Do we not all have two arms?

heres the text, though it is long :eek:

A lot of people these days fight over all types of things. I don’t mean fist fights, though some do occur. I am talking about fights about who is better. Who makes the most money, who has the higher grades, who is talker, skinnier, better looking? Who is smarter, takes tests better. There is so many arguments going on and sometimes we don’t even see them occurring in us. I sometimes get into these arguments, its human nature… But not God’s nature.
But then there is the big one. Did you know that some people argue over who has more faith in God. They argue about who is a better believer, a stronger believe, and more spiritual believer. I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s true. I have heard these fights myself and have had many run ins with people in these fights. On a Christian Forum I post on (Christian Forum Site.com) a member posted some information that is very relevant in this regard. He posed the quote:
The Christian Army is the only one who kills its own wounded
Now let’s talk about war a bit, people get hurt in war, right. We’ll it’s the same thing in the church, people hurt others. Now, I’m not saying there are wars going on in every churches, guns aren’t ablating and pews aren’t exploding, but there are wars with words. Someone might say something that hurts another believer, or a new member of the church. Now, if someone gets hurt in war… That person gets immediate medical help. They are raised up on the arms of their fellow soldiers and they are brought for immediate treatment. Now, what the quote above is saying, on more occasions than usual our fellow Christian soldiers are left on the battle field, they are left hurt and alone to bleed out without help.
Why does this happen, your asking? It’s pretty simple, some people think they might see God clearer than the other person, or that person is incorrect in some way but instead of the fellow members helping that person out, they throw them in front of a bus. This is not the way Christians should act.
You see, these things, these” fights for faith” are complete nonsense in God’s eyes. While listener A of this podcast might think they have more faith than Listener B, God sees them each HAVING faith. It doesn’t matter how much faith each of the people have, it’s the fact that they both have faith, they both believe in Christ our Lord and God. That is all that matters.
A similar fight actually broke out in front of Jesus, between the very people he put in charge of leading his ministry. His Disciples.

Luke 9:46-48:
Jesus’ followers began to have an argument about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he took a little child and stood the child beside him. Then Jesus said, “Whoever accepts this little child in my name accepts me. And whoever accepts me accepts the One who sent me, because whoever in the least among you all is really the greatest.”
Now, what a smack in the face this must have been for Jesus’ Disciples. Here they are, in front of Jesus arguing over who has more faith, who is stronger, which one of them was greater in God’s eyes, and then Jesus holds up this little boy and basically says this child is on the same level as all of you.
I can imagine the reaction to what Jesus says, all the noise and fighting just suddenly stops and they turn to Jesus with this, are you joking expression.
Man, I bet anyone who over saw this was on their back laughing, saying man… they just got told.
But really, God was saying, this little boy, he believes in me… he has a firm relationship with me and I with him, those who see that, those who see that he believes in me the same as anyone else, no matter how old he is, no matter what he looks like, how smart he is… He BELIEVES (whisper) in me. So those that see that they are no greater than a child, those of you that see no matter what level of faith a person has, they have faith… and therefore those that accept that, accept me.
It matters not that of human standard and competition, but that of a relationship with God.
The funny thing is, this isn’t the only time they fight, they also fight in Matthew 20:20-28
And in John 13:4-17 these are all different where each member thought they were better than the other.
The problem with this world today, and even back then… Is excessive Pride and egos. Who listening to this says they have no pride, they have no ego… They would be lying… Even I have an over zealous ego sometimes, we all have it. I always joke around by saying, those that say they have no pride actually have pride, because they are saying they have less pride than the people around them, trying to make themselves look better. But isn’t it true. We all think we are better than someone somewhere. We didn’t go to jail or do this or that, but everyone is equal in God’s eyes.
I like the argument, who has less sin. I mean come on people, we ALL sinned, and one sin is enough to separate you from God, so then who really care how much sin you have if any sin will kill you? Really?
Did you know the bible mentions pride 69 times in the NIV. This shows that people also obviously had pride problems back then; they have, however, grown since them.
Job 33:17 says: To turn them away from doing wrong and to keep them from being proud, God does this to save people from death, to keep them from dying.
God wants us to turn away from pride, there is so much pride in the world, and so much hatred comes of it. Job says to turn away from doing wrong, and to keep them from being proud… He pets wrong and proud together because he knows that when one is proud, they usually will commit wrong.

Now let’s look at a verse in songs, specifically songs 59:12
Psa 59:12 For the sins of their mouths, for the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride. For the curses and lies they utter,
This is another problem pride brings us, when people are prideful, they are much more likely to spread curses and lies on people. How many times has this happened to you? I’ll tell you, it’s a weird example, but I find that this happens a lot when a guy and girl are dating and everyone is really jealous, they will spread lies and rumors around, trying to get the two to break up. This is because they are jealous, which is a byproduct of extreme pride in oneself.
Pride and egos are one of the biggest downfalls in organizations, and between people. It will destroy everything it touches, even when we think it helps.
Then we learn that Pride further divides us from God.
[FONT=&quot]Psalm 10:4 (NIV)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4 In his pride the wicked does not seek him; [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]in all his thoughts there is no room for God. [/FONT]
When people get so consumed with themselves, when they think the world revolves around them, they start to wonder if they even need a God. They sometimes even say THEY are God. But this is not true. Pride is a sin and an addicting one indeed. It takes God, and throws him aside, and places you where he once stood. So God wants us to get rid of pride, he knows it separates us from him. He wants us not to be prideful.
God says pride is the root of all sin, it does cause us to turn from God, it causes us to hurt others, to hurt ourselves, to do things without God. It causes a lot of sin so it really can be traced back to one of the causes of sin. What Pride does with us and God is, we think we can make it without God, so we stop praying, living for him, trying to help others… We do a lot of things because of it.
So now lets move on, how do you get rid of our pride, or at least stop it from getting between us and God. The first thing you can do, is pray. Pray to God to see everyone in a new light. Pray to see everyone on the same level, ask him to see the inside of people and not the outside.
The next thing we can do is forgive everything that others have done to you, and forgive yourself and ask for forgiveness to everyone you did something too. Because, as long as that hate, and their hate is manifesting inside us, we will never be able to see each other as equals. We will always hold a special, I mean bad, place in our hearts for those people. So the second step is to forgive.
Third, stop putting things in the way between you and God. Slow down, realize you can not do anything with God, he is everything and the only way to get things done in your life, is to allow God to work in it. When we get so busy and so crowded with things that we don’t need to be worrying about, we turn away from God, and think we need to do everything ourselves and in our own way. This is not true, God is there to help you, and God is there to leed your life, but you need to throw your hands up, give up the wheel, and let God drive you in the correct direction.
And fourth, stop yourself from getting prideful again; always continue to follow these steps to keep yourself in check and to constantly love others. Make sure you don’t talk about other people. And Follow the golden rule of God:
Matthew 7:12
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

God has given you all the information you need to get through pride and get back to him, just listen and read and follow what God wants you to do.

Lord, I pray that you help us all to realize that we all suffer from pride; we all do things prideful that you don’t want us to do. Lord, help us. Help us to follow the steps to get rid of pride, help us to treat others the way we want to be treated, and more over… Help us to treat others the way you would treat them. We do not wish to fight like some of the disciples, we know we are all on the same level as everyone, help us to stop jumping; stop trying to get higher than the person next to us. Help us also; lord, to slow down… Help us to walk to you instead of to us. Make us make time for you.
-In your name we pray, Amen.
 
I have to say that this post is really helpful and encouraging!. I am a very new christian and haven't thought about pride at all, but with all your examples it has hellped me to understand where all pride can stem from. I agree that we all suffer from it, and I personally have already delt with it, without even knowing it, wanting to let go of alot of things I should, but for example still catching myself wanting to put on my makeup to go to church, I'm not saying it is right or wrong to wear it, just saying I feel it IS about my pride, making myself want to look good, when that is the last thing I should think about!.

I also love how you said that a sin is a sin, regardless of if it is one or one-hundread!! When we want to make ourselves look better, we compare to those who seem to have more agianst them , and that is so wrong, and that point you make is very valuable!

Thanks for the great post!. LOL, wish I could listen but, i had to read it, my 3 year old is sleeping near by!..
God Bless!!!!
 
Your House Your Body; Listen

Hey Guys, Just thought I would let you know I just released two new podcasts. One is called house.. Available at:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheCrossingZone/~5/488126282/Podcast6_House.mp3

The other one is called listen, it's a video... quality isn't that great sorry. Anyway, its available at:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheCrossingZone/~5/488126283/Listen.mp4

Enjoy!

Pictures are from the house podcast.

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