Eternal Insights Week 2--The Problem of Pride

In what do you take pride? Is it some accomplishment that you’ve done? Maybe it is that your favorite sports team won the championship or is considered the best. Do you take pride in the way you are able to do something no one else can do? Maybe you take pride in the appearance of the house or the car or the kids.

Pride is not necessarily a bad thing. We should strive to achieve the things to which we are called. It is fun to pull for our favorite teams. Of course, we should be good stewards and take care of the gifts we’ve been given—be they material things or children to raise or some other gift.

However, when pride begins to take over, we get out of balance. Pride can replace a healthy understanding of who we are and who we are called to be. It can even lead us to forget the things that are important and rely too much on the objects of our pride. In week two of our series on “Eternal Insights” let’s examine Jesus’ idea of our pride and the slavery that can come when we get out of balance in our relationship with Him, ourselves and others. (See John 8:31-36.)

God's Gift of Love

Promises. How do you react when someone makes a promise to you? With anticipation? With suspicion? What about when someone breaks a promise? Have you ever had someone break a promise to you and hurt you?

God made a promise to His people in the Old Testament. They made a promise back to Him. They said that they would follow Him always and never stray.

Well, the people broke their promises. For thousands of years, the people turned away. Oh, sometimes they followed God. But they would often turn their backs on Him again and again. How did God react to the failure to keep a promise? Would you join me this week in a look at how God reacts to promises?

Lenten Questions and Promptings

Many of us have different expectations or understandings of the Season of Lent. Lent can be a very meaningful time of Spiritual Growth. Lent is a time of preparation for the initiation of people into the Christian life in baptism. It is also a time for the church to journey together toward Easter and the reaffirmation of the baptismal covenant. Lent is not about being miserable, sad, and funereal in anticipation of Good Friday. The Sundays of Lent are not part of the forty days of Lent and so remain "little Easters," as are all Sundays. Fasting and giving up something can be part of Lenten disciplines, but so can taking on some things. Have you considered some ways to connect worship and daily growth in spiritual, relational, emotional, and bodily fitness?

My Preparation for Easter
Lent is a time to prepare for Easter. It is a necessary prelude. The death and resurrection of Christ are true whether or not I prepare for Easter. However, without my heart and life being ready, I may not experience the depth and power of Christ's death and resurrection. So with my brothers and sisters, I commit myself to disciplines for conversion from sin and death to love and life in Jesus Christ. With the aid of the list below, I make the following commitments to discipline and growth for the next six weeks:
(Check the ones you desire or feel prompted to do; circle the ones you then decide to do.)

Inward and Personal Disciplines
___ Spend time in solitude each day.
___ Share in the Lenten Series on Sunday evenings.
___ Read a book for inner growth.
___ Read twice through the Gospel of Luke.
___ Begin to keep a journal of prayer concerns, questions, reading.
___ Faithfully read and reflect upon the church’s Lenten Devotional Guide.
___ Focus on thanksgiving, rather than on asking, in prayer.
___ Give myself a gift of three hours to do something I always say I don't have time to do.
___ Find a way to go to bed earlier or sleep in so I get enough rest.
___ Make a list of people with whom I need to be reconciled. Pray for them and let Jesus guide me in my thinking and feeling toward them.
___ Take control of my life by ______________.
___ Go to all of the Holy Week services as an act of love and waiting with Jesus.
___ Take one hour to inventory my priorities and plan how I will reorder them.
___ Give up a grudge or a rehearsal of a past event.
___ Forgive someone who has hurt me.
___ Turn off the TV, computer, etc. for ________ hours a week that I would otherwise spend with it on.
___ Other promptings:

Outward and Social Disciplines
___ Take on some loving task:
___ Plan to visit a "shut-in" neighbor or church member weekly.
___ Agree to serve in an area of the church that God has been prompting me to do so.
___ Write a letter of affirmation once a week to a person who has touched my life.
___ Listen and respond to Christ's call to a ministry of service:
___ Go to coffee or dinner with someone I want to know better.
___ Begin to recycle waste from my home and workplace.
___ Give blood and recall the cross.
___ Call the local food pantry or homeless project and ask how I can help.
___ Say "NO" to something that is a waste of money and time.
___ Pray to God to help me resist racial prejudice and to give me courage in opposing it.
___ Decide to become a member of the church and speak to a pastor and participate in the Membership Exploration.
___ Rebuke the spirit of criticism and my own tongue out of control.
___ Find a way to live out the baptismal promise to "resist evil, injustice, and oppression" in the power and liberty God gives us by:
___ Other outward and social promptings:
As a way of being accountable, I will share my plan with at least one other faithful Disciple of Jesus and share with that person my experience of Lent during Holy Week.
(signed) __________________________ (date) _____________