\u25cf PRIDE and GUILT—good, bad, ugly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amazing, how pride and guilt can each be very bad, and each can be very good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Very Bad
Pride can lead to idolatry—self-worship.
Guilt can lead to despair—self-hatred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Very Good
Pride can motivate—doing good in what you are good at doing.
Guilt can evaluate—repenting, changing from doing wrong to doing right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u25cf PRIDE and GUILT—everyday examples<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I love my work.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I hate my job.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m the best at what I do.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m good, because I do good.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I look at what I have accomplished, and I say to myself, . . .”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I deserve a good retirement (‘eat, drink, and be merry’—or some American version of that).”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Trying to be spiritual, I wonder if my work could become an idol, if I feel too good about it or love it too much.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I feel guilty when I tell my family ‘I have to’ work late.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Should I feel guilty when ‘I want to’ work late ?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I have to ‘provide’ for my family.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I can’t afford, I can’t just decide to give up 14% of my week”. (Sunday—fourth commandment)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When does hard work make me live longer ?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When does hard work make me live less (not as healthy, not as many years, not enjoying the years) ?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Hard work makes you live longer, if it doesn’t kill you first.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I wonder, ‘Who am I really working for ?’ “<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u25cf PRIDE and GUILT—advice, counsel, warning, commands, mandates, encouragement, blessings<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advice to pastors,
“Ministers, wear yourselves out for Christ.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as to the Lord and not to men . . . It is the Lord Christ you serve.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In vain (also “It is vain”) you rise early and stay up late, toiling for bread to eat\u2014for He gives sleep to His beloved.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Six days you shall give all you’ve got and do all your work; the seventh is a day of rest, unto the Lord.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Don’t ‘spend all you’ve got’ * just trying to stay alive, and not live.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don’t prioritize preparing for retirement.
Don’t count on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Do not store up treasures on earth (unsecured, insecure).”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Store up treasures in heaven (secured by God).”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
repeat: “Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u25cf PRIDE and GUILT—how it started<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lucifer was ‘the best in heaven’—and he knew it—or he thought so—good looks (beautiful), good gifts (music leader), ambitious ? \u00bf<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THEN—PRIDE—REVOLUTION—KICKED OUT OF HEAVEN ! X ! X ! X
He was guilty, he knew he was guilty, he never admitted he was guilty, he has no road back, ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He kept his attitude of pride\u2010\u2010\u2010lying, deceiving and terrorizing God’s creation (man), to get back at God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u25cf PRIDE and GUILT—final, the end, the last word<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The devil will get what he deserves, from God.
And that is the end of the story for the devil, forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pride started all this, and that is a mess, in a messed up world.
But that is not the end of the story, for us, THANK GOD \u2606 \u2606 \u2606<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can take the road back, a narrow road, with limited access, many dangers, with promised help along the way—and not get what we deserve from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paradise can be regained, not for the devil, but for us (not by us), by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That covers our pride in what we think we can do, and that covers our guilt for what we have done and for what we have not done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u25cf PRIDE and GUILT—good, bad, ugly Amazing, how pride and guilt can each be very bad, and each can be very good. Very BadPride can lead to idolatry—self-worship.Guilt can lead to despair—self-hatred. Very GoodPride can motivate—doing good in what you are good at doing.Guilt can evaluate—repenting, changing from doing wrong to doing right. \u25cf PRIDE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,3,4,5,14,7,9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-family","category-financial","category-fun","category-health","category-inspire_lifter","category-political-cultural","category-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8182"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8183,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8182\/revisions\/8183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}