Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Attitude”
Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t set foot on the path of the wicked; don’t proceed in the way of evil ones. Avoid it; don’t travel on it. Turn away from it and pass it by.” Proverbs 4:14-15 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”
Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.” That’s exactly what Solomon meant in Proverbs 4:14-15. Don’t even start down that path!
Recently I heard a security expert in a television interview make this statement, “Nowadays every person should assume they are always being watched.” What he meant was that there is surveillance everywhere – even in places we would never expect it. There are red light cameras at many intersections, surveillance cameras in businesses and in elevators as well as at random locations on the streets. There are also surveillance satellites hovering in outer space with super-powerful cameras that can zoom in so close they can identify your facial features as you’re standing in your front yard. There are mini-drones flying through neighborhoods broadcasting live video feed and now, the devices in our homes such as laptop computers, cell phones, and controllers such as “Alexa” can be hacked into and used to monitor our activities.
We are “alone” and “unobserved” much less frequently than we think we are, and therefore we need to give extra thought to the things we do and say when we believe we are alone and unobserved.
But that’s really nothing new anyway. Our actions have always been under constant observation by God. In Luke 12:2-3 Jesus said, “There is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered, nothing hidden that won’t be made known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in an ear in private rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.” The author of the letter to the Hebrews reminded us that we are “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.”
That being the case it should be our desire to always conduct ourselves in such a way that it would not cause us to be embarrassed before people or before God. Now granted, that’s a pretty high bar. None of us is perfect and none of us would be comfortable living under a microscope of constant observation. Being that squeaky clean is virtually impossible. But, it’s not a bad goal to strive for. The desire to be that good is a good attitude to have.
Billy Graham established a personal standard for himself and for his closest associates that in both their public and in their private lives they needed to strive to “avoid even the appearance of impropriety.” Now again, none of us is perfect (least of all me) (and least of all you), but we should have high standards that we strive to meet, and avoiding even the appearance of anything inappropriate is a pretty good goal to have.
I was once briefly associated with a small group of Christian leaders whose conduct and decision-making behind closed doors was sometimes borderline unethical. Also, the way they sometimes treated people was questionable at best and occasionally unjust. They were also rather secretive about their maneuverings and a little fanatical about keeping it “in-house”. One of their favorite justifications was “We deal with everything in-house. We don’t air our dirty laundry in public.” They were concerned that if the nature of their deliberations and actions became public it could make them look bad.
My response was, “Shame on you! If the way you conduct yourselves behind closed doors can’t stand to be exposed to the light of day without making you look bad, then you shouldn’t be doing it!”
That’s true for all of us too. We should strive to conduct ourselves in such a way – in public and in private, that we avoid even the appearance of impropriety. It’s a good attitude to have.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 