Pride is essentially competitive

I am finishing up C.S. Lewis's book,   Mere Christianity.  This book covers a bunch of topics, anything from the natural law, marriage, the trinity, and a bunch more stuffis.  A couple of days ago I finished a chapter called, The Great Sin.  C.S. made some points that just hit me hard.  So here are a few:

• "I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice."               

-This is just an interesting point.  The vice Lewis is referring to is pride, and that it is almost completely something that only Christians are aware of in there lives.  It seems the more and more we walk down the road of Christianity the more we see our pride. 

• "...it was through pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind."

-Pride is considerd a mother sin.  It is the root of other sins, such as lust, envy, murder, and so on. 

• "Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man."        

-Right on brotha Lewis!  This is completely true, and is where I got the title for this blog.  When someone wins a race, they don't become prideful because the won, bu

t because the beat all the others. It's not when we look at ourselves that we become prideful, but when we compare ourselves to others.  

How can we cure this pride problem, Lewis gives the first step and I will give the second:

1. Admit that you are proud. 
2. Stop looking horizontally and start looking vertically.  

What do you guys think about the topic of pride vs. humility, any pointers, insight, comments?

Mint Condition

Today I cleaned my room. Yes, that is what I said, I cleaned my room. I was dusting off old GI
Joes from when I was 8, stacking up "a little golden books", (you know the ones with the gold binding?! I am not sure why they are still in my room, but they are), and organizing the 15 books I recieved from the Together 4 the Gospel confrecnce, when I came across something I had never seen in my room. It was a small burgandy box that said in silver colored cursive, "United States Mint Proof Set 1990". So I opened it up and began checkin it out.

As soon as I peered into this little box ,I knew without a doubt this stuff was legit. Inside the box was a Certificate Of Authenticity, which was signed by Donna Pope. Wait...are you tellin me you dont know The Donna Pope?? Well I will tell you who see is, Director of the United States Mint, is her officital title. Now on the other side of this certificate were the specifications of the coins. Some facts about the nickel: Designed by Felix Schlag, Composed of Cupro-nickel(25% nickel), Weight is 5.000 g, and its diameter is 21.21 mm.

When I layed down the certificate and looked into the box, it was like the windows of Heaven opened up cuz these things were so shiny! I was befuzzled by their glossy qualites. They glistend like the gold leafing of a brand spankin new John Macarthur NKJV Bible! These five coins including a penny, a nickel, a dime, a quarter, and a dollar coin, were all manufactured in 1990. As I looked at the profile of JFK on the dollar coin, my busted up mug glared back at me...now remember, we are talking about coins here and not a bathroom mirrior. These bright lustrous coins were unlike any othere coin I had seen. These coins in mint condition, un tarished, without a scratch or blemish, never touched by human hands, and certified by the one and only Donna Pope, reminded me of something rad!

God cleaning us. Christ making us as if we were in mint condition, never touched by sin, washed and shined by His precious blood. This is something that cannot be done to coins. Coins cannot be messed up and then made new. But we can through Christ. Ezekiel 36:25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, an you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols." Another reference were God cleans us, removes our tarnish, our wear and tear, and makes us into mint condition is 2 Cor. 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Pretty awsome that Christ, who is in mint condition, would make us into mint condition.