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TechnoratiWhat does it mean to be a person of integrity? Scripture tells us such a goal is a worthy pursuit: Better a poor man who lives with integrity than a rich man who distorts right and wrong (Prov. 28:6).
Consider a man who helped bring revival in his time. He and his fellow countrymen were displaced to a faraway country after another nation took them captive. After a regime change among their captors, they were allowed to return to their homeland. What happened next testifies to the power of prayer, the authority of God’s Word, and the difference one man can make when he takes a stand for the Lord in his society.
The man is Ezra, and his account is chronicled in the book that bears his name. There are many parallels between Ezra’s time and our own. Ezra was called to serve God when his people were returning to a destroyed homeland. All of the walls were down, just as our own culture’s foundations have been shaken severely by the destructive advance of secularism and moral relativism.
Scripture records the moment of Ezra’s return, after a tiring journey of many months: “Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, during the seventh year of the king. He began the journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month and arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month. The gracious hand of his God was on him,” (Ezra 7:8-9). Whenever Scripture uses the anthropomorphism of God’s hand, it signifies blessing and power. Ezra knew what it was to be God’s person, in God’s place, at God’s appointed time, on God’s business, through God’s power, with God’s blessing.
How, and why, did God’s “hand” of blessing settle on Ezra? The Bible says, “Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the LORD, obey [it], and teach [its] statutes and ordinances in Israel” (7:10).
Ezra was a scribe and thus had an enviable reputation as a scriptural expert. However, he didn’t simply accumulate knowledge of the Scriptures so he could be a walking reference book-Ezra “determined in his heart,” or as the King James Version renders it, “prepared his heart” to know, live, and teach the law of the Lord.
Too many of us have fallen into the trap of a fearless familiarity with holy things. There is more in the Bible than anyone can learn in a lifetime. We must never lose our awe at the holy things of God. The person God will bless is devoted to understanding and applying God’s Word with a holy reverence, submitting his or her will to God’s divine will in order to be given ever greater discernment and understanding.
Too often as Christians we presume we’re doing fine-if only the rest of America would turn to God, we could get this country back on the road to righteousness. God is not looking to the lost to bring the culture in line with His design and desires; that is the responsibility of the redeemed. We live in a sinful culture that brazenly practices wicked ways. To our peril, as curious strangers in an alien land, we have incorporated many of those ways into our own lives.
Great movements of God always start with God’s people getting right with God. When we accept Jesus as Savior, we’re no longer enslaved to our sin nature, but we don’t lose it. We still have two natures, each fighting for control. My grandmother used to say, “It’s like two dogs in a fight. The winner will be the one you feed the most.”Continue »
Dr. Richard Land is president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention's official entity assigned to address social, moral, and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families and their faith.
