There are all sorts of things I could teach, verbally ruminate or otherwise “vent” about in this newsletter. As rarely as we put out one of these little circulars, believe me, I’ve got a lot stored up I’d like to write about.

Instead, I’d like to talk about an ever-present Truth that I just can’t get past. I am consistently being reminded of it. A truth that regardless of age, ethnicity, gender or religion, we all will be reminded of until time is no more. A truth that we can ignore but not erase. A truth that will not let us go. A truth that we can’t get past first four words of the Bible with seeing. That is, that everything begins and ends with God.

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Hey Scott,

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Dear Scott,

Desiring the Best
Phoenix, AR

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My mind goes back from time to time to a two-week mission trip I took to the poverty-stricken country of Haiti. I remember the culture shock of the absolute absence of abundance. Growing up in a comfortable, middle-class home I had heard of poverty, and even thought I had seen it, but I realized my misinformation in the capital of desolation, Haiti. To be sure, when I returned to my home in America, I had a new perspective entirely on the material blessings God had wrought in my life. I learned that unless I see true poverty, I’ll forget how “rich” I am.

It is this same sense concerning the material blessings in my life that God has recently worked concerning the spiritual blessings in my life. As I have been studying and preparing some old-fashioned Gospel messages and refreshing my contemplation of the Old Old Story, I find myself deeply moved, even shaken within, as if my introduction to Christ and the Cross was a recent one. I was saved at the tender age of six and grew up with Jesus. And in the same way that I took so much of my material blessing for granted before Haiti, it has been easy for me to take my spiritual blessings in Christ for granted as well, seeing as how I grew up with an abundance of both.

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(This article was written during the impeachment hearings of President Clinton)

?It doesn?t matter what he does in his private life, as long as he gets the job done.? Sound familiar? It has become obvious in recent months that we are living in a culture that believes it can divorce personal life from public duties. The general consensus is that someone?s lack of character is none of our business, that character doesn?t matter. Frankly, that?s seriously wrong, big time. The integrity of one?s personal, private choices, that is, one?s character, affects every other area of his life and all those whom he influences. In other words, character does matter. And we all know it.

Character matters when a person applies for credit. Character matters when an individual borrows the possessions of another. Character matters when a person signs a dotted line. Character matters when a dad makes a promise to his child. Character matters when a person stands at an altar and pledges life-long marital faithfulness to another. Character matters when a man stands and swears to uphold and protect the Constitution while he occupies the highest office in the land. (And if his character does not dictate that he keep the former of these vows, we cannot be sure that he will keep the latter.)

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In a department store a young husband was minding the baby while his wife was making a purchase. The infant was wailing, but the father seemed quite unperturbed as he quietly said, ?Easy now, Charlie,? he murmured, ?keep your temper.? A woman passing by remarked, ?I must congratulate you! You seem to know just how to speak to a baby.? ?Baby nothing!? came the reply. ?MY name is Charlie!?

Negative emotions are often the greatest challenge to our self-control. Surely you?ve had the experience of some emotion welling like a pregnant volcano, as if the containers of body and soul would burst, unleashing the monster that morphs from situation to situation always pointing it?s finger at your will, demanding to be allowed expression. Though often we may pride ourselves on our ability to ?keep our head,? we are often betrayed by the tell-tale signs of our emotional colors. Perhaps you?ve heard someone say, ?he was green with envy.? Maybe you?ve been so mad, you were ?red as a beet.? Ever had ?the blues? in the aftermath of disappointment? Or, maybe you?ve known the jitters of fear and you retreated to a safer situation. Let?s just say you were ?yella.?

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?O taste and see that the Lord is good.?

We believe the much-quoted statement, ?in every man is a God-shaped void that can only be filled with Him.? And indeed that is true. It?s the heart of the gospel. Had we not believed it was true we would have never trusted Christ for salvation and invited Him to fill that void. Yet it?s so easy to reduce that fact to a trite phrase that merely smiles at our conversion experience but has little relevance to our present day-in, day-out experience.

Every day, I get out of bed with a void in the pit of my stomach. Hunger. The night is long and the previous night?s dinner has been absorbed into my body?s various systems. The stomach finished doing it?s job somewhere around 11:00 last night. This gnawing in the center of my physical being is reminding me that a particular digestive cavity needs to be filled with something and food is the only thing that will satisfy it. The hunger is the pertinent subject. Food is the pertinent complement.

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?I just want to be like Jesus.? Have you ever said this statement? The noblest of all Christian aspirations is to be like Christ. We know this. But if asked to describe what that means, many would find the notion of being Christlike difficult to describe. The Bible urges us to walk ?in His steps,? and ?to let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.? In our commitment to obey the Scriptures, we must have some understanding of the characteristics of Christlikeness. Though it would be impossible to exhaust this subject in one brief article, allow me share some insights on the characteristics of Christlikeness that the Lord has recently shown me.

First of all, Christ was FREE. He was free from the bondage that comes only through yielding to the temptation of sin. He was ?tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin? (Heb. 4:15). Christ always enjoyed the protection and the provision of the Father because He refused to trespass moral and spiritual boundaries. Because of this, Christ was at all times free from guilt, emotional scars, regret, misdirected desires, or any other consequence of sin. Being free, He freely did the will of His Father at all times.

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Everybody likes new stuff. We always want the one that looks, feels and smells the newest. It?s funny to go to Wal-Mart and watch someone open a package to see if the contents are what they really want, then put it back on the shelf and pick up the one that they didn?t open. People are hilarious. Why do we do that? Because we like the one that gives the best sense of newness. New cars (don?t you love the way they smell? There?s now ?new car scent? available at the auto parts store!), new homes, new restaurants, new fishing poles, new lipstick. New years.

And now we have one, labeled ?1997.? Can you believe it? At this new year, 1997, we are reminded that it?s been about one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven . . . well, almost two thousand years since Almighty God stripped Himself of His glory and became a servant, Jesus Christ, leaving the splendor of Heaven to ?tabernacle? among sinful men. You know the story. It?s a story that?s very old. Actually it is the ?Old, Old Story,? but more beautiful and precious than anything new than I?ve ever known.

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?I?ve confessed my sin to the Lord, but why do I still feel so guilty?? Have you ever felt like this, believer? Emotions are like fire, they can be a great blessing or extremely destructive. God intends to use our emotions constructively, while Satan?s intentions are only destructive. But know this, our emotions play a significant role in how we function as individuals. Feelings of guilt can come as a nagging thought or, for some, it can be crippling at times.

Guilt in and of itself is not a feeling but a state of being. Without Christ, one is in a state of guilt before Holy God because of sin against others and sin against God. There is a need for justification, which comes only through Jesus Christ, the propitiation of our sins. When a person puts their trust in Jesus to be saved, they are declared justified, or innocent, as if they had never sinned at all. Hallelujah! The believer?s sin, past, present and future is transferred to the cross of Jesus, and His perfect righteousness is transferred to our spiritual ?account.? ?For God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him? (2 Cor. 5:21). In other words, as far as salvation is concerned, God sees us as if we are as spotless as His own Son, Jesus. Guilt is a thing of the past. ?There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? (Romans 8:1).

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