day no. 17,144: a Word to to the wise

James 3:13-18

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

God has never left us without His Word to guide us. Man has never been wordless. In the beginning, before man existed, God’s Word made heaven and earth. When He made man, He gave him his orders. Man was made by the Word of God, from the Word of God, for the Word of God. The nothing became something because God spoke. The something became a someone because God breathed life into it. The someone became a sinner because he ignored the words of God. 

Man was made by the Word of God to live in a world made by the Word of God. He was then commanded to live in that world by the Word of God. Our entire existence is saturated in the Word of God. It is everywhere. 

Blaise Paschal once noted that "Mankind has two problems: pride and lust. Pride repels us from heaven and lust binds us to the earth." These two problems aggravate each other. Our pride bounces us off the ceiling and our lust licks the floor. We resist the grace of God and we give into the gross of this world. Our pride pushes against the ceiling and lust pushes itself against the floor.

We have a default of resisting that which is above and being drawn to that which is below. We don’t like the sound of wisdom revealed from above and we love the tune of wisdom bubbling up from below. 

Pride makes the divine repulsive and lust makes the demonic alluring. 

That which comes from above, if received, is planted in us and draws up out of us faithful fruit that leads to righteousness. That which is from below, already at work in us, is rooting us down to the ground.
Pride throws shade at the light and lust throws a spotlight on the shady.

Lust is the sin of being magnetically drawn to baser things. Pride is the sin of being allergic to the things above. Salvation is a new heart which now longs for things above and rejects those things below. 

Sanctification is mortifying the flesh that's left and vivifying the spirit provided by God. We must die to our lusts and pride and live to God's joy and faith in resurrection.

Our theology comes out of our fingertips. What we think about anything is observed in everything we say or do. Ideas are catalysts. They urge things in a certain direction. They can be resisted, but it requires intention. Inattention to your thought life produces a life you never thought of.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25)