It seems that this post which was supposed to go up on November 4th never made it. Sorry about that.
Isaiah 55:10 (NKJV) 10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,
(This marks something of an anniversary for me. Our church, Living Word Christian Center in Greene, NY is celebrating our 26th year November 9th. If you are in our area, we would love to have you stop by. We have services Thursday and Friday night at 7:00 PM and Sunday morning at 10:00 AM.
It is also the 4th anniversary of this blog. I began in November of 2009. I want to thank all those who have read and continue to read what I am sowing, as it were, to the winds. I have heard from many of you and it is a blessing and an honor that you would give me some of you time and attention.)
Last week we began a study of a very important topic for our Christian walk. 2013 has been a year we have focused on how to walk in God’s favor. One of the things that will draw favor to us is a good foundation. In Matthew 7 Jesus taught about two houses. One was built on a foundation of bedrock and one on sand. The house on the rock stood in the face of the storms of life.
We live in an age of profound instability. The economy is unstable. There is social and moral instability. Terrorism leaves people with a sense of instability. Governments seem to fall or at least change daily. The people of the world are looking for something that will be stable in the midst of all the instability. They are looking for housed built upon the rock.
Last week we looked at the chief cornerstone of our spiritual foundation and the first block we must lay next to it. The chief cornerstone is Jesus and the salvation he provided for us. The block that must go next to the chief cornerstone is the integrity of the Word of God.
I know I spent time last week on this stone, but I believe it is so important that I want to emphasize it even more. We looked at various aspects of the word “integrity”, but I want to take a closer look at one of them today. Integrity implies that we live up to a certain standard in our conduct of life. Another word we might use is “reputation.”
Some years ago, I realized that a relationship I had with certain pastors in another country was not right. They simply stopped asking me to come. I thought we were friends, but they just seemed to be cold toward me. They no longer communicated with me at all. In their defense, I must say I am not the best at communication myself, so I am sure I did not reach out to them either. Still, I wondered what was wrong.
Many years went by and God opened doors for me to go to many other countries. I did not give this situation too much thought for a long time. Then a friend of mine told me something that really bothered me. He said that they told him there was someone who had a powerful ministry but his reputation was so bad in that country that they could not invite him to come. My friend asked them if I was the one and they said yes. It had been over a decade since I had spoken to them. As far as I know the term, “bad reputation” and my name had never before been connected with my ministry. This really bothered me.
There are many things a person could say to me or about me that would be a matter of opinion. I might agree or disagree, but it would not really bother me. They might say, “We just don’t think your ministry is very good so we are not inviting you back.” They might say, “You don’t have anything to offer that we need.” They might even say, “We like your ministry, we just don’t like you very much.” I cannot say any of those things would make me very happy, but they would be entitled to their opinion and that would be that.
When you use the term, “bad reputation” that is something entirely different. A bad reputation implies a continued pattern of behavior. It means that I have done something that makes people question some area of my integrity. That is not a matter of opinion. It requires proof or evidence. If I have done things that created a bad reputation, I need to make those things right or at least explain my actions. If I have not done anything to warrant this reputation these people have insulted me in a way that I do not like. Not at all!
I do not say any of this to garner sympathy for myself. I really do not need it. The truth is that the world is a big place and I have more on my plate than I can handle. I choose to forgive the people who said this and move on. I shared this in hopes that you could identify with how such a thing would make you feel so that I can make a point about the integrity of the Word of God.
If we choose not to believe God’s Word, we are bringing his reputation into question. In today’s verse, we see that God says his word will do what he sent it to do. We could go to many more verses that point to the fact that God’s word can be trusted. What God said he would do, he will do.
Most Christians do not simply read something in the bible and choose to disbelieve it. However, when we do not obey the word or when we choose to believe our feelings or circumstances instead of the bible, we are saying that God’s word cannot be trusted. I know this may seem a bit harsh and maybe a bit direct, but I believe we need to see things for what they are. It helps us to repent when we do.
I have dealt with many people that have had a very difficult time believing that God loves them. Some have had difficult childhoods. Some have seen themselves as failures in life. They may have been divorced or lost jobs or any number of rejections that built up until they cannot see themselves as worthy of love and therefore they cannot believe God loves them. I am not saying that they are in sin because they have a difficult time believing God loves them. I can understand the problem.
The first step to overcoming this problem is to accept the integrity of God’s Word. He says in more places than I can list today that he does love us. It is written in black and white (or red and white) in the pages of the bible. I may not feel like God loves me. There may be reasons I can find that would tell me God does not love me. However, his Word tells me he does love me.
If it was a physical person who stood in front of you and told you they loved you but you did not believe them, what would that say about the person? It would say that you did not know them well enough to believe them or it would say that you simply did not believe they were telling the truth. In the latter case, you would be questioning the integrity of the one who said they loved you.
This is only one example and we will look at this in more depth this week. For today, I want to ask you two questions. Do you believe that the Bible is the Word of God? Do you believe that the Holy Spirit inspired men to write it? I know that there can be questions about translation but if we are talking about an almighty God, I think he can work around some human errors.
The second question is this. Does God have a good reputation? Is he someone that you can trust enough to take his word at face value? If he is trustworthy, than look again at the bible. Read it as the word of someone who would never lie to you. Read it as the promise of someone who would never fail you and will do whatever is necessary to do in your life what he said he would do. If you can cross that threshold, it will change your life forever.
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