Integrity - your life
must reflect your message.
These verses in Acts 20,
along with a verse in 2 Samuel 7:18 (Then King David went in and
sat before the LORD, and he said: "Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is
my family, that you have brought me this far?") are
two of the most powerful passages to me, personally, in all of scripture. The verses in Acts 20 is the Apostle Paul reflecting
on his life's work as he heads toward what is almost certainly imprisonment and
death. The verse in 2 Samuel 7 is King David reflecting upon the unmerited favor
he and his family had received from God. Can you relate to David, or have you always done
what is right and naturally expect God to be happy with you? Can you relate to
Paul and say with him that you have always spoken out for what is right,
regardless of what the end result might be? Paul knew that bad things are frequently the result
of having tried your best to speak truth and do what's right. David knew that
although he had possibly earned every bad thing he ever got, God had treated him
supremely better than he deserved. I understand David's feelings of being overwhelmed
by Grace. I have also always wanted to be able to stand as Paul and say with
good conscience that "...I
have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of
God." And, "...that
I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have
taught you publicly and from house to house." We choose our determining philosophies of life, and
then we carry them out...and ultimately we stand before God and say, "This is
why..."