Character

June 10, 2013 at 3:40 am (Thoughts to Ponder) (character, honesty, honor, Jesus, keeping, recovery, the Father, the Life, the Truth, the Way, Yeshua)

The above quote was a “line” in a movie I watched recently. I wrote it down…it grabbed the attention that ponders long after initial reception. It brought to mind a similar concept from another movie where this teacher had a class of resistant students, prone to give up out of a victim mentality than fight for what gifts were available for the taking. She gave the whole class an A and said, “But its up to you to keep it.”

As I chewed on the above quote these questions fell like assembly line parts in my thoughts.

What is character?

Where does it come from?

What defines its full development?

As is my habit of late…I asked those questions…search my own resources for answers and then approached my Heavenly Father,  handed Him my “paper” and asked Him to “grade” it…then He tudored me in the correcting, teaching, redefining and settled my heart in what for now He would like me to stay firm on. I say for now, with emphasis on now, because He never stops expanding and developing truth in me. As I live He often settles me where I need to put to action a lesson, but later will move me again in correcting, teaching, redefining, refining that which He began at another “point in time”. Character is a constant state of development. Character is defined by a Who not a what. Character is Lived not a theory to adopt. Its structure is taught to the mind/heart; but its built on the movement of actions taken based on what He teaches.

Example:
Honesty is a character.
God is Honesty/Truth. His person, nature, and every action He takes personifies this truth.
As the Master/Maker/Origin of Honesty He alone can teach what its actions look like.
He may teach, don’t cheat. Cheating is anything that says you know something you don’t, have something you don’t, don’t have something you do and so on; and making out for your advantage the implication of that which is untrue.
Its lying, albeit rather indirectly at times. Often called a “little white lie”. Often explained by saying, “Well, its not all a lie.” Or explained as okay because one must protect themselves by doing so. Or excused because a greater authority “cheats” so “now you have to” to keep from being cheated. (I.E. cheating on taxes).

Now where He asks us to stay and stand firm is that for a time…wherever you have cheated from the least to the greatest you Turn and do the opposite of cheating. This can take some time…but the development of this character will “move on” to all sorts of “lie lessons”. Until He has decided our honesty has been fully developed. If we still draw breath in our earthen fallen shells, we are in constant development. Our character of honesty forms and takes shape to reflect Him, yet we will always need to keep learning. There is no graduation from Character class. (This lesson teaches the character…humility)

Jeremiah 10:23

Adonai (Lord), I know the way of humans is not in their control, humans are not able to direct their steps as they walk.

Mark 8:36-38 ~ Yeshua (Jesus) speaking…

Indeed, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? What could a person give in exchange for his life? For if someone is ashamed of Me and of what I say in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with holy angels.

Romans 5:1-5

So, since we have come to be considered righteous by God because of our trust, let us continue to have shalom (peace/completeness) with God through our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah. Also through Him and on the ground of our trust, we have gained access to this grace in which we stand; so let us boast about the hope of experiencing God’s glory. But not only that, let us boast in our troubles; because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope; and this hope does not let us down, because God’s love for us has already been poured out in our hearts through the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) who has been given to us.

One of the simplest examples of the quote above is to reword it just so:
If you are a virgin, the only way to “keep it” is to remain sexually pure. Once you loose it, it can not be “brought back”. The profoundness is obvious, it is easier to keep virginity than to recover it! Because once it is lost, there is no going back. Though keeping it may not be easy; compared to the toil of attempts to “recover” it – keeping is a cake walk!

Likewise, the Commandments of Character, God gave by speaking, teaching, directing at the beginning. Then He gave them “character development time” in action…to prove the statement above. Its a whole lot easier to refrain from lying than to lie and try to regain trust. Not easy to do always but the alternative is harder! Again, a lie cannot be undone. Only exposed and repented of. Recovery of integrity is much harder work than the hard work of keeping it. We start with “A’s”; keeping them is never easy, but easier than bringing the grade back from an “F”.

The Word of God and His ways are very elementary in concept. I praise Him for this!!

Grace and peace in Yeshua the Messiah ❤