Wednesday, 10 June 2009

• Always do right.

  Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

  Mark Twain

  

  
  I would guess that it comes as no surprise if I tell you that my favorite cartoon character growing up was Dudley DoRight.  That courageous Canadian Mountie who always showed up just in time to save the woman tied up on the railroad tracks.  Maybe that's where I get my strong sense of right and wrong... of justice prevailing... of doing the right thing, because it's the right thing to do.  I always felt that way as a kid, taking up for the underdog... another of my favorite cartoon characters - hmm, a pattern, perhaps?  One of my managers in business used to call me Deby DoRight (Deby-Do) for short.  Now I see that even Mark Twain was on the "DoRight" band wagon.  Any one else feel this way?

  How about God Almighty - where does he weigh in on the subject?  How about this:

  Micah 6:8 
  
   No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
        and this is what he requires of you:
     to do what is right, to love mercy,
        and to walk humbly with your God. (NIV)
  ______________________________________
  
  But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do,
     what God is looking for in men and women.
  It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
     be compassionate and loyal in your love,
  And don't take yourself too seriously—
     take God seriously. (MSG)

  How often do we look to the heavens and ask God: "What do you want from me.... what do you expect of me?"  The answer is written plainly for us to see by the prophet Micah who wrote to an affluent society in hot pursuit of all the wrong things.  What does the Lord expect of us?  He's uncompromising, but He isn't demanding.  In fact, the answer is so simple, it's almost too easy. Or is it?
  
  Doing 'what is right' in today's society requires thought and clarification.  The lines have become so blurred in some cases that we can have trouble discerning one from the other.   How to act, how to dress, how to conduct oneself in mixed company - are all determined by what we consider to be true.  Right conduct can't be determined by polling the opinion of others, yet that's often what we do.  Just because our 'culture' says go for it - doesn't mean we should, nor can we believe that just because something is legal, that it's right.  And we can't trust our heart because: The heart is deceitful. (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

  If we believe God's Word is absolute truth, we have a basis for determining what is right and what is wrong.  Only then can we 'do what is right'.  And the only way to do that is to know the Word; and THAT doesn't happen by osmosis.  We need to:

  Read it - Deut 17:19-20
  Meditate on it - Josh 1:8, Psalm 1:2, Psalm 119:97
  Memorize it - Psalm 119:11
  Talk about it - Deut 6:7 & 11:19
  Let it wash over us - Eph 5:26, Rom 12:2

  It's one thing to KNOW God's Word.  It's another to apply it in every day life.  Have you ever heard the phrase:  Missing Heaven by 18 Inches?

  Can you get that close, and still miss it?  What does it mean in Matthew 7:23 when Christ says: "Depart from me, I never knew you?"  How can you go to church your whole life, study the Bible, pray, give, serve, etc. - and still risk hearing these words? 

  18 inches is the distance from your brain to your heart.  It's one thing to KNOW it, it's another to BELIEVE it.  You know the saying... practice what you preach.  You can't (or won't) do what is right and just, unless you buy into it.  You won't buy into it, if you don't believe it.  You can't believe it, if you don't know it.  You won't know it if you don't study it.

  Have you hugged your Bible today? 
  Better yet, have you opened it, read it, studied it?
  Only then will you believe it, apply it, live it, breathe it.

  DoRight
  

   

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