Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Taint the Saints


"They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Genesis 11:3-4
 Here it is, the famous Tower of Babel that was built from the pride of man! The intent behind the building was to glorify the people and to have it visible for all to see! They wanted to make a name for themselves through their glorious man-made achievement! Today, this tower is a representation of those things in our lives that could build up our pride and eventually lead to our downfall. God loves the humble and not the prideful. He wants us to worship Him, and that was how we were created and it was to honor God in all we do and to build altars to him and not ourselves. Think about the word "pride" and realize, that was the cause of the fall of Satan from Heaven! In Proverbs 16:18 it states that "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall". We all need to be cautious of how pride can slowly begin to take root in our lives and that can start us to build our own tower of pride. Many have fallen to sin, even pastors, when they get puffed up and prideful in the areas of wealth, prestige and power. These elements can taint the saints. We all need to be watchful, for those areas in which the enemy can entice us to open that door of pride in our lives and give the enemy a foothold. These sins will begin to start us building the foundation of our Tower of Babel and we build it brick by brick, until we have created this tower of pride in our lives. We need to guard ourselves and to keep our focus on the Lord and not ourselves. We are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength – not things of the world and that includes our own accomplishments.  We need to decrease for God to increase. When we begin to get puffed up and prideful at what we have accomplished, we need to get down on our knees and realize that where we are today is only because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. May God be increased and magnified in your life so you can decrease. Help us to remain small, hidden and powerless so God can be magnified and seen.
Question: What tower have you built in your life that glorifies yourself and not God?

3 comments:

Leon Gore said...

If there are other things we can learn from the story of Tower Of Babel, aside from checking our pride so us not to fall into rebellion against God it is the important element of succeeding in achieving once organizational goal. This could be in a corporate setting, a sport team, could be some political mission or any objective a group of people are set to achieve. There are three things we can learn from this scripture:
First - Genesis 11 starts with verse 1 "Now the whole world had one language and a common speech." Literally people during that time spoke of one language only. Nowadays not only we speak in different tongue but even we speak the same language our interpretation regarding spoken and written word varies, so at the beginning itself we already missed our goals by sometimes wrongly interpreting what was given to us. A clear common understanding of what is to be expected is paramount in achieving a team's goal.

Second - They have a specific plan "verse 3 "They said to each other, Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar." See how specific the plan was, bake the brick thoroughly, use brick instead of stone , tar instead of mortar. When we lay out our blue prints the specific should be obvious. Some campaign fails because they lack or missed the specifics and lastly but actually the first - They set a clear and specific goal, in verse 4 "Then they said , Come let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." That was bold and clear. And achievable , no other than God Himself confirmed it when He said in verse 6 "The Lord said, If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them." God Himself admits that "nothing they plan to do will be impossible" so God in verse 7 confused their language and the project Tower of Babel was put into halt and was never finished.

So to recap in order to be successful in organizing a group or a team , three elements should be present.

1. A clear definition of goal or objectives.
2. A specific plan and strategies and last which is very important.
3. One common language.

But the underlying point here is this should be within the boundary of God's will, no matter how good we set up our group , our plans , our communication if God will not approved of it , then it will bound to fail just like the tower of babel.

Pam Zunic said...

I love the living Word of God and how the Holy Spirit magnifies the word for each and every one of us and that we can read the same verse and God will speak to us differently as to what we need to hear and apply to our lives. Isn't God's Word amazing!

Solid Rock or Sinking Sand said...

Thank you so much for this inspiring message from God's Word. Blessings. Lloyd