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PRIvate DEath – PRIDE

Through the Lens  – PRIvate DEath – PRIDE

Shalom and welcome to this edition of Through the Lens. I’m Rabbi Eric Walker.

Last week I was in my car carrying on a very normal conversation with the Lord and all of the sudden I asked a question and the answer I received was not what I was expecting. I was asking the Lord to help me understand why so many are struggling with jobs and families and relationships. I was asking Him to give me insight into why there seem to be so many who argue over the smallest issues like where to eat or what to eat or what to listen to on the radio or what to watch on tv. These seem to be such small matters, but they also come up way to many times in relationships and erode marriages and friendships. So there I was sitting in my car talking away and at a stop light and just as I turned and saw the look on the woman’s face in the car next to me looking at me like I am an escape from an asylum I hear two words from the Lord – Private Death!

Oh I got it. I knew exactly what He was talking about. You know that humiliation you feel when you are sitting in a car and the lady next to you sees you talking to yourself! Or when you are standing in front of an audience and everyone but you know you are having a wardrobe malfunction and you figure it out and can’t do anything about it. Now that’s PRIVATE DEATH –

So I voiced my deepest understanding of the concept to the Lord and assured Him that this lesson was something that I could understand. The subtlety of His reference was right in my zone of comprehension.

And then He said, this is exactly what I am talking about and I said Yes I know and He said NO YOU DON’T! You know the words Private Death in another form.

And then I remembered the story of two ducks and a frog who lived happily together in a farm pond. The best of friends, the three would amuse themselves and play together in their waterhole. When the hot summer days came, however, the pond began to dry up, and soon it was evident they would have to move. This was no problem for the ducks, who could easily fly to another pond. But the frog was stuck. They all discussed it and the ducks decided that they would put a stick in the bill of each duck that the frog could hang onto with his mouth as they flew to another pond.

The plan worked well–so well, in fact, that as they were flying along a farmer looked up in admiration and mused, “Well, isn’t that a clever idea! I wonder who thought of it?” The frog said, “I did…” Just then the two ducks looked at each other and insulted they let go of the stick that they held in their mouth. The moral of the story? Pride comes before the fall!

The Lord was showing me that the word PRIDE is a conjunction of the Words Private DEATH. And what He was telling me as I was so sure I understood what He was saying that I was guilty of being prideful in my confidence that I understood what He was saying.

Pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the one who has it”

Job 33:14-18 For God does speak — now one way, now another — though man may not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.

Ps 10:4 In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.

Prov 8:12-13 12 “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion. 13 To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

Prov 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom

Prov 13:10 Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.

Prov 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Prov 21:24 24 The proud and arrogant man — “Mocker” is his name; he behaves with overweening pride.

Prov 29:23 23 A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.

Isa 2:11 11 The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

Ps 18:27 You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.

Prov 21:4 4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin!

Isa 13:9-11 See, the day of the Lord is coming — a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger — to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. 10 The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. 11 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.

Isa 14:11-15 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. 12 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” 15 But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

James 4:1-10 4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6 But he gives us more grace.

That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

There are two kinds of Pride – the obvious one that everyone sees except for the one afflicted and there is another pride that is not so obvious

Those who can not open up and confide. Those who cannot trust.

Those who keep all their challenges private.

Those who cannot receive.

No one wants to die alone, but pride is a lonely trap.

1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

The old expression says a coward dies a thousand deaths. The hero dies but one!

And I say to you, those filled with pride die a private death. The humble reign on high.

And that my friends is this edition of Through the Lens. Visit ignitinganation.com for our guest lineup for our daily Broadcast of Revealing the Truth, seen Live Monday through Friday from 10:00AM to 1:00PM CST. Download our apps, subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and please consider supporting our ministry through the donate button on our website. Until we see you for the next edition of Revealing the Truth we thank you for watching and bid you Shalom.

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