CJ Penn's Online Writing Hangout

The reason I write: To promote Christian truth and help Jesus get His Christianity back.

Category Archives: Pride


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Are Some Christian Churches Prisoners of Pride?

As the dominant religion in many countries, has Christianity become prideful and arrogant, like a cocky big kid on the block? For some reason, this idea seeped into my mind this morning as I waited for the coffee to sweep away the nightly fog. Though this idea of arrogant Christianity may sound odd, for me it explains a lot.

It explains why many Christian churches are shrinking, and why there are more de-churched Christians every year. It explains why many Christians and churches behave in ways that appear very un-Christian. It explains why many churches try to exercise their imagined power by pushing their opinions upon others, opinions, such as political preferences, that are completely worldly. It explains why, as some surveys indicate, many de-churched Christians as well as current churchgoers never felt the presence of God in church. Maybe there was so much pride, there was no room for God.

You see, arrogance and pride are exclusively human characteristics, not from God but from Satan. Because of what I see on the surface, yes, I believe modern Christianity has become infected and sometimes dominated by pride and arrogance. And many Christians and their churches are suffering because of it.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead of relying on self and worldly things such as organizational structure, politicians, traditions, how nice your church building is, or other such pride-driven things, we just need to rely on God, Jesus, and their Spirit—yes, the Holy Spirit of God and Jesus, the Spirit who’s often missing from sermons. It’s the Spirit of Jesus living and breathing within the bodies of believers who will set Christianity free from pride and the damage pride causes.

Many churches are prisoners of pride. I pray it’s time for the Spirit of God to set them free.


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Freedom from the Prison of Pride

This morning, while praying for a very well-known political person who exhibits extreme pride, arrogance, and apparent narcissism, the title for this post popped into my head. Realizing that a lot of people suffer from being trapped in our own prison of pride—actually, all of us, to some degree or another—I’m motivated to write about it. Also, I remain concerned for that well-known person who’s bound with more chains than most.

To me it’s sad, the pain pride inflicts upon people. It can bind us up with chains of anger, hatred, lies, bigotry, intolerance, self-righteousness, paranoia, and other such things that make people miserable. Most of us aren’t even aware of the chains that bind us. Therefore, we don’t realize we can be free of those chains.

Yesterday I posted about the fruits of the presence of the Holy Spirit of God and Jesus in our lives. It’s interesting to compare the rotten fruits of pride listed above with the fruits of the Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness (aka, humility), and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23). Which fruits would you rather live with?

It’s the Spirit of Jesus, present in our lives, who will set us free from the chains that bind us. It’s a truth promised by Jesus: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

The question we all answer, whether we know it or not, is this: do we want to live with the chains of pride, or the fruits of the Spirit?


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Thinking God into Existence?

I think I had fallen into another trap; a trap baited by my own natural pride.

I’ve been feeling and believing that I need to be thinking of Jesus and consciously aware of His presence in order for Him to influence my actions and the words that come out of my mouth. And to a lesser degree, I’ve been feeling that Jesus’ Spirit is within me only when I’m thinking of Him.

On the surface, this may seem fine and make some sense. But while driving home from work the other day, it hit me – the truth of what I believed punched me in my shoulder, like a tough-loving friend. And I woke up to the truth of what I was doing.

The truth is, Jesus is within me whether I consciously think of Him or not (same goes for you). This is more than a belief or a hope. How could I possibly control the presence of God by my own thought? How could I possibly dictate when God will act or speak through me, just by thinking of Him?

My pride was trying to take control again, thinking It could control God.

But my hearts desire is to absolutely surrender to the Spirit of Jesus within me. And I now realize my pride was getting in the way. And my prideful self is clever, seeking all kinds of ways to gain a sense of control. Yet as Paul said, “The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6)

Surrender; leaving control of my mind and self to Jesus’ Spirit within me. I choose to give control to Jesus, rather than my prideful self. Oh, my pride will fight back – I don’t think it will ever give up. After all, I’m just a normal human. But I believe Jesus is stronger than my pride. Wow… that’s for sure. And I’m so grateful.


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When All You Have Is Self

When all you have is selfishness, the meaning in your life is defined by your selfish desires. “Me, me, me” defines you. And since its part of our human nature, we all are selfish, each to our own degree.

But there’s misery in selfishness. For reasons I don’t understand, selfishness seems to hold onto pain. Selfishness cannot forgive. Selfishness is alone. Selfishness is greedy. And selfishness is rarely satisfied with life. When all you have is self, life is miserable. When you all have is self, you cannot truly see others, and you cannot see Jesus.

But when you begin to add humility to your natural selfishness, misery diminishes as your selfishness is diluted by the humility. And where selfishness clouds your vision, humility opens your horizon. And when you can look beyond self, you will truly and clearly begin to see the Spirit of Jesus, within you. And that’s when life begins.


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Political Nightmare

Does the future of the United States look crazy to you? Is this presidential election cycle twisting your mind into knots?

If you are a Trump supporter, is your enthusiasm for Trump at least partly a reaction to how messed up the current political establishment is? Is this your way of screaming into the face of the establishment and saying, “I’m tired, and I don’t want to take it any more.”?

If you are anti-Trump, are you growing fearful that a person with his qualities might actually end up being president of the United States?

No matter what side you’re on, are you looking for an escape from your uneasy feelings? Are you looking for a way to cope with the craziness that seems to surround you?

All I can offer is what works for me. The world is a messed up place, and the mess comes from our natural human ego, selfishness, greed, etc. I’ll lump these terms and more into the plague that infects all humanity – pride. Natural human pride is the muck that messes up the world we live in. And the only way to cope with this mess is by looking away from the world, and focusing more on Jesus.

Pry your thoughts away from this crazy world, and instead peer deep inside yourself, down into your soul. That’s where the Holy Spirit of God and Jesus lives. The more you stare at the Spirit of Jesus within you, the more peace you will feel. And the messiness will fad away.


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The Spirit Speaks – of The Wall of Pride

Wall of pride

I, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, have spoken of The Wall before, the wall of false ideas that stands between you and me. The stones in this wall are all the beliefs about me and my Church that are not true.

This wall of lies is built on the foundation of natural human pride. For it’s pride that twists the truth to meet the self-interests of humanity. Look, pride focuses on self rather than others. Pride focuses on personal preference, rather than truth. Therefore, pride stands in the way of a healthy relationship with others, and with me.

Though I despise the wall of pride that blocks your view of me, I still love my pride-filled children. For pride is not a choice you make. Pride is a plague that infects all of humanity. Yet it’s a plague with a cure, and I’m the doctor who can cure it. Look within yourself to me, within you. As you focus more on me, the wall of pride will begin to fade, as will your own prideful nature.


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Avoiding The Mess

garbage

Look at all the evil going on in the world. Then there’s selfishness, hate, anger, stress, fear, arrogance, bigotry… on and on. My personal opinion is that humanity is a big malignant mess. And since I’m a typical human, I only add to the mess, even when I try not to. It’s just part of my prideful human nature. I also think all the messes have their roots in our natural pride and selfishness. Yet, is there a way for me to live without adding to the mess? Yes.

That’s why I try to surrender my life to Jesus so that His Spirit can live through me. I want my “self” to step aside, making room for Jesus to fill me with His Self. Then, this person called CJ can be a part of humanity without adding to the mess. It’s not easy, for me anyway. But it’s my hope.

What do you think about this?


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Living for Eternity

God quiet

I thought I had found it. I thought I had discovered the underlying reason for our often-damaging natural human pride. But the flaws in my theory soon made themselves seen. Yet there are still parts of the theory that make sense to me.

They say that ego and arrogance come from insecurity – I believe this. I also believe that our mortality can feed our core sense of insecurity. Our life is short; we have little time to experience life – this can feed insecurity. Our mortal future may not be clear; we are uncertain of what waits for us on the other side of death – this gives more food to our insecurity. For those who are certain of heaven, they may feel uncertain of how God will judge them; and the insecurity gets bigger and stronger.

I don’t believe that pride and ego originated as a result of the insecurity that is fed by our mortality. But I do believe that our mortal insecurity feeds the pride that is already part of our natural humanity.

I constantly struggle with my own pride, striving to make it go away. Well, though I can’t make it go away entirely, maybe I can starve it and weaken it a bit… by living past my mortality and instead living for eternity. By faith, I want to accept my immortality that waits for me on the other side of death, and also accept the love and forgiveness already given to me by Jesus Christ. My eternal future is certain and bright.

I believe that accepting our bright immortal future will starve our insecurity, weaken our prideful human nature, and strengthen our humility. What do you think?


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Virus of Evil

Charlie Hebdo

The evil that is terrorism is like a virus. It’s always infected parts of humanity. The root of this evil is pride.

Why does the Islamic extremist murder innocent people? Because they are not willing to allow others to be different from them – agree with them or die. Such is the pride and arrogance of the Islamic extremist.

We all suffer from the virus of pride, some more than others. There are those where pride consumes their existence – pride extremists.

The Islamic extremists exhibit their extreme pride violently. Others may exhibit their extreme pride with acts of greed, lording financial power over us lesser beings. Other pride extremists exercise other forms of power and control. Thankfully, not all pride extremists feed their hunger with violence.

The cure for this virus is humility. But true humility can only come from a close personal relationship with God, from letting the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ into your inner-being. Jesus is the cure.


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The Epidemic

epidemic

Pride, self-centeredness, arrogance, selfishness;

different names for the same thing.

These are the root of all evil.

All a part of our human nature.

Or is this human nature?

Pride is more a disease infecting all humanity,

some suffering this disease more than others.

Human history is the story of the epidemic of pride.

Look upon your pride-filled enemy

as a victim of the epidemic,

and they will be your enemy no more.

When we see pride as an illness,

we give ourselves permission to feel compassion,

instead of anger.

And we can love our ailing enemies.

 

Jesus came to heal the sick.

He can free our souls of the cancer of pride,

and fill us with the love of His Spirit.

And I’m so grateful.


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My Prison of Pride

prisoner of fallacy

Pride is my self-imposed prison. Pride ties me up with strict rules and expectations. Pride wraps me in a straightjacket of stress when things don’t go MY way. Pride pushes my heart, soul, and mind to me, rather than God.

Pride is misery.

Yet Jesus has set me free from my prison. He has opened the door and shown me the path to humility… and love… and others… and our Father. There are still traces of pride clinging to me, but it’s not the prison it once was.

And the Holy Spirit within holds onto me, stopping me from returning to my familiar prison cell. And I’m so grateful.