“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4).

We have been focusing on integrity—what it is, why it is important, and what it takes. Last week, we said that “a thing, or a person, is not sound, unless every part is functioning optimally and working together as a system.” This applies to us as individuals—we must be striving to be whole and sound in each aspect of our lives in order to have integrity. This also applies to us as a ministry team. Each of us must be striving to be whole and sound individually in order for Nashville Rescue Mission to demonstrate total integrity as a ministry team. We can’t be incorruptible as a team if any of us is corruptible as an individual. We can’t be sound as a team if we are not striving to be sound as individuals (notice that I emphasize our strivings because we will not be perfected this side of heaven).

In the movie, Jerry Maguire, Jerry (played by Tom Cruise) declares to his estranged wife (played by Renee Zellweger):  “You complete me!” Some people think that is the most romantic statement ever made; others think that it is ridiculous. Guess what I think: I think it depends on your meaning. If you mean that two halves make a complete whole, while the math works this does not make for a sound, enduring relationship because it implies neediness for fulfillment by the other. If, however, you mean that we are each mature and functioning optimally in our own strengths and together we make a union that is even sounder, then I think it is a powerful concept. Think of our body as composed of many body parts. You know that if one body part is not functioning as it should, it affects the entire body’s effectiveness.

Recall that in the Chaplain’s Corner on “Singlemindedness,” we said the word “integrity” and the word “all” have some similar concepts. Colossians 1:15-20 makes it clear that Jesus possesses all of God’s fullness, and that God, in Jesus, holds all things together:  “¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I love you all and I pray all good things for you. My prayer for you is that you desire all good things for yourself–including integrity, incorruptibility, soundness, and completeness–and that you pray diligently for them. The scriptures say that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

We serve together on what I think is the most amazing mission field in Nashville. Where else does God bring so many helpless, hungry, and hurting men, women, and children every day? And God has brought each of us here with the opportunity to minister to these precious souls. We get to provide for their immediate needs as well as their longer term spiritual needs. We each bring important gifts to our work here, all of which contribute to the integrity of the whole team. I pray that together we will be used mightily for God’s purposes, and that we will have a single-minded, integrated focus on doing everything in our power to be good and faithful servants in the name of Jesus. I pray that nothing will distract us from this incredible mission.

In Christ (He who holds all things together),

Judy

Do you desire to be a person with integrity? As we learned last week, one of the definitions of integrity is incorruptibility. Incorruptibility itself is defined as something that incapable of corruption; someone who cannot be perverted or bribed; or something that will not dissolve, disintegrate, or decay.

The reason that God decided to flood the earth was because of corruption: “God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways (Genesis 6:12). When we corrupt our ways, then the earth itself becomes corrupted. It’s pretty scary, isn’t it, to think about the compounding effect of our lack of obedience? By the way, the basic definition of corrupt is to change from good to bad. Psalms 14:2-3 clarifies this definition: “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

So now we can make an assumption that if we are not corrupted, and we do not corrupt, then we are good.  How can we be good, and incapable of becoming bad?  And how can we become incapable of being corrupted, someone who cannot be perverted or bribed? How can we ensure that we will not disintegrate, and therefore maintain our integrity?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Surround yourself with good friends, friends who appreciate the battles that we face and who will keep you accountable.  (And be that friend to others.)  Note the places you are more likely to find friends with Christian values, and avoid the places where you are more likely to find those who do not share your Christian values. It will be far easier to avoid corruption if you are surrounded by like-minded people.
2. Zealously strive for purity. You have heard the term “garbage in/garbage out.” Be careful what you take into your brain—what you watch on the screen and listen to in your earphones. It will be far easier to avoid corruption if you are not filling your mind with trash but instead with wholesome words, music, and pictures.
3. Replace bad habits with good habits. This involves diligently confessing even the least concern and resolving to begin doing something in its place that is more pleasing to God.  For example, if you regularly spend money on lottery tickets (just as an example—there are many others), then instead resolve to use that money to benefit someone less fortunate or increase your church offering, etc. Rick Warren says “Remember that your character is the sum total of your habits. You can’t claim to have integrity unless it is your habit to always be honest. A husband who is faithful to his wife most of the time is not faithful at all! Your habits define your character.”
4. Adopt an attitude of gratitude. This will help you to build a stronger and more durable “skin” to withstand the slings and arrows that the devil uses against us by discouraging us and making us feel sorry for ourselves, which then make us vulnerable to corruption. If we look for blessings, we will find them. If we look for reasons to praise God, those reasons will present themselves. Stay invincible by staying thankful.
5. Follow all the commandments, but especially the first one (which will make all the others easier): “You shall have no other gods before me.”  As you most likely know, this is very difficult. Even though we know God is our Creator, and how could we as His creation worship anyone or anything but Him, we do. Even Solomon, who God blessed so abundantly as the richest and wisest man on earth, “… offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places” (1 Kings 3:3). However, nearing the end of his life, Solomon observed “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).
6. Above all, constantly ask God for wisdom, which is the sound application of God’s Word. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5).

Why is it important to have integrity? This is our witness, our testimony, as followers of Christ. Paul encouraged Titus (a pastor) to not only speak, but to model a God-filled life to his congregation. He wrote: “Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives. But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, incorruptible in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around” (Titus 2:1-8 The Message).

In Christ,

Judy

“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).

I’m not fluent in Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic, but I believe that in each of those languages, the word “all” literally means “all.” Young’s Literal Translation reads, “And — ye have sought from thence Jehovah thy God, and hast found, when thou seekest Him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.”  The Orthodox Jewish Bible reads, “But if from thence thou shalt seek Hashem Eloheicha, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy lev and with all thy nefesh.” I don’t understand some of those words, but I do understand the word “all.”

According to Webster, as an adjective, the word “all” has these meanings:

• 1: the whole amount, quantity, or extent of
• 2: every member or individual component of
• 3: the whole number or sum of
• 4: every
• 5: any
• 6: nothing but 
• 7: used up; entirely consumed 
• 8: being more than one person or thing

Compare these meanings above to those for “integrity” below:

• 1: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values:  Incorruptibility
• 2: an unimpaired condition: Soundness
• 3: the quality or state of being complete or undivided: Completeness

These definitions have similarities. To have integrity is to be pure, whole, complete. Therefore, I could conclude that God’s command in Deuteronomy 4:29 (above) equates to having integrity in our pursuit of Him.  If we pursue the LORD our God with integrity, with our whole hearts/all/every/nothing but our heart and soul, our “all,” we will find Him.

This is the singlemindedness that Paul speaks of in the verse from last week: “Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

We are called to leave our past behind and reach forward to what is ahead. If we try to maintain some semblance of our former selves, we can’t be new creations. Isaiah writes: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19).

Jesus told his disciples in Luke 9:59-60 “To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’” Sometimes when we try to keep hold of the past, it is just wrong and we know it. When our old life includes breaking the law, whether civil or moral, then it’s absolutely necessary to flee and not look back. Remember what happened to Lot’s wife when she looked back as they were fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah.  And in other cases, decisions about obedience are based on choosing between two rights, and this is when we must use discernment from the Holy Spirit to make the best decision. In the case above, Jesus called a disciple who then asked to put off his calling to care for a sick father. Obviously, it’s not wrong to take care of your parents. In fact, the Bible says to honor your father and mother. However, if taking care of your parents is an excuse to put off a call from God, especially when there are other options for ensuring that your parents are cared for (in this case), then the right decision is to obey God’s call as expeditiously as possible.

And in Luke 9:61-62 “Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.’  Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’” The example of the plow is a great one, and in keeping with Jesus’ other agricultural analogies. It’s impossible to plow a straight furrow unless you keep your eye firmly on the target at the far end of the field and your hands tightly on the plow handles. You just can’t plow even furrows with one hand while looking over your shoulder. If you can’t picture the plowing analogy, driving is also a good comparison. We tend to veer in the direction we are looking.

In The Life You’ve Always Wanted, author John Ortberg refers to Soren Kierkegaard’s book entitled Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing when he says that we have failed to achieve simplicity. According to Ortberg, this means we have failed to have a life that is integrated, that is focused on one thing, seeking first the kingdom (Matthew 6:33).  I am reminded of so many of the kings in the Old Testament, such as King Solomon of whom is it written in 1 Kings 3:3 “Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.” James refers to this as being double-minded, and it’s not a good thing.

To sum up, if we believe that integrity is critical to being all-in followers of Jesus, then as we learned last week, we must first pray for the desire for godly integrity; and secondly we must be single-minded in our focus. I pray that you and I will be diligent in prioritizing the things of God and eliminating anything that is a distraction; seeking Him first and seeking Him only.

In Christ,

Judy

 “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).

It seems that water balloon fights are now a “thing” at the Women’s Campus. I’ve seen the kids do battle at the playground and I’ve even heard that our ladies want to have a water balloon battle. I’m sure the water feels good when it’s so hot outside. Have you ever tried to fill up a balloon with water, or air for that matter, when it has a hole in it? The balloon won’t hold water, or air, when it has a hole in it. Well, duh, that wasn’t terribly profound. Lately, I’ve been frustrated by plastic squirt bottles that crack, and then when you squeeze them the air comes out in all the wrong places. Now that’s a problem when you are trying to use the contents of the bottle. Last week I wrote about the danger of a dam that won’t hold water because of chinks, erosion, and leaks. The point is that when the object in question is not intact, when it has a hole in it, then it won’t function properly. It lacks integrity which causes it to fail in its purpose.

The next problem comes when you try to patch the hole. Have you ever tried to patch a balloon? I tried to tape over the crack in my toilet bowl cleaner bottle, but it still wouldn’t allow me to squeeze out of the opening in the top like it was supposed to (so frustrating). In this case, I just needed pour the contents into a new bottle and throw out the old one. In the example from last week’s Chaplain’s Corner, engineers are filling in the holes, building backup dams, and all kinds of other fixes to repair, shore up, back up, and strengthen Center Hill Dam.

The good news, and I mean GOOD NEWS! in the gospel sense, is that God has made a way to fix people who are broken vessels. He does not want to throw us out like I threw out my toilet bowl cleaner bottle. He has made a way to repair us so that we are not just restored to basic functionality, but as believers in the life and work of Jesus Christ we are actually NEW CREATIONS with the ability to beautifully and fully live out our calling from God and have eternal life with Him. My heart wells up when I think about this. (I had to stop writing for a few minutes here so that I could just rest and rejoice in this amazing fact.)

As broken vessels, we do not have integrity. However, as new creations in Christ, we will have integrity, we will be whole. That means there will be no holes, no flaws in our glorified beings which we will possess when we exchange this physical life for our immortal life. I have heard this referred to as the “already/not yet.” Until that day, we are called to participate with the Holy Spirit in becoming flawless, or sanctified. As new creations in Christ, we should be of one mind, committed to growing in Christ.

“Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

I daresay you know what you need to do. It’s not the knowing that’s the problem; it is the doing. It is the wisdom, capacity, and ability to obey. Many times in the Bible, God and Jesus tell us they desire obedience. Jesus said in John 14:23“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.  My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them”.

The starting point for true obedience is to have a desire to obey. And the best way to gain this desire is to pray for it. It’s as simple as that.  As you pray, meditate on God’s word, and ask God for the desire to fully and completely obey Him. When Paul says that he is forgetting, reaching, and pursuing, he means that he is praying and then obeying God’s Word.

Glenn often explains our Core Value of Extravagant Faith as believing that God is who He says he is, and that He will do what He says He will do. That is integrity in a nutshell. And that should be what we also aspire to, to be that good and wise servant, to be who we say we are and to do what we say we will do. Rick Warren put it like this: “The test of integrity is that your public life and your private life match—what’s in your heart and what’s in your life are the same thing. You ask yourself, ‘Would I want everyone to know about this decision that I’m making?’ The truth is, when it comes to integrity, even if you can fool everyone else, you can’t fool yourself. And if you violate your own conscience, you have to pay for that.”

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to begin praying for the desire to do God’s will, the desire to pursue integrity, and the desire to obey Him with your life. I would love to hear about how your prayers are answered, because I know they will be.

In Christ,

Judy

“I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity” (1 Chronicles 29:17a).*

The lake was formed in 1948 when the Caney Fork River was dammed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood control and electricity production, and it’s also a recreational jewel.  However, the area has been in danger for a few years, ever since it was discovered that the dam is a high risk for failure. You might say the dam has lost its integrity. It’s no longer sound, no longer whole. It is in danger of not being able to perform its purpose and in fact, in danger of being dangerous.

The reason that Center Hill Dam is in danger is because its foundation was not built correctly, based on what we know today about geology. The dam is leaking and eroding. (Side note: this is a very simplified assessment; I do not claim to be a dam expert.) I have a friend who has been hired to work on the dam.  When I asked him about his specific assignment, he said he was tasked with building a new dam behind the adjacent “saddle” dam so that when it gives way, there would be a backup dam ready to take its place. You see, the dam is not a single structure; it is a combination of integrated structures, each of which must operate at 100% to ensure optimum performance of the whole.

Nashville Rescue Mission (NRM) is a lot like Center Hill. In fact, the first sentence of the NRM Employee Handbook – Section 104 reads, “Everyone on staff at the Mission is responsible to uphold the Christian integrity of the Mission so that it may continue to carry on the task that God has assigned….”  NRM has a God-given mission to fulfil, and it is people like you and me who are called by God to deliver on that mission every day.  As humans, we are not perfect, and most of us have flaws in our foundations. However, we must make every effort to maintain our individual integrity, and we must work together to be integrated as a team so that we can be effective in fulfilling this calling. This means that when there are holes or gaps, they must be rebuilt appropriately.

I like this quote from the Precept Austin website (Kay Arthur): “Satan does not need to accomplish much to destroy integrity. Because integrity has to do with wholeness, even a small chink destroys it. Integrity is a true 24/7 concept. Consistently right choices create (or reveal) integrity. One evil choice creates a fault line of potential catastrophe.” (https://www.preceptaustin.org/Integrity_a_whole_heart

I will be writing more on this topic in the weeks to come because the Lord is leading me to believe that this is critically important for us. It is important because if we are not functioning at the best we can be individually and as a team, we are not obeying God’s commands regarding integrity, we are not serving to the highest levels, and we are in danger of actually being dangerous instead, just like Center Hill Dam if it should fail.

I’m going to be vacationing at Center Hill Lake in July again, and I’m counting on that dam to do its job. We have people coming to the Mission every day, and they are counting on us for something much more important: Hope for Today, Hope for Tomorrow, and Hope for Eternity.

My prayer for you this week is that you will earnestly seek integrity, that you will examine yourself and that you will obey God’s commands. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, I also commend to you to “Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing” (Philippians 2:14-16 The Message).

In Christ,

Judy

*This was David’s prayer for the people of Israel and for Solomon upon receiving the offerings intended for Solomon to use to build the temple. These words in 1 Chronicles 29 mark the end of David’s life and the beginning of Solomon’s reign, and are some of David’s last words.