Tag: character

Categories
Christian Living

How You are Slowly Becoming Either a Saint or a Brute

Every one of us find ourselves in the middle of the current of this River of Life.
And it is naturally working to sweep us in a direction – pushing us along with a powerful force.
If we decide to tread water, we find that we don’t stay in the same place, we are still being pushed further downstream. Unless we decide to engage in the hard work of swimming against the current, we find that we are constantly being pushed along with so many others by the river. And it is certainly easier to “go with the flow” and let the water carry us along. But when we get to the destination that the river is carrying us to, will we be satisfied with where we end up?

We are familiar with the thought that our bodies are like machines, needing the right routine of food, rest and exercise if they are to run efficiently, and liable, if filled up with the wrong fuel (alcohol, drugs, poison) to lose their power of healthy functioning and ultimately to “seize up” entirely in physical death.

What we are, perhaps, slower to grasp is that God wishes us to think of our souls in a similar way. As rational persons, we were made to bear God’s moral image — that is, our souls were made to “run” on the practice of worship, law-keeping, truthfulness, honesty, discipline, self-control, and service to God and our fellows. If we abandon these practices, not only do we incur guilt before God; we also progressively destroy our own souls. Conscience atrophies; the sense of shame dries up; one’s capacity for truthfulness, loyalty, and honesty is eaten away; one’s character disintegrates. One not only becomes desperately miserable; one is steadily being dehumanized. This is one aspect of spiritual death. Richard Baxter was right to formulate the alternatives as either: “A Saint — or a Brute”… that, ultimately, is the only choice, and everyone, sooner or later, consciously or unconsciously opts for one or the other.
(J. I. Packer in Knowing God)

We are each becoming either a Saint or a Brute due to our choice of swimming against the current or letting the natural course of things sweep us along. It is easier to not engage in that list of “law-keeping, truthfulness, honesty, discipline, self-control, and service.” Those things require hard work. But I don’t want my character to disintegrate as I let my conscience atrophy and my sense of shame dry up while floating along with everyone else. It is easier to “go with the flow.” But Christ calls each of us to be a saint – one of His holy people set apart to live for Him. That will require us to swim against the current and to look different than most everyone else. But getting to the right destination at the end of this life is worth it.

Categories
Relationships

The Best Way To Impact The World

God has a plan to impact the world, and you have a key part to play in the plan.

Your role is to help the people around you connect with Christ and grow in godliness. That includes your spouse, your children, your extended family, your coworkers, and your neighbors. It is a slow, messy process that means you will have to invite a small number of people into a relationship with you so that you can share life together. Though there were many that influenced me, I had three key people do this for me – two of them were my parents and the third one was Richard.
two friends walking together
Richard invited me into his “circle” though I was an immature, know-it-all college student. And he walked me through discipleship by letting me walk beside him in everyday life so I could see how a Christian adult man should live with Jesus and for Him. Richard did a great job of putting his own interests aside for the express purpose of helping me grow in my knowledge of God’s Word and in developing Christ-like character. It took time because I was dense and stubborn! (I still am!) But he was patient. I have attempted to take what I learned from walking beside Richard and invite others to walk beside me. But this is a slow process that can become frustrating to us since we like to see things happen quickly. But lives just don’t change that fast. Are you willing to impact the world one-life-at-a-time in this slow, messy process called discipleship?

Here is an excerpt from an article on this idea of walk-beside-someone-discipleship:

     The fundamental way that we are going to see Jesus save people across the globe is through discipleship.
      That’s right, the good old fashioned, life-on-life, person-to-person, dirty, messy process of teaching people to obey all that Jesus had commanded. Showing people with our words and our lives how to follow and magnify the Risen Savior.
      That’s it – it may not be sexy, it may not sell books, but it is how God designed his redemption plan.
      We’ve all heard this before, I know. But think about it. To most of us, it seems nuts. The Son of God comes to earth and rather than staying and preaching for 40 years, He spends three years investing in 12 men and then he leaves! …What?! Surely we could come up with something new, maybe more efficient, maybe even as a backup plan? No. There isn’t a plan B, and there doesn’t need to be one. Discipleship is God’s choice plan for redeeming the world.
      This is not profound. It’s not new. It’s simply not finished. And most of us simply refuse to accept it. When it comes down to it, for most of us being as successful as Jesus was at developing leaders would feel like a wasted life.
      See how that’s a problem? To think little of this model and to reject this model is to reject God’s ordained means to accomplish His mission.
      The reality is if you reach only 12 in your life, it’s a win. It will probably feel like you’re spending too much time with a few and neglecting the many, but this is precisely how God will redeem every last one of His own!

Jesus’ model definitely seems time-consuming and difficult in our “I want it now” society. The reason it seems so time-consuming and difficult is because it is so time-consuming and difficult to walk beside another person in this slow, messy process. But it is the model He used and the one He expects us to use. It’s time to get your hands dirty. Who can you invite to walk beside you in discipleship? Who does God want you to be responsible for training in Christlike living and God-honoring character?

(article excerpt by Kevin Peck – “Without This Your Missional Movement Will Fail”)

Categories
Christian Living

To Be or To Do – Is Character Important?

Being or Doing?
What is better in God’s eyes?

I believe that His statement: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” answers the question.

I remember one trip when I was a youth minister where the adult leaders were asked: “What are the things that have most excited you about youth ministry this past year?”

One after another, people stood up and shared: We went on a mission trip. We did a service project. We performed a special choir musical for our church. We did this, or We did that.

As I listened, I thought, “I’m not sure these are the things that we ought to be “most” excited about.”
There was no mention of life change, salvation, or deeper discipleship.
It seems most of us were excited about the things we were doing.
Not about the things our students were “being.”
A tragedy.

What we ought to be most excited about are the changes we see in the people around us as they spend more time developing the character traits of Jesus.

In our “busy” society, we seem to believe that the more we “do” for someone, the better. That leads us to think that the more we “do” for the church, the more God appreciates it.

But is that truly the case?
Or can we be in the habit of “doing” in such a way that it is not an honor to God?

God doesn’t want you doing Christian things, without embracing His character traits.
He desires mercy, because He is a merciful God.
He desires love, because He is love.
He desires patience, because He is the most patient.
He desires purity, because He is a God of holiness.

There are many verses where God indicates His frustration with His people for how much they were “doing for Him” without “being” the people He had called them to be.

(here are some of those passages, if you care to read any of them:
1 Samuel 15:22; Ps 40:6-8; Ps 50:7-15; Ps 51:15-17; Isaiah 1:11-16a; Hos 6:6; Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8)

What does God want from you?
Does He desire that you do things for His kingdom?
Sure, but not if you refuse to develop His character.

Let’s make sure our “being” matches us with our “doing.”

Categories
Christian Living

Reshaping Yourself

A lot of us look in the mirror and don’t love what we see. And I’m not just talking about physical appearances. Though you are probably your biggest critic regarding the image that looks back at you from the mirror, you are also the only one who truly knows your heart. And for many of us, we still aren’t pleased with who we are internally. We want to be in the process of reshaping and remolding ourselves, but maybe we haven’t quite figured out how.

Here is the simple answer:

“What do you love? You will certainly become what you love.”

Seriously? How can this be the answer? It has to do with our hearts. What we allow our hearts to pursue continues to shape who we are. That works both for negative habits and traits as well as for godliness. For example,

“Do you love holiness? Then you will become holy. Do you love the Word of God? Then you will become like Christ, the living Word. Do you love the name of Jesus? Then your life will manifest His name before all men.”

I agree with these authors who have simply stated the truth – as you love and pursue God, you will become more godly and righteous.

Not only does God want this for you, but you also owe it to yourself and to your children. You were created to point people to God and as you do so you will find that you love fulfilling that purpose.

“You owe it to God to illustrate His name beautifully before your children. How far are you willing to go to paint that picture? …How committed are you to calling sin, sin?” How willing are you to move toward more holiness and Christlikeness? As you spend more time with Christ, you will see “more clearly than ever that you have no right to stay the same wherever you’re missing the Lord’s mark. You must walk normally like Christ and listen well to the Spirit so that you can complete the task at hand.”

We work out and run and sweat in the process of reshaping our bodies, but until we engage in reshaping our inner self, we will never be satisfied. Reshape yourself into the image of Jesus by falling more in love with Him.

(quotes are from Every Man’s Challenge by Arterburn and Stoeker)

Categories
Christian Living

Integrity Means Letting Your Yes Be Yes

I have enjoyed my blogging experience thus far. As much as anything, writing helps me process my thoughts and learn to be a better communicator. And I was working on a few different posts, but I couldn’t seem to pull any together for a fully cohesive post. So at the end of last week, I just posted a short snippet from one I had been working on. When I started posting to facebook and blogging a few months ago, I did this pretty often. But then it seems that I forgot how!

Because I do enjoy getting more complete thoughts put together before posting, I found myself not able to post as often… making my postings sporadic. So I’m planning to send out more snippets and brief thoughts in the future to keep my posting more regular. And I think that may be better anyway! Even in our own experience of wanting to change the conversations, maybe we shouldn’t worry so much about saying something exactly right as much as we should just go ahead and speak about Him and let our “snippets” have great impact over time.

So here is a brief thought on us having integrity, character, and consistency. Jesus tells us to be people of honesty and consistency. That our ‘yes’ should mean ‘yes’ and that our ‘no’ should mean ‘no.’ That our integrity should be at the highest level. But a problem exists for many of us. We have fallen into the trap, that it is OK to be inconsistent, as long as it benefits us. And that leads to our misunderstanding of God’s word, to our misapplying God’s truth, and down the path toward hypocritical attitudes and beliefs.

For example, due to our lack of consistently living out the Bible, we have reversed a proper understanding of the “do not judge” passages in the Bible. A problem our neighbors and co-workers can have with Christians, is our harsh judgment toward others. Jesus had harsh judgment for only one group – the rigid religious leaders who had no compassion for others. But for those who were sinners without any real relationship to God, Jesus held out compassion and love, hoping to move them closer to God.

hammerGod calls us to “judge” the habitually sinful behavior of our fellow Christian brothers and sisters. He tells us to do this so that we can sharpen one another and hold each other accountable. But God tells us to hold out love to those without faith to help them desire to come into our loving family. Our problem is that we flip these two and get them reversed.

And so not only do we judge the wrong group… too often, we not only want to judge, we want to condemn.
Are you swinging the hammer of condemnation toward those who need love?
Are you staying silent toward your fellow Christian brothers and sisters who need you to keep sharpening them?
Let’s flip it back to the biblical model, the model of Jesus!

Sharpen your Christian family with love, leading them toward more God-honoring behavior..
Hold out compassion and love to all others, leading them toward the kindness and salvation of God.
And don’t get the two mixed up!