I am grateful for air, spoken into existence and maintained by You to satisfyingly fill our lungs, sustaining life at all times. Awake, asleep, running, or resting; thank You for providing!
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory (ego, overweening pride); but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Philippians 2:3-4 (King James Version)
Me: Good morning, Holy Spirit!
Holy Spirit: Good morning, Jon!
Me: Considering that passage in Philippians 2, I have to admit chafing if my superiors at work take an opposing stance against any of my ideas of how things ought to be done.
Holy Spirit: Think back to Eve’s interchange with the serpent:
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Genesis 3
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
What does verse six say about Eve’s rationalization? She “saw” that the tree produced fruit that was “good for food”, which is consideration for sating the physical self. She was going by how the fruit appeared to her, though I had said that it was deadly. Think of how she had to disbelieve My word. She “saw” that it was pleasant to the eyes, giving consideration to the emotional self. You experience, of course, My voice speaking to you and if you consider sinning against My direction, you know how focusing on the object of your desire instead of Me and My word leads to the same kind of decision as Eve made.
I made clear all wisdom is not from above. Let us look at what James says about it:
13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, free of hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
From James 3 (NASB)
Eve was deceived and she desired wisdom from the wrong source. Notice the component of selfish ambition in verse 14? She did not ask Me for My wisdom. I have made it clear to you, also through James, how to get My wisdom:
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
James 1:5
Finally, having partaken, Eve gave also to her husband. She was looking after her own interests, putting that demonic wisdom to work, right away.
Me: She was thinking, “If it hadn’t been a good idea, I wouldn’t have done it”?
Holy Spirit: She was. How often the deceived try to convince others to follow them!
Me: I definitely see the similarity to Eve’s deception and my egotistical chafing about being overridden at work. I pray you will help me be constant in seeking You and in putting the welfare of others before myself. I ask You to help me be gracious and convincing if You are guiding me down a path that has been opposed and quick to see and acknowledge if the other person is right.
Holy Spirit: That is a prayer I Am fulfilling.
Me: Thank You Holy Spirit! I love You!
Holy Spirit: You are welcome! I love you!
Missionary Sojourn 
Something my minister has taught me is the difference between agreement and alignment. Agreement is everybody on the board deciding yes to the same thing – as a silly example, we all think we should paint the church building red, white, and blue so we stand out in the community. Alignment is the board deciding to improve the looks of the church house by weeding, repainting with the same color, and re-striping the parking lot – and the guy who *still* thinks red, white, and blue is the best idea, submitting to the will of the whole and picking up a weed whacker. Not coercion, not grumbling, but recognizing that unity is a good thing.
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Jon,
The dialogue format is so winsome in teaching some excellent truths about humility, God’s sovereignty and wisdom. That purple iris is a sight to behold. Beautiful.
pax,
dora
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Thank you Dora! Alas! The iris blooms have departed our yard now.
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Yes our neighborhood has seen their loss as well. Fall’s on its way.
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I concur with the point that we should take captive every thought and subject it to the Word by the Holy Spirit. There is also the truth that one of our cultures self-defined sub-classes (I’m still chewing on your last post) is the aged, which the Bible has a lot to teach us.
Our culture is fixed on the néw, the novel, and gives little attention to the wisdom of the ages and aged. To our collective detriment, the words of the wise often are dismissed without discussion. Rebellion is in the heart of youth. We, the aged are right to be upset by their foolish pride as good parents and teachers.
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I sat through some “training” this week concerning (dealing with) generational differences. There are a number of people who make a living cutting the cards on this subject in different ways and selling their ideas to company executives to get lucrative training gigs. I think you bring up a number of important points that I don’t want to give short shrift. If you can be patient, I think I will make my response a regular post. Thanks for considering my posts, by the way!
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