Have you ever just wanted to get away, sink into the crowd where no one knows your name?  A place where you can put responsibility aside, even for just a little while, to rest and reconnect.  Jesus knew this feeling all to well.  The Bible often talks about Jesus going to be by himself. 

Mark 7:24-30 He left there and went away into the regions of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and he did not wish anyone to know about it, but he could not be there without people knowing about it. When a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him, she immediately came and threw herself at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. She asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, "First of all you must let the children eat their fill; it is not right to take the bread that belongs to the children and to throw it to the dogs." "True, sir," she answered, "but even the dogs below the table eat some of the bits of bread that the children throw away." He said to her, "Because of this word, go your way! The demon has come out of your daughter!" She went away and found the child thrown upon her bed and the demon gone.

I have read over this story many times, but have missed the value of it.  First, let us look at the geography of the story being told. Tyre and Sidon were cities of Phoenicia, which was a part of Syria. Phoenicia stretched north from Carmel, right along the coastal plain. It lay between Galilee and the seacoast. So the first thing that is of interest is that Jesus is in Gentile territory.  Many scholars feel this was a bold statement by Jesus.  In prior scripture, he preached nothing you put into your body could defile it, but instead it was what comes out of the heart that defiles (Mark 7:14).  By Jesus being in Gentile territory he was easily saying that no one was unclean.  Jews would never soil their life by mixing with unclean Gentiles, but here Jesus was in a Gentile’s house.  Jesus was more than likely seeking refuge.  He was under attack from every direction.  Have you ever felt like you just couldn’t get a break?  Jesus knew the feeling.  The Pharisees and scribes were after Him for breaking their laws and regulations.  Herod looked at him as a great inconvenience, and the people of Nazareth treated him with contempt.  Jesus chose to withdrawal from the animosity of the Jews. “The foundation of the Kingdom of the Gentiles was laid. It is the forecast of the whole history of Christianity. The rejection of the Jews had become the opportunity of the Gentiles.” – William Barclay Daily Study Bible


Jesus could not hide his presence.  Immediately a woman enters the scene.  She throws herself at the feet of Jesus.  She already has three strikes against her by normal standards: a gentile, a pagan, and a woman. The words that come next from Jesus’ mouth seem shocking. He says, “First of all you must let the children eat their fill; it is not right to take the bread that belongs to the children and to throw it to the dogs.” The word dog was used mostly as a term of contempt for the Gentiles. However, Jesus did not use the usual word; he used a diminutive word, which described, not the wild dogs of the streets, but the little pet dogs of the house. In Greek, diminutives are characteristically affectionate. Jesus gave softness to the word.  Jesus does not shut the door on the woman; He only makes the priority of his mission known- first to the Jews, then Gentiles.  My favorite part is how the woman responds to him.  She is not offended, or irritated, but seems to fully understand something the Jews could not.  She said, “but even the dogs below the table eat some of the bits of bread that the children throw away.”  She implies she understands her place, and will be happy with whatever left overs they do not claim for their own. Basically, whatever (grace) you give me, I will graciously accept.  Jesus is so overwhelmed with this refreshing understanding he tells her, “Because of this word, go your way! The demon has come out of your daughter!”  Her story is one of deep understanding and total faith.  Jesus understood the feeling of the disdained (unworthy, rejected, disregarded) woman standing in front of him, because he too felt the same emotions from his own people.  This woman symbolically represents the whole Gentile world ready to embrace a Savior the Jews would reject.


The story is such a tender one about underserving grace.  The woman knew she had no merit to ask for a miracle, but chose to believe in the Grace she knew Jesus could bestow.  What a blessing the Jews missed because they were so rigid and unwilling to open their eyes.  The truth is that none of us deserve anything but death because of our sinful nature.  We are all reliant upon the grace of God for anything we receive.  The old hymn states, 
“Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,

Freely bestowed on all who believe!

You that are longing to see His face,

Will you this moment His grace receive?

I hope that you have readily received God’s grace through salvation. Jesus died on the cross for our sin, was buried, and resurrected on the third day.  He did all this because he loved us with an agape love. 
 Are we willing to open our eyes and truly see the measure of His grace?  

​

​As I continue the Lent journey a pressing question has come up, “How do I lessen myself and elevate God more in my life?” How can everything I do and say lead to edification, glorification, and sanctification.” The answer is killing the PRIDE in all areas of my life!
How does pride manifest itself in your life? Have you ever felt entitled to something? Have you ever completed an assignment, gone the extra mile, yet everyone got the credit? You want your reputation to be esteemed by others. You thrive on recognition. You love to always be right. What does pride masquerade as in you: confidence, sarcasm, fashion, or commitment to excellence. This is a harder question because we might not even see these things as pride. We might just say we are confident in what we do when the truth is we are arrogant. We might say we are committed to high quality work, when in reality it is all about having our name known among others. We might say we just like the finer fashions in life, but secretly it is because we want everyone looking and talking about us. This list could continue on and on. I would encourage you to spend some time on these two questions. More than likely, we will all have a list that is not attractive.
 
In a recent sermon I heard Andy Stanley preach he said:
“Pride always diminishes you.
Pride crowds others out.
Pride deprioritizes others
Pride crowds God out.
Pride creates a prison in which you cannot exit.
All these things are true because prideful people seek what is best for them
(sometimes under false pretense of what is best for others)
 
When we are exercising pride we are puffing ourselves up with our own knowledge, ability, and self worth. This means we are diminishing God in our life. These things are in direct disagreement with what scripture says.
Philippians 2:5 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ……..
In this verse we are to have the same mindset as Christ. Although Christ was man, He could have elevated His power as God, but instead submitted Himself as a servant. Have you ever thought about this statement? Jesus was really the most important person in the room everywhere He went, but He refused to claim that status rather, He acted as a servant. He would not exercise His rights because God did not send Him to elevate Himself, but to set an example of servant hood. I find it fascinating that no where in the bible does it state Jesus had to be humbled, yet He was always willing to submit to His Father’s will. What if we took on the mindset of Christ and were always willing to submit to God’s will? What if instead of always trying to get ahead, make a name for our self, or prove we are right, we willfully submitted to God? We often think we do not have to forgive someone, or do not have to serve someone because they have wronged us. I have bad news there are no excuses. If Jesus submitted Himself under His Father’s authority even unto death, we have no excuse for un-forgiveness, or unwillingness to serve those who have hurt us. This has been one of the hardest things for me to read in this passage- there is never an excuse! Jesus did not want to die on a barbaric cross. He prayed for His Father to take the cup from Him. I think we overlook the fact that Jesus felt everything just as a normal man would on the cross. He felt the painful thorns pressing in his head, the spear ripping into his side, thirst as the sun baked His body, and despair as His Father turned away from Him. Do you fully realize that He sacrificed everything, not just His body, but also separation? He endured hours of excruciating separation from His Father, that He had never known. How can we then think we could come up with any excuse that would hold weight with God?
 
The truth today is we often have to be humbled by God because we are not willing to submit to him freely. Sometimes we experience painful situations in our life simply because of our own pride.
Andy Stanley made this statement: An invitation from God to follow Him- is an invitation to un-follow you.
 
I have often wrestled with the issue of pride in my life. Recently, I felt convicted of not being able to leave a situation behind me. It seemed like no matter how many times I laid it on the altar it would sprout legs and come find me. I decided to make a list of all the things I felt concerning the situation. It was definitely not a list for show and tell because it was ugly. There I stared at a piece of paper that told what my true feelings were about this particular situation. The key to being set free is to truly see things in your life as God sees them. As I looked at the paper, I could see how those things were negatives that were separating me from God. As I read over and over different verses like these I knew that I could either let this situation hold me tight, or I had to get a mindset of Christ. God reminded me of a verse in the Bible that says He will bring beauty from ashes. I took that piece of paper and burned it in my fire pit. I prayed the prayer that I knew God could take those ashes that were ugly and marred and restore peace to my heart. Later that morning I went to my bible study and these were the first words spoken “God never allows or appoints a fire unless he can bring beauty from the ashes.” God is so good in the way he meets us where we are, but assures us He will not leave us there.
Chad and I were having a conversation the other day about this subject. I said to him, “How have we learned so much about God and ourselves in such a short time?” We have been Christians over half our lives, but I just feel like God has put us in a crash course with Him recently. He responded with a smile and said “we have stopped listening to what everybody else wants and expects from us, and have turned our eyes to the only one that matters.” God has literally set us free in so many areas of our lives. We have found that if we are running after Him with our whole heart that it more than likely won’t make sense to those around us. We will continually be working on issues of pride our whole lives, but we are thankful for the promise that God will help us if we are willing.
Is your pride holding you back from knowing the true Freedom of your Lord and Savior? Is pride holding you back from apologizing, asking for forgiveness, giving forgiveness, being a servant, or just having peace? When pride tries to raise its ugly head we can ask our selves these questions: What would Jesus’ mindset be in this situation? What does love require me to do?

As we enter Lent, we come into a season of soul searching and truth seeking. It is a time to look into our souls and to see what God sees. I think most people fear self-reflection because it is painful. It is easier to just not see it at all, than to see it and act on it.  Very often people treat the symptoms of the problem without ever finding the cause.  This seems so bizarre, why would people choose this route?  The answer is fairly simple; it’s easier.  For example, in the medical field we spend billions of dollars on this very problem.  Someone has high blood pressure so do you cut out fried/fatty food and exercise, or just take a pill? Most are happy to just take a pill and keep eating whatever they want.  The problem with this method is that you haven’t solved the problem you are only treating the symptoms.  If we continue to treat only the symptoms it will eventually catch up to us with an acute heart attack or debilitating heart disease.  Although taking a pill may be the easiest and fastest route, diet and exercise will be the life long cure.
 
Our spiritual lives are much the same way.  When we enter into prayer with the Lord, and seek His face, He will show us truth.  Once we have been shown the truth then we must act on it.
“22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”  This verse is right on for our day and time.  There are many who hear the Word Sunday after Sunday, yet fail to do what it says. I think believers can all be linked into this category at one time or another.  The world is having a hard time distinguishing Christians from non-Christians. I have two great mentors in my ministry life.  One engrained in me from the beginning, see the truth through God’s eyes, not your own.  It took me a long time to really get what He was saying.  He meant when a hard situation arose in my ministry or my life, always put it up against scripture. If it was contradictory to God’s Word then it had to be dealt with. He also taught me upholding the truth can be painful and costly, but also very rewarding in our relationship with God. It is always easier to look the other way in our self-examination, but we are not stronger for doing so.  In the song Out of Hiding (Father’s Song) she sings these powerful lines:
           
Come out of hiding
You're safe here with Me
There's no need to cover
What I already see
 
You've got your reasons
But I hold your peace
You've been on lockdown
And I hold the key
 
I'll be your lighthouse
When you're lost at sea
And I will illuminate
Everything
 
'Cause I loved you before you knew it was love
And I saw it all, still I chose the cross
And you were the one that I was thinking of
When I rose from the grave
Now rid of the shackles, My victory's yours
I tore the veil for you to come close
There's no reason to stand at a distance anymore
 
I especially love the line that says, “There is no need to cover what I already see.” Some times we exhaust our selves trying to make everyone (including God) think we are doing amazing. The sad new is privately, many are dying a slow spiritual death. We may be able to fool people, but God is the El Roi “the God who sees.”  If we will seek God He will be our lighthouse and illuminate our life with truth.  The other powerful line is, “I saw it all, still I chose the cross.”  God loves us no matter where we find our selves, even if it is in a pit of sin.
 
Let’s take these next 40 days to prepare our hearts, so on Easter Sunday we can celebrate the cross with no shackles!!
 
John 8:31-32 … So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
 
 “Never let us be guilty of sacrificing any portion of truth on the altar of peace.” ~ J. C.