DISAPPOINTMENTS

From My Perspective - - -

Disappointment is becoming too common in this world of flux in which we live. There are a growing number of voices that decry the direction and actions of the government. However, while the approval rating for Congress is somewhere near the 20% level, the voters will re-elect those with whom there is both disapproval and disappointment. Along with this are the charade-type lives people live. There are motions in behavior that are unclear and meaningless. There is an attempt to project something that is exaggerated and often devoid of reality. Too often deception becomes an action that is disguised as being authentic but is unable to pass the perceptions of the discerning. An example of this is shared in a post by World Magazine, April 16, 2014, under the headline: “Can A Divided Publishing House Stand?” The thesis is framed with these words: “A Christian publishing group goes from Desiring God to questioning God’s Word.”

What is the issue being reported?  Just two paragraphs give one the sense of the article: “You can be gay and Christian: That’s the message of a book due out next week from a publishing group known until now for its evangelical worldview. But the book will emerge from a new imprint designed to allow the publishing house to avoid alienating its evangelical market…Convergent Books, a publishing imprint under the same corporate umbrella and leadership as the evangelical …group is scheduled to release God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines next Tuesday. Vines, a 24-year-old former Harvard student, attempts to refute biblical passages that declare homosexuality a sin.” This serves as an example of both the attempted deception and another basis of disappointment one encounters. The parent company has been known for publishing books written by its best-selling Christian titles such as John Piper’s Desiring God and books by evangelical authors David Jeremiah..."

A person affiliated with Probe.Org opined regarding disappointed with these words: “When I survey my own life, I realize I'm no different than my friends. We all experience disappointment: troubled relationships, poor job evaluations or test scores, death of a loved one, health challenges, social snubs, athletic loss.” He then cautions that: “Disappointment can compound into depression or despair, which may lead to serious consequences.” He then bridges over to this thought: “…despair can contribute to suicide, while hopelessness bred by poverty might manifest as apathy. Values, meaning, and hope appear to act as catalysts for mobilizing energy and finding satisfaction. Without them…life can seem futile.”

The article is a bit lengthy but an excellent point is made regarding disappointment and a need for one to adjust his/her expectations. He writes: “On the one hand, hope can be misplaced. If your highest hope is in achievement, you will eventually be disappointed - success is transient. King Solomon wrote, (1) "As I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless…like chasing the wind" (Ecclesiastes 2:11). On the other hand, if we're so afraid of disappointment that we lower our hopes, we can close ourselves off from what God may have in mind. The proper balance can be elusive. (2) Learn from your defeats. Disappointment and failure build character and patience, when allowed to do so. They can teach you to win and lose with grace, an increasingly lost art these days. In Romans 5:3-4 - "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character…" Inner spiritual strength, the kind resulting from sincere faith in God, helps cultivate that attitude…”

It has become far too easy for individuals within the Christian Community to blurt out references such as Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:11, usually with the comment, such as: “Well – all things work together for good…” Too often, it sounds like hollow words that are shy of a valid embrace of what they mean in reality. One’s hope in the faithful care and concern of the Almighty God should never waiver. He continues to be more than sufficient and completely able to “…work IN YOU, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (FOR YOU) Philippians 2:13. To avoid Disappointment, We must compel ourselves to “Keep looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (and hope) – Hebrews 12:2. Consider these things with me.

CONVICTION OR CONVENIENCE

From My Perspective - - -

The character of an individual is basic, vital and important. One would be served well if he/she was known as a person of virtue and integrity. It would be preferable to find one who has a strong moral persuasion and who is consistently principled in decisions that have impact upon self and others. Is it possible to find such a person? In the affairs of life, shouldn’t one be found as reliable and trustworthy? Is it too much to ask that a person stands for what is right and valid? Can one have confidence in another if that one rarely looks another in the eye when conversing and is vague and given to generalization rather than being direct and forthright? When a person talks about matters of urgency and import, shouldn’t we have the sense that what is being said is factual and reliable?

An illustration of the above was the vote of the United States Senate on a Budget Proposal – their first in more than four years. The Budget was approved very late at night (actually early morning) by the slimmest of margins – 50 to 49. The question is: Why was the vote so close? Why did some in the Majority Party vote in the negative? The analysis is that in the States they represent they are presently the minority party and they want to be re-elected for another term of office next year. If that analysis is true, then their vote was hypocritical. They did not vote out of conviction but out of convenience. Governments usually don’t operate by Biblical principles, ethics or scruples despite the fact that the oath of office once included “so help me God.” However, the secular government would do well to remind themselves of the words of Jesus in terms of one making or taking an oath. In Matthew 5:33-37, Jesus said: “…Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord…Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No’; anything beyond that comes from the evil one.” On another occasion, Jesus said – John 8:44 – “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” One wonders what Jesus Christ might say to those who govern in this nation as well as in other nations. Jesus Christ is being denied and legislated against frequently by Local and National governing bodies. They do so without any fear of God and without any hesitance in terms of God’s Standards. Most are legislating out of Convenience rather than Conviction.

One other factor is vital at this point – the personal conscience of an individual. The conscience – “the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives…the complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual.” Can a person’s Conscience reach a point where it becomes dulled, indifferent and unconcerned regarding that which is an accepted moral compass? In terms of a religious foundation and conviction, The Apostle Paul notes in I Timothy 4:1-2, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” A “seared conscience” is one that has become cauterized and is no longer sensitive toward matters of right and wrong. A background for this text is Romans 2:14-16 where Paul wrote: “(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.” The thrust is that the Conscience will be reinvigorated and be vital in the crucial Day of Judgment – accusing or defending.

How is it with you? Are you known as a person of Conviction or Convenience? Are you known as one who wets his/her finger and extends it upward to determine which way the wind is blowing – and then – act accordingly? Or – are you known as one who is committed to the firm moral foundation of God’s Word, thus being a person of Conviction rather than one of Convenience? Consider these things with me!