Integrity
Psalms 15:1,2: "Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle: Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth from the heart."
God is dealing with the Church that what we are in public needs to match up with what we are in private. As a minister of the Word of God I need to be aware that what people see and hear from me in the public should come from- flow out of-what I am in private. We can’t have split personalities- or split characters. We need to live an undivided life-not a pretense before public- but REAL. Our lives-actions, works = our private lives. We all slip from time to time, we all make mistakes. We are not perfect- but we are being perfected! We should be at a higher level of maturity today than we were yesterday or a year ago. We should find ourselves consistently and continually pressing into growth and maturity as a Christian. People should notice a change in our lives.
Joseph maintained his integrity when he was sold a slave and later when he was imprisoned for something he did not do. Daniel and the three Hebrew children kept their integrity even though it could have cost them their lives. Paul and the apostles and Christ- they all maintained their integrity during severe trials. There is an entire group of Christians in persecuted countries that maintain their integrity even if the face of death. We don’t have to go back and read the history of the martyrs of the church. There are many present day martyrs in countries where just owning a Bible, going to church or even speaking the Name of Jesus could very well cost them their lives and the lives of their families. But they would not even think of denying His Name. They would not even think of compromising who they really are- a child of God. Proverbs 11:3 states; “The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.” Proverbs 15:8: "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.”
God is looking for people like that today. We are to be men and women of our word. Our character does go before us that’s for sure. But what kind of character is it? Is it a character that tells other people to go the opposite direction? Is it a character that tells people you can’t be trusted? Or is your character one of a godly nature, a character that speaks of truth and integrity? That is what God is looking for today. We have had so many ministers out there that proclaim and preach one thing, but once you really get to know them, you find out that they live an entirely different life than what they are proclaiming.
Our verse- Psalm 15: 1,2 tells us just who can abide in His Presence. It isn’t speaking of a building built by human hands. It is speaking of the Presence of God. There is coming a time when the Presence of the Lord will come in such a way as to burn up everything in its way that is not part of Him. Those who live upright lives, righteous lives- those who lives have been truly redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and are living examples of what a Christian should be-those who are NOW spending time in His Presence- those are the ones who will escape the everlasting burnings: Isaiah 33:14,15:“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly;..”
The word uprightly, according to Strong’s Concordance actually means integrity, truth, without blemish, without spot. Webster defines it as a “state or quality of being complete, undivided, unbroken, entirety.”
A man’s word used to mean something. Just a handshake used to seal a deal. I remember as a young adult first out on my own. I needed tires for my car. I went to a business run by a man that my family had known for years and did a lot of business with him. When I saw the tires that I wanted and that I didn’t have enough money to pay for them at one time, I asked him if I could pay the rest later. He made a statement that really hit home. He told me that he had done enough business with my father that he knew that he could trust me too.I never forgot that. I knew my father was a man of his word. If he said he would do something, you could rest assured that he would do his best to fulfill that promise. I promised myself and God that I would try my best to do the same.
God is dealing with the Church that what we are in public needs to match up with what we are in private. As a minister of the Word of God I need to be aware that what people see and hear from me in the public should come from- flow out of-what I am in private. We can’t have split personalities- or split characters. We need to live an undivided life-not a pretense before public- but REAL. Our lives-actions, works = our private lives. We all slip from time to time, we all make mistakes. We are not perfect- but we are being perfected! We should be at a higher level of maturity today than we were yesterday or a year ago. We should find ourselves consistently and continually pressing into growth and maturity as a Christian. People should notice a change in our lives.
Joseph maintained his integrity when he was sold a slave and later when he was imprisoned for something he did not do. Daniel and the three Hebrew children kept their integrity even though it could have cost them their lives. Paul and the apostles and Christ- they all maintained their integrity during severe trials. There is an entire group of Christians in persecuted countries that maintain their integrity even if the face of death. We don’t have to go back and read the history of the martyrs of the church. There are many present day martyrs in countries where just owning a Bible, going to church or even speaking the Name of Jesus could very well cost them their lives and the lives of their families. But they would not even think of denying His Name. They would not even think of compromising who they really are- a child of God. Proverbs 11:3 states; “The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.” Proverbs 15:8: "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.”
God is looking for people like that today. We are to be men and women of our word. Our character does go before us that’s for sure. But what kind of character is it? Is it a character that tells other people to go the opposite direction? Is it a character that tells people you can’t be trusted? Or is your character one of a godly nature, a character that speaks of truth and integrity? That is what God is looking for today. We have had so many ministers out there that proclaim and preach one thing, but once you really get to know them, you find out that they live an entirely different life than what they are proclaiming.
Our verse- Psalm 15: 1,2 tells us just who can abide in His Presence. It isn’t speaking of a building built by human hands. It is speaking of the Presence of God. There is coming a time when the Presence of the Lord will come in such a way as to burn up everything in its way that is not part of Him. Those who live upright lives, righteous lives- those who lives have been truly redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and are living examples of what a Christian should be-those who are NOW spending time in His Presence- those are the ones who will escape the everlasting burnings: Isaiah 33:14,15:“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly;..”
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