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So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man. Acts 24:16
Being misunderstood and wrongfully accused is never easy. It’s even harder when those closest to you lie in order to try to make you look bad in front of others. That was the case when Paul was drug into court for being a troublemaker.
Before his conversion, Paul was considered an expert in Jewish law and one of the up-and-coming religious leaders. He was the poster child for ‘Jews against Jesus’ and was responsible for many people being stoned, sent to prison and even arrested for following Jesus of Nazareth.
Then, miraculously, Paul found Jesus, or should I say, Jesus found Paul and from that moment on his life was changed forever.
The problem is, people don’t like change. Even though Paul was right about his message, it was different that the status-quo religious system of his day. Paul was a rebel and even though his faith in God was deeper than it had ever been, people around him saw him as a rebel and a heretic. Paul’s enemies for the most part were the same people he worshipped with in the temple. They were his closest friends. They were his spiritual as well as physical family.
God’s character never changes. He is always love. He is always a God of mercy and grace. He is always willing to forgive us when we stumble and fall. But He doesn’t always work through the same methods. God changes His methods as society changes in order to bring as many into His Kingdom as possible.
Sometimes we may be misunderstood by those closest to us. Sometimes we may even be called a heretic. Some may even question our salvation. When others question your motives or methods it’s always important to measure what they say by what God is telling you. He may be asking you to open a whole new avenue of ministry to reach out to people who need to hear about Jesus.
I knew a pastor in a small town who was burdened for the people in the bar just down the street from his church. On St. Patrick’s Day one year, he went down to the bar. He didn’t drink a drop. He simply visited with patrons of the bar. As ‘luck’ would have it, his picture showed up in the local paper as part of a story about St. Patrick’s Day revelers. As a result, the church he pastured for several years fired him! Sometimes God may ask you to take a risk for Him even though the ‘religious community’ will look down on you. If that happens, make sure your conscience is clear and your motives Christ-like. Then, REJOICE! You are now part of an elite club made up of Paul, most of the disciples, many spiritual leaders throughout history, and most of all, the club president—Jesus Christ!
PRAYER: Father God. I thank you for people like Paul and others who have been willing to break ranks with the ‘religious status-quo’ in order to do new and exciting things to bring others into your Kingdom. I ask that you would give me the courage to be willing to step out risk my reputation if need be in order to reach people for you who may never enter a church door. In Jesus name, Amen.
You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. Psalm 139:1-2
With the popularity of the internet and various networking sites, like FaceBook and Twitter, the concept of ‘knowing someone’ has become somewhat clouded. We can ‘know’ someone from other countries who we have never met anywhere but in cyberspace.
In Psalm 139, King David makes the statement “You know me” concerning God. The knowledge God has of us is so much more intimate than we can imagine. I can choose what information I let you know about me. I can tone down the bad stuff about me and put a nice coat of frosting on the good stuff to make it even better.
I can choose to hide the things I don’t want you to know, those hidden thoughts, dreams and fantasies or those opinions of you (and others) that contradict the smile on my face. I can try to hide the pain, shame and embarrassment of how I really feel about me as well. In fact, most times, people we see as happy-go-lucky and conceited are really insecure and looking for something good to grasp onto about themselves.
God knows me. Think on that for a minute. The Creator/Sustainer of the universe, not just my world, not just the galaxy we live in, THE universe, knows me. He and He alone, sees clearly behind the mask we use to show people the person we’d like to be. The walls we build to protect ourselves and keep others at a distance do nothing to keep Him from entering in and looking around.
Every thought, every emotion, every hurt and pain, every time you’ve been emotionally or physically abused has been seen by Him and He feels your pain. He hears your unspoken prayers, sees your unseen tears and walks with you through the fearful times when everyone else thinks you are strong.
Remember one more thing. King David was not a pleasant person. He was a murderer. He slept with a married woman and got her pregnant. He ignored the time one of his sons raped one of his daughters. He lied. He cheated. Yet in all this God calls Him a man after His own heart. God saw through all David’s weaknesses and failures and loved him anyway. He does the same for you.
PRAYER: Once again I am in awe of Your love O God my Father. There is no hiding with you. You know my deepest longings and pain. You cry with me and celebrate with me. I praise you for who you are and ask that you would help me, as I go through my day, to sense Your love and presence during the dark times of my life. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. Luke 16:10
Jesus tells the story of a man who was caught cheating by his employer. As a result of the dishonesty the man was informed that he would lose his job. Before he was fired he went to all the people that owed his boss money and gave them huge discounts. While this further cheated his boss, it made the man many friends. We aren’t told in the story, but no doubt these people were willing to help the dishonest person because he helped them.
The lesson from this story is that honesty isn’t dependent on the amount entrusted but on the sense of responsibility a person has to those who trust him. The man in the story may have been considered generous by those he gave discounts to, but in reality, he wasn’t concerned in the least about their well-being. He was really only concerned about himself.
Our view of ourselves has a huge part to play on whether we are honest or dishonest. Many times we will lie to cover up our own mistakes, choosing to blame others instead of accepting the responsibility. Other times we may lie to make ourselves look better. We don’t want to admit we are weak, so we lie to make ourselves look better than someone else.
Dishonesty at any level destroys our entire reputation. If I lie about a little thing, then I most likely will lie about bigger things as well. On small amount of dirt in a clear glass of water taints the whole glass and makes it undrinkable. In the same way one little lie, on little act of deception tarnishes our entire character.
As Christ-followers each of us is responsible for making sure we are men and women of integrity and trust. There is no place in our lives for any action that has it’s basis on avoiding responsibility for our actions or making others look bad for our own benefit.
Grace teaches us that we are, in some senses, completely helpless to live a life of purity and perfection. There will be times when we fail in our attempt to be honest. There may be times when our actions are misunderstood as being malicious when they are not. Those are the times we can come to our Savior, Jesus Christ, for forgiveness, and strength to continue on.
Start with the small things. As you learn to trust Him for strength in the small areas of your weakness you will find it easier to tackle the larger areas where you tend to be dishonest. Jesus didn’t come to condemn liars. He came to empower them to be honest.
PRAYER: Father you know that I tend to be dishonest in some of the things I say. I ask that you would forgive me for those times. Empower me by your Spirit to be willing to accept responsibility for my actions. Enable me to be a person of integrity for your sake. Amen.
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out. Proverbs 10:9
He was caught red-handed. There was no way to hide it now. It was in the open. His integrity lay in a shattered heap on the ground. How would he face his family? How would he face the family of the person he killed? What would happen with his faith? Would God act swiftly and with revenge? All his years of waiting, running, fighting for what was right was destroyed in an instant.
He felt anguish, guilt, fear, shame and, interestingly, relief. I’m talking about the story of David and Bathsheba. Here he was, King of Israel and caught in a lovers triangle. He’d slept with another man’s wife and got her pregnant. He had her husband murdered to try to cover up his crime. He ran, but he couldn’t hide.
Before we are too hard on David we need to look at our own lives. Maybe it isn’t adultery and murder that plague us. It could be anger, lust, addictions of any kind, doubt, or envy. We may be able to hide those things for awhile. Some of us get good enough to hide them for years! There are a few that are able to live their entire lives fooling other people. But even if we can fool everyone else, we will still have internal consequences to deal with.
Sociologists and psychologists tell us that many emotional, physical and spiritual issues in a person’s life can be traced to one thing: guilt or unresolved guilt. Guilt is a powerful force that can affect us in every aspect of our lives. We do things to try to cover up that guilt, but those things make matters worse. We grow fearful of what other people may think so we live in fear. We blame others or try to drown our sorrows in new relationships, drugs and alcohol or some other activity. We run in fear of being found out because we don’t want to suffer the shame or consequences. The things we do to try to hide our ‘secret lives’ only make matters worse and take a devastating toll on our personal lives and relationships.
People who finally ‘come clean’ often express a feeling of relief. They don’t have to hide anymore. They can get the support they need for the healing process and their entire outlook on life changes for the better. Coming clean may mean we have to confess some things publicly, but most importantly it means being honest with God and with ourselves. He is the only one who can heal us of our wounds. Confession of our struggle isn’t a sign of weakness but of strength.
Regardless of what you are struggling with today, Jesus can offer you the healing you need. He doesn’t expect you to clean yourself up first. He won’t be critical when you fall (again and again). Jesus knows the root cause of our actions when no one else does. He isn’t about making us feel guilty; Jesus wants to make us feel clean.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I thank You for knowing the struggle I go through every day. I’m afraid of being caught. I’m losing sleep. I feel completely out of control. I even doubt your existence at times because the pain is so bad. Forgive me for failing so many times. Help me to have the courage to change what I need to change so I can live in integrity. Amen.
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9
You probably don’t remember this, but if you know how to walk today it’s because you learned the ability to ‘walk-a-by-self’. A friend of mine tells the story of her very independent toddler daughter. Just after she learned to walk she was very determined to show her independence. Mom tried to pick her up but she refused. She wanted to ‘walk-a-by-self’. Mom put her down and tried to hold her hand, but she pulled away and announced to the world: “WALK-A-BY-SELF!”, and so…she did, with mom close beside her to guard her steps.
We chuckle from time to time about the pseudo-independence our toddlers show with those first steps. Oh, at first they are pretty shaky and unsteady but then, the reach that point where the fear is gone and we realize there is a whole new world to explore and we attack it with gusto!
We tend to be the same way in our spiritual lives. We are confident in our own abilities to do life. We show our freedom from the rules by making choices that put us in danger. We choose relationships based on looks or status rather than seeking Gods direction. We spend freely, eat poorly, and ‘love’ openly. Sometimes that gets us in trouble. We charge on without any awareness whatsoever of our parents presence and get lost. We run to fast and stumble and fall. We meet the coffee table head-on (yes it was a pun, but so very true), all the while thinking God is nowhere to be seen.
Our Heavenly Father knows that we need to have the freedom to walk on our own. He knows it builds strength and confidence. He knows it allows us the opportunity to develop the gifts, talents and abilities He planned for us to have.
Our Father also knows that we will fall. As in the physical life, we will end up with bruised knees and an occasional bloody nose. Sometimes we’ll require stitches and need to be picked up and comforted. Sometimes we’ll look Him square in the eye and announce: “walk-a-by-self!” We’ll wander and get ourselves in a whole variety of predicaments, but we will never be outside his protective grasp.
The analogy of a rebellious two-year old falls short in one area though. Our Heavenly Father knows we’ll stumble and fall, but we will never be out of reach of His strong and powerful arms. We are never out of sight of His wise, discerning eyes. We never really ‘walk-a-by-self’ when we walk with Jesus. He’s always there. Always faithful, always willing to let us have the freedom to choose, and always willing to pick us up when we stray from Him and need His healing arms around us.
It doesn’t matter where you have strayed or what choices you’ve made, or where you find yourself in life today. Jesus Christ longs to hold you in His arms of forgiveness and grace so that you may be comforted and strengthened to walk again.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father. The Bible tells me I can call you ‘Daddy’. Thank you that like a caring, compassionate and wise father you allow me the freedom to walk-a-by-self. Thank you that through Jesus Christ I can be forgiven when my walking gets me in trouble. Thank you for the healing salve of your grace. I ask today that you would help me up, for I’ve stumbled once again, and empower me by your Spirit to walk with you. In Your Holy name I pray, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 