Humility:True Greatness-6
Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney
Chapter 6 As Each Day Ends
Study and overview by Marc
This is a very simple chapter but a huge idea to implement in our quest to fight the sin of pride. C.J. encourages us to end the day by being thankful for the grace of God throughout the day. Not just by saying "thanks God", but by thinking on specifics. He teaches that even sleep is a gift from God and should remind us of our dependence on God. We cannot live without sleep. We cannot live without God. Mark Dever once shared with C.J. how sleep is a great picture of dependency on God. We trust the bed to support us as we sleep, as we totally let go--how much more is God able to hold our lives and souls. We must let go of ourselves and restfully cling to Jesus, peacefully fight for rest in Him. Do I ascribe greatness to God at the end of the day by thinking about Him and the events of the day or do I use my presleep time to worry about the cares of tomorrow and the future.
Just last night I could not sleep. My mind began to worry about things that are silly and out of my control. What if my daughter gets hurt, what if she...such and such. I say this is silly for me to worry about because she will experiece hurt and pain, she already has. I can not fully control this, but instead I can put my cares upon the One who does and can and wants too and I can trust in Him to work all things for the good--because I am called by grace and I do love Him!
I don't want to waste time in worry, I want to redeem the time for praise! It is a fight against my pride and a purposeful release to God.
Humility:True Greatness-5
Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney
Chapter 5 As Each Day Begins
Study and overview by Marc
Mahaney wants to show us in this chapter the importance of spiritual disciplines and how they help us to depend on God and defeat pride.
The following has been spurred on by what I read, but this was not Mahaney's main thrust.
In many circles that I have been in, the word spiritual disciplines always evokes the word legalism. I do not remember who said it, but I like the illustration of a guardrail that is put up on a curvy mountain road. It is there to help you, not to hurt you. So many folks scream legalism because they don't want to be disciplined or don't know how to be. To be clear, legalism is when we attempt to reach God through the law in which we will never be able to do. There are many churches and ministries that will make you feel like you must follow certain disciplines to be a Christian. That is wrong and not good. The disciplines are there to help us to know God more and by knowing Him more we will love Him and others more. When we love God and others more we will be chopping away at our pride.
If you are involved in a church or ministry and you think folks are being legalistic you just need to ask some questions. Do you think these things will save me in and of themselves? Will you still love me and help me if I am weak in the disciplines? You may find that the church or ministry is relying on the law and good works, if so, get out. But, you may also find that you are like many of us and you are just not disciplined and don't want any type of structure to change your day. If this is the case, then we need to strive to be disciplined. I am not, but I do want to be. It has been challenging for me to continue the discipline of blogging every day for a month. This is not a main spiritual discipline, but it has helped me to think on God and reevaluate the way I live with God and others.
C.J. gives us great advice on how to begin our mornings and live through out the day. He goes through different applications that we can follow, but he is quick to say that this is not a perfect list or even the exact list that each of his readers will have. What can I change in my day to help me reflect more on the Cross, the Word and my God?
"So I advocate using your morning moments wisely, letting the light of God's grace shine in to brighten your entire day. I'm convinced that your purposeful application of these daily morning habits--acknowledging your need for God; expressing your gratitude to God practicing spiritual disciplines, seizing your commute time for spiritual benefit; casting your cares upon Him; and above all, reflecting on the wonder of the cross of Christ--are the most effective things you can do to more deeply experience the promise and the pleasures of humility."
Humility:True Greatness-4
Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney
Chapter 4 Greatness Demonstrated
Study and overview by Marc
"Here's an essential truth: To learn true humility, we need more than a
redefinition of greatness; we need even more then Jesus' personal example of
humble service. What we need is His death.""For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give
his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)
In this chapter we see again that all of the Christian life is possible only by the sacrifice of Jesus. We do not come to Jesus by our good deeds or by our own anything, it is by His grace that we haved been saved. Nor do we achieve humility or any other godly virture on our own. We need Jesus. We need His provision and debt paying sacrifice to live and to serve. Do I forget Jesus in my efforts to make Him known?
"Donald English expresses the point this way:"At the source of all
Christian service in the world is the crucified and risen Lord who died to
liberate us into such service."
"Ultimately our Christian service exists only to draw attention to this
source-our crucified and risen Lord who gave Himself as a ransom for us
all."
C.J. contiunes on to go deeper into the incomparable sacrifice of Jesus and it's nessesity for us to have life and to live an awesome life of faith.
Jesus has died for our sins, and our sins are rooted in pride, pride keeps us from depending on God. Depending on God for all of life is humilitly. Do I live a cross centered life?
Humility:True Greatness-3
Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney
Chapter 3 Greatness Redefined
Study and overview by Marc
We have some desires for greatness and in that pursuit God is either in it or not. I want to be a great husband, dad, son, brother, uncle, friend, missionary, teacher, athlete, video game player, leader...and the list goes on and on. It is not wrong to want to be great at these things, I think God desires for us to be great at most of these more than we do. C.J. shows us that our definition for greatness must be filtered through the bible.
We can see the disciples arguing with one another about who is greatest among themselves and Jesus lovingly sets them straight.
"If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." (Mark 9:35)
Once again this verse makes me review my personal life and my public ministry. Do I put others first? Am I convinced that Jesus' way of living and leading is best or do I exert my "expertise" over him saying that I know better? Do I seek greatness for my name's sake or for God's, and the good of others? Will I depend on Jesus' ways and trust Him in my desire to be great for Him? I want to be fully involved and successful in all my responsibilities. I do not want to meander through life like a little stream being directed by every little obstacle in the way, I want to be a full river of intentional living. In this, I do believe God is honored, but only when
he is the goal, supplier, and sustainer.
I have seen leadership the way Jesus desires and I have seen horrible leadership. We can have the right words and right actions and all along not be a servant of all. It is a great picture, I serve those in my care and they will be supplied and equipped to do what they need to do. The best place I saw this was in college. My discipleship leader Brad Bedingfield made sure that I was walking with God and thinking about others. I felt loved and looked out for and did the same in the lives of a few college guys around me. They, in turn, did the same thing in the lives of others. I would love to see how this chain of serving each other has led to the salvation of many and equipping of the saints. Our goal was not numbers, although it felt like that at times, it was disciplining college students for God's glory. It was a simple method, a biblical one too. When our goal is great programs that will get or keep people involved, we can become focused on the programs and not people. We are to serve people, not programs. We do programs, but not at the expense of the great commission. What if numbers are low but passion, evangelism, worship and servanthood is high? I think these factors can lead to lasting impact and life change. What is at the heart of those of us that lead, will we humbly trust in Jesus' way of being great and having a lasting ministry, family, or business?
I think a good way to know if you are serving people is to ask yourself about the people in your care. How are they? How can I make their lives better? How can I love them more? How can I help them to fight sin? What do they like and not like? Ask questions. If you don't know, then you are not leading...you are just meandering.
We need to serve those around us, not to be great, but to see greatness. Let's not miss out by being filled with ourselves.
