This week in the Remarkable Blog we’ve been looking at the six symptoms of pride. Monday we looked at, “Becoming irritated at being corrected”, Tuesday we looked at “Taking credit for things you don't control. Today we are going to look at number three:

Making excuses. This person always has a reason or explanation why it really isn't true or isn't their fault. 

Proverbs 13:10 (KJV) “Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.”  

Isaiah 13:11 (KJV) “I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.” 

Often times, when the Lord ask us to do something, we give excuses why we cannot do it. We sometimes forget that whenever He gives us an assignment, he always provide the enablement. A great read on the subject would be found in Exodus chapters 3&4 on the life of Moses. Five times Moses gave excuses to God why he would not be able to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land and five times God assured and proved to him He would help him.

When we tell God we can’t—do what He says we can, we call God a liar.  Another way to put this is to say, “I know more than God.”

This week we are looking at the six symptoms of pride. Yesterday’s Blog was on “Becoming irritated when corrected.” Today we look at the second symptom of pride: 

Taking credit for things you don't control.

For example, do you have a high IQ? If so, you were born with that and shouldn't look down your nose at dimwits (if you think this word is harsh Google it-I chose it over moron). Have talents or good looks? There's no cause to be proud of that, you had nothing to do with it.

A woman asked the pastor for counseling. She said it was her besetting sin that she has noticed she is the most beautiful woman in the church, and can't help but notice that no other ladies can even hold a candle to her beauty. "What can I do about this sin?" He replied, "Oh dear lady, that's not a sin...just a mistake!"

Charles Spurgeon said, "Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace." It's ok to be thankful for advantages you have, but not prideful.

Obadiah 1:3 (KJV) “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?”

The heart of the problem is the human heart. God hates pride. It is a most deceitful sin, well-hidden to the person who lives in it. Pride is an attitude of independence from God. There are 6 symptoms of pride and for the rest of this week we will look at each one of them.

The first one we will look at is: Becoming irritated when corrected. 

This person is defensive and cannot accept that they could be wrong or that someone else could know something that they don't. Reminds me of the two preachers who stood on a road holding signs that said, "The End is Near!"  A driver screeched to a stop and angrily said, "You religious fanatics, why don't you get a life!" A few minutes later the man came walking back in the other direction, soaking wet. He didn't even look their way. After he had passed one preacher said to the other, "You think we should change our signs to "Bridge Out Ahead"?

Know anyone who just can't take advice? It's a symptom of pride. There will always be someone who knows something we don't. There really is no such thing as a "Know it all" unless you are referring to God and He prefers to be called Father.  

1 Peter 5:5-6 (KJV) "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: "

If you have been receiving my Blogs and things haven't been going well it is because I did an entire week in advance. So if you go to my website you will see the entire week was here. There is a glitch in this program in that you have to actually publish live the day you want it to publish.  I published all five in one day so here's an extra one and check out my Blog web site page for all of this past weeks Blogs.  I guess in this case it didn't pay to do it all early.

Psalm 30:5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. 

Sometimes having fun is like chasing Butterflies. Just when you think you are going to catch one they fly away out of reach.  We can plan to have fun and sometimes it is more fun planning and looking forward to the fun than it is to actually experienced what was planned. Joy is something totally different.  You can be in the middle of something that is anything but fun and still have joy.  Joy comes from the Lord.  Happiness is when all the happenings are just right and that's great but what about the times when what's happening is far from right?  It is at those times we call upon the Lord and the joy of the Lord becomes our strength to continue through the happenings until they are right.

So that's what I did this week. It was a tough week. It wasn't just the disappointment about the Blog timing but about life's timing.  People die, they get sick and the world still turns when you wish it would stop.  Then someone gets married, another has a baby and the happiness returns.  I don't know what your weekend holds but I know who holds me and my time is in His hands.  He created time and all that is good, so if you want to have a "good weekend" add God and it can't help to get better.  Blessings for a "Great Weekend!"

Blind Spots we all have them.  Exactly, not what you thought I was going to say right?  That’s exactly why they are called Blind Spots.  That’s why we need monitors! The Bible is the perfect monitor not just for our Blind Spots but for our life, but we first have to admit we have blind spots or areas in our life where we see through a glass darkly. 

John 9:39-41 (NIV) “39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind. 40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too? 41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”

1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV) “12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

When I was young I thought I knew everything. Now that I am older I realize I know so little. Recently when I purchased my new Toyota Camry it came with a BSM. That’s right a Blind Spot Monitor.  I have grown very accustomed to it.  When I am about to pull over into another lane of traffic and don’t see the car beside me it flashes and protects me from doing something stupid and costly.  The car also has one in the rear. If something is behind me or flies past me as I am attempting to back up it sounds an alarm to alert me of danger. This has already paid for itself and my neighbor and I are happy it has. 

Today asks the Lord to reveal to you the areas that might be dangerous to you and others. Let the Word of God be your BSM so you have no more BS.

The average American is 36.6 years old and eats 1,996.3 lbs. of food per year. The average man is 5'9” and weighs 190 lbs. The average woman is 5'4” and weighs 164 lbs. 73.6 lbs. of poultry, including 60.4 lbs. of chicken.

According to Google map, there are close to 50,000 fast food chains across the United States, with McDonalds being the largest restaurant chain. In the world, there are more than 500,000 fast food places. Kids between the ages of 6 and 14 eat fast food 157,000,000 times every month.

Gallup experts conclude that although a large portion of the American public believes fast food to be unhealthy, most people visit fast food establishments frequently. The numbers suggest that "the appeal of the product -- be it the relatively low cost, the taste, or the convenience -- outweighs the health concerns."

The problem with our culture is we can do everything fast including find something to eat. The other problem is you can’t feed your spirit man that fast. I you find yourself in financial distress you can’t beef up on biblical finances in an hour.  You may try only to find out that biblical finances are like gardening. You have to sow a seed to get a harvest and that takes time.

Unfortunately for Americans the results of eating fast foods doesn’t show up immediately but has a cumulative effect and does show up.  It is the same for those of us that call ourselves Christians but fail to feed our spirit man a balanced diet.  There will be a day of reckoning it may not show up today but it will show up.  Feed your faith today and it's as good as money in the bank and miracles in reserve.

“You teach me, I forget. You show me, I remember. You involve me, I understand.” ― Edward O. Wilson

We take so many things for granted. Okay I take so many things for granted. I assume because I know how to do something, you know how to do it too. There is a knack for doing laundry. Sure you can through the clothes in the washer then take them out and put them in the dryer and call it done. "Done" may be the term for those clean clothes that were once white and now they’re pink, likewise they once fit and now look to be the size of a two year old. Yes, there is a knack to doing laundry. It is the same with cooking, cleaning, driving, building things, and on and on the list goes. There is even a knack to living. Most of us if we’d admit it learn by doing. Yet many of us would rather do it our self than take the time to teach someone. We believe it to be quicker and take less time.  This being said, does it really? I don’t think so anymore. Because if I teach someone then they can teach someone and if this continues I promise we can all get a lot more done. So I have changed my thinking. I have begun to think generationally.  If I learn something and teach my children and they teach their children then as a family we can accomplish much more than me taking my knowledge to the grave and my children learning either the hard way or not at all.

Recently I was gardening and thought I should have paid closer attention to my Dad when he taught me how to remove suckers from my tomato plants. My husband said, “I’m not sure your Dad had that down either, maybe he should have paid better attention to your grandfather.” I agreed, but it was too late.  Perhaps the reason history repeats itself is we fail to involve others in the process of learning.

2 Timothy 2:2 “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow. ~ Benjamin Franklin

If your day is hemmed in with prayer, it is less likely to come unraveled.  I don’t know who said it but I think we have all heard it.  When I think of something coming unraveled I think of one little string that hangs down and when you pull on it the whole hem comes undone. That’s what happens to me when I fail to pray. I come undone. No one wants to wear a garment that wasn’t finished. Who wants to eat a cake that isn’t done? Well it’s the same way with people—no one wants to be with anyone who has come undone. Usually just like a food that is not done and is supposed to be fully cooked we usually want to spit it out of our mouth. No one wants to consume undone food.  Bottom line is we want to be all God intended us to be not half of what the lord intended. 

Let’s put that in the category of our Nation.  We were founded on Godly principles. If those principles come undone—unraveled then when other nations pull on us we will come completely undone. We have been a Godly nation. Our money states clearly, “In God we trust.” When a hem starts to come out of my garment I know it is only a matter of time before the entire hem needs resewn or mended. I get out my needle and thread and get to work.  Likewise we as individuals need to get out our Bibles and begin to pray to the maker of this great nation and begin to mend in prayer the things that have begun to unravel.

What a great privilege you and I have today. Right where you are and right where I am we can unite in prayer. There is no distance in prayer.

God shapes the world by prayer.  The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil…~ E.M.Bounds

Hope you and your families have a wonderful weekend. May you be surrounded by friends and family. I will check in with you tomorrow.

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." — Martin Luther King Jr.

World class faith begins and ends with the word of God.  Mediocracy begins with a lack of faith and a lack of the word of God.  A cake half-baked isn’t something anyone desires. (Hosea 7:8 ISV) People don’t ask for a luke-warm cup of soup or coffee. (Revelation 3:16 NIV) Let’s face it people want excellence, world class.  Problem is so does God and instead of giving God what He wants we try to give everybody a little bit of what they each want and end up satisfying no one.  Our kids don’t have excellence parents, the boss doesn’t have an excellent employee, and our spouse doesn’t have an excellent mate… Do you see where we are headed? It reminds me of the young man in Matthew 19:21 where the young man had done so well in so many areas but failed to do the one thing God asks of Him.

We can do a lot of good things but we need to ask ourselves the hard question, “Is it a God thing?” When we fail at pleasing God we will no doubt fail at everything else. The Bible tells us to first seek the Kingdom and everything else will be added.  Seems like life does a subtraction number on most of us, when God is into multiplication.

Start today to just make the main thing—the main thing. Ask God what He wants and aim for that.  If we aim for the ideal we will at least hit better than mediocre.  If we stay at serving God and making His desires our desires just long enough I believe we will hit world class. You know why? Because the Bible tells us that if we follow His plan—when we see Him, we will be like Him and He is a World Class God!