Theword

?THE GRASS WITHERS, THE FLOWER FADES, BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD STANDS FOREVER.? (ISAIAH 40:8)

Pastor Ernest Martinez

The Community Church of Devore

I heard Charles Swindoll say an interesting thing on the radio: ?You learn more from your mistakes, than your successes!? With all the mistakes I have made in the past 12 years, you would think they should award me with an honorary Ph.D. General Douglas MacArthur gave a speech to West Point graduates on May 12, 1962. I quote a short portion below:

?Duty ? Honor ? Country. Those three hollowed words dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.?

As he confesses of his lack ability to speak on those matters, I too confess my lack in speaking of spiritual things. As he says: ?Unhappily, I posses neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.?

The revelation that God once again gave to me about Himself and about me this week I can hardly write upon, but I feel led to write nonetheless.

Faith ? Hope ? Love. ?And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.? (1 Cor. 13:13) These three words are OUR rallying points. Unlike those quoted before, these require more courage to develop. They require two things that I feel I will never truly attain, but I strive towards attaining them.

1. Doing all things for the glory of God. ?Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.? (1 Cor. 10:31)
2. Having humility before God. ?Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'' (James 4:6b)

I cannot have faith, hope or love towards God if I am not doing all things to glorify His name. If I am not humble before Him, I will not be able to learn from Him and see where I lack. Jesus said to his disciples: ?Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.? (Matthew 11:29 ? 30) Jesus was humble, and we know the purpose of His life was to glorify God. And by doing so, He paid our sin debt and made us Children of God.

I write these things not so much for your sake, but for mine. My purpose is to glorify God. I can only do that if I am humble before God. If I am humble, God will use my weakness to teach me more humility and I will be better prepared to glorify God.
As Paul taught: ?Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith?? (1 Timothy 1:5)

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Published on: 2005-06-11 (1872 reads)