“The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.” -Proverbs 10:9
“I’ll be home by 9 o’clock.” But nine comes and he doesn’t show. The same thing is true of ten, and eleven. You finally hear the door at 11:50. “I thought you said you’d be home by 9 o’clock.” “Yeah, but something happened.”
Then what about the line, “The check’s in the mail.” So you wait three more days, then four more days, and finally a week. And still no check. You call and say, “I understood you to say that your check was in the mail.” “Well, I thought it was,” is the reply you get, followed by a pretty incredulous line about the envelope getting lost in the mail. Sure.
Taking inventory for a minute, would you say that people are less prone to keep their word, less apt to show up when they say they will be there, and generally have less integrity, than a few years ago?
When national figures disappoint you and what they say is often questioned, when ministers and clergy seem to lead two lives—one personal and the other public, when educators say that moral values can be taught without religion, is it any wonder that talk about integrity today sounds as relevant as a discussion of the fourth vertebrae of an extinct dinosaur?
“OK,” you say, “I’m with you. But what can we do to stop the erosion of character today?” More than you might think. First, let’s define our terms. Integrity is what you are—it’s the moral fiber within you that determines what you are. Character is like the flip side of the coin. It relates more to your actions—what you do.
The foundation of integrity is an old-fashioned moral belief that there is a God in heaven who cares about what happens on planet Earth. It is based on the fact that He calls some things right and other things wrong. The Ten Commandments were not given as “Ten Suggestions” or “Ten Ideas about Morality.” They were both negative and positive as God said, “This is wrong and these things are right.”
Another foundation stone of integrity is responsibility and accountability, which, like two oars of a little rowboat, keep your life on an even keel.
Shortly before his death, author James Michener talked about the changes which he had seen in his generation. He said that the old days were not really so great but that a generation ago men and women considered some things right and others wrong. They didn’t always do right, but they knew the difference. But today, he contended, individuals who don’t know the difference are dangerous and a threat to society.
John Souter, in an article entitled, “That Missing Word: Integrity,” says that there are four enemies of integrity. He describes them as deception, shallowness, artificiality, and expediency.
Deception was what Abraham used when he didn’t want to admit that Sarah was his wife. “She is my sister,” he said—which was a half-truth.
Shallowness, the second enemy of integrity, is the belief that it doesn’t really matter. “Everybody’s doing it,” people say, excusing their behavior. Shallowness is the refusal to take an unpopular stand, saying, “It’s not my fight.” Character is the result of convictions, which are the foundation of integrity.
Artificiality is the curse of our day. “How are you doing?” someone asks, and you respond, “Oh, just fine.” You are not, but neither do you want the emotional involvement of giving an honest answer.
Expedience, the fourth enemy of integrity, is the path of least resistance, the short-cut. It is the presumption that if your wife will never know, it’s OK to do it. It is sacrificing the permanent on the altar of the expedient, and it is the curse of our day. No matter what the cost, integrity is worth it.
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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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We serve a God of miracles and wonders. Miracles like “Dead Raisings” happen even today.
Is it a medical mystery or a miracle?
A South Florida man pronounced dead from a massive heart attack and then brought back to life. His doctor says the man was raised from the dead by a simple prayer. Seven’s Louis Aguirre has the story.
Dr. Chauncey Crandall isn’t your usual doctor. The world-renowned cardiologist is a man of medicine and science, but he’s also a man of faith.
“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.” -Proverbs 11:3
A certain Baptist deacon had an old car that was broken down more than it was running, and decided to sell it while he could still get something out of it. He ran an ad in the paper describing it as a trustworthy vehicle which had lots of good miles left in it. When a prospective buyer responded to the ad, the man poured it on, telling him what a good car it was and how badly he hated to part with it.
The buyer said, “I’d like to buy your car, but I can’t pay you until the first of next month, but you can trust me. I’m a Presbyterian elder in our local church, and my word is as good as my bond.”
So the two men shook hands on the deal and the Presbyterian elder drove away with the car previously owned by the Baptist deacon. When he got home, his wife asked, “Where is the money?” And her husband replied, ‘Well, he can’t give us the money until the first of next month. But there is nothing to worry about. We can trust him. He’s a Presbyterian elder.” And then he added, “What’s a Presbyterian elder?” And she replied, “About the same thing as a Baptist deacon.” Whereupon her husband exclaimed, “We’re in real trouble.”
Chuck Swindoll says that integrity is simply doing what you say you are going to do. Unquestionably, keeping your word—telling it like it really is without embellishment or exaggeration—is a reflection of integrity. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary says that integrity is being incorruptible or complete, “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values, utter sincerity, honesty, and candor.”
If there is one flagrant flaw in the moral character of people today it is the lack of integrity in both public and private life. David said “in his haste” (or dismay, as another translation puts it) that “all men are liars” (Psalm 116:11). If he had lived today, said a casual observer of what is happening, he could have taken his time and said it!
One of the reasons that youth today are so cynical about life is that dishonesty is so common they disbelieve almost everything and everyone. But is there a foundation for their cynicism? Unquestionably. Politicians say one thing on one occasion and reverse themselves, affirming the very opposite, a few days later. Honesty in both public and private life is a reflection of the lack of integrity in people today.
There are some moral fibers which constitute the very fabric of a society, and when the fabric is gradually ripped and torn, the end result is moral confusion and social disintegration. Integrity is part of that fabric, and it is sadly in need of repair today.
Some say that people can still have integrity without having religious convictions. Though I question that premise, I do know that individuals who believe they are accountable to God, and have a moral framework and code by which they live based upon biblical convictions, are far more apt to believe that integrity is important than those who think they answer to no one and are not accountable for what they do.
Expedience, shallowness and artificiality are all enemies of integrity. They are to be abhorred no matter how great the cost. When the North Koreans captured General William Dean, he was permitted to write one letter home. He chose to write to his son and in the letter he said, “Bill, remember that integrity is the most important thing of all. Let it always be your aim.”
Question: Have you sold any old cars lately? Should the mother of the mechanic who worked on your car have bought it, would you have been embarrassed? No matter what others may do, integrity is a conviction which can make the difference in your life, and when you make a difference, our world will be better.
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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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Which, from God’s perspective, is nothing to grieve. He responds to these grave facts with this great news: “The day you die is better than the day you are born” (Eccles. 7:1). Now there is a twist. Heaven enjoys a maternity-ward reaction to funerals. Angels watch body burials the same way grandparents monitor delivery-room doors. “He’ll be coming through any minute!” They can’t wait to see the new arrival. While we’re driving hearses and wearing black, they’re hanging pink and blue streamers and passing out cigars. We don’t grieve when babies enter the world. The hosts of heaven don’t weep when we leave it.
Oh, but many of us weep at the thought of death. Do you? Do you dread your death? And is your dread of death robbing your joy of life?
Jesus came to “deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying” (Heb. 2:15).
Your death may surprise you and sadden others, but heaven knows no untimely death: “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” (Ps. 139:16).
Dread of death ends when you know heaven is your true home. In all my air travels I’ve never seen one passenger weep when the plane landed. Never. No one clings to the armrests and begs, “Don’t make me leave. Don’t make me leave. Let me stay and eat more peanuts.” We’re willing to exit because the plane has no permanent mailing address. Nor does this world. “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior” (Phil. 3:20).
Why don’t you do this: give God your death. Imagine your last breath, envision your final minutes, and offer them to him. Deliberately. Regularly. “Lord, I receive your work on the cross and in your resurrection. I entrust you with my departure from earth.” With Christ as your friend and heaven as your home, the day of death becomes sweeter than the day of birth.
“But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.” -Isaiah 40:31, NKJV.
James Aggrey tells the story of a man who was walking through the forest and found a young eagle. Felling sorry for the young bird, which apparently had fallen out of its nest, and fearing that one of the wild animals of the forest would certainly pounce upon the eagle and kill it, he decided to take it home and put it in his barnyard, and that he did. Within a few days the young eagle adapted to his environment and began to eat chicken feed, and soon behaved much the same as the rest of the chickens.
One day, however, a naturalist was passing by, and saw the eagle in the midst of the chickens. Thinking it rather strange, he inquired of the owner as to why it was that an eagle, the king of all birds, should be confined to live in the barnyard as a common chicken. “Since I have given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken,” replied the farmer, “it has never learned to fly. It behaves as chickens behave, so it is no longer an eagle.”
“Still,” insisted the naturalist, “it has the heart of an eagle and can surely be taught to fly.” After talking it over the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible. Gently, the naturalist took the eagle in his arms and said, “You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” The eagle, however, was confused; he did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eat their food, he jumped down to be with them again. Undismayed, on the following day, the naturalist took the eagle up on the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world, and jumped down once more for the chicken food.
On the third day the naturalist rose early and took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There, he held the king of birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. You belong to the sky as well as to the earth. Stretch forth your wings now, and fly.” The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky. Still he did not fly.
Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun, and it happened that the eagle began to tremble, and slowly he stretched his wings. At last, with a triumphant cry, he soared away into the heavens. It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia; it may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken. Though he had been kept and tamed as a chicken, he was, nonetheless, an eagle. And nothing could change that.
As I think of the parable of the eagle raised as a chicken, I think of the words of St. Augustine, who wrote, “Thou has made us for Thyself, O God, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.” In a real sense the parable of the eagle is every man’s story. You were made to have fellowship with God, to soar with the wings of an eagle far above the barnyard, but you became separated from God through sin that came into the human race.
Instead of fellowshipping with God, we became separated and estranged from our Heavenly Father. As the naturalist lifted the eagle towards the heavens, Jesus was lifted on the cross; and through His death He made it possible for you to be at peace with God, and on the wings of faith to rise above the barnyard filth that defiles and destroys.
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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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“Abstain from all appearance of evil.” -1 Thessalonians 5:22, KJV
Women the world over say, you don’t have to define it. When you are on the receiving end, you know what it is. But a definition is still in order. The broader understanding is that sexual harassment involves behavior which embraces either language or actions of a sexual nature, whereby unwritten and usually unspoken conditions of employment include submitting to the same. Women are usually the victims.
And why don’t women who are offended by a male employer or fellow employee just quit and walk out, or point the accusing finger so that the situation is corrected? Lots of reasons, including the embarrassment which often results, the possible recriminations which make her out to be the aggressor, and certainly not without weight: the fact that she badly needs employment.
Since the beginning of time, situations involving abuse have been common. If you question that fact, take your Bible and read the book of Genesis, where you will find cases of rape and incest as well as sexual abuse. But the fact that it has been with us for a long while, doesn’t justify its existence today. That men will be men is hardly an acceptable excuse.
Today we hear a lot of talk about raising our awareness of the issue, and while that is well and good, I’m more concerned about raising our awareness of the solution to the problem. In exactly 15 Greek words, the Apostle Paul not only addressed the problem but gave us a lasting solution to it as well. Here’s what he wrote: “Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity” (1 Tim. 5:1-2). In those few words Paul addresses the whole gamut of sexual relationships. Treat younger men as you would your own brother, older women as your mother, and younger women as your own sister—but Paul adds a qualifying phrase when he talks about how you treat younger women. He adds the phrase, “with absolute purity.” That same word was used by Plato when he wrote of being “innocent.” It is used in relationship to women as being “sexually pure.” It leaves little room for doubt as to what it means.
The following guidelines, if followed, would eliminate sexual harassment once and for all.
Guidelines #1: Put yourself in the position of the one with whom you work.
This is valid for everyone. Jesus said it: “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). Known as the “Golden Rule,” this kind of role playing produces sensitivity towards each other and goes a long ways towards eliminating miscommunication between men and women. Phrases which may be meaningful to your wife, such as “honey” or “darling” may be appropriate at home but are out of place at the office or shop.
Guideline #2: Realize that what may be humorous to you may be patently offensive to members of the opposite sex.
That men and women don’t understand each other is an understatement. Humor which is funny at the cost of someone’s discomfort is always in poor taste.
Guideline #3: Understand that non-verbal signals convey messages that can be easily misinterpreted.
This also includes the fact that how you dress or conduct yourself may send a message to a member of the opposite sex which seems to give license to that person to go beyond what is appropriate.
Guideline #4: Treat older women as mothers; young women as sisters. And that one alone eliminates once and for all the problems which result in abuses.
When it is all said and done, the solution involves character and integrity, and when those ingredients are present, the problem evaporates. Think about it.
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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” -Hebrews 2:9
Ahmed Ibrahim Awadh was supposed to have died. A corpse had washed up on the Mediterranean cost and was identified as his body. Of course, people mourned. He was only 30 years of age, and the best part of his life seemingly had been cut short.
As is the custom in Cairo, a funeral tent had been erected, and family sat there, misty eyed, honoring the dead man when suddenly things turned around. Ahmed—the man who was supposed to have died—walked into the tent, looking as healthy as he was when he was last seen.
No, he had not risen from the dead. It was a matter of mistaken identity. Actually, he had been at the beach, and while he was there, a thief had stolen his wallet, including his identification. Apparently it was the body of the thief which had washed ashore. Once the grief-stricken mourners recovered from their shock, the funeral turned into a celebration. Ahmed was not dead. He was alive.
As I heard of this bizarre turn of events, I couldn’t help thinking that in a sense Jesus Christ also came to His own funeral; but there was one massive difference between the funeral turned celebration of Ahmed Ibrahim Awadh and that Jesus Chirst. Ahmed had not died. People only thought he had. But there is absolutely no questioning the fact that when Jesus Christ reversed the mourning of his disciples, he had been absolutely dead.
On Good Friday, the world pauses and remembers what happened at the crucifixion. Is there any chance that Jesus might not have really died? That He might simply have been taken from the cross, weakened or even unconscious, and then recovered? Not a chance in the world. The Roman soldiers who put him on that cross were professional executioners—not Hollywood stunt men who bumbled the job. They were executioners to whom dying men were common. A thorough discussion of what crucifixion entailed would take much longer than time allows and isn’t really necessary. History speaks for itself.
John, an eyewitness to what took place, describes the soldiers, who, wanting to hasten death, broke the legs of the criminals who were executed with Christ. “But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead,” says John, “they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water” (John 19:33,34).
Then the body of a lifeless Jesus was washed, anointed with spices and wrapped for burial. There was no life or breath in His body. When Jesus’ body was placed in the tomb of a wealthy friend, Joseph of Arimathea, he was dead—of that there was no question. But the story doesn’t end here. Three days later, Jesus turned mourning into rejoicing. He rose from the dead in a never-to-be-repeated drama that turned weeping into dancing.
Ahmed, the young man who came to his own funeral, will perhaps live for another 30 or 40 years, but then there will be a funeral again, and he will be the main feature. But because Jesus died and rose again, He will never see death. The writer of Hebrews says that He tasted death for all men (see Hebrews 2:9), and the word which the writer used means He experienced death for all men. That’s good news, friend. Yes, it is totally worthwhile to pause and reflect upon the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.
But please remember, Easter Sunday follows Good Friday. The resurrection follows the crucifixion, and some day God will forever turn morning into rejoicing for His children. That’s what the Gospel is all about. Yes, thank God Jesus turned the tragedy of his death into the victory of His resurrection.
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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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