June 23, 2011 … Integrity Promotes a Righteous Reputation

Passage of the Day: Daniel 6: 4 - 5 … 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. 5 Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”

My Journal for Today: Character, it is said, is what we do when no one else is looking – save God, of course. Daniel, as we read in today’s passage from Dan. 6, was a man so consistent and reliable of faith that his jealous opponents, who were rigorously trying to bring Daniel down, had little outright behavioral evidence to indict his character before King Darius; so they decided to go after his openly recognized faith in the Hebrew God. And then we essentially see a replay of what happened under Nebuchadnezzar several decades earlier. And it’s also a foreplay of what is going on in our culture as power driven humans try to eliminate an vestiges of “God” or “Christ” from our culture.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Peter instructed the early church (and modern believers, by extension) that they (we) should live in such a way that their (our) character and integrity should continually glorify God by how they (we) live. [See 1st Peter 2: 12 below …]

SCRIPTURE: 1st Peter 2: 12 … Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

It is certainly the case that we, today as Christians, will have our nay-sayers, as did Daniel, … those who will challenge our faith and even try to strip us of the right to worship or promote our God. Even those in power today, such as a number of activist judges or organizations like the ACLU, are trying to create a Godless society. But as John MacArthur in his Strength for Today commentary for this date writes, “… (we Christians) must live the kind of life that silences and refutes (the world’s) accusations.” And when we do, MacArthur goes on to say, “… some of them might even come to Christ.”

I’ve heard it said, as perhaps have you, that our lives, lived with Christian integrity and purpose, may be the only “Bible” others in our world ever “read.” If that is the case, does my life and yours, as was the case of Daniel, reflect the very Christ we claim as Savior and Lord?

My Prayer Today: O, Lord, may all I think, say, and do openly reflect You for all to see. Amen