Time 3

Recently a pastor publicly mocked the idea of a boy going to heaven and coming back again…. 

WHY?

I don’t understand it myself. 

I mean Jesus has resurrected people from death and they have shared their experiences of heaven- so why not a child? What is so far fetched about this? Is nothing impossible with God? Is He not sovereign over time?  

How about those of us filled with the Holy Spirit that have experienced Heaven while still physically here on earth? 

“It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.  Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  They were calling out to each other,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
    The whole earth is filled with his glory!”  Isaiah 6:1-3

“I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don't know--only God knows.”  2 Corinthians 12:2

“Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.”  Ezekiel 43:5

As I have shared before I have had such a vision but I am not going to retell this experience but another one. 

Some time ago, as I was resting I had vision.  I was young child maybe 6 years of age but I was no longer here on earth.  I pass through a small gate where a girl dressed in white with brown hair took my hand.  I didn’t recognize her from the past or even the present but it was apparent I knew her.  There was a forest of trees on the left side filled with this warm yellow light. 

As I continued in the vision I seem to go back and forth from being in my child self to watching myself as I am now.   I watched the younger me dressed in white holding this girl’s hand.  I remember feeling so filled with joy and energy.  We laughed and giggled as we ran up this tall grassy hill without even having to catch our breath.  And that is where the vision stopped- as if God didn’t want to give away the surprise that awaits on the other side of that tall green hill.

Three things come to mind when I think of the vision. 

1. My grandfather told me when God took his name down off the “hook” he would go over those green hills.  I never gave it much thought until after the vision.  What made him say such a thing?  Had he seen the green grassy hill himself? 

2. Then a sister in Christ told me when she has experienced heaven she is always a child as well. Now there were two of us that experienced the same thing.  We must be children in heaven.

3. Jesus says, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” Matthew 18:2-4 AMP

These types of experiences are windows to things that have not happened yet they have been shown to us as things to come and are…

GOD is sovereign over time and the experiences in time.

He can do what he chooses….

For “nothing is impossible with God.”

God’s predestined timeline might have been what the Apostle Paul thought when he wrote, “When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.”  EPHESIANS 3:14

God knows the plan…. It is already written.   When I think about God knowing us, I think all that has been before us… I think of our past, our present, and our future- I think of words of prophesy, visions, dreams and even those déjà vu experiences.

Let us look at some encouraging scriptures about Jesus/God and Us and time.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” JEREMIAH 1:5

God knew us! God set us apart and appointed us for "spirit-filled" tasks in this life.  I say "spirit-filled" tasks because God is suppose to be helping us in those tasks but because we don't seek God's help and guidance that may seem too difficult for us to do or even mundane.   But the tasks that God gives are not to be mundane- we are not to think we are too good for any tasks for Jesus who was God took the servant's position and cleaned the disciples feet.  That was the job of a servant or a slave.  He died a death he did not deserve!

Let us look at Gideon who said, " “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” JUDGES 6:15 
But God did not see Him as the least.  God seeing all that Gideon would become in time gave him this message, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” JUDGES 6:12
  
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” ROMANS 8:29-30

“No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” 1 CORINTHIANS 2:7

^“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,” EPHESIANS 1:4-5

“but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”  1 PETER 1:19-21

Thinks about what Jesus says here, “Yet even in Sardis there are some who have not soiled their garments with evil deeds.  They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.  All who are victorious will be clothed in white.  I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.  Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”  REVELATION 3:4-6

JESUS knows who names are and are not in the book of life before they are even born.   There is no reason not to believe this if He knows everything. 

Is he not the author and finisher of our faith?  Does he not know us in time and out of time?

Time 2

--> God In Time

 ^“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”  JOHN 3:16-17

“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” JOHN 3:18-21

How can a person already be judged? How is this possible? 

God knows all… He does not just know what is in a person’s heart but what "has" and "will" happen in our life.  He is El Olam- the Everlasting/Eternal God.  He sees past, present, and future all at once.  He knows the outcome of our lives.  He knows if we are going to come to Him or not in the time we are allowed here on earth.  So God, who knows all, can judge based on what he knows from beginning to end.  As Christians, God knew the time of our salvation in Jesus, before we were ever born.

Imagine Jesus who spoke everything into existence, in essence, wrote the book of time and then he inserted himself into the book of time.  The book of time is “figurative speak”- I don’t know if there is an “actual” book of time but there isn’t a better way I can come up with to convey this truth at the moment.
    

God sent Himself into time to save those he created in time.   Jesus, The Son Of God, subjected Himself to time when the Spirit of God impregnated Mary who was a virgin.  Jesus was born fully God and fully man. 
 

Think of it…. The author of life came to save his creation but almost all his creation did not even recognize Him.
 

John 1:10 says, “He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him.”

Jesus being God in time, he had wisdom beyond his years. LUKE 2:46-50.   Yet being God in time he did not perform any “public” miracles until after his water baptism by John the Baptist.  Why is this? I do not know. 

I do say “public” miracles because his mother Mary seemed to know he could do miracles as when she asked him to provide wine at the wedding in Cana.  (JOHN 2:1-12).   John writes in 2:11: “This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was Jesus’ first “display” of his glory.  And his disciples believed in him.”  Another version uses the word “manifest” instead of display, which is to “make known, realized, and/or exposed to view”.

It is obvious Jesus was concerned about the “timing” of revealing such power publically.  “How does this concern you and me?” Jesus replied.  “My time has not yet come.”  It is as if God and SON had “events” schedule to thread in the ribbon of time.  I might even say the “story” of time.

And Jesus doesn’t just refer to time once but several times and the apostle John was aware of this “timing” as well in his writings.   John wrote, “….”yet no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.” -JOHN 8:20 

And… “At this they tired to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” JOHN 7:30.  Is this not an odd statement?  Odd but not so odd if God had a plan in place.
 

This idea of timing, points to events as being governed and predestined by God.   We see this not only in New Testament scriptures but Old Testament scriptures where prophecies were written about Christ.  These prophecies date back all the way to Adam and Eve.   Probably the most well known prophecies are the ones written 700 years before Jesus Christ’s birth.

“Who has believed our message?
    To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
² My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
    like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
    nothing to attract us to him.
³ He was despised and rejected—
    a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
    He was despised, and we did not care.

⁴ Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
    it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
    a punishment for his own sins!
⁵ But he was pierced for our rebellion,
    crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
    He was whipped so we could be healed.
⁶ All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
    the sins of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and treated harshly,
    yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
    And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
    he did not open his mouth.
⁸ Unjustly condemned,
    he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants,
    that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down
    for the rebellion of my people.
⁹ He had done no wrong
    and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
    he was put in a rich man’s grave.

¹⁰ But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him
    and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
    he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
    and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
¹¹ When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
    he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
    my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
    for he will bear all their sins.
¹² I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
    because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
    He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.”

ISAIAH 53:1-12

Literally the LORD’s good plan to save us was accomplished in his hands.  His act of pure sacrifice cleansed all those who believe in Him from Adam and Eve to when time as know it finally ends. 

 “For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us.  We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.   God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times.  And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus.”  ROMANS 3:24-26

Time 1

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“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—“ Ecclesiastes 3:1

King Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, wrote this verse.  He understood that God appoints time…. to everything.   

Our concept or understanding of time is not God’s understanding of time.   And we are often indoctrinated in God by God’s use of time.  However, we are often ignorant of time and it’s use.  We miss use time.   We are possessive and selfish of what we consider “our” time.  We are possessive of the people and things in time, which cannot be possessed.  We fail to realize (repeatedly) is what we hope for others and ourselves cannot be destined and/or governed by us.  And what we force on our own accord often brings negative consequences and un-satisfaction.    

Jesus teaching is disciples to pray said to pray like this to the Heavenly Father, “May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10

May God’s will be done on earth, as it is in heaven…. Not our will be done on earth. 

When things don’t happen the way we expect we become impatient and frustrated with others, ourselves and with God.   Sometimes God's  “appointed time” for a certain thing has not come or become realized yet. (Remember Abraham, Sarah,  and Hagar.)

Often in unexpected death of a loved one we become angry and resentful with God because we think God has wronged them and us of the short time we got to spend with them on this earth.   What we do not fully understand is that all souls created by God a- belong to God and we are just brief stewards of what God fully owns -for he is the one who created us and gave us what we have.

“For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  Ephesians 2:10

We are to take care of young, old, family, friend, neighbor, and even foe as if they belong to God- even if they don’t have a relationship with the LORD. 

So they might see… as we live as ambassadors of Christ, and come to the LORD and be not only saved in the LORD but have a more satisfying life that the LORD gives to those who trust Him.   

I believe the more we understand God is responsible for our life and others people’s life -the more we see life is truly in Him.  (Read that again.)

When a person tries to control what they can’t control there is no peace.  When a child, striving for control, disobeys the rules of the house - what ensues? What ensues when we try or presume we have control over our life?  Foolishness takes over does it not?  

For those living in God have to daily/hourly relinquish in thought and prayer what they thought they might have control over so they may have what God promises of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Note Galatians 5:22-23)

Philippians 4:6-7 says “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

What is this saying to you about control, time, and your life? 

“Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money. Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air]. You ought instead to say, ‘If the Lord is willing, we shall live and we shall do this or that [thing]’.  But as it is, you boast [falsely] in your presumption and your self-conceit. All such boasting is wrong. So any person who knows what is right to do but does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:13-17

How do you think about life, time and who has control?

I want to tell you about an event I heard in church years ago while the Lord had us living in a little eastern Washington town.   A family was heading to church camp.  The mother and father were in one car leading the way as the grandmother and granddaughter followed in a car behind them.   During the trip the granddaughter spoke up excitedly from the backseat.  “Jesus said he is taking me to heaven.”

The grandmother replied with what I understood as a kind presumption.  Something like…. “Yes one day you will be with Jesus in heaven.”

The little girl smiled and said, “No I am going now Grandma.”

It was then the grandmother’s car was struck by another car and instantly the precious child was killed.

This event and loss must have been more difficult then words can express… I am sure her mother and father had hopes for their daughter and thoughts about her future - as all parents do or should.  I am sure she is still thought about often as they live out the rest of their appointed time on this earth.  But even though this was a great loss- I think they find great comfort in their little girl’s recited excited words that came from the backseat that day and how she was instantly taken to be with Jesus to heaven.     

We often “feel” restrained by time but God, who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow is not and someday at our appointed time we, who have put our trust in Jesus, will be with Him.      

 Things maybe beautiful for a time but without God everything becomes meaningless- not to mention disheartening.  May the love of God, hope in God and faith in God encourage us always- in Jesus name Amen!

Bias 4

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Bias 4

“We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”- Apostle Paul

I find biases can be snares of “human” understanding.   Sometimes we don’t even realize we have biases until we are tested.   In the past I know I kept biases for personal gain and material gain.  (What I could get out of a relationship?)   In the more recent years my biases were exposed by hurts, betrayals, the sinful and wrong actions and thinking of others and my own pride.

In the testings of life we find where our biases lie.   Biases can be like leaves that cover the ground and it isn’t until they are swept away do we see what lies underneath them.  

Sometimes our biases are exposed by vicious attacks by those we hold to a certain standard.   It is there we see where we have foolishly drawn from and trusted in as securities.   We clearly see the measuring scales and the pedestals in which we put people and things upon and how faulty and hazardous they are to our well-being.

We see how our biases are being manipulated by worldly gains and false securities.

In pointing out these times of “enlightenment” we have an opportunity to become more secure in WHO is truly our source of assurance- GOD.  We let go of the things that temporal and mortal in order to take hold of the eternal and immortal.

 

I know at times GOD isn’t a 100 percent of the time our favorable bias… I know this because our feelings and thoughts get in the way where we can fret, worry, and see what we think is “life” through a dingy burdensome pair of lenses.  I find I carry burdens I was never meant to carry which hinder my daily well-being.

 

These times of testing help not only discover biases that weaken our faith but help us strengthen spiritual surge levees and walls in our faith where we invest more heavily upon God then what we had previously.  

 

These times of strengthening also enable us to speak the truth no matter if the time is favorable or not.

 

  “Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.  For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.  But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.  As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.  And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

 2 Timothy 4:2-6

 

Facing Contradictions with Truth and Love.

Author Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.”

Just because we are contradicted doesn’t mean what you and I say isn’t true.

 

ROMANS 12:18 “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

 

Living in peace doesn’t excuse us from living the truth and speaking up for the truth.   Living in peace doesn’t mean accepting the sinful ways of the world.

1 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.”

  “Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers.  How can goodness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?  What harmony can there be between Christ and the Devil?   How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?  And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols?  For we are the temple of the living God.  As God said” ‘I will live in them and walk among them.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.  Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.  And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 CORINTHIANS 6: 14-18)

Christians are to love everyone…. and we are to love our neighbor but Christian love is not to be bias or appeasing to any error of sinful thought. 

Love isn’t allowing someone to think they are doing right when they are doing wrong.   There are people who believe if they just “ignore” that person’s erroneous thinking for peace sake then all will eventually be well or they will eventually come around to the truth but is that true?   How can a person ever be saved if they never see their need to be saved?   

I find silence can convey consent just as a voice speaks it.   Has ignoring “sin” ever helped anyone at all?   

Sin is a type mental cancer that if not treated… spreads.  Think of sin a tyrant.  Tyrants have come to power because people choose to be quiet instead of stand up for what was right and by the time people started to think they shouldn’t be silent any longer it was too late.

I believe this is one of reasons why Jesus says:

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.

‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Your enemies will be right in your own household!’

If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.  If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.  If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.  Anyone who receives you receives me, and anyone who receives me receives the Father who sent me.” MATTHEW 10:34-40

Proverbs 27:5 says “An open rebuke is better than hidden love.”

Ephesians 5:11 “Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead rebuke and expose them.”

“ Throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception.  Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness- righteous, holy and true.   So put away all falsehood and ‘tell your neighbor the truth’ because we belong to each other.” Ephesians 4:22-25

Often “religious” people turn away from the truth of the bible because they want to appease the public then bring the public under correction of God’s word.   They favor to social values of the world over what GOD says.  They don’t want to look bad but bad is not a matter of public opinion but GOD.  Keep away from them. Keep your conscious clear by standing the truth in humility and love then you will have the peace of God that will empower you in His grace.

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.  The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” ROMANS 16:17-20

Bias 3

We know GOD is love but we must also know He is not biased.   God has no favorites or is not impartial.  He is the Creator.  He is the Lord. He is the King.  He is the Savior.  He sets the rules and he being unbiased is Holy. 

 

Deuteronomy 10:17

 “For the LORD your God is God of gods and LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.”

Romans 2:11

“God does not play favorites.”

Colossians 3:25

 “But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done.  For God has no favorites.”

Acts 10:34

 “ Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.”

1 Peter 1:17

 “And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites.  He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as “foreigners in the land.”

God who is love isn’t restricted by any bias and doesn’t contour his speech to be more “accommodating” to one audience or group over another.   

Some may think that these scriptures are just talking about God and they exclude us as Christians but do they?

James 2:9 says,

 “But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

Deuteronomy 1:17 says,

 “Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike.  Do not be afraid of anyone, for the judgment belongs to God.  Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.”

How many times did God have prophets speak difficult truths to kings and people?

 

In the bible we are called “ambassadors for Christ” because we do not represent ourselves but God.  We represent no government on earth but a power all humanity will have to answer to.   We are to be foreigner ambassadors-reconciling people to God but how can there be any reconciling if wrong and sin are never confronted, mentioned or is skirted, evaded or dodged around?  When we feel the urge to not confront sin what is manipulating us?  Who are really living for?

2 Corinthians 5:15-21

“And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Such A Time As This….

Most of who are acquainted with the story of Esther know this quote, “If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance of the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die.  What’s more, who can say but that you have been evaluated to the palace for just such at time as this.” Esther 4:14

Do you know who evaluates you? It is God and when His Spirit tells you and I to speak we need to speak the truth in all humility and love.   For the words we speak might just save someone’s life.

 "The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism."--Norman Vincent Peale

When we try to avoid potential conflicts by neglecting to confront people of their sin- we are allowing only greater harm then good.  By not confronting sin we too as Christians fall into the snare of sin of bias and prejudice.   A true friend is one who speaks the truth and a true friendship is one that can handle the truth no matter good, bad, painful, or unpleasant.

"To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."--Elbert Hubbard

Here are something’s that came to me when I thought about the negative form of bias. 

·      Bias leads to lies and deception. 

·      Bias leads to endangering people’s souls.

·      Bias makes one blind to the bigger picture God has in store.

·      Bias inhibits instead of enables.

·      Bias makes our actions show we are ashamed of Christ and God's word.

·      Bias shows our love for others is greater then our love for God.

·      Bias is really another form of self-ambition- to be affirmed, appreciated, comfortable and accepted by people more then God.

·      Bias leads to self-deception. 

·      Bias can be manipulated by fear.

·      Bias runs on worldly wisdom and worldly gain. (example: using ulterior motives to gain or secure a position or material possessions)

·      Bias is favoritism.

·      Bias is pride -thinking you’re a better/ or incapable or not worthy of such a task.

·      Bias is thinking you know it all. You in your mind have decided the outcome and you act and speak according to the perceived outcome (such as tone of voice, language, litigation, perceptions, body language, etc), which usually ends up with you and whoever else on the defense. 

·      Bias is a lack faith in God.  (example: It puts God and you in a box.  You think GOD can only works within certain parameters, conditions, environments.)

·      Bias ignores the truth for temporary ease.

·      Bias on anyone other then God can easily make us UPSET and be manipulated!!!

Think of a person with integrity or shows integrity... how do they show their integrity?

 Are they biased and how are they biased? Are they favorably biased toward God and His truth? Do they speak the truth even in difficult circumstances?  Do they take sides? Do they admit their wrong and sin?  Do they not only speak it but do they show repentance in their actions that follow?

Think about this passage for a moment:  How is the writer unbiased?  How did he show integrity?  Was he looking out for himself or for those around him? 

"You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children among you." 1 Thessalonians 2:1-7