Posted on 08/26/2016 5:30:25 AM PDT by Gamecock
Loyalty is a virtue that is linked to the biblical concept of faith. We tend to restrict or limit our understanding of faith to an act of believing, a kind of intellectual assent to the truth of a proposition. We know, however, that saving faith includes more than assent; it includes personal trust.
When we probe the depths of this trust, we discover that it is multifaceted. It is within the nature of trust that we see the link between faith and loyalty. Together, faith and loyalty yield fidelity. In our language, loyalty and fidelity serve as virtual synonyms.
Once, on an airplane, I sat beside Edward DeBartolo, the entrepreneur and owner of the San Francisco 49ers. I asked him what he valued the most in his employees and players. He answered without hesitation: “Loyalty!” On the surface, this may have been interpreted as the desire of a leader to be surrounded by “yes men” or a band of sycophants. But “yes men” are not really loyal. They are driven more by self-preservation than fidelity.
A faithful friend does not exhibit a blind loyalty that refuses to recognize the errors or faults in his or her friends or bosses. Rather, he or she exhibits the biblical love that covers a multitude of sins, remaining faithful in the midst of failure and shortcomings.
Coram Deo
Are you a faithful friend to others, despite their failures and shortcomings?
Passages for Further Study
Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 18:24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Hope to be back Monday and resume this series. And now for a hymn:
1. On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.
2. All o’er those wide extended plains,
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away.
Chorus: I am bound (I am bound)
I am bound (I am bound)
I am bound for promised land,
I am bound (I am bound)
I am bound (I am bound)
I am bound for promised land.
3. No chilling winds nor poisonous breath
Can reach that healthful shore;
Sickness, sorrow, pain and death,
Are felt and feared no more.(Repeat chorus)
4. When shall I reach that happy place,
And be forever blessed?
When shall I see my Father’s face,
And in His bosom rest?(Repeat chorus)
Ping!
email received today.
I dreamed that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, “This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received.”
I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.
Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.
The angel then said to me, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.”
I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.
Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. “This is the Acknowledgment Section,” my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed.
“How is it that there is no work going on here?” I asked.
“So sad,” the angel sighed. “After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.”
“How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.
“Simple,” the angel answered. Just say, “Thank you, Lord.”
“What blessings should they acknowledge?” I asked.
“If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.”
“And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.”
“If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.”
“If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.”
“If you can attend a church/synagogue without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are envied by and more blessed than three billion people in the world.”
“If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm. You’re unique to all those in doubt and despair.”
“Okay. What now? How can I start?’
If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special, and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.
Have a good day. Count your blessings. And if you care to, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we are.
Excellent.
Thanks for posting this.
Too often faith is presented as an intellectual assent kind of thing and the problem with that is that it is not saving faith. Even the demons believe, and tremble.
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