Connecting Points

Friday, January 10, 2014

Today’s Topic: Character Can Be Corrupted

Today’s Text:  2 Corinthians 7:1   “Since we have these promises dear friend, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit; perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

I want to share with you this morning a devotional from Ron Hutchcraft that I heard on the radio this morning. It challenged me, as I pray it will you. It’s called “The Stink Takes Over.”

I checked the bread drawer and it was still there, but there was a smell! Our daughter was visiting and she put in a bagel order with her aunt. She said, “I want an onion bagel.” Well, somehow that onion bagel spent a few days in that bread drawer before it finally disappeared. Oh, the bagel was gone, but the smell remained. Well, that’s not correct. Oh, no! In fact, the taste wasn’t even gone. That little round stinker flavored every bagel in the drawer. So they all tasted like onion bagels now. I even had a bag of Starburst candies in the bread drawer, (Don’t ask me why.) and guess what? You should try those with a little onion flavor! Yum, yum! Who would have guessed that one thing could stink up and flavor everything?

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 7:1 . God says here, “Since we have these promises dear friend, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit; perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” Now, God gives here a pretty interesting standard for deciding what you will allow your body to do; what you will allow your mind to take in. Will it contaminate you?

Contaminate makes me think of a germ or a bacteria. It only takes this little guy to bring down a much larger body. Or, for some reason, I also think of an onion bagel. There’s no way to let it into that drawer without it infecting everything around it. That’s why it really matters what you watch, what you listen to, what you read, who you spend time with, what you do for entertainment, what you laugh at.

Oh, you may think you can contain the trash they carry. You say, “Oh, it’s no big deal. I can handle it.” But sin is highly infectious. What began as just a passing thought ultimately becomes a desire, and desire ultimately becomes a sin you never thought you’d do. That’s why the Bible says, “Don’t give the devil a foothold.” The devil just wants you to think about it, then want it, then do it, and then pay for it.

Maybe you’re underestimating the corrupting, contaminating power of a little compromise. You can’t afford that dirty joke, that dirty picture, a powerful video image or something on the Internet, a rumor about someone, a strong song about something that’s wrong. See, you can’t afford to let the stink in. You may feel a little defensive about some of the input that you’re letting in, but ask yourself a few questions about what you watch, what you listen to, what you read, what you laugh at, who you hang around with.

We don’t like to be challenged on these things, but ask these kinds of questions, “Is it making me a little harder than I was before? Am I becoming a little more tolerant of sinful things that I never used to put up with? Am I flirting mentally with some things I know are wrong? Am I finding the good things less interesting and more boring? Is my heart getting a little colder toward Jesus?” That’s the power of contamination.

You know why? Because in the verses proceeding what we read today, in chapter 6, verses 16-18, God says, “I live in you. You are my people. You are my sons and daughters. Therefore, don’t touch any unclean thing.” In other words, do you know who you are? Then purify yourself from everything that contaminates. You’re too good for this. You’re too special for this. You were too expensive to God for this.

So, back to my smelly bread drawer, some onion-tasting candies to prove that a little bad influence can spread very quickly. It can spoil everything. Look, if you’re letting into your body or into your mind anything that smells spiritually, get rid of it now. It could ruin what you never meant for it to touch.

Thanks Ron, for the challenge to not let Christ’s character be exposed to corruption.

Connecting Points

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Today’s Topic: Clear Communication

Today’s Text:  Psalm 46:10 (ESV)  “Be still, and know that I am God.

There is a word that rarely described my life until recent years. That word is rest. When I was a child and young adult, life was constantly active. Sitting and relaxing was for old folks, and now that I am one I understand it. But for over 50 years of my life there was no such thing as rest until my head hit the pillow at night.

The other day I heard a radio devotional from Max Lucado about taking piano lessons as a child. I instantly related to what he was saying. I too took lessons, and learned all the musical terminology and techniques. But Pastor Lucado said there was one thing he never understood – the squiggly vertical mark on the page indicating a one beat rest.

He too hated resting. Keep the music playing was the theory by which he and I both lived. But the response of his piano teacher to the question of why rests were important really struck me. She said, “Because it makes the music after the rest that much sweeter.”

I think I miss a lot of life’s sweetness because I enter the activity unrested. God is prepared to reveal His abundance to me, and because I am tired I am only capable of receiving a little. It is never God who limits the giving of every spiritual blessing from on high (Ephesians 1:3). God never restricts the availability of strength (Philippians 4:13). His supply of grace is always sufficient no matter how great our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). God cannot and will not withhold anything from those who love Him (Psalm 84:11)

Our God, the source of all good, communicates Himself to the soul that longs to partake of Him.(William Law) It is in the place of rest that our souls are prepared to receive what He is offering. Theologian and author T.C. Upham said it this way – If we stand in the openings of the present moment, with all the length and breadth of our faculties unselfishly adjusted to what it reveals, we are in the best condition to receive what God is always ready to communicate.

Stand in the squiggly-lined opening of the present moment and rest, and you will hear God, for He is constantly speaking.

Connecting Points

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Today’s Topic: Character’s Compass

Today’s Text:  Proverbs 11:3 (ESV)  The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

This morning I was cleaning up my inbox in my email account. I was shocked to discover that in all of my email folders that help me manage information I have over 500 megabytes of emails. That is a literal ocean of information. How in the world do I intend to ever navigate my way through it all? I know I filed every email into a specific folder for a reason, but I wonder what the reason was. How will I ever get through it all?

As I was sorting through just the inbox, I found an email that I saved from November 11, 2013. It’s only two months old, but I chose to leave it in my inbox because I knew that would guarantee me to look at it again. As I read it again I knew that today was the day for which it was intended.

Every Sunday morning, Calvary’s Pastor of Worship and Media, James Alan Hall, leads a Bible Study for all members of his worship and technical ministries. They meet in the Upper Room, a room chosen for them in our new facility because of its significance for their Levitical ministry. On Sunday, November 10^th, 2013, they read the following paragraph from the book they are studying:

When men first learned to navigate the open seas using the stars as their “road map” a whole new world opened up to them.  Until the development of state-of-the-art Satellite positioning technology, the compass was the primary instrument of navigation at sea.  It was said, “He who is a slave to the compass enjoys the freedom of the open sea”.

One of the members of the Bible Study wrote this email to me the next day.

The last line really hit me and has stuck with me (which is rare).  I started thinking about the freedoms that we have in Christ.  What we watch, say, drink, eat, do, etc.  Often times Christians will argue or judge what is right and wrong…..which is a form of legalism.  We do have freedoms but if we are just roaming about at sea going wherever the wind takes us, looking for the next big thing and paying no attention to the compass we are bound to get hurt and find ourselves in a storm not knowing which way to turn.

But if we are a slave to the compass, we can truly enjoy the freedom of the open sea, but with direction and purpose.  This does not mean there will not be storms because a compass cannot predict that, but when we are in a storm we will have a clear direction to go for safety.  If we are truly focused on the compass I would think that a lot of the areas of the sea that we are free to roam around in just will not seem that appealing because all they will do is take us off course and slow us down from getting to our purpose and destination.

Purpose = share the Good News

Destination = Heaven

Compass = Holy Spirit

The world is a sea of opportunity which we are trying to navigate. The only way to stay on course – to maintain integrity of character – is to trust the Compass provided to us by Jesus Christ when He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. We who are in Christ have a resident Compass; a Guide to show us the way through the ocean of life. Whether or not we are on course is totally our responsibility – we are either gazing at the Compass and staying true to God’s course or we are peering over the railing at the ocean of potential piers that appear to be desirable ports in which dock the ship of our life.

As we sail across the sea of life, it is tempting to look around at all the beautiful islands where we could stop for a while. There is an Island of Pleasure, and an Island of Prosperity. There are Islands of Power and a Port of Prestige. But none of these places is worthy of our consideration – never once should we shift the rudder to steer towards them unless the Compass directs us and the Wind of the Holy Spirit shifts to move us there. Resist the allure of the tropical islands when the Compass is pointing towards the eternal shore.

Stay on course. Let integrity be your guide. Character never cuts corners nor does it change direction.

Connecting Points

Monday, January 06, 2014

Today’s Topic: Character

Today’s Text:  Romans 5:3-5  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,   ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  

Recently I was challenged in a leadership blog I read to choose one word to describe my goals for the New Year. That one word would encompass and simplify all of the traditional resolutions I would normally make. Well, I have chosen my word – CHARACTER.

I thought about a lot of different words, but one event that happened in my life before Christmas has remained embossed in my mind for over three weeks now. I have been waiting to write about it, but was delayed until the Holy Spirit made the applications to my life first. I’m finally ready.

I was driving into town early one morning and pulled up to the corner of Highway 93 and Golf Road intending to turn left. I planned ahead and knew that I wanted to stop and see my son at Great Harvest Bread, so I was in the right hand left turn lane. (In case that doesn’t make sense to you, it is a double left turn lane at that intersection.) That way I could turn right at the first corner on Golf Road.

Next to me in the left hand left turn lane was another car but I did not notice the age or gender of the driver, and it doesn’t matter, because what was about to happen applies to all of us. The left turn arrow turned green, and we both proceeded around the corner. I moved straight ahead until I could turn perpendicularly to the left, thus giving the second car plenty of room to do the same, just like they teach in driver’s training.

Suddenly I noticed that the second car had no desire to conform to proper driving technique. It was already around the corner and two car lengths ahead of me because it had made a straight diagonal cut across the intersection and pulled in front of me into my lane. In the process, the car had crossed two empty lanes of opposing traffic. Because it was early enough in the day those lanes were empty, but if that car had done that thirty minutes later during the beginning of rush hour it would have collided with other vehicles in those lanes.

The first words out of my mouth were, “Wow! He really cut that corner!” Instantly my heart was cut as the Holy Spirit spoke to me and asked, “How many corners do you cut every day?”

My mind searched for a self-justifying response. “I’m sure that if there had been cars in those traffic lanes the driver of the car next to me would have swung out wider to make the turn,” I thought, “just like I do what is right when I need to”.

“Exactly my point,” said the Holy Spirit. “You see, character never cuts corners.”

So now you know why I have chosen the word CHARACTER for the New Year. I want to avoid and eliminate all corner-cutting in my life. There are no shortcuts to holiness. Every shortcut is a selfish attempt to immediately gratify a personal need. Any and all compromise proves the lack of character. Corner-cutting is motivated by a belief that we deserve an advantage, which is pride, which is absolutely contrary to Christ’s character.

So as my first step in acknowledging Christ’s character in me, I refuse to cut corners. I will not look for shortcuts in my personal life, in my relationships, and in my ministry. I will not look to cut corners to avoid the traffic of trials in my life, but instead will stay in the lane God has designed for me. That way I will learn endurance, which leads to character, which produces hope that will not disappoint me.

Cutting corners provides nothing more than momentary satisfaction leading to a need for further gratification. Character brings lasting hope that satisfies eternally through the abiding love of God poured into our hearts through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Character NEVER cuts corners!