Press On!

(1Timothy 6:10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Surprise! Let the news over the past few months bear witness! Greed and covetousness are at the heart of everything from the collapse of huge banks and corporations to the daily burglaries and hold ups of common bandits.

But the love of money is not the source of EVERY evil. What is?

I think the answer is pride. Pride is the starting point for every rebellion against God. This was where Lucifer started his fall...

(Isaiah 14:12-14) “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’

This is where Adam and Eve turned off...

(Genesis 3:4-6) Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

Pastor's without enough experience to humble them are in danger...

(1Timothy 3:6) not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.

The cure for our ungodliness in life starts with getting over our pride...

(James 4:6-8) But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Pride is, at its heart, a desire to BE your own God, rather than to submit to the One True and Living God of the Bible. Ignorance is not pride, but the presumption of pride and keeps us from appreciating our own ignorance. As a consequence of pride we are complacent in our own goodness and wisdom.

(Romans 10:3) For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

We fail to see God's beautiful holiness so that we can be drawn to Him in a continuing upward path of submission and conformity to the image of Christ.

(Philippians 3:12-14) Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.