"Saving Face" --That Old Devil EGO

By John Stallings

In 1985 a super group of American popular singers were invited to Los Angeles to record a song written by Michael Jackson called, “We are the world.” It was billed as USA for Africa.

Arranger Quincy Jones held the baton & the charity single was intended to raise funds to help famine relief efforts in Ethiopia which experienced unusual drought in 1984/85.

The single sold 800,000 copies its first week & was the highest debuting single since John Lennon’s “Imagine, “ & won Grammy Awards for song of the year & record of the year.

Jones coined a statement that day that took on a life of its own when he placed a sign at the front of the studio reading, “Please check your ego at the door.”

Jones knew he had a few dozen of the most successful solo artists in the world in one place & all of them were used to running their own show so he said in essence; “You’re not going to sing a solo [though an effort was made to somehow feature everyone’s voice at some point-that to me was comical,] you’re not going to fiddle with the sound-system & you’re not going to call the shots. This is a group effort- period!”

From all accounts things went well that day because Jones was wise enough to see the obvious pitfalls of a venture like this & “nip old man ego in the bud,” & each of the performers realized the occasion was bigger than them.

WHAT IS EGO?

• Ego is the invisible shield planted around self to protect it from the outside world.
  · Ego is being shy & unable to move outside to connect with others.
  · Ego is fear of what others think.
  · Ego is critical & will not accept compliments.
  · Ego is lack of trust in others because trust has been violated.
  · Ego is living inside a comfort zone to protect from failure & other people.
  · Ego can be thinking you’re perfect or striving for perfection.
  · Ego will take the credit when credit doesn’t belong to you.
  · Ego has a mind like a steel-trap. Closed.
  · Ego is not allowing yourself to learn & grow for fear of responsibility.
  · Ego is refusal to forgive because you feel justified in your anger.
  · Ego takes offense quickly at what others do or say.
  · Ego is self-righteous & critical.
  · Ego is false humility.
  · Ego is oppressive & loves living in the past.
  · Ego is having to be in control of everything.
  · Ego is thinking no one can do it as good as you.
  · Ego is an inability to admit you need help.
  · Ego needs to “keep up with the Jones.”
  · Ego needs to appear like everything is perfect when it isn’t.
  · Ego is a victim.
  · Ego is prideful
  · Ego will never, never apologize but if necessary, to preserve itself, will go down to the grave with every relationship torn asunder.
  · If we turn our lives over to God our ego will safely be left outside the doorway of our life.
  · In short---EGO IS ;

E.—Edging
G.—God
O. ----Out

WE ALL HAVE AN EGO

If we didn’t have an ego we wouldn’t last long on this earth. Our Ego tells us what we want to eat for dinner, who our friends are & what books we want to read. The dangerous part of our ego’s is when it gets so swollen & inflated it turns into an evil monster with another name—self-centeredness.

Duke University did studies on ego & found that people who were egotistical & self-absorbed scored the lowest in any test measuring happiness.

We’ve all seen people who were egotists & usually they wonder why they have it so hard in life, but no one likes a person with a big-head, puffed-up with pride.

A crowded United Airlines flight was cancelled. A single agent was rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk, slapped his ticket down on the desk & said, “I have to be on this flight & it has to be first class.”
The agent replied, “I’m sorry sir. I’ll be happy to try to help you but I’ve got to help these folks first.” The passenger asked loudly, “Do you know who I am?” Without hesitating the agent smiled & grabbed her public address microphone. “May I have your attention please? She began, her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal. “We have a passenger here at Gate 14 who doesn’t know who he is. If anyone can help him find his identity please come to Gate 14.”

In the first chapters of the book of John, John the Baptist comes on the scene as the forerunner of his cousin Jesus. By taking a close look at what was happening here we can see the dynamics of what can take place when an individual is willing to make their ego subservient to a cause greater than itself.

John the Baptist throughout his life played second fiddle. That’s what his life was about. He played before, & he played behind, & he supported the main melody, the main act the main event, the “one who was coming,” which was Jesus. That was his job so that when Jesus came His voice would ring loud & clear.

It was John’s job to wake people up before Jesus came. It was John’s job to create an air of expectancy about Jesus & prepare peoples ears to hear His message. It had been many years since a great prophet had been active in Israel so John’s job was to wake the people up to the fact that God was sending Jesus the Messiah.

John was to be the dry run before the test. He was to be the lightening before the storm. He was to be the first tremor of the earthquake that was on its way. His job was to be the “leaked press release” before the president’s speech so that before Jesus came to speak, people would be speaking about what was going to be spoken.

The prophets Isaiah & Malachi years before had said that someone would come to do this, to prepare the way for God’s Messiah. John was to be a voice crying in the wilderness & he knew he was that voice. So up & down the West bank John went dressed like a prophet of old, eating bugs & stirring the people up with anticipation.- of Jesus who was to Come.

SO HOW DID JOHN LET GO OF HIS EGO?

John put his ego aside. He had disciples but he knew he wasn’t going to keep them for himself. They would be sent by him to Jesus.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Saving Face.” John wasn’t in the business of saving face; he was spending all his energies preparing the hearts of people for his cousin, whom he knew was the one sent from God to die for the sins of the world. Let’s take the word FACE as an acronym, using each letter to make a word describing John’s method of operation. The first word is;

FEAR

John let go of fear. Fear of being rejected & subjugated to his cousin Jesus. John could well have felt like his disciples following Jesus meant that they were rejecting him or that they had no more use for him. If John had given in to that fear he would have had to spend all his energy protecting his ego & kept his disciples in orbit around him, “The great John.”

We often see husbands so fearful that their wives will get out from under their control that they spend all their time working on their minds making sure there isn’t one speck of difference in the way they see things. I’ve known men who called their wives from work every hour, on the hour to talk, especially if they felt they needed to be conditioning her to think like they do on some issue. This is nothing more than fear that things will get out of their control. It’s an autocratic, mental domination stemming from an ego that would be crushed if it wasn’t regulating everything in their sphere. This in the long run plays out as genuine hurtful even destructive behavior.

Relationships will be healthier when we love others deeply enough to serve their needs rather than using them to meet our needs & further our agenda’s.

Our next letter is A, which stands for

ATTACHMENT;

Attachment- to being right; to being the only star in our personal solar system. John could have viewed his disciples leaving him for Jesus as an attack on what he was teaching. He could have allowed himself to let him view their behavior as a sell-out & dug in his heels to defend his precious ego. He could have started criticizing Jesus & pushing himself. He might have responded like a Blow fish blowing himself up to look bigger than he really was in order to compete with Jesus & keep his disciples as HIS disciples.

Do we have a heavy investment in always being right? We are in the middle of an argument with our spouse, a friend or loved one & we come to realize we are dead wrong. Do we admit it or do we dig in even deeper because our Ego is too fragile to “lose.” We are willing to hurt the other person & damage the relationship rather than simply admit we were wrong & apologize.

Why can’t we apologize when we know we’re wrong? Why can’t we say things like “I might be wrong”? Why do we have to have the last word in every altercation? Why can’t we reach out to others & extend an Olive branch of peace & understanding? It seems to me that if we allowed it free rein, our ego would destroy all our relationships & alienate the rest of the world so long as it was coddled, catered to, stroked & never threatened. The C stands for;

CONTROL,

.....the need to control others. If John needed his disciples to do things his way in order to feel good about himself he never would have let them go with Jesus. He’d have tried to control them. He might have tried to manipulate them or to somehow use guilt to get them to do his bidding. If we need others to behave or look or think certain ways in order for us to feel good about ourselves then we’ll be people who have a strong need to control others.
We need to learn from John. We need to learn how to love people deeply enough to let them go. To trust them enough to release them to blossom & bloom into the people God created them to be. Finally, E stands for;

ENTITLEMENT,

...the idea that I should be loved & respected without any personal responsibility or obligation. John might have felt that his disciples owed him their loyalty & that it was his right & privilege. Again if John had felt that way he would never have encouraged his disciples to follow Jesus.
However John doesn’t have a sense of entitlement. He’d rather serve others than expect them to serve him. If you & I really care for others we will let go of the FACE of an over inflated Ego & look for ways to serve them rather than thinking they owe us.

THE EGO’S OF JAMES & JOHN

In the tenth chapter of Mark, James & John the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus & asked Him- to grant that they may sit, one on they right hand & the other on thy left hand in thy glory.
Before we condemn these two men let’s look at ourselves & ask if we don’t have the same basic desire for recognition & importance; the same desire for attention & the same desire to be first. There is deep down within all of us an instinct to be out front, to lead the parade. And it’s something that runs the whole gamut of life.

Sigmund Freud contended that sex was mans dominate impulse but later psychoanalysts argued that the quest for attention & for distinction is the basic drive of human life. Our first cry as a baby was a bid for attention. We came into this world a bundle of ego.

A SWOLLEN EGO CAUSES US TO LIVE ABOVE OUR MEANS

People will drive cars they really can’t afford but they do it anyway because it feeds their ego.
Much of the latest housing crisis in America with people losing their homes is due in many cases to buying above what they could actually afford to pay for, thus they are going into foreclosure in record numbers. EGO is responsible for much of this.

EGO will cause you to be a name-dropper. In an attempt to pacify an enlarged ego some people will try to identify with so-called “big-name people.” They will make you think they know somebody they really don’t know. They will try to convince you they sip tea with famous folk. That actually happens to people.

SPREADING GOSSIP & LIES ABOUT PEOPLE IS THE REFUGE OF A SICK EGO.

When a person fails to harness their ego they will be driven to try to push others down in order to lift themselves up. When they do that they engage in a vicious sin & a sin God particularly hates. They will spread evil vicious lies on people.

Lately we’ve heard the politicians, Clinton & Obama, accusing each other of elitism. This also is one of the places the Ego goes, to snobbish exclusivism. This happens in churches. I’ve heard pastors say, “we have so many school teachers, & so many lawyers & so many doctors & businessmen in our church.” Now don’t get me wrong; these people ought to be in church. That’s fine. The problem is they can sometimes say this as if other people don’t count. Maybe we could call this; “An Ego-driven church.” If there’s any place that a doctor should forget he’s a doctor & a PHD should forget his education, church should be the place. When a church is true to its calling, it says, “Whosoever will may come.”
THAT BOY IS BACK IN TOWN

When Jesus returned to His hometown of Nazareth, the people responded to him with their EGO’S in full bloom. Jesus offended almost everyone. He asked His family, “Who are my brothers & sisters?” He told His disciples, “Get behind me Satan.”
He offended the Pharisees….the ancient religious right. He offended the Sadducees…the liberal, spiritual, well-educated left. He offended the Herodians…the opportunistic secularists of the day. Have you noticed how many folk are getting miffed in the gospel stories?
You can tell a lot about people when they are offended, especially when you see what it is in them that has been offended.

YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’VE BEEN OFFENDED THAT EGOS IN CONTROL.

When you find yourself saying “She didn’t include me…” They disagreed with me & were critical of me.” How dare he suggest such a thing?” “They didn’t consult me.” When we’re in that state…we’re controlled by something & it’s not God.

When Jesus goes home & He’s teaching, the home-boys & girls get offended. “Where did He get this stuff?” “I remember this guy from school. He had pimples back in Junior High. He was terrible at stick-ball. Who does He think He is?” “Its all well & good for someone to be a prophet but not someone I baby- sat…The carpenters son…might as well have been my son…nothing good can come out of Nazareth, certainly not me.”

Can you see how these people’s Ego’s caused them to be offended? In Jesus’ teaching in their temple, He mentioned how Elijah was sent to a woman during the famine & she received a miracle & she wasn’t even Jewish. He also mentioned General Namaan who was healed of leprosy & he’d been Israel’s enemy. They felt like God worked only through the Jewish people & here was Jesus, point blank telling them it wasn’t so. These Nazarene’s blew a fuse. They said, “Enough of this. Man the battle stations….Lower the draw bridge…Stones for everyone…Lock & load.” Jesus had bruised their tender & sensitive Ego’s.

NAMAAN’S EGO ALMOST LOST HIM HIS MIRACLE

You will no doubt remember him from 2 Kings. Namaan was a great man, a general in the ancient army of Aram, the area we now call Syria. He was great but afflicted with leprosy so he comes south to Israel & meets with the prophet Elisha.

He has heard that Elisha can heal him so he goes to Elisha’s humble house but Elisha won’t even come out to meet him. Instead Elisha sends his servant out to tell him to “go wash in the Jordan River seven times & you’ll be clean.”

Namaan gets miffed. He’s hurt & upset. Remember this man has a large ego. He’s filled with pride & flies into a rage. “No exception for a man like me? And what is this Jordan River? Its nothing compared to the rivers of Damascus! It’s just a puddle or a pond.” It was all beneath him. His ego almost outweighed his chance for healing.

Namaan had some good & faithful servants who said, “Do it anyway Namaan, do it anyway.” Namaan put his ego aside & found his healing & a new life in a seemingly small & insignificant thing like dipping himself in the Jordan seven times.

THE GREATEST SERMON CHRIST NEVER PREACHED

Our example in humility & laying aside of ego is Christ. In John 13:1-14, Jesus laid aside His garments & took a towel & began to wash His disciple’s feet. Jesus didn’t preach this sermon but a sermon it was; a sermon in humility. In Jesus’ day, this was a job for slaves because people’s feet got every kind of filth on them from dirt to dung. This one, who was the Messiah of God, humbled Himself & became obedient to the circumstances of human existence to the point of death on a cross.

Jesus affirmed Himself on Palm Sunday as Messiah & allowed the crowds to shout hosanna. But then, with not an egotistical bone in His body, He went from the praises of Palm Sunday to the humiliation of the Roman cross.

But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled Himself & became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.—Philippians 2:7-8

Blessings,

John

Seven Ducks In A Dirty River

By John Stallings


……..but he was a leper. -- 2nd Kings 5:1


Imagine if you attended a well known college or university.

You graduated with honors & now you have a really great job with a large company. You had worked hard through the years & gotten lots of promotions & eventually became CEO of the company.

You continue to grow the business & expand it further into other countries. NOW YOU’VE MADE IT!! You’ve made a name for yourself. You’re smart & everybody knows it & well known in your field of expertise. Not to mention you’re rich.

One morning you’re combing your hair & feel a burning pain in the upper part of your body. You see your doctor & he tells you you’re seriously ill. Not only that, you must enter the hospital immediately for a battery of tests with radical surgery soon to follow. You must cancel all plans as of that moment & put your life on hold and you’re told that most cases like yours have an extremely high mortality rate. How do you think you’d feel? You’d be devastated, it’s just that simple.

Now all the education, all the hard work, all the riches mean nothing. Not only that, what about all the employees in your large company who look to you for sustenance. Suddenly everything goes up in smoke.

This brings us to one of the most interesting stories in the Old Testament. In the book of 2nd Kings we find a man named Naaman in the very same situation we just described. His chief claim to fame is --- he’s mentioned in a sermon by Jesus in Luke 4:27. Jesus commented that the only leper healed in Elisha’s time was Namaan the leper.

Our response to our bad health news would very likely be taken much more mildly than Naamans so long ago. His world abruptly blew apart. He was the captain of the Syrian Army. He was a mighty man of valor, a great man of courage, a great leader & military tactician. He was brilliant with many battles behind him most of which he’d won. He was a big- shot & a national hero in his own country. Had he lived in our day Namaan would have been a governor, head of a chamber of commerce or president of some bank. But---Naaman was a leper.

Naaman had the whole world seemingly in the palm of his hand. He had all that fleshly appetites could possibly want. He was on top of the world & at the top of his game. Unfortunately his life took a bad twist & when we meet him here in 2nd Kings he’s hideously & terminally ill with a flesh devouring disease.

The best comparison I can think of with leprosy in our modern day would be AIDS. Barring a miracle, life as he knows it is over for Naaman. He’s going to die sometime soon. Death would be a blessing considering the alternative of the digits & limbs of his body literally falling off.

But now Naaman must be quarantined because he’s contagious. He’s unclean. There’s no cure. This once powerful man is now powerless, he’s a pathetic case. He’s really sick. His position in the Army now means absolutely nothing at all. The battles he’s won; the achievements he’s had so far in life are totally insignificant.

As it oft-times happens, help came from a strange source-a young Jewish girl. She had been taken captive & was now a servant to Namaan’s wife. This girl was probably a teenager snatched from her home & may have even witnessed the death of her parents. Her reaction to Namaan’s tragedy was remarkably Christian. She had no hatred or resentment, only a desire to help. She told of a prophet by the name of Elisha in Samaria who could heal him of his disease. Samaria was the capitol of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This constituted great news for Naaman.

Now Naaman is on a search for God & God’s man.

SADLY SOME PEOPLE NEVER THINK OF GOD UNTIL THEY’RE DESPERATE?

Far too many people take no time for God when things are running smoothly. They don’t acknowledge Him in any way. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but God loves us enough to rock our world to get our attention. If we place God on the back burner, sooner or later we’ll get a rude awakening & it won’t be pleasant.

So Naaman asked permission from the King to go see the prophet Elisha. The King sent him to another even weaker King & we are furnished with a little comic relief here at the expense of “The high & the mighty.” It was a typical case of bureaucratic bungling which causes two kings, the king of Syria & the king of Israel to have a short “Mexican-standoff.” The King of Israel had a conniption hissy-fit thinking he was being messed with by the king of Syria. He couldn’t cure a fly with a headache & he knew it, so he got all bent out of shape & rent his clothes. It’s really comical when you read it in 2nd Kings 5:6-7.

Well Elisha the prophet heard about the kerfluffel & sent word to the king of Israel to send Naaman to him. It’s slowly sinking into Naaman’s head that God is his only hope. Naaman lets no grass grow under his feet. You’ve really got to picture the scene of Naaman arriving at Elisha’s house. His big chariot wheels barely fit between the curbs. He pulls up in front of Elisha’s house with all his entourage thinking Elisha is going to lay hands on him. Naaman’s horses are puffing & pawing on the ground & Elisha’s neighbors are hanging out their windows. One of Naaman's snappily dressed servants walks up to the door & knocks.

But Elisha sends his servant out to tell Naaman to go duck in the river Jordan River seven times. It’s this simple; General Naaman, a commander of the Army of Aram who was packing a lot of gold & silver in his luggage as well as clothes, was supposed to go squat around in a muddy river like a five year old boy.

JUST DO IT NAMAAN
The instructions given Namaan are reminiscent of the Nike commercial— “Just do it.” When Naaman gets the orders to go to this dirty river & duck he’s gets so angry & upset he turns & starts home. What kind of shabby welcome is this? The approach Elisha is using & these seemingly nonsensical instructions are totally unacceptable. His home town of Damascus was known for its clean pure rivers & endless supply of clean water. Namaan’s servant reminds him that if the prophet had asked him to so some great thing he’d have been willing to do it.

NOTICE HOW THE SERVANTS, BASICALLY POWERLESS PEOPLE, ARE PLAYING SUCH IMPORTANT ROLLS IN THIS STORY.

Namaan was fortunate to have such wise people around him who weren’t afraid to speak truth to power. So often simple common sense tips the scales in the right direction. So finally Naaman goes down to the river & walks out into the muddy water. He really wants to get well. He leaves his clothes & shoes on the bank. The water was greenish & smelled like fish. There was nothing remotely sacred about it. Can’t you just hear him say “Ooooooooo its Soooo cold & muddy?” I can imagine his teeth were chattering & his sores were burning. He pinches his nose & tries to think of nothing but numbers.

1. After the first DUCK Naaman still had leprosy --but his DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD was washed away.

He was obedient & that was a good start but what he needed was more of God. If he was going to be healed it would take more obedience. Many people have all of God they want. Today “our greatest need is to see our need.”

Abraham was the poster boy for disobedience in Genesis. God told him to leave Ur & go to Canaan but he went as far as Haran & settled down there; a direct act of disobedience. He didn’t sojourn there, he settled there & there’s a big difference. As a matter of fact, when studying Abraham’s life Haran is called the “land of disobedience.” Many people never see their dreams come true in life because they fail to fully execute God’s will for their lives.

Also Abraham strayed down into Egypt which is a type of the world. Abraham was a man with flocks & herds & when the rain stopped he was in trouble. So he felt driven to leave & go south toward Egypt. Abraham didn’t consult God about the matter, he just went. This was a tragic mistake for each step took him away from the alter & closer to Egypt.

Egypt looked good with its lush green delta & the Nile River. There would be plenty of food there. But the trip turned out to be disastrous because Abraham took council with this fears instead of with God.

So we can readily see that when Namaan got rid of his disobedience he was definitely on the right track but he still had a ways to go.

If God tells us to jump through a wall it’s our business to jump & God’s business to make a hole. The people standing around watching will be happy to tell us two seconds after we jump if God told us.

2. The second DUCK & Naaman still had leprosy-- but his STUBBORNESS was washed away.

Proverbs 29:1 says---He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed & that without remedy.1 Peter 5:5 tells us to---- clothe ourselves with humility toward one another.

Saul is a great example of stubbornness in the Old Testament. In 1 Samuel 15 God told Samuel to tell King Saul to wipe out the Amalekites. Saul in his stubbornness didn’t complete the job & allowed the King to live & took many of the spoils of the land including the animals. It was in this context that God said;

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, & stubbornness is as iniquity & idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.

Namaan isn’t whole yet but he now has a handle on his stubbornness & this is a great victory for him. The sins of Naaman’s character & his lack of Godly graces were much more of a challenge to God than the healing of his leprosy. As a matter of fact the ducking in the muddy Jordan really had nothing to do with the leprosy but all to do with the sins of Naaman’s heart. Man looks upon the outward appearance but God sees the heart.


3. The third DUCK & Naaman still had leprosy-- but his PRIDE was washed away.

Pride was a major problem for Naaman. After all he was a man of high estate & authority. Pride is a pesky weed that sprouts up when & where we least expect it. Someone has said that pride is the Dandelion of the soul. Its roots go deep & if a small amount is left it can sprout again & again. It will always be standing two or three inches above the grass. If the grass grows two inches, the dandelion will grow three. The danger in pride is that it thrives on goodness. We tend to think of real sin as adultery, murder & car-jacking but pride is perhaps the most dangerous sin of all because of its deceptiveness.

I remember reading a story about Ronald Reagan back when he was governor of California. He was making a speech in Mexico & afterwards he sat down to a rather unenthusiastic applause. A Spanish speaker then got up to speak & he was applauded on almost every paragraph. To hide his embarrassment, Reagan applauded at every opportunity. He clapped when he spoke, and always clapped a little more than everyone else. Then our American ambassador leaned over & said, “Mr. President, I don’t think I’d do that, the man is interpreting your speech.”

This was a very innocent mistake but it points up how easy it is for us look prideful or slip into prideful actions. It seems you can beat pride down & do all you can to eliminate it but there it is, it’s still alive. Part of the problem with pride is that it’s easy to see in others but not so easy to see in ourselves. The self-centered see everything through the prism of self. There’s a little “mini-me” lens in the eye & our main question is always, “what about me?” Pride causes us to look through a straw & of course at the end of the straw is “us.”

I saw a cartoon years ago where a smiling woman said, “That’s enough about me, lets talk about you. What do you think about me?”

One time Mohammad Ali was riding on a plane when the stewardess came up & told him to buckle his safety belt. Ali answered; “Superman didn’t need a safety belt.” She answered; “Yes, & Superman doesn’t need no plane.” Pride can convince us that we are somehow better & more important than other people.

Juda & I once met with a denominational leader about becoming part of his organization. All through the conversation he would refer to “the little man.” By this he meant the basically unknown men who pastored the small churches in his group. During an hour conversation he must have used that phrase “The little man” two or three dozen times. We left there with a sick feeling in the pit of our stomachs & I told Juda I didn’t believe that man would hold his leadership very long unless he lost that way of referring to his ministers. Sure enough before long he was voted out of his leadership position & consigned to a small church, which in his own words was a “little mans” place.

I like the way The Message Bible paraphrases Proverbs 16:18---First pride—then the crash—the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.
Someone has rightly said; when the head starts swelling, the mind stops growing. If we are having marriage problems & we refuse to talk to anyone about it, that’s pride. When we’ve got financial problems & we refuse to admit & get help, that’s pride. When we are having problems as parents or aren’t cutting it on the job, we don’t want anyone to know about it & we refuse to seek help, that’s pride; & a very destructive kind of pride. Pride is the wall that keeps sinners from Christ & it leads us to exclude Him from His rightful place in our hearts.

I remember a song we used to sing when I was a boy;

When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but lost,
And pour contempt on all my pride.


4. The fourth DUCK & Naaman still had leprosy--- but his SELF- PITY was washed away.

Let’s not forget that Namaan was a strong, proud accomplished warrior, the ranking general of his nation’s armed forces, an honored & well-rewarded member of Syria’s ruling elite. He was accustomed to adulation from commoners & to riveted attention from their admiring eyes. But now he is forced to leave the confines of his home & endure people’s stares. His clothes may conceal the fiery inflamed skin & the white scaly patches that cover most of his body, but his face is so afflicted that it is clear he’s a ritually unclean man who has been marginalized by the dreaded disease of leprosy.

How art the mighty fallen. There can be no reasonable doubt that Namaan is filled with self-pity & suppressed anger. Everyone in his household knows of his dreaded disease. As already stated, all through this story God is using servants, those who some would call “small people” to bring Namaan’s miracle into fruition. God is orchestrating every detail in this story to minister to Namaan’s pride & self-pity because it was such a great weight to the powerful man. But when he obeys the man of God’s instruction self-pity is washed away.


5. The fifth DUCK Naaman still had leprosy-- but his ANGER was washed away.

When Namaan is told he’s to duck seven times in an old dirty river his response is to stomp off in rage. His anger is stirred up & his ego is wounded by the prophet who is again stepping on his pride & marginalizing him. Even the Holy Man has refused to come to him directly. How much more humiliating can it get? Is this prophet going to shrink away from looking on his afflicted personage? The anger almost did the trick of cheating this man out of his miracle because he was definitely headed home until one of his servants reminded him that had he been asked to do some great thing he’d probably been glad to do it, just not this demeaning dip in an unclean river called Jordan.


6. The sixth DUCK Naaman still had leprosy --but his SELF-RIGHTOUSNESS was washed away.

Have you ever noticed that rebellion & arrogance usually carry with them a strong sense of self-righteousness? Head-strong people will almost invariably have an attitude of “I’m right,” & it’s usually the “in your face” variety.

Job was correct when he said;

If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse. Job 9:20


Luke gives us a very succinct story in Luke 18:9-14. He starts off by saying;

And Jesus spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: two men went into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee & the other a publican. The Pharisee stood & prayed thus with himself, God I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortionist, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

I fast twice in a week & give tithe of all I possess. And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exhalteth himself shall be abased & he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

We all want to be O.K. We want to be accepted. Who is acceptable to God? This story we have read throws some light on that question. The Pharisees were seriously religious. They weren’t Jesus’ favorite people. But we shouldn’t forget that at least they were serious about keeping the Law. They felt that their nation had suffered in the past because they hadn’t kept the law. They studied it very carefully & had codified it into 248 positive rules & 365 negatives ones. As if that wasn’t enough they had a bunch more to sort of keep them from “getting into trouble.” So we can’t say that was all bad.

The other group, the tax collectors were considered the dregs of society. They had to collect taxes from the common folk & pass them on to the Romans. But they were crooked & often took more than they were supposed to & lined their pockets with it.

Jesus takes one person from each of these groups & tells his story about what happened when they both went into the temple to pray. In this story Jesus is aiming at the problem of self-righteousness.

Here is the real problem with self-righteousness;

SELF-RIGHTOUSNESS MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR OUR GOODNESS TO SEPARATE US FROM GOD.

Let me say that again---Self-righteousness makes it possible for our goodness to separate us from God. Whew! Doesn’t that sound strange? Surely God prefers good to evil. After all it was God who gave the Ten Commandments. But the reason self-righteousness is so dangerous is that instead of our goodness bringing us closer to God, it can lead us far away from Him. The reason for that is-- self-righteousness is just another manifestation of the sin of pride. When I speak of pride here I don’t just mean the pleasure & satisfaction we get out of a job well done or when one of our kids does well at school. The problem comes with the tendency of the individual to do so well in his own strength that he refuses to acknowledge any dependence on God. Haven’t you heard people say; “I feel I’m a pretty good person, I don’t really need God. I bet I live as good a life as those people down at the church.”

SELF RIGHTOUSNESS IS A SLIPPERY CONCEPT

To show you how slippery it is, a Sunday school teacher taught one morning about this proud Pharisee & in her closing prayer she said, “Lord I thank you that I’m not like the Pharisee in this story.” We can smile at this but then if we’re not careful we can turn around & feel that the fact that we are humble sinners saved by grace is something to be boastful of.

7. The seventh time Namaan ducked into the cold muddy water his skin became like a BABY’S SKIN.
The pivotal point of the whole story is found in verse 15 of 2 Kings 5. Namaan goes to Elisha’s house & stands before him & says. –“Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.”
Namaan is a converted man. He finally got emptied out & realized that his connections had gotten him nowhere. Elisha wasn’t even going to dignify him, he was just going to ask him to do an extremely stupid thing, & his bags of money would get him nowhere. When Namaan was finally stripped of all his pride & “fig-leaves” & stepped down to bathe in the murky Jordon waters, he met the wonder-working grace & power of God.

It was in his moment of vulnerability, helplessness & humiliation that Naaman found God & so have lots of others. Stripped, obedient & trusting, that’s the territory where God finds fertile human soil. Again, think of the way God used human instrumentality in this story. Every person is acting out of their own free will & not under compulsion. Yet from these many threads God weaves a tapestry of grace with Namaan at the center. If it weren’t for each of these people, their understanding, their care, their advice, Namaan would never have been healed.

So at the end of our stories lengthy journey through-

• Self-pity-
• Rage-
• Righteous indignation-
• Pride-
• Stubbornness-
• Disobedience- &
• Sympathetic intervention----
--We arrive at the final destination, -the good news that the compassion of God is offered even beyond the borders of Israel to persons of all nations.
God’s love was & is so radically inclusive that it embraces even enemy generals.

Elisha sends Namaan off to his new life, cleansed of the leprosy of his body & renewed in his soul. What will Namaan do? What happened to him? We don’t know. But Elisha is content to send him away in God’s peace & in God’s grace. The God who sought Namaan out & healed him in body & soul will also guide him when he gets back home.

Leprosy is a type of mans sinful condition. We were all born spiritual lepers. The only cure of the spiritual leprosy is to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. ---There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stains.

If you haven’t been plunged into the river of Christ’s forgiveness & washed in his blood, why not do it today. You will know the same life changing miracle that Namaan experienced.

If we serve the same loving & nurturing God, & we do, what will stop us from seeing the cries of our hearts come to fruition? As I see it, the only things that could hinder us would be the same things that almost sidetracked Namaan.

When we look at some of these hindrances & see ourselves there, we can follow Namaan’s example & throw off the old cloaks that self has weaved for us to wear & plunge into the waters of God's love, mercy & forgiveness.


Blessings,


John

If I Had Not Believed...

By John Stallings


A short time ago America’s top commander, General David Petraeus fainted during a congressional hearing as he was being grilled by senators about US strategy in Afghanistan.

He collapsed about an hour into the hearing as John McCain questioned him. McCain stopped mid-sentence, his face frozen as Petraeus slumped forward from his seat.

The hearing was suspended as Petraeus, looking dazed was led out by army colleagues. He returned 20 minutes later, blaming skipping breakfast and jet-lag and dehydration for the fainting spell. Thankfully the general bounced back quickly and resumed answering questions without a hitch.

I remember a lady in one of the churches my father pastored when I was a kid who would keel over once in a while. She had a tendency to do this in hot weather at picnics or outdoor events when she was surrounded by people. The only explanation I ever heard was that when people are crowded together, especially in the Florida heat [I’ve sometimes wondered if we don’t have our own Sun] it has a way of sucking up the oxygen. Most people aren’t terribly affected by this and never faint, but obviously some do.

When I was growing up, there would be a youngster now and then who’d faint, or something akin to it, on the playground. There were times I wished I could have fainted but somehow never did.

As long as a bad fall doesn’t occur and things are otherwise uneventful, as soon as the person regains consciousness they can just pick up where they left off.

However, sometimes people will slump over or fall down and though it might look as if they’ve fainted, it’s much more serious like a heart attack or stroke.

FAINTING GOATS

Maybe you’ve heard of the “fainting goats.” These little fellows suffer from a genetic condition which causes them to faint at the slightest provocation. You can say “boo” to them and they’ll fall over, stiff as a board. If you’ve never seen one of these you can check them out on YouTube. Any kind of stress, even the stress of hearing the dinner bell ring can knock them over. Of course it only lasts for a few seconds and they’re back on their feet. The younger goats are most susceptible to this. The older ones have learned to control it and the most you’ll see of them is their legs will stiffen and they’ll just stand for a moment, then all is well again.

A MORE SERIOUS KIND OF FAINTING…

In Psalm 27:13, David said;

I would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of God in the land of the living.
David explains that he had a close call. His knees had gone weak and the whole world seemed to grow black for him. He had been on the verge of toppling over in a dead faint. David is speaking here of spiritual fainting.

But when he was reeling in his tracks and ready to fall, there was one firm staff that wouldn’t break in the grip of his clutching fingers. There was one solid wall he could lean on without fear that it would give way. Here’s how David puts it as he looks back over it all. He declares with humility;--I would have fainted unless I had believed… he leaned on his faith in God that things would be made right. That was the only hope he saw.

Fainting is one of the most common and deadly foes you and I have to face. We know from our own experience with it that it can be a worker of havoc in our lives. For every one who faints physically there are literally scores who faint spiritually. How many spiritual fainters are there in our churches?

When a person has fainted, they’re no good to anyone during that time. Once they could be counted on to be in their places. But as soon as someone keels over they lose their availability. Their fire of enthusiasm has gone out. They have become spiritually listless and lifeless. They’re almost like a dead person. Might as well not hand them a songbook, they can’t sing. Don’t call on them to pray, they can’t do that either. No need to preach to them they can’t listen. As in actual physical fainting, when a persons having a spiritual fainting fit, others have to come to them and help them. Others must leave their posts in order to look after them. Where they once were an asset, now they’re a liability. They are huge rocks standing in the mouth of the grave where God is trying to raise some needy Lazarus from the dead.

These fainters don’t mean to be antagonistic to the work of God. They aren’t vicious or living corrupt lives. They’ve just fainted.

I attended a funeral one time and at the graveside service, the elderly minister who was officiating was overcome by the stifling heat and had to be helped to a seat to regain his breath. He almost fell over into the Palms. Thankfully the “old soldier” was able to regain his composure and complete the service.

Sadly some people aren’t so fortunate to be able to bounce back from fainting. Their lives are strewn with half-finished tasks. There are paintings they didn’t quite paint and books thrown aside with only the preface written. What dreams or goals have we laid aside when we’d only just begun?

A large house of worship exists in Florida, not far from where we live. I visited the building during many of the stages of its being built and marveled at the immense size of it. The leader of the flock that was building this mammoth house of worship was constantly on T.V and radio sharing his vision of what God would do with this beautiful structure. Today that man is gone and the church has been sold and resold. Just a few huddle in a building almost large enough to have an inside weather pattern of its own. Why; because the builder fainted and gave up the work years ago.

I’m told that if you visit the Panama Canal Zone in certain areas you’ll see along the sides of the roads great heaps of machinery slowly sinking into the mud and wasting away. These worthless heaps were left the by the French in the early twentieth century when they undertook to build the canal to join two seas. The effort cost them untold amounts of money and not a few lives, but they left the task unfinished. At some point along the way the French decided the enterprise was either undesirable or impossible and they fainted before their dream became reality.

If lack of opportunely and lack of ability have slain their thousands, and they have, fainting has slain its tens of thousands. No amount of talent or ability or even genius can help us if we don’t have stick ability and staying power to see a thing through. It’s said of Thomas Edison that when he got on the track of a new invention he pursued it with the tenacity of a bull dog until it became reality.

AGAIN AND AGAIN -BIBLE WRITERS WARN AGAINST FAINTING.

The Holy Men of old who penned the Bible spoke of “not fainting” as one of the prominent characteristics of the hero’s of faith.

MOSES

The best compliment Moses could be given was that he endured. Heb. 11:27. There was opposition, there was disappointment, there were bitter heartaches but he endured. At age forty his picture was in all the Egyptian post offices because he had a murder rap on him but still he endured. The writers knew God had a great part to play in Moses’ success so they said: He endured as seeing Him who is invisible.
ABRAHAMAbraham was drawn by a dream about a great nation that seemed destined never to come true. God had made him a lot of promises but long years had slipped by and nothing had come of it. We can say what we will about Abraham, he had this sturdy quality about him that just wouldn’t quit. The years were flying fast but the promised heir hadn’t come. But staunch old Abraham never believed for a moment that God was going to let him down. Paul writes about him with great admiration and says; he staggered not at the promises. Rom. 4:20. Refusing to faint, Abraham finally realized his dream.

WHAT ARE SOME CAUSES OF FAINTING?

1. SOME FAINT BECAUSE OF A BAD ATMOSPHERE
To be surrounded by stale air and not enough oxygen can cause some people to faint. Have you noticed that if you spend enough time around certain folk you’ll sort of take on the coloring of their personalities? This is almost inevitable. But there are some atmospheres that are rich with hope and help. Nowadays we hear the term “vibes” frequently. This is a new way of saying that people and places give off vibes, or create an atmosphere. The Apostle Peter created such an atmosphere because his shadow had healing in it. Acts 5:15.

There are homes you can enter and you feel a warm atmosphere of welcome. Visit other homes and you feel a chill that bites you like a killing frost. I have preached in some churches whose congregations and the attitude they projected lifted me on eagle wings. You say when you’re in these churches, “Surely God is in this place. Gen. 28:16. Others I have preached in made me feel as if I never wanted to preach again. We should beware of the atmosphere we create and also be aware of the atmosphere we’re in when we’re with our associates.

Juda and I visited a church in Orlando several years ago and the ushers, or “greeters” made us feel like we were members of the Mafia. The pastor seemed to be the only friendly guy in the place. As we drove home we discussed how drained we felt just by being in that atmosphere. Of course God blesses individuals, not groups so we can always get our soul fed no matter what, but that doesn’t mean we’d ever want to go back to an atmosphere like that. I heard a few months ago that the pastor of that church had resigned and returned to his roots in Europe and the church had folded. This didn’t come as surprise to us because the place had no spiritual breath.

There are atmospheres in which a vital spiritual life is flatly impossible.

You will remember the story of Herod and how he was influenced to have John the Baptist’s head cut off? Obviously Herod didn’t really want to kill John but he was influenced by the people around him. The Bible says;

For the sake of them that sat with him at meat, he commanded John to be killed. Matt. 14:9.

The companion of fools shall be destroyed. Prov. 13:20


2. SOME FAINT AT THE SIGHT OF BLOOD.


A young enthusiastic man came to Jesus one day with the best of intentions and said; Lord, I will follow you whithersoever thou goest. Matt. 8:19.

Jesus didn’t paint a very appetizing picture to the young man. He told him he was more homeless than a fox and if he followed Jesus, he may have to sleep unfed on a mountainside. In all reality, Jesus was showing this young man a cross with blood stains on it and the eager young man fell into a dead “faint.” He yearned for the benefits of being a follower of Jesus but the price was greater than he was willing to pay.

3. WE FAINT FROM SHEER EXHAUSTION.
The Christ life isn’t a life of drifting with the current but rather a going against the tide and at times we get tired.

Paul is seeking to strengthen us when he says;

And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.-Gal. 6:9

We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it.

Do you recognize the words above? They are the words of none other than the great apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 1:8—NLT.It sounds like Paul was ready to drop doesn’t it?

I heard about a man who ordered flowers for his deceased father and when the beautiful spray of flowers arrived at the funeral home the card attached read “Enjoy your trip.” It was obviously a mix-up at the florist so the man called to chew the people out who were responsible for the fluke. The florist shop worker, trying to defuse the situation told the man, “Sir, this isn’t so bad, somewhere in town at another funeral home is a spray of flowers with an attached card that reads, “Congratulations on your new location.” It sounds like fatigue & burn-out can happen even to people who work with flowers for a living.

Elijah had a fainting fit after his great victory at Mount Carmel. After that he ran seventeen miles to Jezreel then another day’s journey into the wilderness. He was so far gone he even asked God to kill him.

The Children of Israel got tired of wandering in the wilderness and wanted to go back to the leeks and garlic of Egypt. Numbers 11:5

In spite of all the temptations to faint by which David was surrounded somehow he managed to stand firm. He tells us;

I would have fainted- unless I had believed to see the goodnes of the Lord in the land of the living.

We’re told in Isa. 40:31- if we wait on God, we’ll be able to - run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint.
4. PRAYERLESSNESS WILL CAUSE US TO FAINT.

In Luke 18:1 Jesus told a parable;--to the end, that men ought always to pray and not faint.
Any problem you and I come to prayerless, we also come to it powerless.

In all candidness, I can relate to David’s feelings though we don’t know exactly what he makes reference to in Psalm 27. I see freedoms eroding and godlessness becoming prevalent everywhere I look these days in America.

If I didn’t have faith in God that He’ll straighten this mess out, I think I could engage in some “faint feelings” also.

But notice in the fourteenth verse right after David pours out his heart about believing God in spite of the way things look, he says;

Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say wait on the Lord. Psalm 27:14

In the movie Castaway, Tom Hanks was lost at sea. His wife, played by Helen Hunt after a time of waiting, followed her friend's advice, moved on and married someone else. Of course he finally found his way home to discover no one was waiting for him. Watching the movie we're trapped between conflicting feelings and emotions. On one hand we understand the wife's hopelessness and need to move on but at the same time we're unsettled by the fact that if she'd only waited a little longer her faith would have been rewarded.

Romans 8:24-25 says,-For we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then we with patience wait for it.

If you don't know what to do, then do nothing! Wait on the Lord until you're sure what to do. One day, praise God the waiting will be over! Until then, trust God and continue to dwell close to Him and keep believing His promises.


Where would I be today, where would you be, if we had fainted,


If we had not believed…..?

Blessings,


John