September 19

Sep 19 - Today from Proverbs 19 we look at verse 1
"Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a fool whose lips are perverse."

This proverb is all but impossible to embrace - don't you think? The Hebrew word for poor in this verse does not simply mean someone with only the barest of essentials; it means someone who is destitute - utterly lacking. This proverb is actually saying that keeping your personal integrity intact is even more valuable than having just the bare necessities of life! Can you imagine that?

"Isn't it okay to do a little shaving on your income taxes so that you don't have to sacrifice your budget?"
"Isn't it okay to forgo your tithe so that you can make those car payments?"
"Everybody takes what they can from their employer. It's expected."

And those aren't even nearing the bare necessities.
What is your integrity worth?
Integrity is an element of faith. Faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit. There are Christians in the world who literally have to put this proverb to the test every day. They live under persecution and in destitution and still maintain their integrity and their testimony. Sometimes I think we in the West have it too good. The apostle Peter wrote a letter to the church as it was suffering deep persecution, and he had the audacity to encourage them to rejoice in their far-off unseen inheritance in heaven while they were destitute of even the barest of necessities of life in the now! "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (I Peter 1:6, 7).
"Yeah, right Peter. Give me the gold - you can have the trials and the grief. What kind of a faith preacher are you anyway?"
What is your integrity worth?
Oh. . . that little lump in my cheek? That's my tongue. Sometimes it's more effective saying what we really think than it is to say what we ought to think. Words are cheap. Faith and integrity are priceless.