The American political system has been dominated with the two pronged party model for over 150 years. What we’ve found during that time is that neither party is infallible or even near it, much to each party’s chagrin. It will always be that way and there’s a reason for that.

A MARRED IMAGE

Normally, what we see when we see a politician is an image of what they think the people want to see and hear.  An image lacks substance. It can be a reflection at best. However, as much as we want to try to make it so, an image is not the real thing.

Recently, we’ve seen two images of politicians shattered.

The first is Nevada Republican front runner for president of the United States in 2012, John Ensign. Ensign recently admitted that he had an extramarital affair with a campaign aide.

The other is Monica Conyers, chairwoman of the Detroit city council and wife of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.). She’s just accepted a plea deal concerning federal bribery charges. I think the following video of a council meeting speaks volumes.

MAJORING ON THE MAJOR

It’s sad to see this happening. Yet, this is a prime example when people get caught up in their image instead of building their character. We’re all susceptible to this. No one is exempt.

The problem today with people, not just politicians, is that they’re more concerned about their image instead of their character.  So when the rubber meets the road behind closed doors or otherwise, their true self is reveal.

Booker T. Washington is known for saying,

Character, not circumstance, is makes the person.

Baron Thomas Babington MacAuley defined character as

The measure of a man’s character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

The one thing that no party or person on the face of the planet can escape from is summed up in one word.

Sin.

The prophet Jeremiah said:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Two points to consider:

1. This is a rhetorical question. The answer is obvious. No oine can, not even

Heart Of True Character

the person who owns the heart. It means that the person’s heart is the first one to deceive an individual into thinking that they’re more than what they are.

The societal phrase, “Follow your heart,” is dangerous. It’s suicide. Follow God.

2. It didn’t say the heart of an evil man. It said the heart of man, meaning mankind. Everyone. Man. Woman. Child. Everyone.

Jesus says it like this:

But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man.  For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: (Matthew 15:18-19)

Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. (Matthew 12:34-35)

People must come to the realization that they are useless, condemned, sinful, evil, hopeless, hell bound souls. This is the character of man without the Lord Jesus.

However, with Him, our character will begin to produce the fruit of the Spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

The only way we can be what God has called us to be is in dependence on Jesus Christ. To imitate Him. That way when people see us they’ll see two things: the image and character of Christ.

Modern day America is drastically different from times past. One of the areas of change has been in the way we express ourselves in communicating. Profanity, slander, and gossip are the order of the day with many conservatives and Christians (yeah. Calling it out folks) joining right in.

WHAT’S IN A WORD?

Our culture is so inundated with verbal vulgarity and innuendos that people don’t equate certain words as being profane anymore. Many conservatives feel that they can talk however they want to talk yet espouse a belief in God as if that’s enough. May I remind them that even demons believe in God. A simple belief in God means nothing without action that reflects that belief  (James 2:18-19).

Words are powerful. It is by words that we (Christians in general) believe the universe was created and everything in it (Genesis 1). It was by words that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45). It was because of the words he spoke and had written that Martin Luther, the reformationist, changed the way we view God. It was words that declared the that the United States would be a sovereign nation. Words are the compliment to our very souls being saved (Romans 10:9).

What’s in a word? More than we can imagine.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (Proverbs 18:21)

A REFLECTION OF CHARACTER

There are over 170,000 words in the dictionary. Yet many people choose to use the most profane ones to express themselves. Why? Because there’s a black stain on their heart. In a word, sin.

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. (Matthew 12:34-37)

The way we use words is a direct reflection of our character. It shows what’s truly in our hearts. So, if profanity spews from your mouth, it simply means your heart is full of profanity and in turn reflects you have a profane character.

THE STANDARD IS GOD’S WORD

Just because our culture embraces profane speaking doesn’t mean we need to follow suit. If the God of the Bible is truly your God, then He’s called you to raise the standard.

But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. (Colossians 3:8)

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: (Ephesians 4:31)

The ultimate call of a Christian is to be Christlike in whatever station God puts us. We can’t do this out of our own strength but through a daily refreshing in God’s word and submission to the Holy Spirit as He empowers us to be what God wants us to be. By doing this, we’ll begin to see the person we were meant to be.

We're On The Air!

For the two people who may be following this blog, you may have noticed some weird things going on at the blog here in the last few weeks. Well, there’s an explanation for that.

Seems that my web host server crashed and burned. So for a while you couldn’t even get to the blog. Then when they tried to restore the blog to its former glory, they only restored part of it. So, after figuring out what was going on (which was about as enjoyable as getting my teeth pulled), we have finally arrived back where we should be.

Thank the Lord for that.

So we have quite a bit of catching up to do folks. Going to be a lot going up this week so tell everyone that we’re back.

Let the games begin!

The goal of the Christian is not to be the most successful, have the best reputation, or even to follow a life of piety. Our lives should be wrapped up in continuous submission to God so we can be like Christ.

The church today has missed the boat in terms of what our ultimate pursuit  should be. To take on the moniker of Christian means that we should be a reflection of who He is. The term itself literally means “little Christs”.

In the book of Ephesians, at the beginning of chapter 5, it reads:

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.

The word followers should actually translated ‘imitators’.

We tend to imitate what we’re are around the most. When we first come into the world, that’s our parents. Later on we may imitate their then our friends. We fill ourselves with the things we seek to reflect in what we watch, read, and listen to. The more time we spend with something or someone, the more we’ll get to know them and the more likely we can accurately reflect who they are through that relationship.

Sadly, many Christians devote little time learning about the Lord and growing in His grace than they do other things. Showing up on Sunday to a church gathering for an hour and a half is a akin to eating or spending time with your spouse once a week. How long do you think you could physically hold out before you keeled over? How long do you think your marriage would last?

For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (1 Peter 2:21)

When Christ said, “Follow me,” He meant for us to be like Him. Do what He does. Act like He acts. Think like He thinks.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Phillipians 2:5)

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)

This is not to say that we are going to be perfect. Sorry folks. Not in this lifetime. We won’t be sinless. But as we walk with God and grow in grace, we should be sinning less.

A.W. Tozer put it well:

Everything in the universe is good to the degree it conforms to the nature of God and evil as it fails to do so.

There are some things we shouldn’t let ourselves forget. I remember seeing this before the election and being appalled and grieved. Pray for him.