Today was orientation day at DTS. We had the opportunity to hear from different departments and the various offices on campus. It was your typical school orientation, so to speak. The only difference is that at seminary, whenever you meet, someone has a Word for you. Today, the Word came from Chaplain Bill Bryan.
Chaplain Bill is a man that you cannot really describe. He is 72 years old and more full of life and love for the Lord than most twenty-somethings. Today, Chaplain Bill spoke to us regarding integrity and blamelessness. Integrity is what you do when no one is look and blamelessness is not doing anything that can bring a charge against you. In other words, blamelessness means to talk the talk but you walk the walk.
The brief message came from Psalm 101:1-4,6. Picking up in the middle of verse 2 David writes, "I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not fasten its grip on me" (NASB). What Chaplain Bill showed us though is that integrity and blamelessness is a choice. Notice that David says "I will..." This notes him making a choice. He is choosing to be a man of integrity. He is choosing to do what's right and to be who he should be. But as Chaplain Bill also pointed out, that comes from deep within the soul. These choices are made and directed by the Holy Spirit and it is only by His strength that we are able to be victorious and live a life of integrity and blamelessness.
That was the really cool insight of the day, and this was only orientation day! But please pray for me and for everyone you know, that we would all live lives of integrity and blamelessness.
5 comments:
Hey buddy, I hope you had an awesome 1st day and hope all your days at DTS are good. I miss you already and I am praying for you(especially for your greek class)! Also I hope your peanut butter sandwiches stay ever so tasty for the next many days. Praying for you and thinking of you always.
Kenny
Hey man, thanks for the comment and for the prayers. I really appreciate them!!! I need all the prayer I can get. Especially now that the feeling of being homesick is creeping on me. I'm really doing my best to fight it off. I really pray that it does not happen.
Chaplain Bill sounds like a great guy! I have used the phrase "Character is what you do when no one is looking or the boss isn't around" with my staff! Nice to know the Biblical origin. As the verse says, don't let the sad stuff fasten its grip on you, choose not to let it. Praying for you.....
Margaret
Hey Margaret,
Chaplain Bill is so full of life. He's great! Thank you for pointing out that the sad stuff falls right in there with all of the other sin and evil that can try and fasten a grip on us.
You raise an important point as well. I think that too often we overlook sadness and depression and write it off as part of everyday life. Instead we should recognize the source of the sadness and depression and that it is from the enemy.
There is a time for sadness, as in a period of mourning. The continuing/lingering depression or sadness that comes for no reason however, is something that I think we must deal with as an attack from the enemy.
Wow. I spent quite a while looking for that verse the other day (actually a month ago). "I will set no unclean thing before my eyes." Except, I was pretty sure Paul said it in one of his letters. Paul didn't write Psalms though, did he?
Keep trusting God. After all, you're useless without Him.
Ryan
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