Boasting?

Good Morning,

OK, I've got an "excuse"...(I hope it is really a reason!) for being absent yesterday. Stayed late Friday night at our Small Group and then had to get up fairly early yesterday, Saturday, to volunteer at Angel Foods Ministry. Oh, my! It was a long, but rewarding and happy day. Point being, I never got on the computer yesterday at all. I apologize. On to the business at hand....

Galatians 6:14 (NIV)
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Paul sure had it right here, didn't he? I mean, look about and see what we have become. We are, truly, a boastful and bragging race, we human beings. Everything we look at any more seems to be boastful in some way. Well, accept, as Paul said, boasting in the cross of Jesus. We're sort of quiet about that.

It's actually getting sort of ridiculous, this boasting that we see going on pretty much constantly. You know, it's one thing to boast when there seems to be some reason for that boasting and braggadocio. Like, well, maybe winning something at an athletic event? Or, perhaps, getting a PHD or some other higher learning honor? Maybe being the best at your local Bridge Club? (Do people still play bridge???) Or, well, there's thousands of "reasons" (read excuses here) to boast if one might be the best at something or has accomplished the peak of some activity or action. OK, maybe we can agree with that...to a point. But, look at what's happened in the world today. We see people boasting about, what? Practically nothing! We see some athlete whose team is losing some event by an insurmountable score and yet this athlete boasts when he accomplishes some meaningless action in a losing cause. We observe people boasting when they've made a decent investment when, over the long haul, they've been constantly losing money on what they thought were "can't lose" investitures. It seems that just about everywhere we look we see "boasting" about something, and more often than not, it's really about nothing. At least nothing consequential.

We've lost the mind set of Paul in what he said in today's Scripture verse. Paul prayed that he would "never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." That, my friends, is something more than consequential and more than important to be boasting about. We should be shouting it from the rooftops! We should be boasting of our salvation at every move we make. We should boast at the top of our voices to any who might listen. THIS, God's plan of salvation; the cross of Jesus Christ; the forgiveness of sin; the hope of heaven...THIS is what should be boasted about.

Yes, we'll still boast about other things, I'm sure. After all, we are human beings with normal, human feelings and emotions. Of course, we'll boast about the achievements we've accomplished and those of our families. We'll not truly get around or away from that, I know. However, if we first boast about the cross and it's implications in people's lives, then I think we might be forgiven our meaningless boasting about our earthly activities. If we put first that which should be put first, then all else becomes, well, sort of meaningless...don't you think?

Let us remember to FIRST and foremost put the cross of Jesus first in all we think about, all we say, and all we do. That will be pleasing to God, of course, and uplifting to ourselves.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David