program. To the question from the old hymn

Shall I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through the bloody seas?

these people shout, "Yes, most certainly!"
But if we consider those who stand throughout history as the best practitioners of the Way, we will find that they went through great difficulties, often living their entire lives and dying amidst these great trials. The word of God does not just come to lead us out of trouble--though it sometimes does this--or to make sure that we have it easy and that everything goes our way.

Dallas Willard p. 180 in Hearing God.