Integrity and Uprightness

Psalms 25:4-5,10,19-21 ESV

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord;

    teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me,

    for you are the God of my salvation;

    for you I wait all the day long.”

“All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,

    for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”

“Consider how many are my foes,

    and with what violent hatred they hate me.

Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!

    Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

May integrity and uprightness preserve me,

    for I wait for you.”

If we are genuine believers in Jesus Christ, then we are his followers, his disciples. And if we are not his disciples, then we don’t truly know him. It is what he taught and what his NT apostles taught, that to know Christ as our Lord and Savior is to walk in his ways and in his truth, and it is not to just give lip service to him. So, we can’t just make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and then continue to walk in sin and in the ways of this sinful world.

So, when this says that all the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, this promise is for those of us who are keeping (obeying) his covenant (New Covenant) and his testimonies (the teachings of Christ and of the NT apostles, and the gospel of our salvation, and the teachings of the prophets of old, where they apply to our lives). For all the Lord’s promises to us have spiritual and biblical conditions (stipulations).

So, then, who are our foes (our enemies, our opposition)? They are all those who are enemies of the cross of Christ. And who are they? They are all who will not submit to the Cross of Christ, who refuse to give up their sinful practices, and who refuse to walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands under the New Covenant. They will not deny self and die daily to sin and walk in obedience to his commands for they want to still be their own lord.

So they will not only oppose the truth of the gospel, but they may also come against us if what we are teaching is the truth of the gospel. For it appears that so much of what is called “church” here in America has gone the way of the world, and so they have altered and diluted the gospel of Christ to make it more attractive and acceptable to human flesh and to the ungodly of this world, so that they can draw in large crowds of people to their “churches.”

Thus, they will also not deal with rampant sin in the church biblically, but so many of them will, instead, coddle the deliberate and habitual sinners in their sin while treating the righteous as though they are the enemy. And this is all backwards, but it is because so many professers of faith in Jesus Christ have now adopted the ways of the world, and so they are also dealing with sin in much the same ways as the ungodly do, but not biblically.

But we who believe in Jesus Christ, in truth and in righteousness, are to be people of integrity and uprightness who follow the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles, which are for us who profess faith in Jesus Christ. We are to be living godly and holy lives, to the glory of God, in his power and strength, and we are to no longer be walking in sin, deliberately and habitually sinning against God and not living in purity of devotion to our Lord.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu6li_fg6Ww

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My Sheep  

An Original Work / June 24, 2012  

Based off John 10:1-18 NIV

My sheep hear me. They know me.

They listen to my voice and obey.

I call them and lead them.

They know my voice, so they follow me.

They will never follow strangers.

They will run away from them.

The voice of a stranger they know not;

They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that

I am the gate, so you enter in.

Whoever does enter

Will find forgiveness and will be saved.

Nonetheless whoever enters

Not by the gate; other way,

He is the thief and a robber.

Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,

Who laid his own life down for the sheep.

I know them. They know me.

They will live with me eternally.

The thief only comes to steal and

Kill and to destroy the church.

I have come to give you life that

You may have it to the full… 

They know my voice, so they follow me.

https://vimeo.com/114938263