Being Intentional

Change is inevitable, growth is intentional.(unknown)

 "Have the courage to say no.  Have the courage to face the truth.  Do the right thing because it is right.  These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity." - W. Clement Stone

"Integrity is what we do, what we say, and what we say we do." -Don Galer

 "Integrity is telling myself the truth.  And honesty is telling the truth to other people." -Spencer Johnson

Simply let your 'yes' be 'yes', and 'no' 'no'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." Matthew 5:37

  Integrity is a very important trait to have; but even more important to practice.  In my opinion integrity has a lot to do with being intentional.  Being intentional means knowing what you are doing, and why you are doing it.  Another way to look at it is 'know thyself'.  Life is much more vibrant when we say what we mean and we mean what we say. They way we express ourselves should reflect what we actually think.  Many times we act only in accordance with the expectations and assumptions of other people; this does not reflect intentional will and therefore shows lack of integrity.  

One example we can look at to explain integrity is complimenting others.  If I compliment someone, I want to mean what I say.  I'm not going to throw fake compliments around just to make people happy, or to give the illusion that I am a good person. However I do want to give true compliments for other's happiness.  Untrue compliments are not necessary; for one can intentionally perceive true values and give praise accordingly.  There is no hierarchy of gifts in God's eyes and there shouldn't be in ours either. 

I am not big on receiving compliments, but I appreciate it when someone intentionally lifts me up. This being said I do not like compliments if they are fake or forced. So being intentional is about being real, not fake.  I want to be real; I want to call things as I see them.  As a friend and a Christan it is very important to intentionally lift others up.  Appreciating someone for who they are is real and truly beneficial; creating untruthful compliments is just a reflection of laziness.  Because again, everyone has qualities and gifts, and everyone needs words of encouragement.  It is possible to truthfully fulfill that need.

This runs true for more than just compliments. In fact compliments are inconsequential in comparison to the many other areas in which we should be intentional; but it does make for a good example.   We ought to be intentional with criticism, praise, conflict, forgiveness, evangelism, our actions, opinions, beliefs, and even our thoughts.  Our society does not push people to be intentional. The 'World's' perception on friendship, love, and life, is very insubstantial; seeming to pertain only to appearance rather than reality.  As Christians we are called to be real, to live intentionally, to be truthful, and to have integrity.  Integrity and honesty are very important; especially within the church.  Being intentional with one another can be hard, but the benefit it has for a community is beyond comparison.

Romans 12:3 - "Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us."

Proverbs 11:3 - "Honesty guides good people; dishonesty destroys treacherous people."

 

Psalm 119:160 - "The very essence of your words is truth; all your just regulations will stand forever." 

  

Exodus 20:16 - "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."

Proverbs 12:5 - "The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful." 

1 Timothy 1:19 - "Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked." 

Luke 16:10 - "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much."

God is the ONLY good; SEEK HIM

     There is only one good, and that is God. There is only one good thing that we can do for one another; that is pushing each other to seek God in everything. Without God nothing is good, not compassion, not aid, not rejoicing, not sadness; not happiness, humor, or community. If we aren't pushing each other towards God, then we are doing nothing. Without God, all of our interactions are meaningless.  God is the one who gives our life purpose, who gives our life meaning.  It is He that brings joy and happiness.  

      "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight (Isaiah 5:20-21). One of the most important things to know, is that we don't know.  Our definition of happiness, joy, and all other things are limited and tainted by our sin.  What we want is not always what we ought to do.  True happiness and joy comes when we align what we want with what we ought to do.  So what ought we do?  This wisdom we are not going to find in ourselves or in others, therefore we must look to God and look to scripture. "All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17)." He is the author and perfecter of our faith, he was sent to bring us life to the full. Again there is nothing good outside of God.  

          If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians: 13:1-3).  Now it is important to keep in mind that this love is not defined by the World, but defined by God.  In my previous blog "Sacrifice, love, and God", I draw out what that love is.  

      John 15: 12-13 says, “My command is this; Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  Sacrifice is a necessary condition to Love.  So what is sacrifice?  We understand sacrifice through God's greatest sacrifice, Jesus Christ.  "Whoever does not love, does not know God because God is love."  We therefore can say, whoever does not sacrifice does not know God because God is sacrifice.  In order to love we need to understand sacrifice, the only way to understand sacrifice is to know Jesus.  It follows that the only good sacrifice is done in regards to the will of God and to glorify Him. If good deeds are made good because of love (as seen in 1 Corinthians above), then only through Jesus Christ can we do good things.

         So what does that mean for our interactions with one another?  What can we do? Nothing apart from God.  Everything is given and comes from God, therefore we must bring ourselves to Him.  As a community, as friends, as the family of God we have but one task; SEEK GOD.  This should be our ultimate focus, this is above all things and incorporates all things.  When a brother or sister in Christ is down, the greatest thing we can do for them is to help them seek God.  When we interact with unbelievers, the only good thing we can do is to show them God and help them seek him.  When we rejoice, alone and with others, we should praise God together and seek after Him.

       Nothing is good apart from God.  That means if we comfort one another, rejoice with one another, or interact with one another apart from God; all we are doing is giving the allusion or appearance of what is good. The greatest comfort, and most selfless thing one can do, is to point a friend to God in everything; not taking credit or expecting reciprocating benefit.  By default this brings about the most fulfilling community, the most beneficial and real relationships that we can have here on Earth. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us form all sin (1 John 1:7)."  Individually striving after God, within a community of those who do the same, is the Kingdom come.  This happens because it is God that is doing the fulfilling, working through people yes; but it is by His mighty hand we are saved.

         "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.  If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.  To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 4:10-11)."

        So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jew, Greeks or the church of God; even as I try to please everybody in every way.  For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.  Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:31-33)."

       Too often we accessorize God; we use Him instead of letting Him use us.  We do not worship an idea of God but a real, loving, powerful, creator, that is at work in our hearts and in this World.  It is time that we stop compartmentalizing our lives, and give everything to the one who can do something with them. 

"God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.  For in him we live and move and have our being.  As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring.  Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone; an image made by man's design and skill.  In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 18:27-30)."

         Not seeking God results in spiritual death; this is hard to recognize because so many do not know what spiritual life is.  "Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine.  They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands.  Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst. Therefore the grave will enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit; into it will descend their nobles and Masses with all their brawlers and revelers (Isaiah 5:11-15)." This is a wonderful chapter and I would write the whole thing on here if I thought people would read it (which you should anyway).

      So what does it look like to seek God?  I ask myself this question, which I got from Pastor Paul Washer online; My life has finally come to an end, at a ripe old age. At the funeral service, friends a family came up to pay their respects, what will they say about me?  Maybe they will say how I was a good person, a dedicated husband, a truthful friend, a loving father, or a disciplined worker.  The world regards these characteristics as good, but they are all worthless without God.  "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, ...but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1John 2:15-17)."

On the other hand, they may say that the greatest aspect of me, was not me at all, it was God. Hopefully they would say that I loved because of God, that I sought after God in everything I did, and that it was God that made my life the way it was.  If we worship an idea of God, people will only see the illusion of God; if we worship God, then they will see God himself.

         If God is not apart of our relationships, then they are meaningless.  If God is not involved in our activities, then they too are meaningless.  If God is not present in our care for one another, or our thoughts, then those too our meaningless. In these instances we have but one consolation, that God can work through us despite us.  "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:9-11)."  Therefore we glorify God for his abundant love and mercy, and continue to strive after Him.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” --Howard Thurman

         "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched; this we proclaim concerning the Word of LIFE.  The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.  And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  We write this to make our joy complete (1 John: 1:1-4)."

Controversial Fellowship

There is a problem in the way we, as Christians, live our lives.  Especially in relation to people we have fellowship with.  The church, the body of Christ, is supposed to be our community.  It is with these people, under God, that we are supposed to find our home here on Earth.  So what does that mean for our fellowship with unbelievers?  Where should (not do) they fit they within our friends group. The conclusion I have reached is not widely accepted.  In fact it is a very hard thing to accept, and even harder to act accordingly.  But the fact of the matter is, Christians should not gain their satisfaction, or feel fulfilled, by relationships with unbelievers. 


"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?  What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?  What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.  As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.' 'Therefore come out from them and be separate, touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:14)."  

On a fundamental level, do we have anything in common with unbelievers?  Actions can be the same, feelings can be parallel, but the belief/implication behind them are different.  As Christians all of our actions, thoughts, and feelings should be revolve around Jesus Christ.  Everything has new meaning, and is more fulfilling.  A Christian will participate in an activity as a free human, while a non-Christian will participate within the constraints of their own perception.  Things are said that reflect an understanding that does not involve Jesus, actions are taken that often times only stem from selfish motives.  Unbelievers do not have the freedom that comes with understanding the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; therefore they are enslaved to expectation and preconceived notion.  When a non-believer does something nice for me, I am grateful and will say thank you; but if a believer does the same thing, there is much more depth in the action, and much more fulfillment. 

Immanuel Kant explains this in a similar way.  He uses the words Autonomy and Heteronomy to show the difference.  If one lives autonomicly, then their lives are ruled from inside themselves.  Their actions are made based upon something they see as right; and right for all people to do.  Someone who lives heteronomically is controlled by things outside themselves.  They are enslaved by expectation, assumption, success, and pleasure.  Autonomy is freedom, freedom from the things which dictate our actions and from the 'laws of nature'.  It follows that the only thing that is good, is a good will.  Only Jesus gives this freedom.  Christians have it, non Christians do not.  Therefore all actions, words, and thoughts reflect either enslavement or freedom. 

Christians, being free, provide a fulfilling community to develop (at least it is supposed to, and does when done correctly).  Differences and conflicts are regarded in a different light.  Anger and malice is limited and dealt with properly.  Confrontation occurs out of love, and allows healing for all parties involved.  Christians interact with one another with the understanding that we are all sinners, and therefore equally deserving of the same thing, death, and the same gift, life.  With the same foundation of freedom, which is given to us by God, a Christian community is free from the constraints of the World to have true fellowship. "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.  For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace (Romans 6:12-14)."

Now before I go too far, I need to interject that we, as Christians, are called to BE friends to all people.  However the same isn't true for us.  All other people don't have to be our friends. We cannot expect to gain our 'social fix', if you will, from non Christians; because on an eternal level, they have nothing to give us.  Now we can learn and benefit from non Christians, but the true fulfillment exist only within the Body of Christ.

"My command is this; love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you (John 16:11-15)."  So was Jesus friends with everyone? Yes.  Was everyone Jesus' friends? NO.  His friends were those who were like minded in regards to the Father. However it is good to remember that Jesus did spend time with those outside of his disciples group, but it was with his disciples that he was closest to home.


"He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother (Matt. 12:46-50)."

So when we reflect upon our own community, we must ask if it is truly fulfilling our need of fellowship.  If they are not Christian, then they cannot fulfill this need.  If they are Christians then they are pushing us towards Christ, wanting us to seek God in everything we do. If not, then they have little to offer besides camaraderie and simple pleasures.  We have much to offer the world, because God has given us much. We are sent to lead the enslaved to freedom.  We want to expand the family of God and let others taste the same freedom from their own desires, and gain reprieve from the evil of those around them.  A function of a fulfilling community is one that pushes us to our Savior, no matter what the circumstances, all other factors are trivial in comparison. 

To some this seems like an impossible thing to do, or perhaps even an evil thing. For the truth of the matter is, most of us don't differentiate between our friends.  We think of them all equally and seem to find fulfillment with all of them.  If this is the case for you either your perspective of fulfillment is wrong, the 'Christian' friends you have aren’t actually Christian, or both.  I think the differences in our relationships with believers vs. unbelievers should actually be a product of our re-birth under God.  When we become a new creation we are no longer of this world. How than can we gain fulfillment from someone who is a part of this world, and is dictated by the ways of it?  We are the city on a hill, the salt of the Earth.  If the salt loses its saltiness, what is it good for?  Christians are supposed to stand out. Christians are separate, by the very fact of being Christian.  There is a different standard, a different form of life that exists within the community.  Again, what does light have to do with darkness?  When we become apart of the Kingdom of God, we come into the light, therefore we are no longer in darkness.

If we gain our communal fulfillment from a non-Christian group, something needs to be changed.  We do not need to leave that group but to find a church (body of Christ) to become a part of.  We are who we surround ourselves with, and sometimes it is necessary to break of 'friendships' if they are negatively effecting our walk with Christ. I was talking with my Uncle Paul about this topic, he said something along the lines of, "When I am with a group of non believers, not only am I uncomfortable but I feel like I have so much work to do." What value do our interactions with unbelievers have unless we are looking to help them see, understand, and accept Jesus Christ?  In my opinion absolutely none.  There is no good outside of God, there is nothing worth while outside of the Body of Christ.  Then our interactions with unbelievers should be just like my uncle said, work. It is good work, and it is beneficial for us as well.  The only worthwhile thing we can do for unbelievers is to help them find Jesus Christ.  This can be done through actions or words (I think one leads to the other). If we do things with unbelievers that don't pertain to God, that time is worthless; for we gain nothing from it, nor do they.

"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Matthew 9:36-38).'"  When Jesus saw unbelievers he had pity on them and felt compassion for them.  Why is it that we don't usually feel the same? I think we are supposed to, and our interactions should reflect those feelings.  If we don't, then we need to come to a new understanding to align ourselves with what scripture says. 
This could be an easy concept to agree with, but a very hard one to live according to.  I would love to have some critique on this, whether or not you agree or not.  This is something I believe to be true, but if it is not, I don't want to believe it.  


"On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.  All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm until the end will be saved (Matthew 10:18,22)."