Walking in integrity

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 49-50; Psalm 26

TO CHEW ON: “But as for me, I will walk in my integrity.” Psalm 26:11


At a book launch I attended recently, one of the speakers told of a time when he was on his city’s council and citizens were speaking to a development proposal. The land considered for development included some church property. The citizen was against any changes as he and others used the land as a parking lot for a nearby sports field. “Leave it in the hands of the church that does nothing,” he said.

That is how many in our society feel about the church. They see it as irrelevant, an organization that does little more than criticize, whine, make unreasonable demands, but accomplishes nothing constructive.

The book that was launched yesterday was The Church in Surrey and White Rock: The Untold Story (Edited by Neil Bramble, Lloyd Mackey and John Redekop). It shows how the church has done and is doing much in White Rock and Surrey (B.C.’s second-largest city). Chapters on the church’s involvement with the needy, seniors, health care, education, refugees, business, the arts, and politics illustrate how integral the church can be and has been. Churches in the area have developed feeding centres, sponsored refugees, built schools and seniors’ facilities, nurtured educators, business people, and politicians… the list goes on.

Thankfully more than one community leader in attendance acknowledged the way the church and its members not only do a lot of good stuff but also affect the morals and ethics of the community.

I’m sure any community that examined the church’s involvement within it would find something similar. And so in this time when many around us believe the Christian faith and the church that represents it is irrelevant, let’s continue to demonstrate by our acts and our attitudes that this is not so. David’s simple resolve expressed in Psalm 26:11 is a good motto for us to live by in this time: “But as for us, we will walk in our integrity.”

PRAYER: Dear Father, no matter how the Christian faith is attacked and maligned, help me to walk in integrity (adherence to moral and ethical principles, in honesty) before my generation. Amen.
PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 26

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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