The man of integrity:
1. Will honor the Lord. (v. 1)
2. Will live wisely. (v. 2)
3. Will care for his home. (v. 2)
4. Will monitor his eyes. (v. 3)
5. Will hate what is false. (v. 3)
6. Will attend to his heart. (v. 4)
7. Will guard his soul. (v. 5)
8. Will seek out the faithful. (v. 6)
9. Will deal with the deceitful. (v. 7)
10. Will understand the Lord's standards. (v. 8)
Psalm 101
A Vow of Integrity
A Davidic psalm.
1 I will sing of faithful love and justice;
I will sing praise to You, LORD.
2 I will pay attention to the way of integrity.
When will You come to me?
I will live with integrity of heart in my house.
3 I will not set anything godless before my eyes.
I hate the doing of transgression;
it will not cling to me.
4 A devious heart will be far from me;
I will not be involved with [a] evil.
5 I will destroy anyone
who secretly slanders his neighbor;
I cannot tolerate anyone
with haughty eyes or an arrogant heart.
6 My eyes [favor] the faithful of the land
so that they may sit down with me.
The one who follows the way of integrity
may serve me.
7 No one who acts deceitfully
will live in my palace;
no one who tells lies
will remain in my presence.
8 Every morning I will destroy
all the wicked of the land,
eliminating all evildoers from the LORD's city.
For a while I was confused because Dr. Akin was saying that we should only be around those who are blameless and have a servant's heart... well, I'm not blameless and sometimes I don't a servant's heart, and many people I know have issues. Which I was taking to mean that we shouldn't be around any other kind of people. Which would make discipleship and evangelism and having friends very hard. But I think he was talking about people on leadership teams. They are always addressing the men only, forgetting about the women... oh well.
Something that isn't as expounded in the manuscript is Dr. Akin's thoughts on purity. He challenged us all to commit to never being alone with someone of the opposite sex beside our wife/husband. I've heard talk about this before in Joshua Harris' books, and talking about it with other students. And then today, a classmate/neighbor that came over and had a brownie at my house apologized to me for us being alone, for the sake of our future spouses and ministries.
I really didn't know how to respond... I think I should apologize to him for making him uncomfortable - I don't think anyone should do anything that is against their conscience. But, I just do not feel convicted that being alone with a boy/guy/man is somehow impure or even a "hint of" impurity. I wouldn't be comfortable being alone with a married guy out of respect for him and his wife, and maybe that should carry over for me to all other guys, too. I pray that if that is what the Lord wills that the Holy Spirit would convict me of it... otherwise I think that I would just be falling further into legalism and church culture as opposed to truly seeking after God.
How/what do you feel/think about this?
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2 comments:
What a ridiculous notion that you should never be alone with someone of the opposite sex. It's just silly. Obviously some situations are innapropriate... but seriously... never alone with a member of the opposite sex? Even if you're just buddies? or hanging out eating brownies? pshah.
i do not think that it is a "ridiculous notion," and i definitely think that time alone with someone of the opposite sex should take place very carefully and cautiously... i still don't know where i stand on this issue but yeah.
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