Tag Archives: Character

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How To Live A Blessable Life

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 15
Focus: Psalm 15:1

“Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?”

What is the life God blesses? David couldn’t have spelled it out any clearer than in Psalm 15: It is the life of integrity! The person of complete integrity, which I realize, in the truest sense is redundant—spiritual, relational, financial, moral, intellectual, physical integrity—is the one upon whom God’s favor, power and provision will rest.

Now integrity is a word that gets thrown around a great deal these days—and that’s part of the problem: It gets thrown around instead of lived out. So just what is integrity? I think the simplest and best definition I know is this: The congruence of what you believe with how you behave. For the Christian, it is the marriage of Biblical values, principles and world-view with our moment-by-moment attitudes and actions. In short, it is to practice what we preach at all times and under every circumstance.

David provides some very specific areas of integrity that are absolutely critical to living under the blessing of God:

  • Moral Purity—Verse 2: “He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous.”
  • Compassionate Honesty—Verse 2: “who speaks the truth from his heart.”
  • Rejection of Destructive Opinion—Verse 3: “and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman.”
  • Revulsion of Evil People—Verse 4: “who despises a vile man.”
  • Promotion of Good People—Verse 4: “but honors those who fear the LORD.”
  • Ruthless Trustworthiness—Verse 4: “who keeps his oath when it hurts.”
  • Risky Generosity—Verse 5: “who lends his money without usury.”
  • Rigid Honor—Verse 5: “and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.”

Any person who lives organically, unbendingly and consistently this way will themselves be living, as verse 5 concludes, in the stability and security of the palm of the Heavenly Father’s hand: “He who does these things will never be shaken.”

The tides of an increasingly nasty culture and the natural drift of our own falleness will make living out this kind integrity extremely difficult. We will have to fight opposite currents every day, if not every moment of our lives. But such a well-lived life will be worth it along the way and at the end of our journey. It is the only way to live!

Besides, if we invite him, Better Hands will guide and empower us on the voyage!

__________________

“Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.” (Oswald Chambers)

 

Making Life Work: Any person who lives organically, unbendingly and consistently this way will themselves live, as verse 5 concludes, in the stability and security of the palm of the Heavenly Father’s hand: “He who does these things will never be shaken.” Take a moment to resubmit your life and your ways to those Heavenly Hands!

 

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What Every Man Wants

Read Proverbs 31

Featured Verse: Proverbs 31:10

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.”

Most red-blooded American men want a trophy wife.  And every man deserves one!  Oh, not the kind you may be conjuring up in your mind right now—the kind of hot babe Hollywood has invented—with the aid of cosmetic surgeons, make up artists and photoshop, of course.

The one I’m referring to is the kind of woman Proverbs 31 talks about.  She’s a trophy gal not because she’s hot.  Guys, that’s a longer lasting and infinitely more rewarding kind of woman than the carefully coiffed and cosmetically crafted woman our sensual and selfish culture promotes.  That woman’s looks have a shelf life of only so long, you know—and while you’re enjoying her looks, if she doesn’t have a godly character to sustain her, those looks probably won’t be that pretty after all!

If you’ve got a woman of noble character, like me, you are a blessed man indeed. I’m doubly blessed with a woman of both beauty and grace. If you’re looking for a for a trophy wife, take my advice: Set you’re sites on noble character above all else. As Proverbs 31:30 says,

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

Now listen fella, if the wife you have, in your opinion, is not a Proverbs 31 woman, here’s what I would suggest:  Begin to treat her as if she were, and watch what God will do.

And, perhaps most importantly, make sure your soon-to-be trophy wife has a sugar daddy husband in you.  Not the kind you’re thinking, but the kind the Bible calls you to be: a man of pure and noble character himself.  What kind of husband is that?

  • He offers her a character that is morally pure: “your name [which represents character] is like perfume poured out [refined from all impurity].” (Song of Songs 1:3)
  • He desires to know her, talk to her, listen to her: “Husband, dwell with your wife with understanding way.” (I Peter 3:7a NKJV)
  • He refuses to control and pressure her into what he wants her to be: “Honor her, delight in her.” (I Peter 3:7b, Message)
  • He serves and sacrifices for her: “Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting.” (Ephesians 5:23, Message)
  • He loves her just as Christ loved his bride, the church: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.” (Ephesians 5:23, NIV)

As a husband, if you’ll work on growing in those areas, your wife’s noble character will grow in response to the growth she sees in you. Even if she doesn’t, you are still accountable to be that kind of man anyway.

And if you are not yet married, work on being that kind of man, and dude, you won’t be able to keep the ladies away!

“Grow old with me!  The best is yet to be.”  ~Robert Browning

Winning At Life:

If you are a wife, develop a set of growth points from Proverbs 31.  If you are a husband, develop your set from Ephesians 5:25-33.

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Psalm 15: The Life God Blesses

Read Psalm 15

The Life God Blesses

“LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?”
Psalm 15:1

What is the life God blesses? David couldn’t have spelled it out any clearer than in Psalm 15: It is the life of integrity! The person of complete integrity, which I realize, in the truest sense is redundant—spiritual, relational, financial, moral, intellectual, physical integrity—is the one upon whom God’s favor, power and provision will rest.

Now integrity is a word that gets thrown around a great deal these days—and that’s part of the problem: It gets thrown around instead of lived out. So just what is integrity? I think the simplest and best definition I know is this: The congruence of what you believe with how you behave. For the Christian, it is the marriage of Biblical values, principles and world-view with our moment-by-moment attitudes and actions. In short, it is to practice what we preach at all times and under every circumstance.

David provides some very specific areas of integrity that are absolutely critical to living under the blessing of God:

  • Moral Purity—Verse 2: “He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous.”
  • Compassionate Honesty—Verse 2: “who speaks the truth from his heart.”
  • Rejection of Destructive Opinion—Verse 3: “and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman.”
  • Revulsion of Evil People—Verse 4: “who despises a vile man.”
  • Promotion of Good People—Verse 4: “but honors those who fear the LORD.”
  • Ruthless Trustworthiness—Verse 4: “who keeps his oath when it hurts.”
  • Risky Generosity—Verse 5: “who lends his money without usury.”
  • Rigid Honor—Verse 5: “and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.”

Any person who lives organically, unbendingly and consistently this way will themselves live, as verse 5 concludes, in the stability and security of the palm of the Heavenly Father’s hand: “He who does these things will never be shaken.”

The tides of an increasingly nasty culture and the natural drift of our own falleness will make living out this kind integrity extremely difficult. We will have to fight opposite currents every day, if not every moment of our lives. But such a well-lived life will be worth it along the way and at the end of our journey. It is the only way to live!

“Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.”
—Oswald Chambers