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mp3 Vanity Does It! Isaiah 13:11 I, the Lord, will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sin. I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty. What is it that sends people reeling into sin? Do people really want to hurt other people? Do they want to steal, cheat, lie, rape, murder, molest and abuse? What causes people to pay thousands of dollars for nips and tucks and fancy cars? Where does the desire for these things originate? They originate in selfishness. Everything begins with someones desire. Right now our spirits reside in bodies that have many desires and needs. If we are cold we seek warmth. If we are hot, we seek cooling. If we are uncomfortable, we seek comfort. If we are lonely we seek companionship, or outcast, we seek revenge. If we have more than someone else, we feel like we are better than them; and if they have more than us, we wish we were them. As King Solomon so exquisitely said, All is vanity. I looked up vanity at Thesaurus.com http://thesaurus.com/browse/vanity and was amazed at the synonyms listed: affectation, arrogance, self-admiration, self-love, self-worship . . . haughty. Vanity is not just worrying about what other people think, like a woman who never leaves her home without makeup in her best dress or a man who has perfectly manicured nails and inserts lifts into his shoes so that he can seem taller. Vanity is much more than that; its relaying a false perception of ones self. Just as sin is fun and often looks enticing, eventually one has to suffer its consequences which further clarify its destructive nature; just as the false perception of vanity is soon revealed by the truth. I like to practice fasting. It draws me close to God by denying my flesh the rule over me. My will must always be turned toward God for it is Him that I love and desire to serve. Since my desires have become about pleasing God, I dont worry about the things with which most people are consumed. I dont worry about fashion, the fanciest car or whats happening in Hollywood. I cant even tell you the latest pop song thats topped the charts or which television show everyone is watching. I just dont care about those things. Not to be ruled by those things makes life peaceful and good. I have two beings that I desire to please, God above all, and then my husband. Chasing after anything else is a waste of energy and life.

All sin begins with vanity. It begins with self-worship. When people give more worth to themselves than to any other human being, they have entered the gates of vanity. This is what causes adults to abuse children, women to give sex in hopes of getting love, and men to give love in hopes of getting sex, it is all fueled by some personal desire over which the abuser has no control or refuses to control his or her desires and thoughts to protect and honor the person he or she is abusing, because their only yearning is to quench their own insatiable unrighteousness. Make no mistake, there are always consequences for sin some of which manifest much later, when the offender believes that no one will ever know. Then it all comes out and absolutely destroys the offender. When God looks at us, His creation, He knows the end of what we will become, because he wove it into us while we were still inside of our mothers womb. Psalm 139:13 (NIV) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. The problem with creation, if we could call it a problem, is that we are free wills encased in living flesh. Just as the food that feeds our bodies, whatever we feed our minds also becomes ingrained in our character. Have you ever heard the saying You are what you eat? And so it is, you are whatever you feed yourself, whether its vanity, sex, violence, perversion, terror, sacrifice, love, peace, mercy, grace, Jesus, scripture, salvation. Its what you do when you are alone and no one is watching; that is the substance of your character. You know you are on the right path when you can open the door and let the world witness your alone time with out embarrassment or regret; but if you cant open the door without embarrassment, regret, or jail time, its time to put vanity in its place; its time to crucify the flesh; its time to renew the mind, its time to accept salvation and freedom and be snatched from the clutches of this world. Ive begun to wonder how long it would take the world to collapse should all of humanity suddenly become moral according to the standards that God has set before us. We wouldnt need government, police, banks, Hollywoods fantasyland, lawyers, judges, or beauty salons. Oh, Im sorry, I was thinking of Heaven! Some will say God wove me together into the wrong womb. I had a nightmare for parents. My father or mother was abusive. Im damaged forever by what they did. How can God love me and let me go through such horrors? I dont have an answer for what youve been through, but I know that human sin is the most destructive force against human beings as could be fathomable. To sin against another human being is to severely damage the core being of that person, to forever alter their perception of other people, the world, even the look of a flower or the taste of

something sweet. Vanity has turned all of society upside down, calling good bad and bad good. I know people that have been through severe abuse from their parents. One gentleman I know was passed around from his father to his grandfather and to his uncles. He believed for the longest time that he was homosexual and later in life, put his trust in Jesus and his mind was renewed and his life changed. He is now married to a beautiful woman. I know a woman who was traded and sold by her father and suffered unbelievable pain and later trusted Jesus and became whole. The fact is there are more people who have been abused than not. And society feeds it and institutes no repercussions, no pressure to stop, there is nothing battling the vanity of selfishness that evil has worked in this world. Politicians work for themselves, Hollywood works for glorification of self, influencing our children and even adults with its vanity. Evil has become so bold, that it rears its ugly head in daylight and has no shame. Proverbs 8:13 All who fear the Lord will hate evil. Therefore, I hate pride and arrogance, corruption and perverse speech. I read an article that led me to a video by Dawn Hawkins about a man seated in front of her on a Delta flight that was viewing child porn for which no one batted an eye. http://pornharms.org/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjuWn32pzLM. It took a great deal of courage for her to speak up in a world where such things seem to be revered. Vanity is the offspring of the desires of the flesh that digs the pit of selfishness that compels immorality and evil desires. It is the same vanity that fed Satan and led to His being cast out of the presence of God. It is the same vanity that separates people from God and the vanity by which people destroy each other. Romans 1:28-32 (NLT) Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know Gods justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. We have but one way to defeat vanity, affectation, arrogance, self-admiration, self-love, selfworship or any other blinding pride that plagues humanity, no matter its color, nationality, or social status, and that is by accepting Jesus as the Savior of the world. He is Satans master and

when we call on Jesus, Satan has no power over us. While Jesus said there would be trials and persecution in this life, there will be peace and joy everlasting in eternity with God. Paul said in Philippians 2:16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christs return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. Only the Holy Spirit can change us from darkness to light, and only Jesus can open the door for Him to come in. Ask Jesus to be your personal savior; study the Holy Scriptures. Once you truly experience life with Jesus, youll never desire to return to darkness, and youll desire to share the joy youve found. Be sure to visit me on rbwagener.wordpress.com. May God kiss your spirit this week with great wisdom! God bless you.