What’s Your Sign Say?

15 Aug

“It doesn’t matter how old you are or where you’re from; manners, kindness, compassion, and respect will always be the signs of a decent human being.”  ~ Steve Wentworth

Jesus would give Steve Wentworth a pat on the head and say, “You were listening.”  Jesus spoke about how a person would never get good fruit from bad trees, how briars and brambles would not produce anything good, how good does not come from a heart steeped in evil.  What was true in the time of the Lord is still true.  That, as a matter of fact, is an eternal truth.  “You will know them by their fruits.”

Some people might disagree with today’s quote.  They might cite people in their past or present who have manners, show kindness, or are compassionate and respectful but are not decent human beings.  That might well be true.  However, the manners, kindness, compassion and respect being shown by those people are false.  They are exhibiting those in order to sway others, to control others, or to get their own way.  Sooner or later, the veneer of those false “virtues” rips away and people see the true person beneath.

However, the one who lives from the basis of manners, kindness, compassion, and respect is the one who truly cares about others, even over self.  That person has the power to change the world for the better.

When Jesus taught His disciples, He instructed them to be more than the world around them.  The world gravitates toward sin and despair.  The “values” of the world are self-gratification and self-glorification.  They cannot reflect God’s love in any way, shape, or form.  The world rejects God’s love and God’s law because it does not fit into its construct of life.

Jesus challenges us to rise about that kind of life.  He calls us to be shining witnesses of love to a world that has abandoned itself to baser instincts.  Jesus pulled no punches.  He let His followers know the dire consequences of rejecting His teaching because Jesus knew that if we rejected Him, we would embrace the world.  That would lead us no where.  The world promises all sorts of “good” things; but, those can never be accomplished because everything in the world is tainted by sin.

It is only in the Lord that we find life.  It is only through the Lord that we can face the world.  It is only living like the Lord that we can change the world.

FAITH ACTION:  By your every word and action, be the sign of Jesus in the world today.