Not the sinless.  Not the strong.  Not those with their acts together.  The upright are those freshly convicted of their sin, freshly contrite, undone in an Isaiah-6-sorta way, freshly dead to their own righteousness/worthiness, willing to be pitied, seen as losers/nobodies, freshly humble enough to welcome undeserved grace, freshly humble enough to feel comfortable as…

fears humiliation.  A humble believer has a healthy indifference toward failure, success, mediocrity, whatever the outcome.  A proud believer, shepherd, independent, controlling-type, leaning on his own understanding/wisdom, can only tolerate excellence, and is to be pitied above all, trapped in a dreadful, performance prison.  A dumb sheep is fine with whatever the outcome of his…

a) obey, b) believe, c) confess.  Answer: confess.  I cannot generate belief/faith, because faith is a gift from Above.  It is not like a muscle that I exercise.  I don’t exercise/generate faith from within myself.  It is a gift.  But I can confess, when convicted of my sin of unbelief.  When I attempt to be…

and my flesh, and the devil, treasure the winner/strong/confident/proud/somebody/adultlike/shepherd, but the Upside-down Kingdom of Jesus treasures the loser/weak/meek/humble/nobody/childlike/sheep. Shepherds are not promised carefree peace and happiness, but sheep are.  Shepherds live with tension, stress, misery.  The fruit of worldiness. For the Church to be the Church, for us to have favor with the watching, skeptical…

to us Christians.  Whyzat?  Because we’ve not understood the leaven of the Pharisees that Jesus mentioned to His disciples, which is independence, which is concern for one’s own worthiness/performance/righteousness.  Self-effort.  Human power.  God-bless-my-agenda praying, presumptuously advising the Creator about what’s best for self and others.  I know how to pray. God opposes the proud/strong/confident/independent, but…

but the humble are willing to risk humiliation, for the humble have nothing to lose, not caring one iota about their own worthiness, performance, reputation.  Only the proud are fearful of failure and the accompanying awful pain of self-hate.  The humble never hate themselves, no matter how bad their humiliation.  Only the proud struggle with…

No, a follower of Jesus is a Jesus-dependent, a dumb sheep, asking about everything, thanking about everything, doing nothing on his own, curious and expectant to see what ShepherdJesus does next, in the sheep, in others, in circumstances.  A follower of Jesus, a dumb sheep, a childlike, is never stressed, never hurried, never worried, and…

Surprise.  Jesus said, the childlike are.  The weak, meek, humble — the Jesus-dependents who embrace and enjoy their weakness, lowliness, are not bothered by the threat of losing somebody status — adultlike/shepherd status, and having it replaced with a lowly, nobody status.  The ones who need to be somebodies, adultlikes, shepherds, worthy, in order to…

which is hypocrisy,” said Jesus.   Hypocrisy?  Trying to appear strong/together.  Dishonest about weaknesses, failure, neediness.  Invisible pride.  Appearing strong/together/un-needy has unconsciously been my main core value all my adult life, I now see.  Nurtured by the society around me, outside the Church, and inside too.  Satan loves the Church operating just like the world around…

Is faith like a muscle I exercise, so I get credit for something I initiated/generated?   No, faith is something granted by God.  Jack Miller once told Rose Marie that the starting place for faith, is conviction of sin.   When I first heard that back in the 80’s, on a recording of Rose Marie teaching women…