Whatcha saying?

John 7:18 The one who speaks on His own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true, and in Him there is no falsehood.

Each night I lay down to pray and talk with my kids. Eli is now four and loves pirates, so lately I have been working in some tales of old pirate Red Beard sailing the Caribbean in search of Spanish Gallions full of gold. A couple of nights ago, he attempted his first stab at telling a Pirate tale. It basically went something like this "Apona once time there Red Beard and scooby doo said happy Halloween. Star wars came and they jumped off the ship and redbeard got lost. The end."

It is amazing how much kids imitate their parents. Eli's confusing story was simply an attempt to mirror me and my bad Pirate accent. He just turned four, so he gets a pass on blabbing off some confusion. I don't think we get that same pass as adults.

Read through the passage above and listen to what Jesus is saying. He basically says that He is sent to bring Glory to God and is speaking based on that authority. He goes further to say that anyone who doesn't speak by a God endowed and empowered authority is seeking his own glory, not God's.

That should stop us dead in our tracks when we see our churches filled with members, and even some preachers who don't know the Bible, or choose to ignore the Bible and instead believe that their opinions are more important than teaching the word of God, which has a 100% backing by God as being invested with God's authority. It is only when we are seeking to Glorify God will we care about what He has to say about Himself and His Creation. When we are seeking to Glorify ourselves we will speak on our own authority, which quite frankly seems as silly as Eli's story when you stop and look at it from a God centered perspective.

So what are you talking about? What is your purpose? Are you following the model of Christ purpose, seeking to glorify God alone? Are your words and life aligned under His authority humbly seeking His majesty?

If that is not happening, both your purpose and your words will seek to glorify and justify yourself. Jesus classifies that as faleshood.