We strive to become "righteous" but could it be that we are unknowingly being self-righteous instead? What does then RIGHTEOUSNESS mean?:

http://www.praying.org/blogs/land-of...teousness.html

May the Lord Jesus grant us to become righteous in His eyes.

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Land-of-Fire: God Bless you . I read your Blog and agree with you. We must be very careful that flesh does not get in our way. Bless to you. ODIE

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2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Dear Christain.... i believe that one way to check self righteousness is doing God's work serving those in true need. When we do this much of everything else is irrelevant. As an example, no longer is the fact that this one woman wears a mini skirt to church as important, when all we have in mind is that one homeless person we met that will be under the elements as he sleeps outside in the snow tonight... I hope this is a good illustration.

May the Lord grant us determination to carry out His works of redemption.

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Hello, and GOD Bless you, everyone....
I hope you don't mind if I offer thoughts here?
I look at "serving others in need" as loving GOD, and loving your neighbor as yourself.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and 'Our' righteousness..." Rather, the Bible says ... seek "His" Righteousness. We are to seek Jesus' Righteousness.
2nd Corinthians 5:21 states,
"For He (GOD the Father) hath made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the Righteousness of GOD in Him." This speaks of Christ's Imputed Righteousness (our sins are placed upon Christ's record, and His Righteousness is placed upon our record). We are Justified in the eyes of GOD, just-as-if- you never sinned.
The blood of Jesus takes our sins away forever (1st Peter 1:18,19).
This Is True Righteousness, and it is found ONLY In Christ Jesus. We are commanded to seek HIS righteousness if we want to obtain the Kingdom of GOD.
"But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of GOD is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption" (1st Corinthians 1:30)

It's true, however, when we are 'serving those in need' that we ask GOD to search our hearts, so to know whether we are serving others in love - or in "Self-righteousness."

As you pointed out here, Land-of-Fire, the right attitude we should have in serving others in love - you said - "When we do this much of everything else is irrelevant. As an example, no longer is the fact that this one woman wears a mini skirt to church as important, when all we have in mind is that one homeless person we met that will be under the elements as he sleeps outside in the snow tonight... I hope this is a good illustration."

Land-of-Fire, I believe It is an Excellent illustration! A True Heart of a Servant of Christ Jesus!

Because, there can be a wrong heart when serving others:

3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
(1 Corinthians 13: 3-7)

(But if I don't have love, none of these things will help me!)

Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love isn't jealous.
It doesn't sing its own praises.
It isn't arrogant.
It isn't rude.
It doesn't think about itself.
It isn't irritable.
It doesn't keep track of wrongs.
It isn't happy when injustice is done,
but it is happy with the truth.
Love never stops being patient,
never stops believing,
never stops hoping,
never gives up.

Praise GOD!

Stay in GOD's peace, and His Love!
love Zephania

Dear Zeph what you say is true to some degree, but this a minority problem. I have not really seen a christian act with strange attitudes while serving those in need (especially none serving in secret) ... or at least not in a way that was too obvious.

I have not seen a self-righteous person mingle getting his own hands dirty to help a homeless person. For to be self-righteous means that he is in the right, and the homeless in the wrong. The self-righteous would not see it fit to help a homeless person, for this very homeless person in theory would be suffering out of the consequences of his sins. Thus a self-righteous person would think, why help a person who keeps sinning and bring calamity to his own head. This is how Job's friends thought of Job.

I have never heard any homeless person complain that he was given too much food to eat, or clothes to wear, or even offered a place to shower too often. One can perhaps give without loving, but one cannot love without giving. If one loves, one must give. For most of the christian community what is lacking is the tangible serving of those in true need. Not just giving money, but actually being personally involved in serving, as Isaiah 58 mentions.

Here in NYC we can see some amazing expressions of graciousness where a few churches have volunteered their spaces to serve as shelters to the homeless. And the amazing thing is that some of those churches are so rich they could care less for the homeless, yet from the homeless perspective, a clean and warm place to sleep is a great place, no matter how heartfelt the giving was. In otherwords, it is a benefit to the helpless regardless of the giver, some of them still glorify and give thanks to God for His mercy. I have seen some volunteers, who go volunteering as the shelter hosts and quite frankly i am not sure why they are volunteering.... they do not look cheerful at all to do it, they can hardly make conversation with the homeless they are serving, and yet it were not for them, the shelters could not function, because there are not enough of us who can actually talk to the homeless persons in an interesting manner, because those of us who are actually able to do it, do not do it. So i praise the Lord for even the begrudging volunteers. Basically all these volunteers have to do is to sleep there for the night, not even every night.

Nevertheless, regardless of the attitude issues, unless we even begin obeying and serving, we will not really know how much our own love needs to grow, or whether we even have need for attitude adjustment.

We are saved because of God's grace reached out to us, but there is a reason that we are saved here on earth, that we may take part in the redemption of souls: for His glory and in service to Him by serving our neighbors, and especially those in need (since they actually need and want our service -- as opposed to the rich who actually do not see the need for our service, not all are like this but most are). Reading the bible and going to church is not really serving, it is rather receiving a spiritual blessing.

I leave us with the following verses:

Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.' (Matt 7:21-23)

"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'" (Matt 25:34-40)

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"Dear Zeph what you say is true to some degree, but this a minority problem"

Land-of-Fire, I can't take credit for the written word of GOD. I didn't write the Bible

3). And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (1 Corn. 13:3)
~)~

"I have not really seen a christian act with strange attitudes"
"I have seen some volunteers, who go volunteering as the shelter hosts and quite frankly i am not sure why they are volunteering.... they do not look cheerful at all to do it, they can hardly make conversation with the homeless they are serving, and yet it were not for them, the shelters could not function, because there are not enough of us who can actually talk to the homeless persons in an interesting manner, because those of us who are actually able to do it, do not do it. So i praise the Lord for even the begrudging volunteers." (land-of-fire)

3). And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (1 Corn. 13:3)

"I have not seen a self-righteous person mingle getting his own hands dirty to help a homeless person. For to be self-righteous means that he is in the right, and the homeless in the wrong. The self-righteous would not see it fit to help a homeless person, for this very homeless person in theory would be suffering out of the consequences of his sins."
(Land-of-Fire)

Dear Land-of-Fire,
I Have Seen! "self-righteous people mingle getting their own hands dirty to help a homeless person!" And So Has Every Other Homeless Person Seen "The Self-Righteous People Mingle getting their hands dirty to help a homeless person(s)."

GOD Bless you, Land-of-Fire, keep up the good work, the homeless need more people like you.

May you stay in GOD's peace!
zephania

The homeless and all those in need (such as the elderly, or the single mothers, etc) could use all of our collective help. Helping ONE in desperate need requires the efforts of many.

But let us remember, if we will not do it, God will send someone else, even if that means sending unbelievers to do the work. And let me just say, this i have for sure seen! How scary it is, and what will our excuse be before Him?

Let us not be mistaken, God does not need our help! It is only to our priviledge that He grants us the opportunity to serve Him. And how will we reject such opportunity by turning it away without being ashamed in the day of judgement?

Then, dear beloved brothers and sisters, let us serve now, when the opportunities are still here, for in the eternal days, only those who have proven faithful will serve Him in great works we all long to partake in, and has in store for those who have obeyed His voice and commands faithfully. For once set in eternity, it will be eternally set and there will be no changing. There will be no second chances in eternity, second chances are only afforded us while sojourning in this corruptible earth.

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