Friday, January 18, 2008

Simon Cowell: It's All About Me!

On the first night of American Idol, from Philadelphia, a contestant's family celebrated with her when she received her ticket to Hollywood. Hearing the joy in the hallway, Simon commented of his amazement that here in America people celebrate when something good happens to someone they know.

Simon's response? He said he didn't understand it; that he could never do that.

That, my friend, is evidence of an unregenerate heart. A self-centered, "I"-focused heart and life. So antithetical to a heart of flesh made alive from a heart of stone, due wholly to the love and touch of Jesus Christ's shed blood and redemptive work on the cross.

How sad. May the love and life of Christ touch you, Simon, and draw you to Him!

Romans 12:15a
Rejoice with those who rejoice.

Romans 12:9-21
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

I John 4:7-12
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

So the unregenerate ‘walk in the futility of their mind’ (Eph. 4:17). The natural inclination of the unregenerate mind is to seek those things that cannot satisfy (Gen. 6:5). It is an unstable mind (Prov. 7:11-12). The unregenerate understanding is darkened and cannot judge things properly (John 1:5). The unregenerate heart is blind. . . . Even though the unconverted mind is highly educated and talented, yet it is utterly unable to receive and understand spiritually those things needful for its eternal salvation. It will not respond to the preaching of the gospel until renewed, enlightened and enabled to do so by the Holy Spirit: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Cor. 2:14). The subject of this verse is the natural man. The natural man is quite opposite of the spiritual man (1 Cor. 15:44; Jude 19).
John Owen, The Holy Spirit (Banner of Truth, 1999)

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