By John Stallings
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
James 4:17
There are two ways to finish.
One way, & by far the most popular use of the word finish, is to quit; to stop, to cease the activity. To just walk away, dust off our hands & say, I quit. Quitters will say; ---“I’m finished with that endeavor. I’m finished with school; I’m finished with this marriage, I’m finished with musical training, I’m finished with that church or I’m finished with this job.” They haven’t actually finished, what they did was grow tired of the work involved & quit.
Many people have the philosophy that if a job isn’t pleasing them, they’ll just quit, whether or not they have another job. If school starts to get boring or require too much study time, they do the easy thing & quit. I read somewhere that the number of high school dropouts is currently unbelievably high. This doesn’t bode well for America’s future.
If a woman becomes pregnant & the new life she’s carrying is inconvenient, she quits or aborts the birth process. If a marriage becomes less than they think it ought to be or is starting to require some adjustment & hard work, the easy thing to do is walk off, file for divorce & quit.
The other way to finish & the least popular use of the word is, “To bring to perfection; to do all things necessary & required to bring about a successful completion of an enterprise, to bring to excellence.”
When a builder builds a house, when the walls are up, the roof is on, & the rooms are all laid out, a special kind of workman is called in, a “finish carpenter.” This man’s job is to hang the doors, install the door-knobs & see that the doors close smoothly, nail up & paint the molding strips to hide cracks, paint the kitchen cabinets, & in general put the finishing touches on the house. No matter how spacious & comfortably built a house is, no one wants to move into it if it isn’t “finished.”
If a person’s life ambition is to be an educated musician, they don’t just learn a few chords on the piano or guitar; they will learn to master their instrument of choice. Then they’ll study music theory so they can sit down & score a piece of music in four part harmony. I wish I could do that but sadly I never took the time to delve that deeply into the theory of music. I’m just glad for those who did learn it because after I’ve written a song, I call on them to put it all down in a musical score so musicians can pick the music up & play or sing it. These people are called “finished musicians.” A person playing at Carnegie Hall or working as a studio musician would be properly called, a “finished musician.”
When parents want their daughters to learn the social skills it takes to travel in certain strata’s of society they send them to “finishing school.” There they learn the social graces that will allow them to move with ease in the upper echelons of society. The idea is to bring the individual to social excellence in all ways humanly possible.
Just about every bookstore you go in has a large “self-help” section. In that area you’ll find hundreds of books written to motivate people to complete the tasks they’ve started but laid aside for one reason or another. These books offer valuable information that helps people refocus on the fulfillment of their dreams. Many of these books are full of procedural & practical information & they’re very helpful, but I can tell you how to get more inspiration than all these books put together can offer. I can give you one secret that will bring you more fulfillment than reading hundreds of these self-help books.
You probably think I’m going to tell you to pray & read the Bible every day & go to church & let God inspire you. However, I’m assuming you’re already doing that. If you’re not doing those basic things to build yourself up spiritually you’d best go back & touch base with these basics for they are absolutely necessary to any lasting success you can experience.
The one secret I want to share with you that will do more than any advice man could give you is this; ---FINISH SOMETHING! Bring something you’ve been putting off to completion, to excellence & that one thing you finish will do you more good than anything you can imagine or that I could suggest to you. Unfinished projects with their loose ends flailing in the wind are the most depressing, joy killing things in our lives. They sit there staring us in the face mocking us, reminding us that we’ve let things slide & that can do nothing but sap mental & spiritual energy. When we don’t finish we’re a bad example to others. The Bible has much to say about finishing.
Genesis 2:1 tells us,--Thus the heavens & earth were finished…..
Nehemiah.6:15 tells us…..the wall was finished…….
Scholars say that Nehemiah’s work was done in about one-third the time it would normally have taken because God was helping him, to bring to naught the naysayers who tried every conceivable tactic to stop his work.
In 1 Timothy 4:7 Paul said….I have finished the course…
Hebrews 12:2 says Jesus is…..the author & finisher of our faith….
In John 17:4 Jesus said-----I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.
In Luke 14:26---Jesus said—and who of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first & counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Let’s talk a little about why we don’t finish & what are the consequences if we don’t finish.
PROCRASTINATION KEEPS US FROM FINISHING.
It’s not even that we do nothing; it’s that we can’t get ourselves to do the thing we ought to do. It’s like the kamikaze pilot who flew seventeen missions. He was doing something but kept putting off the most important part of his assignment. We’ve all been guilty. When it comes to procrastination, most of us are quick to acknowledge the problem but are slow to do anything about it.
Chores are piling up but somehow we just can’t get the motivation to plow into them one by one. Sometimes procrastination comes & goes but sometimes it moves in to stay. Then my friend you are a slacker or what the Bible calls a sluggard. How can I best put this? You’re just a plain lazy old sloth.
A sloth is a mammal that lives much of his life hanging upside down from tree branches. He spends 23 hours a day hanging out & will come down hunting food for about an hour. Sloth’s won’t even build or seek shelter for their young ones. Romans 12:11 says, ---Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.
Surveys show that out of 100 people, only 67 are likely to have defined goals they can explain, & only 10 have realistic plans to accomplish their goals. And of these 10, only two have the self-discipline to follow through with their plans. 98% of the people you meet each day lack the motivation to live out what they say they believe. They possess no passion or purpose but merely perpetually drift along aimlessly with the crowd. These people will often be heard to say, “Hey, cut me some slack.” And that’s why they’re called slackers.
Here are a few helpful hints I’ve gleaned along the way to beat procrastination.
1. The salami technique. What can you do with a huge stick of salami? Answer; nothing, -- nothing that is unless you cut it up into small pieces. If you’re having trouble getting yourself to make a phone call, at least look the number & put it where you’ll see it the next morning. I went through a time years ago when I was so depressed that I could only get dressed one article of clothing at a time. Then I’d have to sit for a moment & get myself to put on the next article of clothing. Before you let that shock you, don’t forget I’m the man who wrote “learning to lean.” Those feelings didn’t hang around long, they came to pass. I had to work through them but I can say by God’s grace I never spent a day in bed during that time.
2. Do a leading section of work. Work on a desired project for five minutes only. No matter how distasteful it is, purpose in your heart to give it an honest five minutes, and then quit. When you do this leading task enough times you’ll find yourself working longer than five minutes & before long you’ll be feeling so good about what you’re getting done, the feelings of dread will abate & you’ll put those feelings behind you. After a while you’ll be looking up at the clock & will be shocked that it’s five o’clock. You might be saying to yourself that this doesn’t sound too spiritual. But this is the technique God used with the Israelites to bring the walls of Jericho down; a little each day & finally a big push on the last day.
3. Feelings have little to do with anything. They can change overnight for no apparent reason. If we wait until we feel like doing something we’ll never do it. The good feelings will come as we get started & make an effort. To wait for good feelings to come before you’ve done something is like asking your car, “If you’ll take me on a trip, I’ll put some gas in you.” Or telling your fireplace, “If you’ll give me some heat I’ll put some wood in later.” This won’t even work in the spiritual realm. Pastor James said, Draw nigh to God & He’ll draw nigh to you. If you have a house, a car & clothes to wear, I’ll bet you didn’t get them by your feelings, but rather you got them in spite of your feelings. Am I right? I’m right!
Another reason we don’t finish is;
WE GET DRAWN AWAY BY THE DISTRACTIONS OF LIFE.
James says, -- let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth He any man: But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust & enticed.
James’ words here seem to have a sexual connotation & certainly that’s one way Satan can work through our flesh to draw us away. I have known many pastors, evangelists, deacons, Sunday school teachers, choir singers & many once active Christian workers who didn’t finish because they were drawn off course by sin’s enticements. But there are other things that cause people to be drawn off course.
Some people turn back in crisis. Some quit because of depression & defeat. Others quit when things got dark & stayed dark too long & they couldn’t seem to find God anywhere. Some quit because of physical weariness, spiritual weariness & financial pressures. They never learned that a believer must live under control when things around them are out of control. Some quit under enemy fire. Some just can’t make a decision & stick with it until victory comes.
Samson quit because a woman tempted him.
Absalom quit because of the temptation of pride & power.
Ananias & Sapphira quit because of the temptation of money.
Noah was greatly used by God but went on a drunk & his sons had to cover his nakedness.
Eli was the last of the Judges but toward the end of his life wouldn’t correct his sons.
Isaac was born supernaturally & was heir to the Messianic line but accomplished very little in his life & ended up being famous for his famous father Abraham & son Jacob.
Saul became neurotic over his power when David got recognition. Saul should have rejoiced over David’s success & his story would have turned out differently.
David, though he was a man after God’s own heart, sinned with Bathsheba & for the rest of his life the results of his sins became an ongoing problem. One of his sons killed another, one of his sons raped his daughter, and he temporarily lost his kingdom. They fought right up until David’s deathbed as Adonijah & Solomon fought over the kingdom.
Barnabas was a great leader in the early church but because of an argument with Paul he ended up his ministry in Cyprus where we never hear from him again. He didn’t do anything terribly wrong or turn against God but ended up just so-so.
WHERE THERE’S NO FINISH, THERE’S NO REST.
Genesis 2:1 says,--Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them…and on the seventh day God ended the work which He had made and He rested……
People go through their lives haunted by the year of college they never finished, the book they began writing but never finished, the marriage they abandoned & the baby they went into the womb to kill.
People who finish well are people who continue to grow until the end of their lives. Look at Solomon. He had great wisdom, great wealth, built the Temple, built his own palace & had nothing else to do. The Philistines were conquered & with nothing to do he lost momentum, put his life on cruise-control & planned to sail peaceably into the sunset. But Solomon destroyed his life after he was forty years old with women & foreign Gods. Sadly at the end corruption set in.
FINISHING CLOSES THE MOUTH OF SATAN.
What unfinished task is there you need to complete while there is time? None of us are promised tomorrow so we should live each day as if it were our last. Jesus said, -No man having put his hand to the plow & looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Like 9:62.
Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1, 2.
Paul said,-- I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil.3
Paul also said,--That I may know Him & the power of His resurrection. Philippians 3:10.
ONLY ONE MAN IN HISTORY NEVER LEFT BEHIND ANY UNFINISHED BUSINESS.
His name is Jesus Christ. He’s the only man in history who could come to the end of His life & say with absolute & total truthfulness, “I have finished everything I set out to do.”
It is Friday in Jerusalem & a huge crowd has gathered at the place called Skull Hill. I’ve stood there several times & believe me it’s a rough-hewn, chalky skull-like mount on the north side of the city. The Romans liked to kill people publicly; it had a frightening effect on the masses.
This crucifixion started at 9:A.M. For three hours things proceeded normally & then at 12: o'clock noon the sky went black. Pitch black, so black you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It wasn’t a normal darkness, it seemed to pulse & throb, almost like the darkness was a living thing, an evil mutant creature escaped from some science fiction theater.
Only this was no movie. What happened was real. For three hours darkness fell across the city of Jerusalem. There were screams, hideous cries & moans, & other terrible sounds. Then as quickly as it started the darkness lifted, disappeared, vanished & sanity returned to the earth.
One glance at the middle cross made it clear that this man Jesus would not last much longer. He looked dead already. His body quivered uncontrollably. His chest heaved with every tortured breath. The soldiers knew from long experience that He wouldn’t make it to sundown.
Then something happened. He shouted—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Then as death drew near He whispered “I thirst.” The soldiers put some sour vinegar on a sponge & lifted it to His lips with a stalk of hyssop. He moistened His lips & took a deep breath. If you listened you could hear the death rattle in His throat. He had less than a minute to live.
Then He spoke again. It was a quick shout. Just one word. Then he breathed out another sentence. Then he was dead. The shouted word was a Greek word….Tetelestai….. “It is finished.”
Tetelestai comes from the verb teleo, which means--- “To bring to an end, to complete, to bring to excellence, to accomplish.” Tetelestai is in the perfect tense in the Greek meaning it speaks of an action which has been completed in the past with results continuing into the present. Its not just past tense which looks back to an event & says, “This happened.” The perfect tense carries the idea that “This happened & is still in effect today.”
When Jesus said “It is finished, He meant, “It was finished in the past, it is still finished in the present & it will remain finished in the future.” Note that he didn’t say, I am finished, but “it is finished” meaning He had successfully
completed the work He came to do. Tetelestai was a final cry of victory that He’d left no unfinished business. When he said “It is finished” he was speaking the truth.
When you read these words of Jesus, one question grips the mind---What was finished?
1. The malice of His enemies was finished. By nailing Him to the cross they’d done their worst. Nothing more could they do to the Son of God.
2. The sufferings ordained by God were finished. He often spoke of “the work” & “the hour” of trouble that was coming. God had fit all this into His final plan to save the world through the suffering of His Son but these sufferings were now at an end.
3. All the Old Testament types & prophecies were fulfilled. There are many prophecies surrounding His death & all had been or very soon would be fulfilled.
4. The ceremonial law was abolished. As Paul puts it, ---Christ’s death is the end of the law.”
5. The price of sin was finally paid. John the Baptists called Him,--The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” That “taking away of sin” was finished.
6. His physical sufferings were finished, the storm is over, the worst is past & He is going to paradise entering into --the joy that is set before Him.
7. His life is now finished, at least His sojourn on earth. His mission on earth came to an end at exactly the same moment when He cried Tetelistai.
8. There is now full satisfaction for sin. A final blow has been given to Satan. A fountain of grace & peace had been opened that will last forever.
In historical records the word tetelestai was found & it was used when a debt was paid. It actually meant, “Paid in full.” What Jesus finished on the cross was so awesome, so total so complete that it could never be repeated not even by Jesus Himself.
There is no Plan B because plan A, the finished work of Christ on the cross, was good enough. Praise be unto God for His indescribable gift. Aren’t you glad Jesus stayed on that cross until His work was finished?
Will you & I work while it is yet day? Will we finish the work God has given us to do?
John
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Ellen, Iggy, and the great dog wars of 2007
by John Stallings
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware of the dog wars our country has fought recently.
First we had Michael Vick & his horrendous treatment of dogs, (he’ll be thrown under the jail for several decades) & then we had Ellen DeGeneres & her doggy dilemma. Ellen’s puppy evidently couldn’t bond with her cat so she gave him to her hair dresser’s children. This wouldn’t do & upon hearing of this unilateral move by Ellen the dog authorities came in “guns a-blazing” & took the dog away from the children.
Now Ellen has a melt-down on her T.V show, has gotten all verklempt, (Yiddish term for breakdown) has taken to bed with the vapors & can’t even do her show. Hopefully she’ll survive this awful onslaught against her sanity.
While I’m at it, in other national news, there’s the story of a cat that started a fire & a dog that put it out. Honestly, I heard about it this morning. Evidently a cat knocked over a lantern setting a house afire & a black Lab was able, through quick thinking of some kind to get help. Shades of Lassie!
What else is there? Oh, in other news, somewhere in our great nation a Coca Cola man & a Pepsi man got into a fight in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Evidently they were both in the process of delivering their products to a Wal-mart store & clashed in the parking lot. I don’t know how the duel manifested but in my mind’s eye I see them shaking their drinks real hard & spraying each other with foam. My fondest hope is that this one will show up in a T. V commercial & soon.
The one good thing about all this news is that its at least taken our news people’s minds off Brittany Spears’ unmentionable problems. Seriously, & I hope no one misunderstands this; I would have actually hoped someone, somewhere in the country would fall in a well, had I known they would be rescued with no harm done, just to get something serious back in the news.
Yesterday my friend Bud Hedinger asked on his talk show why Americans seem to be so apathetic about the important issues of the day. I don’t think the word is apathy as much as it is “dumbfounded ness” if that’s a word.
Maybe the talk show guys are right & they’re trying to “dumb us down.” The ironic thing to me is all this happens the same week that Iran threatened to fire off 11,000 missiles the second after we take a shot at them. Not many news programs carried that.
And someday our great-grandkids might ask us, “What did you do during the great dog wars of 2007?”
John
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware of the dog wars our country has fought recently.
First we had Michael Vick & his horrendous treatment of dogs, (he’ll be thrown under the jail for several decades) & then we had Ellen DeGeneres & her doggy dilemma. Ellen’s puppy evidently couldn’t bond with her cat so she gave him to her hair dresser’s children. This wouldn’t do & upon hearing of this unilateral move by Ellen the dog authorities came in “guns a-blazing” & took the dog away from the children.
Now Ellen has a melt-down on her T.V show, has gotten all verklempt, (Yiddish term for breakdown) has taken to bed with the vapors & can’t even do her show. Hopefully she’ll survive this awful onslaught against her sanity.
While I’m at it, in other national news, there’s the story of a cat that started a fire & a dog that put it out. Honestly, I heard about it this morning. Evidently a cat knocked over a lantern setting a house afire & a black Lab was able, through quick thinking of some kind to get help. Shades of Lassie!
What else is there? Oh, in other news, somewhere in our great nation a Coca Cola man & a Pepsi man got into a fight in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Evidently they were both in the process of delivering their products to a Wal-mart store & clashed in the parking lot. I don’t know how the duel manifested but in my mind’s eye I see them shaking their drinks real hard & spraying each other with foam. My fondest hope is that this one will show up in a T. V commercial & soon.
The one good thing about all this news is that its at least taken our news people’s minds off Brittany Spears’ unmentionable problems. Seriously, & I hope no one misunderstands this; I would have actually hoped someone, somewhere in the country would fall in a well, had I known they would be rescued with no harm done, just to get something serious back in the news.
Yesterday my friend Bud Hedinger asked on his talk show why Americans seem to be so apathetic about the important issues of the day. I don’t think the word is apathy as much as it is “dumbfounded ness” if that’s a word.
Maybe the talk show guys are right & they’re trying to “dumb us down.” The ironic thing to me is all this happens the same week that Iran threatened to fire off 11,000 missiles the second after we take a shot at them. Not many news programs carried that.
And someday our great-grandkids might ask us, “What did you do during the great dog wars of 2007?”
John
Friday, October 5, 2007
Integrity
A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight.
Proverbs 11:1
….no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. (In integrity)
Psalm 84:11
Last night Juda & I watched “Flags of our fathers” a relatively new movie that was a collaborative effort of Clint Eastwood & Stephen Spielberg. I’d have to say this one isn’t for the faint of heart. Rarely have I seen such intense war scenes or graphic bloody images. I’m sure however the movie didn’t scratch the surface of what the reality of that battle was really like.
The film is about the battle for the small island of Iwo Jima, one of the most intense of the 2nd World War. It was a hot bubbling volcanic atoll that to this day still has active sulfur vents. During February & March 1945 in a 36 day campaign to take the island, a Marine fell to Japanese fire every two minutes. For 36 days every two minutes a Marine was killed or wounded.
Iwo Jima was the only battle in the history of the Corps. where the Marines suffered more casualties than the enemy. One of the “take-away” truths in this story was that when the men got into the heat of battle, there were only two types; “those who could be counted on and those who could not.” If a soldier was struck down, would those fighting with him have compassion & could they be counted on not to leave him where he fell? Would a man think only of saving his own skin? In a word, the quality they most treasured when death was staring them in the face was integrity, & you see it in spades in this movie.
By definition, integrity means, “soundness of moral principle and character, complete honesty and uprightness with no masking of intent.” Its opposite is hypocrisy.
Integrity demands that a person put on no false front, that he wear no artificial mask and that he play no deceptive role. It means that a person must be openly honest making certain that he conveys no false claims either in word or example.
Integrity excludes lying, stealing, cheating and every form of deception. It’s a broad umbrella word referring to one of the deepest and most cherished qualities of a worthy life. Integrity describes an individual who is worthy of complete trust.
It seems to me that integrity is a quality that everyone appreciates whether they be saint or sinner. A person with integrity will simply live each day as if it were their last, be peace-loving, stable, gentle and of good cheer, yet not oblivious to the gravity of life.
No amount of money can compensate for the lack of integrity. After all, what are we as human beings without integrity? Without it a man loses respect for himself, & at some point in his life will start to believe himself worthless. Integrity is a necessary trait in order to have lasting success in this world. Without it, we’re a house built on the sand that’s destined to sink.
Think about it; if a person’s word means nothing, how can they continue to function in relationships & how can they be expected to do business in this life in a meaningful way? Answer; they can’t. The cut of a broken promise or word goes so profoundly deep that it generally means the collapse of trust & ultimately the relationship.
One of the reasons integrity is such a powerful force is it removes most of the fear, tension & guilt from a life. A person of integrity will have nothing to hide & can achieve success in the true sense of the word.
I heard a story about two men during the depression that reminds me a lot of our world today. These men were so desperate for money they hired on with the Circus. One day their boss told them the Lion was sick so he needed them to get into a fake-Lion’s outfit & walk around the ring so the kids wouldn’t be disappointed.
The two men were extremely hesitant to do it but they needed the money so they suited up as a Lion. I guess one was in the front & the other in the back.
As they walked around masquerading as a Lion, all at once the steel door opened & a huge Gorilla walked in, hollering to the top of his voice & pounding his chest. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The boss said nothing about exposing them to a large, mean dangerous Gorilla. The men in the Lion suit started screaming to the top of their voices & it was apparent they were about the blow the whole act. So the big Gorilla swung onto the trapeze & came down right in front of the “Lions” face & said, “Shut up you idiots or we’ll all lose our jobs.” I’m sure you’ve met people like that; going through a charade as someone other than who they really are. I know I have.
We insist on integrity especially in areas of ultimate importance. We want our leaders to have impeccable character, we want corporations, and government, and schools, and the church to be institutions that are beyond reproach.
We demand complete integrity in the foods and other products we buy each day, in the way they are processed, packaged & distributed, and rightly so. We drive on highways and cross bridges every day with hardly a thought as to their safety, expecting them to be built with integrity. Recently a section of a bridge fell through in Minneapolis & it made World News programs. We expect such reliability in our man-made structures that when one fails taking several lives; it should be so unusual as to be freakish.
When we board a ship for a cruise we expect the ship to be watertight. Think about a submarine diving deep into the sea with hundreds of men on board that wasn’t built with integrity. Without integrity built into the vessel it risks sinking & that would simply be unthinkable.
I’m always comforted when I fly because I’ve read a lot about how the passenger planes are tested in wind tunnels & subjected to more pressure than they’d ever experience in the air unless hit by a tornado head-on.
Think of the integrity we require in our banks and financial intuitions. They are expected to be accurate with our accounts right down to the penny.
Sadly in America in the last few years we’ve seen a decline in integrity. Periodically a T.V show such as 60 minutes or 20/20 will highlight the dishonesty that is becoming common and how various businesses will take advantage of unwary costumers. When you stop to think about it, have you even heard the word integrity used much lately, and whatever happened to the old saying, “His word is as good as his bond?” I am convinced that we need to spend more time talking and thinking about the importance of integrity in America.
Remember these lines; “I did not have sex with that women!” Or, “Read my lips, no new taxes!” The truest words I can remember a politician speaking in the last few years was, ‘Folks, if we continue these policies, pretty soon that giant sucking-sound you hear in the south will be our best jobs heading to Mexico.”
Hype and exaggeration are routinely used to sell products. If you’re reading this you have a computer and are probably aware of how much you spend to have your P.C repaired. The price for repair is so excessive that we’ve learned to repair or own computer. Let me back up & say, we’re learning.
The scripture has much to say about integrity, actually using the word itself, --but more often the idea is referred to without using the word.
In the Bible there are many striking examples of the lack of integrity. One of the starkest is the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. His brothers were jealous of him because he was their father’s favorite so they basically kidnapped him & sold him to a caravan going to Egypt. Next, look what these boys do; they hatch-up a grand scheme to fool their father using animal blood on Joseph’s coat to make it look real.
Then these boys proceeded to convince their grieving father that his favorite son had been eaten by a wild animal. The low point, at least to me was when Jacob mourned many days all his sons and daughters went in to comfort him. Gen: 37-31-35. It’s difficult to imagine these brothers of young Joseph hypocritically acting like they are trying to comfort their father when all the time it was their act, and then their lie that caused his grief. This is deception at its lowest.
In the Matthew the 22nd chapter there’s an incident when the Pharisees showed a shocking lack of integrity. Verse 15 says,--Then went the Pharisees and took council how they might entangle Him in his talk…speaking of Jesus. Notice they were right up-front about their ugly motives & intentions which were to lead Jesus into saying something which would put Him in a catch-22; if He spoke up for paying taxes, the people would turn against Him & if he spoke negatively about taxes the Roman overlords would be on His back.
You probably remember the magnificent way Jesus threw that back into their laps by saying, Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s. Matt.22:21
In Acts 4:16-17 there’s another example of outright hypocrisy following the healing of the lame man at the gate of the temple. The religious leaders admitted that the miracle was great and notable and they couldn’t deny it. However not wanting the reality of the miracle to get too much publicity, they commanded the apostles to speak no more in Christ’s name. These selfish rascals tried to minimize the impact of what God was doing knowing all the time it was an authentic evidence of God’s power. Here we have zero integrity at work.
WHERE INTEGRITY TRIUMPHED
One of my favorite stories where integrity came to the fore is the story of Job. Job was a man who lived in a country called Uz. We don’t know where Uz was but we know Uz was. He was a man who had ten children, large herds and flocks and many possessions. One day his wall of protection was removed and calamity struck Job. He lost his ten children in one day. Can you imagine going to ten funerals in one day, funerals of your children? Pillage and destruction hit all his possessions & all at once he was no more than a pauper sitting in the streets.
Job’s wife said to him, - “Do you still maintain your integrity? Curse God & die.” At the end of it all Job didn’t charge God foolishly, maintained his integrity though the strongest persecution & the Bible records,…..And God gave Job twice as much as he had before.-Job 42:10
In the mid-seventies I was honored to be called to pastor a great church in Montgomery Alabama. I was also blessed while there to be able to lead the church in building a thousand- seat auditorium on the edge of the city on a five acre parcel of land.
When it was time to set the beams for the roof, we were considering whether to go with steel or wooden beams. Some thought steel was the best because it would be stronger than wood & surely it would be able to withstand fire better if, God forbid, we ever had a fire.
Our builder mentioned that fire-treated wood could better withstand a fire than steel, which was hard for we who were inexperienced to believe. He brought some pictures of two schools that had been destroyed by fire; one had steel beams, the other fire-treated wooden beams. Sure enough the pictures showed the steel beams, when exposed to fire had warped & twisted so much you could hardly recognize they’d ever been roof beams. But the treated wooden beams, though charred by the fire, were as straight as they were day they were put in place.
I learned a lesson from that experience. When the beams were set & bolted into the walls of the building then covered with roofing materials, they gave the building its integrity, its strength. You couldn’t look at the church after it was completed & tell how much integrity it had but we who had been there everyday of the building program, knew what it was made of.
This is a good illustration of the way we are as people. To be frank, some of the people in my experience who’ve shocked me the most with their behavior have been the ones I had deemed to have much more inner integrity than they actually possessed. Others whom I didn’t particularly feel were all that strong, when the pressure was on, they came through like champs. In other words, in matters of integrity, “what you see isn’t always what you get.”
Let’s sum it up.
People of integrity will do what they say they’ll do & there’ll be no deception & no subterfuge.
People of integrity will tell the truth with sensitivity & in an appropriate way.
People of integrity will be scrupulous & avoid falsehoods & exaggerations.
People of integrity will do right when no one is looking.
People of integrity will be open & honest, ashamed of nothing, hiding nothing.
People of integrity will have no false fronts & no mask.
People of integrity will fit the pieces of their lives together seamlessly, naturally & smoothly so that who they appear to be & who they actually are are the same.
They may hurt. They may suffer. They may have their moments but they will remain morally intact because they have nailed their lives to the cross.
John
Proverbs 11:1
….no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. (In integrity)
Psalm 84:11
Last night Juda & I watched “Flags of our fathers” a relatively new movie that was a collaborative effort of Clint Eastwood & Stephen Spielberg. I’d have to say this one isn’t for the faint of heart. Rarely have I seen such intense war scenes or graphic bloody images. I’m sure however the movie didn’t scratch the surface of what the reality of that battle was really like.
The film is about the battle for the small island of Iwo Jima, one of the most intense of the 2nd World War. It was a hot bubbling volcanic atoll that to this day still has active sulfur vents. During February & March 1945 in a 36 day campaign to take the island, a Marine fell to Japanese fire every two minutes. For 36 days every two minutes a Marine was killed or wounded.
Iwo Jima was the only battle in the history of the Corps. where the Marines suffered more casualties than the enemy. One of the “take-away” truths in this story was that when the men got into the heat of battle, there were only two types; “those who could be counted on and those who could not.” If a soldier was struck down, would those fighting with him have compassion & could they be counted on not to leave him where he fell? Would a man think only of saving his own skin? In a word, the quality they most treasured when death was staring them in the face was integrity, & you see it in spades in this movie.
By definition, integrity means, “soundness of moral principle and character, complete honesty and uprightness with no masking of intent.” Its opposite is hypocrisy.
Integrity demands that a person put on no false front, that he wear no artificial mask and that he play no deceptive role. It means that a person must be openly honest making certain that he conveys no false claims either in word or example.
Integrity excludes lying, stealing, cheating and every form of deception. It’s a broad umbrella word referring to one of the deepest and most cherished qualities of a worthy life. Integrity describes an individual who is worthy of complete trust.
It seems to me that integrity is a quality that everyone appreciates whether they be saint or sinner. A person with integrity will simply live each day as if it were their last, be peace-loving, stable, gentle and of good cheer, yet not oblivious to the gravity of life.
No amount of money can compensate for the lack of integrity. After all, what are we as human beings without integrity? Without it a man loses respect for himself, & at some point in his life will start to believe himself worthless. Integrity is a necessary trait in order to have lasting success in this world. Without it, we’re a house built on the sand that’s destined to sink.
Think about it; if a person’s word means nothing, how can they continue to function in relationships & how can they be expected to do business in this life in a meaningful way? Answer; they can’t. The cut of a broken promise or word goes so profoundly deep that it generally means the collapse of trust & ultimately the relationship.
One of the reasons integrity is such a powerful force is it removes most of the fear, tension & guilt from a life. A person of integrity will have nothing to hide & can achieve success in the true sense of the word.
I heard a story about two men during the depression that reminds me a lot of our world today. These men were so desperate for money they hired on with the Circus. One day their boss told them the Lion was sick so he needed them to get into a fake-Lion’s outfit & walk around the ring so the kids wouldn’t be disappointed.
The two men were extremely hesitant to do it but they needed the money so they suited up as a Lion. I guess one was in the front & the other in the back.
As they walked around masquerading as a Lion, all at once the steel door opened & a huge Gorilla walked in, hollering to the top of his voice & pounding his chest. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The boss said nothing about exposing them to a large, mean dangerous Gorilla. The men in the Lion suit started screaming to the top of their voices & it was apparent they were about the blow the whole act. So the big Gorilla swung onto the trapeze & came down right in front of the “Lions” face & said, “Shut up you idiots or we’ll all lose our jobs.” I’m sure you’ve met people like that; going through a charade as someone other than who they really are. I know I have.
We insist on integrity especially in areas of ultimate importance. We want our leaders to have impeccable character, we want corporations, and government, and schools, and the church to be institutions that are beyond reproach.
We demand complete integrity in the foods and other products we buy each day, in the way they are processed, packaged & distributed, and rightly so. We drive on highways and cross bridges every day with hardly a thought as to their safety, expecting them to be built with integrity. Recently a section of a bridge fell through in Minneapolis & it made World News programs. We expect such reliability in our man-made structures that when one fails taking several lives; it should be so unusual as to be freakish.
When we board a ship for a cruise we expect the ship to be watertight. Think about a submarine diving deep into the sea with hundreds of men on board that wasn’t built with integrity. Without integrity built into the vessel it risks sinking & that would simply be unthinkable.
I’m always comforted when I fly because I’ve read a lot about how the passenger planes are tested in wind tunnels & subjected to more pressure than they’d ever experience in the air unless hit by a tornado head-on.
Think of the integrity we require in our banks and financial intuitions. They are expected to be accurate with our accounts right down to the penny.
Sadly in America in the last few years we’ve seen a decline in integrity. Periodically a T.V show such as 60 minutes or 20/20 will highlight the dishonesty that is becoming common and how various businesses will take advantage of unwary costumers. When you stop to think about it, have you even heard the word integrity used much lately, and whatever happened to the old saying, “His word is as good as his bond?” I am convinced that we need to spend more time talking and thinking about the importance of integrity in America.
Remember these lines; “I did not have sex with that women!” Or, “Read my lips, no new taxes!” The truest words I can remember a politician speaking in the last few years was, ‘Folks, if we continue these policies, pretty soon that giant sucking-sound you hear in the south will be our best jobs heading to Mexico.”
Hype and exaggeration are routinely used to sell products. If you’re reading this you have a computer and are probably aware of how much you spend to have your P.C repaired. The price for repair is so excessive that we’ve learned to repair or own computer. Let me back up & say, we’re learning.
The scripture has much to say about integrity, actually using the word itself, --but more often the idea is referred to without using the word.
In the Bible there are many striking examples of the lack of integrity. One of the starkest is the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. His brothers were jealous of him because he was their father’s favorite so they basically kidnapped him & sold him to a caravan going to Egypt. Next, look what these boys do; they hatch-up a grand scheme to fool their father using animal blood on Joseph’s coat to make it look real.
Then these boys proceeded to convince their grieving father that his favorite son had been eaten by a wild animal. The low point, at least to me was when Jacob mourned many days all his sons and daughters went in to comfort him. Gen: 37-31-35. It’s difficult to imagine these brothers of young Joseph hypocritically acting like they are trying to comfort their father when all the time it was their act, and then their lie that caused his grief. This is deception at its lowest.
In the Matthew the 22nd chapter there’s an incident when the Pharisees showed a shocking lack of integrity. Verse 15 says,--Then went the Pharisees and took council how they might entangle Him in his talk…speaking of Jesus. Notice they were right up-front about their ugly motives & intentions which were to lead Jesus into saying something which would put Him in a catch-22; if He spoke up for paying taxes, the people would turn against Him & if he spoke negatively about taxes the Roman overlords would be on His back.
You probably remember the magnificent way Jesus threw that back into their laps by saying, Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s. Matt.22:21
In Acts 4:16-17 there’s another example of outright hypocrisy following the healing of the lame man at the gate of the temple. The religious leaders admitted that the miracle was great and notable and they couldn’t deny it. However not wanting the reality of the miracle to get too much publicity, they commanded the apostles to speak no more in Christ’s name. These selfish rascals tried to minimize the impact of what God was doing knowing all the time it was an authentic evidence of God’s power. Here we have zero integrity at work.
WHERE INTEGRITY TRIUMPHED
One of my favorite stories where integrity came to the fore is the story of Job. Job was a man who lived in a country called Uz. We don’t know where Uz was but we know Uz was. He was a man who had ten children, large herds and flocks and many possessions. One day his wall of protection was removed and calamity struck Job. He lost his ten children in one day. Can you imagine going to ten funerals in one day, funerals of your children? Pillage and destruction hit all his possessions & all at once he was no more than a pauper sitting in the streets.
Job’s wife said to him, - “Do you still maintain your integrity? Curse God & die.” At the end of it all Job didn’t charge God foolishly, maintained his integrity though the strongest persecution & the Bible records,…..And God gave Job twice as much as he had before.-Job 42:10
In the mid-seventies I was honored to be called to pastor a great church in Montgomery Alabama. I was also blessed while there to be able to lead the church in building a thousand- seat auditorium on the edge of the city on a five acre parcel of land.
When it was time to set the beams for the roof, we were considering whether to go with steel or wooden beams. Some thought steel was the best because it would be stronger than wood & surely it would be able to withstand fire better if, God forbid, we ever had a fire.
Our builder mentioned that fire-treated wood could better withstand a fire than steel, which was hard for we who were inexperienced to believe. He brought some pictures of two schools that had been destroyed by fire; one had steel beams, the other fire-treated wooden beams. Sure enough the pictures showed the steel beams, when exposed to fire had warped & twisted so much you could hardly recognize they’d ever been roof beams. But the treated wooden beams, though charred by the fire, were as straight as they were day they were put in place.
I learned a lesson from that experience. When the beams were set & bolted into the walls of the building then covered with roofing materials, they gave the building its integrity, its strength. You couldn’t look at the church after it was completed & tell how much integrity it had but we who had been there everyday of the building program, knew what it was made of.
This is a good illustration of the way we are as people. To be frank, some of the people in my experience who’ve shocked me the most with their behavior have been the ones I had deemed to have much more inner integrity than they actually possessed. Others whom I didn’t particularly feel were all that strong, when the pressure was on, they came through like champs. In other words, in matters of integrity, “what you see isn’t always what you get.”
Let’s sum it up.
People of integrity will do what they say they’ll do & there’ll be no deception & no subterfuge.
People of integrity will tell the truth with sensitivity & in an appropriate way.
People of integrity will be scrupulous & avoid falsehoods & exaggerations.
People of integrity will do right when no one is looking.
People of integrity will be open & honest, ashamed of nothing, hiding nothing.
People of integrity will have no false fronts & no mask.
People of integrity will fit the pieces of their lives together seamlessly, naturally & smoothly so that who they appear to be & who they actually are are the same.
They may hurt. They may suffer. They may have their moments but they will remain morally intact because they have nailed their lives to the cross.
John
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