Maybe I’m camping: not just parked

There is something to glean from every Word that proceeds out of my Savior’s mouth,

but when He keeps bringing you to the same chapter over and over,

It’s as if you hear him, just like His disciples did that day,

when He would said:

VERILY VERILY.

That means listen up.

Keep your ears peeled.

Look with your heart.

So, the bible app simply led me to Matthew 18, in which He begins by  dealing with the listeners on humility.

Let’s just talk about those present there to hear about it that day, though, shall we?

They, were His disciples,

and in Matthew 17, I believe the Lord gave me insight on why He was addressing humility with them, in particular.

They, start out in Chapter 18 asking Jesus who is the Greatest in the Kingdom.

I find it something that they asked this just after the hike that Peter, James and John took with Jesus up the mountain.

They, may have been jealous.

In a discussion with a friend last night, we talked about the same experiences that cause us to identify,

with them.

I use that emphasis joking, but not joking.

You know, the same way you talk about something that relates to “your friend,” instead of just coming out with yourself having the problem?

Why is it-

that we find it hard to just celebrate the success of others without feeling the need to compare?

Oh, come on.

That’s not just something that happened in grade school, when you told all the other kids that your dad was stronger than theirs while bantering on the playground-

And that’s putting it nicely.

Just the other day, my son Issac told a far fetched tale of how he had played football for eleven years and that his sister was eighteen.

His sister is really twelve, and he’s really only five, hardly around for eleven years.

But the other little boy’s sister was seventeen, and obviously He played football.

What’s the need for us to compare?

What was wrong with his real age,

and the fact that he has barely thrown a football, let alone played the entire game for eleven years!?

We laugh, But let’s talk about our adult conversations.

I’d love to think we leave that garbage at the door of the church building,

but it doesn’t.

What’s  up with our need to compare who’s revelation is more spiritual?

Yet, that is exactly what they,

the disciples,

were doing.

And Jesus needed to address it.

They all had revelation, HIMSELF, present with them.

Brothers and Sisters, All things are yours.

Jesus was just as accessible to all the disciples as he was to the ones who asked the question-

or to the ones who got to go on the hike.

But were they as accessible to Him?

Most people have no idea what goes on behind the scenes in another person’s life.

But God does.

He knows how we work best.

He uses everything, even comparison to bring us to His heart.

When you feel you are lacking in comparison to others,

that’s a lie.

Over and over, it’s clear that the need for more originated when satan deceived Adam and Eve to believe they were lacking something.

The next time that voice whispers in your ear,

Answer with this,

“Devil, I’m not lacking, I’m Packing. I know it, and you know it. I refuse to let you steal something that you want me to believe I don’t already have. Jesus lives in me, and He is EVERYTHING, so I lack nothing.”

1 Corinthians 3:21-23

Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come:

are all yours;

and you are Christ’s and Christ’s is God’s.

Hallelujah!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tos