Thursday, November 18, 2004

Can you handle the truth?

"Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me Your law graciously."
Psalm 119:29

High on the list of God's tough commands for us is telling the truth.
Truth, honesty, and trust are the basis of every good relationship. But
being trusted by others is just one reason God's command "Therefore,
putting away lying, 'Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor'"
is so important (Ephesians 4:25). Another good reason is that the Lord
hates lying. Proverbs 6:19 lists it as one of the seven things God
hates:

"A false witness who speaks lies." And John 8:44 tells us that Satan
is a liar and the father of lies.

Lying can be so easy. It often seems like the best way to avoid a
sticky problem or to protect ourselves from the results of other bad
choices. But it always backfires. That's why when Joseph's brothers
lied about selling him into slavery they spent the rest of their lives
worrying about the consequences (Genesis 37:31-33; 50:15).
Don't lie. It's one tough command from the Lord, but it is the best
way
to please Him and win the respect of other people.
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"A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and comes to
shame." Proverbs 13:5

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Humility

"I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you
like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze." Leviticus 26:19

Humility is like a brilliant bloom, which gives to the world the
fragrance of Christ, showing that life is truly rooted in God's
holiness. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is the lack of
humility. Everyone who seeks after holiness needs to be on guard,
for it is all too easy to slip into our own self-efforts, trying
to finish God's work with our fleshly efforts, even after we have
experienced what it means to walk in the Spirit. Pride is so deadly,
and it creeps in at the moment it is least expected.
Pride can lift its head in the very temple of God and make even
the worship of God the scene of its own exaltation.
Remember this: In our spiritual lives, you and I may have had
certain times when we were broken and humbled, but this is not
the same thing as being clothed with humility. We must clothe our-
selves every day, every moment, in every situation, with a humble
spirit, having a lowliness of mind that counts itself the servant
of others, demonstrating in word and action the attitude that was
in Christ Jesus.
Jesus, the Holy One, was the humble one: The holiest will always
be the humblest. There is none holy but God: We have as much
holiness as we have of God. And the measure we have of God will be
the measure of our real humility. For humility is nothing but the
disappearance of self in the vision that God is all.

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"You are to be holy to Me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have
set you apart from the nations to be My own." Leviticus 20:26