EDIM 10 - John 3:30
In the rare times that I go back and reread a previous post or two, I have to wonder what the result was. Did the points end up being the influential factor? Or the path to the point? What really was the result of that wording.... did it really end up sincere or just snobbishly arrogant? It's not as if I ever claimed superiority, but you do wonder sometimes. Maybe that's the way it came across as, doing more harm and annoyance than the good it was intended for.
I wrote this post a good while ago, John 3:30, and the verse really serves as a reminder every single day.
Coming across as intellectually, spiritually, or even common sensibly superior has never been my goal here.... the fact is that when Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10 the impression of some recipients of the letter, I feel very much that relates to me.
Verses 9-11, "I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. For some say, 'His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.' Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present."
By the graciousness of God working good in me, I do live to fulfill the second part of that verse, but the reality is that I've never been good in the speaking area. It's no problem to carry a conversation, and an announcement to a crowd is only a small step further, but in conversing on subject close to me, knowledge seems to slither away. That's a huge incentive to memorize more scripture as there is no loss in doing such a thing.
Still, the point is John 3:30. "He must become greater, I must become less". Every post I am conscious of the fact that I am writing because of someone far greater than me, and that is a humbling thought. The desires of the flesh would have me use such writing to draw glory to myself, but such an act would be like eclipsing the sun with myself as the moon, an object drawing glorious light only when not obstructing the very thing that casts a glow of warmth to all who would receive it as so.
John 3:30 keeps me checking my motives, reasons. Sometimes it seems even capitalizing an entry title seems overbearingly self-inflating. Such a thing is inconsequential, why should I capitalize to make it look important? The content of the entry is what counts. Perhaps my wording is to self-righteous in that paragraph, I fault in the same ways.
The end conclusion is that I am no important someone. Merely a lost human, picked up and rescued by Jesus, and guided alongside with him in his love. I do not believe I think more profound thoughts than others, on the contrary, all of mine have been quite plain. No more complicated than the next person who works next to me in a day job. I only choose differently; to write such things, rather than pretend they don't exist and that I have no problems, or must handle them myself. Or, that they do exist and no one can possibly understand them.
Call it stupidity, call it bravery, call it abnormal behavior, but in all things the glory belongs to God, the faults to me. If I can spread his truth in writing even while being inept in vocal attempts (something that can be improved on and definitely will be cause for sweat and growth), then I choose to write rather than entirely hide what simply cannot remain hidden.
"He must become greater, I must become less."
I wrote this post a good while ago, John 3:30, and the verse really serves as a reminder every single day.
Coming across as intellectually, spiritually, or even common sensibly superior has never been my goal here.... the fact is that when Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10 the impression of some recipients of the letter, I feel very much that relates to me.
Verses 9-11, "I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. For some say, 'His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.' Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present."
By the graciousness of God working good in me, I do live to fulfill the second part of that verse, but the reality is that I've never been good in the speaking area. It's no problem to carry a conversation, and an announcement to a crowd is only a small step further, but in conversing on subject close to me, knowledge seems to slither away. That's a huge incentive to memorize more scripture as there is no loss in doing such a thing.
Still, the point is John 3:30. "He must become greater, I must become less". Every post I am conscious of the fact that I am writing because of someone far greater than me, and that is a humbling thought. The desires of the flesh would have me use such writing to draw glory to myself, but such an act would be like eclipsing the sun with myself as the moon, an object drawing glorious light only when not obstructing the very thing that casts a glow of warmth to all who would receive it as so.
John 3:30 keeps me checking my motives, reasons. Sometimes it seems even capitalizing an entry title seems overbearingly self-inflating. Such a thing is inconsequential, why should I capitalize to make it look important? The content of the entry is what counts. Perhaps my wording is to self-righteous in that paragraph, I fault in the same ways.
The end conclusion is that I am no important someone. Merely a lost human, picked up and rescued by Jesus, and guided alongside with him in his love. I do not believe I think more profound thoughts than others, on the contrary, all of mine have been quite plain. No more complicated than the next person who works next to me in a day job. I only choose differently; to write such things, rather than pretend they don't exist and that I have no problems, or must handle them myself. Or, that they do exist and no one can possibly understand them.
Call it stupidity, call it bravery, call it abnormal behavior, but in all things the glory belongs to God, the faults to me. If I can spread his truth in writing even while being inept in vocal attempts (something that can be improved on and definitely will be cause for sweat and growth), then I choose to write rather than entirely hide what simply cannot remain hidden.
"He must become greater, I must become less."
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