Job

Integrity: the state of being unimpaired; the quality or condition of being whole, undivided. Completeness.

To me, integrity is a state of character - whether your integrity is, as the definition says, whole or not whole, divided or complete.

The question, “Who are you when no one is looking?”, is asked quite often in bible studies, in youth groups, and at church. But do we ever ask ourselves this question?

In the Bible, Job is put through hell on earth as Satan torments him. God allows this to happen because he knows Job’s heart and describes his servant as “blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Although Job questions God and curses the day of his own birth, he never sins against the Lord and always holds on to his integrity. Job remains faithful through it all.

The beautiful picture painted for us in the story of Job is quite convicting. While Job holds on to God through his disaster-filled life, even when people expect him to give up, I am challenged to return to myself and ask, “Who am I? And where is my integrity hiding?”

When we begin to apply the principles of integrity to the unseen parts of our lives as well as to the seen parts of our lives, we begin to align ourselves with who God planned for us to be before the creation of the world. This begins to bring a “wholeness” or “completeness” to us that begins to fill the emptiness that every living creature seems to have apart from God. This begins to give us hope when our world seems to be falling apart, just as Job’s world really was, and we begin to comprehend how God can carry us through the upheaval of our lives as well.

My prayer for us, as God’s people, is that we would begin to walk in the “wholeness” God has desired for all of us. Then, as we walk in this new “wholeness”, we may begin to shine in this world of darkness and give hope to those who have none.

- Kori Wooten

Elisha & Naaman

Obedience. I really don’t care for that word. Didn’t like it growing up, don’t especially like it now. I have always struggled with being told what to do. “Give me liberty, or give me death”. That sounds better. As Americans, our country was founded on the principle of self-rule, democracy, we all have a say in what happens.

The story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 is so my story. He was a general in a pagan army who had leprosy, which most often was a death sentence in addition to making the job of running an army a lot more complicated since it was highly contagious. Naaman heard about Elisha, God’s prophet, in Israel and traveled with money and lots of fanfare to impress him and be healed.  Elisha didn’t even come out of the house, just sent word for Naaman to wash 7 times in the muddy Jordan River.

Naaman is insulted, incensed, he had expected some great ceremony with lots of shock and awe. Eventually he relents, obeys and is healed. That is my journey. I always wanted to do the big things and kept waiting for God to lead me to heal, rescue, or save someone. In the meantime I would skip the small stuff so I would be ready for the big stuff.

Well, after years of waiting for the big stuff, I finally realized it was the small stuff that was most important all along. I really wanted to do the big stuff for me, for my glory.  Obedience for me includes doing the small acts of reflecting God’s love to those who are sad or alone or hungry, usually when no one else is looking. It means doing all that God commands me to do, even and especially the little things, not so much because it needs to get done, but because my heart needs to be in submission to Him.

I love the end of verse 14. It says that after washing in the Jordan Naaman’s skin was like that of young boy. God didn’t just make him like he was before leprosy, He made him better! That is what He wants for all His children. In 2 Cor. 4:16 Paul writes that God is renewing us daily. I may be slow but I am all in for obedience to a God who desires my renewal.   

- Brent Beakley 

Elijah

Read 1 Kings 18-19

Even the great men of God in the Bible went through depressions. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah asks God to take his own life. He had been discouraged because the Israelites had killed God's prophets and he was the only one left. But God wasn't anywhere near done with Elijah. God had plans for Elijah to anoint a new king over Israel and anoint a new prophet to succeed him.

God doesn't want us sitting in isolation, feeling sorry for ourselves. He lets us have a pity party for only so long. He wants us to get up and get back in the mainstream of life working for Him and His kingdom! Elijah whipped his depression and went on to a lifetime of useful service.

Dr. Karl Menninger, a psychiatrist, was asked, "Suppose you think you're heading for a nervous breakdown, what should you do?" His reply was, "Go straight to the front door, turn the knob, cross the tracks, and find somebody who needs you." The best way to quit feeling sorry for ourselves is to start feeling compassion for somebody else!

- Hannah Thomas

Easter

Easter is an interesting holiday. You have your bunnies and your eggs, chocolate covered everything and those Sunday afternoon lunches. MMM! You may have also heard lots of different things about this holiday being a pagan holiday, which is not really the topic today. My point is that Easter has some odd traditions; I think you can agree. We could talk for awhile about the oddities of Easter, but I believe a much more valuable direction for our thoughts might be found in the following words.

You know…Easter is a time for believers, which speaks of something that has great power. It is during this season that we remember the resurrection of Christ from the dead. There is great power in the resurrection, which, is beyond my grasp of understanding, but I would like to ponder for a moment with you.

Christ's prayer in John 17:20-23 is for the church to be one as He and the Father are one and that we, as a result, can be one with Him. Christ desired and longed for us to find that intimacy with Him. He knew what was possible because of the oneness that He shared with the Father. As a groom pursues his bride, Christ pursued us to the point of death and beyond. In other words (to put it plainly), He desired us to know Him. Paul writes in Phil 3:7-11 that there is nothing in this world worth more than knowing Jesus intimately. In verse 10 he reveals the very path that leads to this intimacy, which Jesus prayed for and Paul willingly sacrificed everything for. To know Christ is to know the power of the resurrection, to share in His suffering, to become like Him in His death…do we really understand the power in the resurrection of our Lord? Based on this verse, it seems as though we must follow in the path of our rabbi and go through what He went through in order to gain this intimacy.

Easter reminds us of the resurrection, but pondering on the depths of what it truly means once a year doesn’t do justice. The extent of our ability to know Christ is in direct proportion to how much time and emotion we put into seeking to understand the power of His resurrection. For this leads to an intimacy that, without God, would be impossible for mortals to experience. Therefore, if the time and effort spent seeking to grasp the truth of this power is in direct proportion to the capacity that we can know Christ, we must not settle into a mindset of, “well I read this or I pray or I go to these church events…so I am doing pretty good.” Those things are great; however, if the desire of our hearts is to, like Paul, KNOW HIM…we should be willing to consider everything rubbish compared to knowing Him. My question is how should that make our lives different from how we are living today?


- Brant Greathouse

David & Bathsheba

One of the most grievous stories of the Old Testament is given to us in the 11th and 12th chapters of Second Samuel.  It is the account of King David’s seduction of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah (who himself was incredibly devout to God and unquestionably loyal to David).  The details of this sin in David’s life are all too familiar to us. David was basically lounging around, saw Bathsheba bathing on a roof top and had her fetched to his palace. She was seduced by King David and became pregnant as a result. After unsuccessfully attempting to cover his sin by bringing Uriah home from the battle front on leave (Uriah refused to go home and lay with his wife while the Ark of God and the men of Israel were in tents), David arranged to have Uriah killed on the battlefield.  Following Uriah’s death David brought Bathsheba into his household. Ultimately, though, David was confronted by the prophet Nathan and repented of his sin. That is the story in a nutshell.

Here are the lessons from David and Bathsheba.  Don’t be sitting around the palace when you should be out on the battlefield (it was the spring when kings go to war, not when they hang around the palace).  The temptation of your eyes will ultimately result in the full fledged sin of the body (especially good reminder for men who find themselves entangled with pornography).  One sin leads to another, the seduction of Bathsheba lead to the murder of Uriah (a saying I remember from Doug Parsons was that sin will take you further than you ever intended to go and make you pay more than you ever intended to pay). The consequence of sin can be generational extending even beyond the life of David on to his offspring.  And finally, at the end of it all God is waiting to offer His forgiveness if we can just come to Him in confession and repentance. Too bad that from time to time we are like David in that we sin against God - but the wonderful news is that God is always faithful to forgive and restore.

Not surprisingly, the same situations present themselves today.  In Dallas there is a Christian based ministry headed up by Bob Buford called the Halftime Institute. It is designed for men and women who have reached their life or financial goals and are in the position to decide what comes next.  They are basically trying to decide what to do with the second half of their life.  Just like David needed to be wary of his success as King of Israel, there are a couple of the sobering facts that should make men today especially wary of “success”.  The Halftime Institute reveals that within two years of men reaching their financial goals and retiring to enjoy the good life, most have divorced their wives and within ten years most are dead.  God doesn’t expect us to be hanging around the palace when we need to be about the business of our heavenly father.  The lessons are fundamental: guard our hearts, be busy doing good and always trust in God’s mercy and forgiveness.

- Doug Robison