Insanely Generous Love

When Jesus of Nazareth announced that the kingdom of God that he was ushering in was like a feast or like a banquet, people should have known that this was not your run-of-the-mill apocalyptic prophet. The declaration should have given his listeners a clue that there was something unusually upbeat about this man’s message. Sure, Jesus would talk of judgment and the consequences of sin and self-centeredness, because that was a part of reality; but his overriding message was that God is good and that he is out to do good in abundant ways to all people. 

His Good News of the Kingdom

The God of the universe has invaded our planet. He came in Jesus of Nazareth. The age to come has already broken into the present age. This means that Reality is on our side. Now that this has been made plain, there is nothing more important than seeking the kingdom of God. We must make the kingdom, the reign of God, our greatest passion. It is like a great treasure found in a field worth the sacrifice of all we have (Matthew 13:44). It is like the pearl of great price that a man would sell everything to gain (Matthew 13:45–46).

Jesus' Courage

While it may be surprising to speak of the submissiveness of a great man, we expect to see boldness and courage in the lives of those who have great impact, and we are not disappointed when we come to Jesus. Submissive—yes. Timid and fearful—absolutely not. It is this combination of qualities that we find hard to understand or implement, but which makes Jesus so unique and worthy of imitation.

Jesus' Submissiveness

Some time ago, when I began studying the Gospel of Mark in search of the character and personality of Jesus, submissiveness was the first thing I wrote down about him. We do not go much more than two paragraphs into that Gospel before we read of Jesus submitting to John the Baptist via his baptism in the Jordan River (Mark 1:4–9).

His Dependence on God

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength                and whose heart turns away from the Lord.…      

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream”(Jeremiah 17:5, 7–8)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)

The Biblical message says life is not found by depending on ourselves or on the resources of other men, but it is found in dependence on God. Our prideful hearts may not like that at all, but loud denial of our need does not change reality. We are not the self-determined Creators of the universe; we are fragile elements of creation. We may wish it were not so, but wishing does not change who and what we are.

The Power of Humility

We conclude our series of excerpts from The Prideful Soul's Guide to Humility with these thoughts from the last chapter:

The most important question we can ask about anything is, “Does it please God?” Humility always passes that test and, for that reason, would be the right thing for our lives, whatever else we might say about it.

The Pursuit of Humility

In one of the last chapters of our book, my friend and co-author, Mike Fontenot, wrote on “The Pursuit of Humility.” This week I want to share some of his words with you:

My goal is put forth by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:2: “Be completely humble and gentle…” (emphasis added). Not just humble—completely humble. In view of that statement we all have much more progress to make, and that means all of us need to make the pursuit of humility a serious priority. Humility is so contrary to our nature that we will not have it without a passionate desire for it.