Friday, September 30, 2005

A Little Color On Integrity

Is integrity a black and white issue?

Are you a person of integrity or are you not?

Did you answer with caveats?

If you did, and you said it was black and white, don't caveats like white lies put color on a seemingly black and white issue?

Unfortunately, in my case, if it is a black and white issue, I am black with guilt. I try hard and think I am victorious on the big things. However, on small things, like truthfully answering my angel of a wife when she asks if something is bothering me, I am not always truthful. Is that really a small thing?

I think you can still have integrity and mess up. If God heaps grace upon us, do we have a right to label someone else or even ourselves as full of integrity or not? What does full of integrity mean? I am not condoning lying. I do think confession, acknowledgement and repentance are the key. How do we judge that? Are we to judge that?

Is integrity black and white, shades of gray and even colors of the rainbow? Yes, I think!!

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Modern Day Saul/Paul

Saul was doing what he thought was right. He was raised in a certain religion and I am sure his parents had to be so proud that he was on fire!! God didn't agree and wasn't proud.

If God were to directly intervene in your life to get you to stop doing something you thought was right from your religious upbringing, what do you think it would be?

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

A Few Ponderings

Holy Spirit Question -

I seem to remember that the Holy Spirit was not active until after Jesus ascended back to Heaven. I have even heard in small group discussion a comment that the Spirit was not active in the Old Testament. It does seem to make sense when you read John 16: - "25All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

What do you make of the fact that in Genesis, God says He created man in "our" image? Do we not have the Spirit dwelling in us from birth?

What about:

I Chronicles 28: - 11 Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. 12 He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things. 13 He gave him instructions for the divisions of the priests and Levites, and for all the work of serving in the temple of the LORD, as well as for all the articles to be used in its service.

II Chronicles 24: - 20 Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, "This is what God says: 'Why do you disobey the LORD's commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.' "
21 But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD's temple.


Genesis 6: - 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal [b] ; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

Exodus 35: - 30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, "See, the LORD has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts- 32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,

I do think that what Jesus said about the Spirit is clear but these OT scriptures seem clear as well. Does anyone else get confused by this?

Instruments -

Hebrews 13: - 7Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
9Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.


I Chronicles 16: - 41 With them were Heman and Jeduthun and the rest of those chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the LORD, "for his love endures forever." 42 Heman and Jeduthun were responsible for the sounding of the trumpets and cymbals and for the playing of the other instruments for sacred song. The sons of Jeduthun were stationed at the gate.

I Thessalonians 4: - 15According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

God is the same yesterday and today and forever. It seems strange teaching to me that instruments were clearly acceptable for worship in the OT and will be the call for all to worship at the 2nd coming but wrong to use them in between those times!?!

Friday, September 23, 2005

A Question To Ponder

I read the passage below this morning. It was interesting to me that Solomon spent much longer building his palace than he did building the temple. (Interestingly, David spent quite a bit of time building his palace, much more than the domicile for the Ark of the Covenant - perhaps a learned behavior?)

What struck me was what God said in verse 16. I don't take God's words lightly. I certainly don't understand the use of "forever" and "always" concerning a structure that is, as far as I know, no longer physically in place.

It does give me a new appreciation of God's view of me and my life as his temple.

2 Chronicles 7

The LORD Appears to Solomon 11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, 12 the LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
13 "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
17 "As for you, if you walk before me as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.'
19 "But if you [c] turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 21 And though this temple is now so imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?' 22 People will answer, 'Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.' "

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Direction

How do you know what God sees as the best choice for the direction of your life?

I have heard others say, and I know I have said before, that it was very clear the direction God wanted them to go. I said it before when I was in the middle of a divorce and having to choose to move with my current employer or find another job to be able to stay in town with my son.

However, when there are multiple choices, many directions and they all seem to be good choices, how do you determine which is God's best choice? I know you pray about it. How do you keep your own thoughts, prejudices, greed, desires from weighing in and skewing a decision?

I have often wondered if God has specifically chosen a path for me in life. I have concluded that God knows what is best but He has given me the "right" to choose. I know me. I am convinced I don't always choose what God would see as the best choice. Does God change the plan when I go down a path other than the one He wished I had chosen?

Does anybody else ever wonder that?

How do you know the right path to take?