Verse of the Day 10/19

Through the Bible - Jeremiah 4-5, 1 Timothy 2

 

Good morning,

The mid-term elections are two weeks away and for me, for many reasons, they can't come soon enough.  I am tired of hearing and seeing so many of the political ads that "add" nothing to the debate.  The mud slinging, barbs, innuendos, and digging up dirt from the past, how far back will they go, to second grade?

 

Another thing to consider for both sides of the debate is what is being taught to future generations?  Do we want to teach our kids that "anything goes" as long as you can win an election?  Does that apply to running for 8th grade class president?

 

With all that as a back drop, I read Ephesians 4 over the weekend. Listen to how Paul describes some in the church who were teaching false doctrines and the impact on the congregations.  The people were:" tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead. Eph. 4:14 Amplified Bible

Look at some of the adjectives used to describe the attitudes and actions of the person whose goal is to mislead - cunning, unscrupulous, shifting, inventing, tricking.  We see and hear a lot of that all around us today.

For today's verse we'll go down to verse 15.

Ephesians 4:15 (Amplified Bible)  Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

Think of these principles - lovingly express truth, speaking truly, dealing truly, and living truly.  Putting these into practice will cause us to grow, grow up in every way and in all things, in all areas of our lives. 

 

That's what I'd like to say to the politicians, grow up!  Do the right thing! What would the political landscape look like if these principles of speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly were put into practice?  What would our churches, our families look like?

 

The goal of our speech should be  " for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,"  Ephesians 4:12 NKJV.  Let our lives, our speech, equip and edify today.

Blessings,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
mikesvotd.blogspot.com

Ephesians 4:11-16 (New King James Version)

¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.