Mar. 17: Rebel Pride

You'll see the message often where I live, usually stuck to the bumper of a pick-up truck: "Rebel Pride". Usually adorned in some fashion with the colors and pattern of the confederate flag. I am a son of the South. I understand being proud of being southern. My wife's high school mascot was the Rebels, and they'd fire off the cannon everytime the football team scored a touchdown; then a guy dressed as a confederate soldier on horseback would take off, galloping around the track.

I saw the bumper sticker yesterday, but this time it struck a different cord. How often am I rebellious? And how often do I take pride in that? As a Christ-follower, pride and rebellion are two things I am constantly trying to to outgrow.

The Wisdom of scripture has much to say in warning us against a prideful and a rebellious spirit:

• When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2)
• Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice. (Proverbs 13:10)
• A man's pride brings him low, but a man of humble spirit gains honor. (Proverbs 29:23)
• Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)
• For rebellion is like the sin of divination or witchcraft, and stubbornness like the evil of idolatry.
  (1 Samuel 15:23)

I have always felt drawn to Jesus for the fact that He was a rebel. He confronted the self-righteous religious leaders of His day and challenged the staus quo. Jesus was different: He wasn't driven by pride and ego; He wasn't rebellious against God, but humbly obedient to God at all times, and therefore often found himself at odds with people who had a different agenda.

I think the difference is that some rebels stir things up just to have a good time and enjoy others' pain. Jesus was focused on setting people free, and those into controlling people had their whole political-religious system disrupted because of Him. Jesus was a stepping stone to some, a stumbling block to others.

As you come to Jesus, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house... For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message... (1 Peter 2:4-8)

Jesus is unavoidable--He either beomes a stepping stone to real relationship with God, or a stumbling block to those who don't believe He is who and what He claimed to be.

~ Father, help me not to stumble over Jesus' claims, but to embrace the Truth and step closer to You. I choose to walk in obedience to Your Word, and not in rebellion against it. Amen.