Love Does NOT Boast

I decided to skip the second day of "jealousy" because I'm fairly certain I made my point AND today's topic happens to go with it quite well.

Boast:to speak with exaggeration; bragging.

Now, none of us like hearing people brag. It's not fun. Why? Because....we either get 1.) annoyed (ooh...PATIENCE) or 2.) jealous. So, really, when people brag, it's a temptation for us to sin. Let's look at some people who bragged in the Bible.

HAMAN(bom bom boooooooommm). Remember him? Check out Esther 3-6, or my mom's blog. In short, Haman was a "powerful prince" in the court of King Xerxes. He was all high and mighty, until one day this Jew named Mordecai refused to bow down to him (ego, much?). So he decided that he wanted to kill ALL of the Jews, just cuz Mordecai did the right thing and refused to bow to anyone but God. Wanna know what happened? He did unleash an all out attack on the Jews, but the Jews were able to fight back, because God was on their side. Haman ended up hanging himself on the gallows he built for Mordecai(who also gained Haman's position in the court)...Tough cookies...

GOLIATH(even BIGGER "bom bom booooooommm"). Who doesn't remember Goliath? Check out 1 Samuel 17-21. The Philistines thought that they had da bomb diggity with Goliath. He was over 9 feet tall and pretty strong...His armor weighed 125 lbs, and the iron point of his spear weighed 75 lbs. (JUST THE POINT OF THE SPEAR!!!!!!!) Well, he's taunting the Isrealites, and this little kid named David had his slingshot and a few stones. Impossible situation? I think not. God used one stone to smack Goliath's huge head, and he was dead.

How about NEBUCHADNEZZAR? This always makes me think of the Veggietales movie about the chocolate bunnies. (Maybe the situation would've been better if there was chocolate involved...) Anyway, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were all good Christians. Then it happened again. Nebuchadnezzar decided that he needed people to bow down to him. When the Three Musketeers didn't bow, he decided to crank up the furnace seven times hotter and throw them in. Ow, right? Burning alive is not on my list of ways to die. Anyway, they were thrown in there, a fourth person appeared and they walked out...ALIVE. Not smelling like smoke, or burned at all. Check it out: Daniel 3 for full details.

The only time it is EVER okay to boast is in the Lord. ((Psalm 34:2, 44:8)). Not about your salvation((Ephesians 2:8-9)). Look at these: ((Psalm 94:4-7; Proverbs 27:1)) You can't even brag about your LIFE. The only thing you can brag in is JESUS because He's the only thing worth bragging about anyway! Everything else is going to disappear with the rest of the world...Jesus will still be there(*cue music*).