Acts 12- Deflecting Praise

How do you deal with praise? What happens in your soul when someone says something great about you? Herod gives us a great example of what not to do... "On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man." Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died" (Acts 12:21-23). 

What can we make of this? The first thing that I want to say is that there is a parallel between this text and the text of Isaiah 14:12-14 where Satan was cast down because he thought he will ascend to heaven and his throne will be above the stars of God. Pride. It is the deadliest of sins. It blinds us of our need for God and robs God of His godness. It places yourself on the throne and is absolute tyranny of the King of Kings. 

When Herod received the praise of man for his god-like stature, you have to read into the text the sin of pride. "He did not give praise to God, [therefore] an angel of the Lord struck him down (vs. 23). So, Herod enjoyed the praise. He took it to heart. He ascribed to himself the stature that he obtained. Herod, in fact, was quite the leader. He did accomplish many things with his life. He had built infrastructures that we still marvel at in the twenty-first century. He even constructed a mountain!? So he must have felt that he in some degree was a god. He did accomplish so much that maybe the people were right... wrong! So he was layed low.

This is a serious text. Because, if we are honest, we all climb on the throne. It is my favorite past time. Sitting on the throne and addressing people as the authority in my life is natural. I do a lot of great stuff, I deserve praise, I'm the king. Be honest, you do this too. So, why is the real king so gracious to us?

What is astonishing about this text is that I am not dead yet. That Herod got what he deserved but I haven't. I am a tyrant. I am a rebel against the King and yet he is so patient and gracious towards me. That is why the Bible tells us that His loving kindness draws us to Him (Jeremiah 31:3). When we see our rebellion and know that our offense is punishable by death, it makes us realize that His dealings with us are totally unfair and unwarranted. He does the opposite of what we would expect. He loves us, forgives us, redeems us, and clothes us with honor. That's why we praise Him. He is so upside down and backwards. 

So, next time you receive praise, think about that every good gift is from above, everything you have every experienced that is good has been a grace to you. You know the King and He is so loving and gracious. So, worship Him and deflect all praise to Him, the One who is worthy.

Vision Part 3

Last night we just finished up our third part of the series called Vision. The purpose of the series was to give you a feel for the CSM leadership and to let you know what we feel like God is up to. I am very careful to say, "this is what God is doing." Because, his ways are beyond my ways and I promise that most days I am completely clueless. But, as Lana and myself have prayed for the future of CSM and our individual involvements, we are super excited! I think we are on the cusp of something huge! That God is going to do some incredible things with our group of students. I pray that we fully grasp that concept of servant hood that the apostle Paul talked about in Romans 1:1. If we all agreed to that sort of commitment I wonder what our youthgroup would look like? If we all called Jesus lord, master, rabbi, what would God do with our group. It is that total commitment that God is looking for in each of us. He wants us to name Jesus as Lord. It is not enough to just know about him. "Even the demons believe and shutter." (James 2:19) He is master! Whatever he says, we do. Complete submission to the will of God at any cost. Imagine with me, what would a group of rowdy highschoolers look like, that is totally committed to the ways of God? Think about it?!? Even if one person took Jesus as serious as Paul, what that one person could do?! If God has complete control over your life I wonder what that would look like? What would he have you do today? Right now as you finish reading this article, what would he have you do after you got up from the computer? That sort commitment is exactly what we are going for at CSM and I am completely confident that God is going to do amazing things with our group as we lay down our lives and the King of Kings picks them up!