CONVICTION & HONESTY!
Maria No.51
9/86
--By Maria
1. I THINK OUR PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO SEE HOW DAD SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THINGS THAT ARE WRONG & EVIL. He doesn't do it in an obnoxious, rude way, but he in no uncertain terms tells people what he thinks. If the waiter in a restaurant suggests he have shellfish, he'll tell him himself or through his interpreter, "Don't you know that it's against the Bible to eat unclean meat, & if you eat unclean seafood you might get any one of many diseases? The Bible says not to eat them for a good reason, because these dirty sea creatures eat garbage! You really should take better care of the body God's given you!" Or he'll tell people with whom he is talking who are smoking, "Smoking cigarettes isn't good for you!", & if he were in a place where some man was cursing & swearing loudly, Dad would tell him the truth too, & reprove him for it if he had an occasion to talk to him. Dad makes a point of telling people the truth wherever he has the opportunity, whenever he's in the company of people who need to hear it for their own good!
2. DAD IS ALWAYS FAITHFUL TO DELIVER THE TRUTH EVEN TO HIS OWN HURT, & WE SHOULD ALL BE MORE LIKE THAT! Why not stand up for the truth & tell people what they need to know? That is a part of Dad's witness when we go out and he is always telling people the truth in order to help them. He really stands up for what is right & people respect him for it too! He asks waiters to turn down the piped-in music & vocally labels modern American music as "African jungle rock," telling the waiters & anyone within hearing in no uncertain terms how bad it is & why they shouldn't listen to it, that it's going to make them nervous & deaf, that it's hellish noise from the demons in Africa, that it's Devil-inspired! He just tells the whole message at the risk of offending them, even strangers, but he tells them the truth! I mean, why shouldn't we all tell people the truth & stand up for our convictions & beliefs? I have to admit I need a lot more conviction & fight, because it embarrassed me sometimes when Dad would tell these Systemites straight-out what they were doing wrong, but see, that's the problem, we're either embarrassed for ourselves, or for them, so we don't do it! We pull our punches, we compromise. But Dad never waters down the message, he really tells people what they need to hear, the truth!--And we should do that too!
3. WE'RE FINDING OUT AT OUR TEEN CAMPS THAT SOME OF THESE ADULT SHEPHERDS HAVE A REAL BATTLE ABOUT CONFRONTING OR CORRECTING THE TEENS for their misbehaviour or disobediences, or even giving them demerits even when it's in accordance with Camp Rules! Even though these adults are parents themselves who most likely readily discipline their own children at home, they don't want to "hurt anyone's feelings" or "appear to be too harsh" at Teen Camp, the very place they should be doing their utmost to properly train these teens & help them to see where they are going wrong & tell them how they need to improve & be samples of sold-out soldiers!
4. THE VERY AREAS THE TEENS NEED THE MOST TRAINING IN--DISCIPLINED BEHAVIOUR & STRICT OBEDIENCE & SUBMISSION, yieldedness & faith, love for the Lord & others, conviction & boldness--the adults themselves don't manifest enough faith & conviction to correct & reprove & help counsel the teens about. Maybe like Dad said, they're soft on others because they want their leaders to be soft on them. But those teens want the truth, they need the full counsel of God & they look to those adults for the type of soldier material they should be. Let's hope those teens get convinced that this Family has backbone & conviction to not only live & die for the truth but to tell others the truth too, like Dad does! What they don't need is any compromised standard or sample! Teens see right through that, they know if our adults are solid & sold-out, or soft & weakly. Teens may play on adults' weaknesses, but they respect conviction & guts & a fight for the truth, & if they see that sample, they will strive to be like it!
5. I THINK PEOPLE IN OUR FAMILY HAVE SOMEHOW GOTTEN THE IDEA THAT THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TELL PEOPLE THAT WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS WRONG. We read a report, for example, that when one Home first started FFing, they decided not to drink alcohol because it definitely hindered their witnessing. They agreed together as a Home that they wouldn't drink alcohol at all, but when they were faced with having to explain this to their fish, everyone started compromising their convictions & the truth about why they preferred not to drink, because their fish were all drinking, & the Family didn't want to have to tell them all the reasons why they really shouldn't drink either. But of all people who need to know that, it's some of those poor businessmen we FF who are drinking themselves to death!--The Family's sample & witness might save those men's lives if they'd just tell them the truth & be a living, loving sample of it themselves! If you're afraid to tell people that what they are doing is wrong, then you start to compromise with them! [HomeARC note (9/98): FFing was discontinued in 1987.]
6. I'M AFRAID TOO FEW OF US SEEM TO HAVE THE CONVICTION FOR THE LORD'S TRUTH THAT WE SHOULD HAVE! I don't know what happened & why we don't. Maybe it's because we went a bit overboard in some things at the beginning as a Family, & in our zeal didn't use enough wisdom. Many would go home & blast their parents away & blast everybody else too with too strong a condemning message, not balanced with enough love, I'm afraid. Then we had to have a turnabout in using more wisdom & love & not being so self-righteous & overbearing in our witness, but perhaps everybody went too far again to the opposite extreme & went overboard in being too sweet & nice & wishy-washy in our standard & our conviction against sin & evil!
7. OF COURSE, THE CHURCH SYSTEM IS VERY SELF-RIGHTEOUS ABOUT THEIR WITNESS & "GOOD" SAMPLE & is so proud to be sanctified & more holier-than-thou, & "no smoking or drinking or cursing allowed," etc. But telling people the truth & warning them of danger because you are sincerely concerned about them & trying to help them is not the same as being self-righteous & holier-than-thou. Our Family needs to have more conviction to be able to stand up for the truth & tell people what they need to know!
8. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO BE ABLE TO SHOW THAT YOU STAND FOR THE TRUTH IF YOU DON'T STAND UP FOR IT IN FRONT OF THE VERY PEOPLE WHO ARE LIVING THE LIE & DOING THE WRONG THINGS? What good is it to witness your convictions & how can you right any wrongs if you're not in direct contact with someone who is actually doing the wrong? When else would you have the opportunity? When somebody's doing something wrong, that's when you have the opportunity to tell them that you don't agree with them, you believe what the Bible says about it & you warn them or tell them because you want to help them! You don't just live it for yourself, but you believe it so much that you want them to live it too! That's love! You must sometimes warn the wicked of their wicked way in order to save their lives! (Eze.3:18) What kind of gutless Christians are we, anyway? Are our people ashamed to live their Godly convictions in front of others & to tell them they should do the same? Do we compromise the truth to those who need it?
9. WHY SHOULDN'T WE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO STAND UP FOR THE TRUTH? Do you think we should just calmly accept it & act like it's nothing when people are cursing God & enjoying it? Aren't we betraying Him by doing so? If people are swearing & cursing every couple of words, shouldn't we tell those people what we feel about it & make a witness out of it? Don't they deserve to hear the Gospel as much as anyone else, & need it even more so?
10. WE DON'T HAVE TO BE ALL SELF-RIGHTEOUS ABOUT IT, THAT WOULD BE CHURCHY, BUT WE CAN TELL THEM IN A GOOD WAY! The man in the story I included in the Anecdote Book wasn't being self-righteous when he challenged a vulgar-mouthed unbeliever who was speaking against God & cursing Him with, "Excuse me, but you're talking against the One Who means more to me than anyone in the World." Or another example was the man who responded to a blasphemous mocker, "You'd never consider talking in this way in my presence about my wife, whom I dearly love, but here you're talking about the One Who means much more to me than even my wife." Do you think he should have just sat there & said nothing?--I don't think so!
11. I HOPE I'M WRONG, BUT FOR SOME REASON I HAVE THE FEELING THAT OUR PEOPLE HAVE GOTTEN SUCH A PACIFISTIC, SORT OF LOVEY-DOVEY APPROACH, LIKE AT THE TEEN CAMP, WHERE THEY PREFER TO JUST LET EVERYTHING PASS & NOT BOTHER TO STAND UP AGAINST EVIL OR WRONG-DOING, & I think that's a very bad attitude. It's very wrong, because if you don't start standing up for the Lord in the little things, if you're afraid to confront evildoers, or just don't care or don't have the conviction, what are you ever going to do when you have to stand up & be counted in much greater things? Now of course we don't have such a list of "taboos" as the self-righteous Church System! Maybe we're not so strict about the same things they are, like sex & dancing, or going to movies & drinking wine, but there are still some things that we definitely feel are wrong, so to never let anybody know what we think about them I think is very wrong too, as well as dishonest.
12. SPEAKING OF DISHONESTY: IN OUR DANGEROUS LIVES FOR JESUS, WE DO SOMETIMES HAVE TO [USE WISDOM] FOR VERY IMPORTANT REASONS, & the Lord does not disapprove of this. In fact, He calls it being a "deceiver, yet true." [2Cor.6:8] [But] this is no excuse for not preaching honesty & practicing it as much as we can. To the World, honesty is really pretty clear cut. They have a certain standard that they feel Christians should live up to, & they judge you on, whether you meet it or not. Whether our standards are exactly the same doesn't matter! If we can be honest without risking the Lord's work or His labourers, we should be. We must realise how much it means to the System!--To those who witness our lives! Like the Apostle Paul said, "If meat causes my brother to stumble, yet it's OK for me, what am I supposed to do?--Destroy not him nor the work of God just over eating meat!" (Rom.14:15,20) I think we all need to consider how important the World considers things like honesty & truthfulness.
13. SOME FAMILY PEOPLE HAVE THAT ATTITUDE TO JUST BE EASYGOING & WIN EVERYBODY BY LOVE & DON'T WORRY ABOUT THEIR SIN OR EVIL. We don't talk much about sin, actual sin or even temptation, almost as if we base everything on the Scripture, "All things are lawful unto me" (1Cor.6:12), so therefore we conclude there isn't any sin any more for us.
14. IT SEEMS WE'VE GOTTEN A LITTLE WATERED-DOWN IN CERTAIN AREAS WHERE WE DON'T REALLY STAND UP FOR OUR CONVICTIONS! We figure our sins are not quite so "bad," we're special & we can get away with more, which isn't a good attitude to have at all. It looks like we need to get back to being a little more legalistic in some areas & not just throw out all the rules.--"Well, all things are pure & OK, love & mercy overrules, so we don't have to worry about any rules or limitations or personal sins." We'd better change our standard if this is our way of thinking, & whether we think that way or not, other people don't believe the same way we do, & what we do not consider "sins," the System & other people can consider as very big sins. So if they think so, we need to either teach them why these things are not so bad, or we need to watch out & not stumble them, depending on the case.
15. THIS HONESTY PRINCIPLE HAS BEEN A STUMBLING-BLOCK FOR MANY OF OUR FAMILY'S FRIENDS, because [some of] our own people have freely & habitually told unnecessary lies, & we've lost lots of good friends & contacts that way. The Bible talks a lot about honesty. So we'd find it very difficult to explain to the World or to other Christians why we are lying to them just to get ourselves out of a bad or embarrassing situation. If we have lost people due to our necessary deception, we've certainly lost a lot more because of our deliberate, selfish sins of lying when we should & could have told the truth. There are certain things, such as lying, that we should not allow, & we should admit that they are sins! For example, lots of Family people don't get anywhere on time, yet don't realise that when we promise to be there at a certain time, we are lying if we don't get there at that time. And neither do we count being late as stealing other people's time. Dad has said some good things in the MOP section "Redeem the Time" about how stealing your own time or other people's time is just as bad as the sin of stealing anything else!
16. WE'VE GOTTEN SO SORT OF WISHY-WASHY, THINKING, "THE LORD FORGIVES US FOR EVERYTHING & WE'RE HIS SPECIAL CHILDREN, SO THERE'S NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT WRONGDOING. It'll all work out all right & we can get away with whatever we want to get away with." Whereas I think we're going to be surprised to see the Lord maybe expected more of us than He did of other people in a lot of areas because we know better & we're supposed to be a wonderful sample & yet many times we aren't! We're even a bigger stumbling block if we proclaim so much that "We're the Lord's chosen people! We are it!", & then we act worse than the sinners!
17. IT LOOKS LIKE WE NEED TO HAVE A FEW MORE TEEN TRAINING CAMPS--FOR OUR ADULTS! Ha!--Where everything's rigid, & they learn to keep the rules, the law & standard is laid down & they are disciplined & learn to submit & be respectful & obey & do what's right! Talk about rules & regulations & regimentation--these Teen Camps have got it, & that's really good! At least our teens will now know what the standard is. If you don't have some standard to live up to, then you don't know what you're doing & where you're going & what your boundaries are! There are some Godly areas & good habits, like honesty & punctuality & consideration for others & a few other areas where we're very sadly lacking, areas that we've neglected to keep a high standard in & have stumbled a lot of people because of it.--Do you live an honest, Godly standard with firm convictions?