Integrity in our relationships

 "Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one." 2 Cor 7:2-3. NIV

We read this passage this morning during our Morning Devotion. Everybody felt very challenged.

Paul was really a servant of God. At every point in time, he reviewed his attitude, his character and his relationships with other people as he walked his pilgrim journey. We saw him in the previous passages giving explanations to his actions, invoking his sincerity and genuineness of intentions in his relationship with the Corinthian Church. Some false teachers were really on ground to cause problems, distract the church members and set them up against Paul, but he said "Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God." 2 Cor 2:17.

We ask ourselves, can I look back at my relationships; that girl, that young man, my wife or my husband, my Dad, my Mum, my son or my daughter and confidently say "we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one"?. If I continue the way I am doing now, can I boldly look back at retirement and say with Paul "we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one"? Can we look back after we are posted out of a church station as a pastor, evangelist or church worker and say that "...we have exploited no one"? Can we look back at the last work place from where we changed to our current job and say "...we have corrupted no one. We have exploited no one"? Can we as a Bishop, General overseer, Senior Pastor look the younger pastors who worked under us in the eye and say, "We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one."? The question can go on and on.

In the Christian circles today, we rarely teach people to reflect and consider their ways. We seem not to care anymore about integrity and sincerity of our actions. Let us reflect today on the issues raised before us from the passage above and make amends where necessary. If we reflect now and make amends, we may save ourselves from many regrets at the end when it will be too late to make amends.
I am reflecting already. God bless you.

Boaz's Kinsman-redeemer and elders' transparency

At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it." Ruth 4:6 NIV.

This is the second to the last post we are writing on this series. The first post dealt with the moral strength of Boaz which is indispensable in our lives as leaders if we are to finish strong in this ministry the Lord has committed into our hands. The tragedy that has come upon us as a generation is a situation where sex is promoted and advertised as if it is normal for everybody that wants sex to have sex, no matter your estate, whether married or not. We are even being bombarded with advertisements of sexual perversions and unnatural sexual affections and in some cases hounded to accept them as normal no matter what we believe. This has made most church leaders to accept what seems to be the 'lesser evil' - just having sex is not the worst thing after all. Hence, among church members and even leaders, every now and then, sexual scandals hit us, as it were, below the belt. Boaz showed character in his dealing with the young beautiful lady, Ruth.

In the second post, God taught us that we should not take the opportunities the enemy presents to us, no matter how cheap they may seem. As leaders, we should also be careful in our dealings making a conscious effort to avoid scandals. Read it.

In this post, we are dealing with the other character in the passage, the kinsman-redeemer who it was his right to inherit the properties of Ruth's late husband, including marrying Ruth in order to produce children for the deceased. When he was confronted with the matter, he agreed. However, when the issue of Ruth was added to it, he declined "because I might endanger my own estate". No games; no hypocrisy; no dancing around. He was truthful and transparent which helped the elders to quickly take decisions and the matter was resolved amicably. Elders' meeting that day at the gate did not drag unnecessarily, because this man was truthful to himself. Boaz married Ruth.

In our churches, every now and then, we have situations where elders rigmarole up and down in matters because of hypocrisy and personal interests. Matters have often complicated because elders who have the relevant information refused to open up and say what they know. Matters drag, sometimes very messy, even the church unity is affected and yet elders will not take the risk to be straight in their talk and pure in their interests and actions. Currently, there is a very big denomination in this country that is in a serious crises due to leadership tussle. In some cases, they have even called in the police to separate fights in order to avoid 'brethren' killing themselves. It is crazy and unfortunate. This is a clear example of the failure of elders to speak the truth strongly. When elders live in comprise for a very long time, they lose the right to exercise spiritual authority over young people, hence in crises times, their words will not have any power.

The Church Does Not Exist to Entertain Us – Or Bore Us by Karl Vaters

I found this very interesting and apt. A must read for every Church member including leaders.

I don't go to church to be entertained.

I also don't go to church to be bored.

• I go to worship.
• I go to read and hear from God's word.
• I go to be taught.
• I go to be challenged.
• I go to be discipled.
• I go to fellowship with other believers.
• I go to be inspired into action

When we reduce the gathering of God's people to an entertainment venue, we don’t enhance it, we diminish it.

Diminish. That's such a benign word for the damage we do to the gospel when use it as a tool to put on a better show.

The only thing worse? Boring people with the gospel.

Truth Is Better than Entertainment

Entertainment is cheap. And easy. The laptop I'm writing with can access more entertainment than we could have ever imagined. Or than any church can ever compete with. As I wrote in a recent post, “If we compete head-to-head with Hollywood on entertainment quality, Hollywood wins, the church loses.”

Jesus never bored people with the gospel. And a lot of his parables were very entertaining. But entertainment was never the point. Truth was the point. And great truths are never boring.

Whenever entertainment becomes the point, or boredom becomes the result of our church services, we’ve missed something big. Something vital. Something beautiful, eternal and life-changing.

We’ve missed the truth of the gospel.

We’ve traded our birthright for a mess of stew.

We’ve cast our pearls before swine.

Read the whole post here. Subscribe for the Leadership Journal and download the Free Discipleship Book on Small Groups. God bless.