Thursday, February 7, 2013

Vanity


Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

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"Knowing people get ticked off about almost anything anyway,
tick 'em off on your terms; doing your best, intentionally
and humbly, to bring your terms into consonance
with God's apocalyptic will exemplified in
Jesus and explained in the Bible."

From the Non-Bestseller Fifteen Secrets for Life and Ministry

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    He is a decent man.

    A peacemaker.

    He was thrown out of a high school basketball game last week.

    He said, "I was only a few rows up from the court.  When the referee came near me, I said, 'Well, you missed a few calls.'  He asked, 'Do you want to see the rest of the game?'  I said, 'Well, just call a good game.'  Then I was tossed."

    Some people are sooooooo touchy.

    Vanity.

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    When I taught homiletics, I taught what I was taught.

    Big lesson: "You are really only preaching for One."

    You know how He said something like, "You're damned if you do and damned if you don't; so you may as well...do the right thing!"

    Loose translation.

    Anyway, my vanity caused me to expand: "After you preach, assuming you've been faithful to God without respect to anyone else, don't pay any attention to the compliments or criticisms because His opinion is the only one that counts in the end."

    Curiosity of opinions - positive or negative - other than His is...vanity.

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    He left the church.

    It happens.

    It's usually...control...lust...prejudice...arrogance...entitlement...

    He said, "I expect them to chase after me to get me to come back."

    Uh, say what?

    James: "Where do you think your fighting and endless conflict come from?  Don't you think that they originate in the constant pursuit of gratification that rages inside each of you?  You crave something that you do not possess, so you...You desire the things you cannot earn, so you...fight."

    V-a-n-i-t-y.

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"When you are real, you don't mind being hurt...It doesn't often happen
to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges,
or who have to be carefully kept."

The Skin Horse

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Blessings and Love!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Preach it!!

Jim said...

Who'd a thunk it? Worship offered to an audience of One! The work, not of just the pastor, or the pastor and the choir/praise team, but the work of the entire congregation, aimed at glorifying and pleasing just One...
Funny, isn't it, when someone comes up to the pastor and says to him/her, "You were talking to/about me, weren't you?" As you say, vanity. But, if the shoe fits, wear it, it might turn out to be the gospel of peace you're trying on for the first time.

Dr. Robert R. Kopp said...

Absolutely, brother; recalling how my favorite associate Harold responded to the woman who complained that his sermons were directed at her: "if the shoe fits..." Frankly, people who think "they're" aimed at 'em bring to mind Simon's song about vanity!