Friday, June 27, 2008

Spiritual Honor: Keeping Our Vows In A Culture That Has Forgotten

What does honor and keeping your word to someone mean to you? Is it as important as it was years ago? A famous painter, Edmund Blair Leighton, thought it was important enough that he devoted all his artistic works to the subject of honor. Though he lived and died at the beginning of the 20th century, his works speak to the timeless virtues of both honor and its partner, chivalry.

One of his most famous paintings, God Speed, shows a chivalrous knight going off to protect his lady-wife in a time of war. So what is Chivalry? In essence it is a".. Code of behavior/ethics for knights, based on telling the truth, keeping one's word and protecting those weaker than oneself." (see define:chivalry/Google) A knight is defined as anyone regardless of gender who "..was a warrior who followed a nobleman or a nobleman who followed a king." (see define:knight/Google) As "soldiers of Christ" all Christians can be considered as "knights" in the honorable service of Christ and God.

Honor according to the Wilkipedia definition "...comprises the reputation, self-perception or moral identity of an individual or of a group." Another definition found through Google expands on this: ".. a Primary Principle and prime virtue, is the feeling and the expression of admiration, respect, or esteem accorded to another as a right or as due. Honor refers to virtue, purity, a keen sense of ethical conduct, and integrity. We honor God as Personality, but are loyal to God as Principle. We must do the same in our relationships. In other words, God is not some distant and inconceivable idea; He is a person. He has invited us into a relationship with Him. His heart can be hurt. Love does not injure or betray another. It does not rejoice with evil even as it forgives in order to restore relationships; it does not cast them off into the past as if they never existed. (1 Corinthians 13) This is not what starting over with God means. Starting over means setting what exists right. This is the only acceptable worship to God. Otherwise, we would be forever stuck as we are now, never being able to trust ourselves and no one really trusting us. That is why many see truth as being relative today. What if the world became so relative as to trust that the boss that hired you today and signed you to a year's contract, was able to say tomorrow: You're fired? What if you asked him in shock why he had done that and all he could say was: "I meant it at the time."? This is what we do to our covenant marriage mates when we say "I do" at the alter in front of everyone and then leave them because we don't want to honor the marriage as anything but our feelings at the time. Feelings go up and down in all marriages so it is not wise to use them as a measure of how good or bad the marriage seems to be.

"Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God" sets the keynote of Honor to God above all things. ... " So we can see that honor and chivalry are two virtues very tightly bound together in the worship of God and the keeping of our vows. It requires us to honor our word in order to honor God's principles and to honor His person. But what does honoring God bring to us as individuals? How is it a gift to us from God? Spiritual honor is a sacred committment from God, our Lord, to us, his "Knights" and one we can give back to God and to all we touch in our lives, from our marriage mates to whom we have given a life-long vow before God, to our children, to our friends and to our co-workers. When we do so, when we honor the committments and vows we make, we bring honor to ourselves and to the God we represent.

When we don't honor our vows, as Jesus without hesitation tells us, we endanger the everlasting lives of others we have involved in our disobedience and bring dishonor upon them. We cannot label ourselves as Christians and honorable and disobey what Jesus teaches us. Are you in such a situation? Is someone trying to put you in that situation? Then do as Joseph did when tempted by Potifer's wife: Flee immorality! Leave that non-covenant relationship now and urge the one who is still married in God's eyes to go home to their waiting spouse. You both will be forgiven if you do as Jesus so kindly told the woman accused of adultery when He saved her: 'Go and sin no more." Think of the peace of mind and heart you will have from God!

Listen with me now to the comforting messages of hope and resolve from Dr. Ravi Zacharias entitled I, Issac Take Thee, Rebecca (pt 1) I, Issac Take Thee, Rebecca (pt 2) and also Divided Heart, Divided Home(pt1) Divided Heart, Divided Home (pt2), and see how keeping your vows to God with spiritual honor will give you the strength and courage to do what is right and show you how "with God all things are possible". (Mark 10:27)


Read: Online Bible Available

Scriptures: Hebrews 13:4, Malachi 2: 10-16, Matthew 19:9, Book of Hosea

Prayer:
O, God, help me and my spouse to keep what we vowed to you in front of all the people. In a world that looks at honor and forgets, help me and my spouse remember our marriage covenant to you and to each other. Help us finish the race with honor, honoring you, O, Lord, by keeping our promise to honor one another and forsaking all others no matter what the cost or the circumstance. Let us not give in to the world and believe that what God has joined together in holy matimony can be put apart by man's government. For you are higher than the law of man which always changes. Your righteousness never changes. In name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.


Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Finding Favor With the King!

What does it mean to find favor? It means to gain the attention of those who can help us, to gain their consideration in a way not usually accorded to just anyone. To gain favor means to have access to special consideration and action on our behalf.

In this world, it is very difficult to get by let alone achieve our potential without finding favor with those who can help us. Even so,the favor granted by human beings towards each other is always limited to what is humanly possible at the time. What if you could find favor with the One who could grant you help with what is impossible for you to do in human terms? Join us for our next discussion on how you can find favor with the King - Jesus Christ - who has the power to bring strength, protection, honor, and blessing in your life!


Read: Online Bible Available

Scriptures:The book of Esther

Prayer: Let me find favor with you, O, Lord. My circumstances are beyond my control. I come to you to put them all before you while I walk by faith and not by sight. Your word says that you are the One who knows great and unsearchable things that I do not know. Show me the way I should go. Help me, please, that others may see and glorify your name. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

If the king regards me with favor and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king's question. -- Esther 5:8

Finding favor today in our world generally means to appeal to the compassion of someone we know who can help us. If done with a proper motive, this sort of behavior seems to be beneficial to everyone whether in the community, in the office or in the workplace. You may have even sought favor for yourself in an innocent manner to help solidify your job position or to have helped your family in difficult times or for a friend in need. You were one person trying to make a difference for yourself and those who will be affected by what you do for their good. But you may also have observed others who make seeking favor a way to destroy other colleague's careers and lives. (See The Impact of Narcissism on Leadership and Sustainability )

In the story of Esther, we can see each one of these kinds of people represented and as we do we can see the outcome for each. On the one hand we have Esther who seeks favor with King Xerxes in order to save the lives of her people, the jewish nation. On the other hand, we see how Haman,
manipulates the King in order to gain favor and is willing to ruin reputations and kill others to do it.

Most importantly, we see the final outcome for each. Using evil as a short-cut to quiet the fear inside of missing out on what we think we deserve will eventually bring about our own sudden destruction. If we don't believe it's only a matter of time before evil actions catch up with us, we are fooling ourselves in the same way we may try to fool others to get what we think should be ours and not theirs.

When we examine the story of Esther we can learn an even greater lesson: the best way to seek favor and apply it to how we can approach God when we are in trouble and need the kind of help no one else can give us. We can also see how God deals with negative influences in our lives: not by destroying them but by showing us how we can defeat them in His strength. Sometimes that means being still, patiently waiting on God to act on your behalf, knowing that "...battle is God's and not ours." Sometimes that means listening to God's voice to our heart giving us direction on how to act in our circumstance to bring about victory for us. At any time, once you have learned what God needs you to learn to be complete with Him, God can accelerate your circumstances to victory because others are waiting to be blessed by your victory! Like Esther, one person, you, can make a difference!

Please read with me now an article by Bryce Klabunde entitled Can One Person Make A Difference?and see how God can take flawed, but faithful humans and impossible circumstances and turn them into miracles!


The Book of Esther reminds us that finding favor with the King, Christ Jesus, will have a powerful, life-changing effect. Through His favor and not our own efforts, we can achieve astounding things that will benefit not just ourselves but everyone around us ...even those we do not know. We can even save lives in ways we could never have imagined! Most of all, through submission to the King, Jesus Christ, we can save ourselves and our family who can learn to follow our example. Esther's story is one that brings this hope and challenge for all of us to know... that with God, all things are possible! (Mark 10:27)


Source: Crowned by the King,http://www.8x.com/onenight/images/making_crowned.jpg
A Media Choice! Extra: One Night With the King: The story of Esther ( 2006)