August 1

FEEL AT HOME ON THE 0-RANGE

Make Room for Loving Yourself
"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Mark 12:31.
August presents to us an august topic for study: yourself! As a descendant of the beautiful
human beings that God created in the beginning and pronounced very good, you can know that God
has a beautiful plan for you. Ever since sins lawlessness brought disorder and wrought chaos in His
human family, God has sought to recreate in us loving, law-abiding characters that emanate beauty
resulting from well-ordered, self-disciplined lives. He and we, His human masterpieces, must await
His return to receive His finishing touches of beauty, but we have plenty to place in order while we
wait for the glad day we shall be glorified and granted sinless immortality.
The task of building character has similarities to building a home. Not until the crowning
moment when the builder has completely transformed the sites chaos into the completed home is its
beauty fully seen. Then he leads the owner through the maze of rooms he has constructed. He
points out the purposes, uses, benefits, and potential hazards of each so that the homeowner may
maximize his freedom to live abundantly within its space. Both agree that the well-built home
completes their contract. Then he presents the keys to the owner, congratulates his good fortune,
and welcomes him to his new home to be blessed by its beauty and benefits. Likewise, we let the
mind of Christ remove our internal chaos as He works within us to create a well-ordered, selfdisciplined castle of character from which beautiful behavior flows, a place wherein we and He delight
to dwell.
While the owner is apparently given last consideration on the builder's list of priorities, he is
first in the builder's eyes until at last he is adequately and beautifully housed. From the beginning the
owner's desires guide the builder's efforts. He moves in when the builder completes it, and both
share in the joy of the finished work
One cannot live well within blueprint lines. Lines can only represent the walls that actually
create the living space. Walls alone do not define the multiple purposes of the home. Detailed
designing creates each room to serve its purpose efficiently and beautifully. A building of only
bathrooms or kitchens cant be called a home.
The basic blueprint for building character is encompassed in the first and second great love
commandments God has given. We have spent seven months studying how this blueprint relates to
the gift of beautiful character God has for you. We have described how each space can be best
designed to benefit and beautify your life. These spaces are the relationships which provide the
framework within which our concepts for relating become reality and provide an effective process for
learning to love, as we love one another. The house is not complete without room for loving thyself.
We now launch the task of designing the Governing Head-Governed Body role partnership in which
the Head governs while the Body grows more free to love . This relationship is key to creating beauty
in the spaces of all other relationships. What an august task we face!
Lord, somehow I feel very good about what You will do in my life, as I make room for You to build my
character. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Compare your set of relationships to the rooms of a house. Do you have enough relationships to fulfill
all the needs for life? Does their big picture have provisions for building balanced lives?
Do some duplicate the same purpose and drain your energy needed for other priorities in life?
What "room" spaces seem missing in the array of relationships you have?
Have you figured out what your basic and unique needs are? Where does confusion and chaos
reside?
Have you purposely tried to invite people into relationships that would help to meet those needs? For
example, which one focuses on meeting needs for physical exercise? for spiritual growth? for
intellectual development?
Do you have one relationship within which all your needs are fulfilled?
Do you think it's reasonable to expect one relationship to be all things to you? is it healthy?
Does God's freedom permeate each relationship so each can allow the others to function also?
Or do some of them impose limitations on you?
Do you voluntarily accept their limitations or do they create unwanted contention?
239

August 2
God's Dwelling Place
"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord..." Psalm 27:4.
The character composes the dwelling place of the personality of the human being, in the
sense that a person behaves within the context of what is characteristic for him. One's beauty or
ugliness of character is composed of his thoughts, words, and deeds which distill into the principles of
one's life, which in turn become the basis for his future behaviors. At times peoples ugly behavior is
said to be out of character for them, but all behavior flows out of their character, whether beautiful
or ugly. Beautiful characters must be developed.
A great controversy rages between Christ and
Satan over who shall own each castle of character. Satan claims it as included in his claim to be
prince of this world that he wrested from Adam's dominion. Christ, the life-giving Creator and Owner
of all good things, had never relinquished his ownership of the earth or its inhabitants. Adam only
held managerial dominion over the earth, which he forfeited when he sinned. Even the horror of sin
could not force God to cease from loving His sin-sick earth and its dying inhabitants.
At Calvary He performed the deed that provides the power to rescue and restore His people to
the likeness in which human beings were first created. The work of restoration encompasses every
facet of the dwelling place of the person. While Jesus tirelessly pursues us with His persuasive,
perfecting love, He will use no unloving force to convince us to acknowledge His ownership of us. He
will not steal (take by force), not even to retrieve His own beings who reject Him. He sends His rain
on the just and the unjust so that need for earthly survival will not force any to choose him against
their God-given free will.
In love He sends His prophets to reveal the need for readiness for His return, so all may
choose to prepare for His coming. When Jesus does come to claim those who have chosen to dwell in
houses of character given to God, He will take none that have not freely and wholly given themselves
to Him. He refuses to rob His human beings of their unique freedom to make moral choices. Only
discipline that preserves the wholeness of His created human beings can fulfill His loving will for
them.
To choose God is to give our dwelling places of character to Him as His temples wherein we
value God's freedom to cause us to love. As His temples, decision by decision and deed by deed we
increasingly surrender our wills to His will until whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, we do
all to the glory of God. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" I Corinthians 6:19.
Lord, this is one thing I desire of You that I will seek after, not just sit back to hope it happens: please
dwell in me. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
Consider a given behavior you have. How did you develop it?
Did you start doing it because it demonstrates a principle you value?
Or did you do it again and again until you came to see it as a valuable expression of character?
Or did you develop it to substitute for the need to confront a difficult issue?
What would you do if a stranger took over your house and ordered you to demonstrate ten evil
principles in your behavior?
Would it become "all right" if he suddenly switched to ten good principles instead?
Could the intruder convey good character to you while he violates good principles of freedom by
stealing from you and destroying your human uniqueness?
Do you see why God resides only in dwelling places where people voluntarily invite Him to enter?
Can oppression thrive in dwelling places where God's freedom to empower love vitalizes relations?

240

August 3
The Work of Building Character
"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:11.
Character is not the new kid on the block. In every role partnership we have been learning to
identify its ingredients. We cannot incorporate into character, traits of which we know nothing. We
cannot demonstrate the value of work if we do none and know not how. The same is true of all the
other ten values woven into God's blueprint for building loving character. The ten are faith, hope,
love, grace, authority, life, unity, work, truth, and freedom, which this chapter embraces. All ten
reside in the character of Christ, who fulfilled the law from which they are derived. Only by building
our character on this foundation of Jesus Christ can these values be built into the foundation of our
character.
Character is not an isolated island of principles removed from the reality of how we live. Only
as we allow these principles to influence our emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical behavior can
we develop moral character. "Moral" does not speak only to spiritual concerns: it addresses the sum
of our behavior. All we think, say, and do combines to determine our moral character. It ignores no
facet of living or relating. It addresses the condition of the whole person--mind and body--as that
person relates in every role he fills or neglects to fill. This sum of all we think, say, and do describes
who we are. Without Jesus we could do no loving, but with Him as our moral foundation, the beauty
of loving character is assured.
Our characters reveal the use to which we put the spirit of life that God gives us. Until the
day we die character continues developing and determining the basis for our destiny. At death the
spirit of life returns to God who preserves this character record of who we are until the resurrection
day when we shall be raised from death to newness of life. As a new plant springs from the wheat
seed sown, so will we spring forth with the same character, that we spent our lifetimes to develop.
We, though sinless, will be recognized for who we are. Then we shall know others even as others will
know us. Friends and family members, neighbors and colleagues with whom we have developed
covenant love relationships centered in Jesus will rejoice together with us, as we make our way with
Jesus and His angels to the heavenly city.
Our only possession that we shall take from this earth is the character we build. Many people
with whom we shared Jesus' love will join us. Meanwhile the roles of our temporal head and body that
comprise our being are indispensable in the work of preparing characters for heaven's kingdom.
Together head and body must cooperate with the mind of Christ to overcome the enemy's tricks and
treats. We need a head free of inner chaos and mental confusion to resist the enemys efforts to
cripple our characters and cancel our freedom to choose to think, say, and do loving things. The
enemy aims to own and destroy our very beings--both mind and body. God aims at establishing and
maintaining our God-given freedom to love forever. The work of character building is the greatest task
we have to do to prevent disaster and to prepare for our destiny.
Lord, may all I think and do be wrought in You. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
When does the topic of moral character gain your attention?
When it is present or absent in the people you know?
When do you evaluate your own character progress?
When you are struggling with bad behaviors or when you are purposely building good behaviors?
Is guilt or grace a stronger motivator for wanting to refine your character?
Which of them has more power to improve your behavior?
Does your love for Jesus include love for the principles of His law of love?
Review the ten values to see which are difficult for you to nurture in your partnerships.
Consider the role character has in preparing for life in heaven.
What earthly benefits do you see for having moral characters?
How might you define moral character?
Are we moral when God's freedom to empower us to love is restricted by our carnal resistance to His
will?

241

August 4
Is Orange Beautiful?
"He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls."
Proverbs 25:28.
The spirit of life and the character of man are inseparable. The character describes the
qualities of the life. To rule over one's own spirit is to discipline one's behavior to harmonize with the
principles of loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Without the foundation of Jesus Christ
in place there can be no walls to make rooms for covenant relating, no principles at work to promote
love toward the people in our partnerships.
Many ways exist to break down a city: attacks from enemies, vandalism by unruly children,
neglect of maintenance by citizens, unwise renovation projects, economic failures, and more. Lack of
rule over one's own spirit is not only LIKE a city that is broken down, but it can also lead to its actual
breakdown. Many claim that their deeds are nobody's business. But one person's lack of selfdiscipline multiplied by the many who also share that lack can effect the breakdown of not just a city,
but a society. People who do not rule their own spirit to be loving, will, when multiplied in number,
form a whole city without "walls". Walls provide the room needed to house loving role partnerships
within which its body of citizens can relate to love.
This governing head-governed body role partnership, which at first seems so private and
inconsequential, is key to administering successful governing by the corporate heads to the corporate
bodies of citizens. What we do secretly within our families is, as it were, shouted from our housetops
and finally spread throughout all governing units of society, town by town, city by city, state by state,
and nation by nation. Society's many deeds distill into the good or evil principles of its corporate
character, which in turn become the basis for doing more good or evil. As Christians hoping to inhabit
a heavenly city, we have a solemn duty to give God freedom to empower our head to govern our own
body, and our corporate heads to govern corporate bodies in ways that allow and even foster freedom
for growth in those bodies.
Orange colors this partnership rainbow ring of God's family circle. Orange is an uncommonly
used color, as is self-discipline a seldom used tool of behavior. It's the attention-getting color of
ripening fruit, autumn leaves, pumpkins, hunting garments, trash bags, and highway repair signs. It
grabs the spooky spotlight during Halloween's orange and black trek for tricks and treats. Then
empty jack-o-lantern heads seem to mock the need for our heads to govern our bodies in ways that
allow us to grow more Christlike, as they light the path for people coveting candy from neighbor's
houses, wives, and servants. The challenge to gain beauty, the essential of this lesson, in the context
of orange will test our character-building process to its maximum. Can the beauty of God's freedom
to love through us light a candle to the vain glow of the orange empty-headed jack-o-lanterns ? Yes?!
Lord, wherein am I broken down and without walls? Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
Walls can imply symbolic good or evil. As barriers to loving one another, they are evil. As symbolic
creators of spaces in which loving role partnerships can function, they are good. Walls formed by
good principles offer protection against the likelihood of making evil choices.
What do you see walls doing for or against you?
Are they promoting love or provoking anger?
Are they liberating from danger or imprisoning?
Have you ever fenced off a garden or a lawn to keep trespassing feet off it?
Have you and another carved out a space for a beautiful covenant partnership in Christ?
Is it walled to prevent worldly cares from trampling it to death?
Does it need orange repair signs out to steer away disturbing traffic while you restore the endangered
beauty?
Is it designed to foster character growth or confined to selfish mutual exploitation?
What thoughts does orange bring to your mind?
How does an empty head differ from a head that's free from barriers to loving?

242

August 5
Shall I Not Covet?
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his
manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's."
Exodus 20:17.
The above Commandment X promise which God gives me to meet the needs of my head-body
partnership seems as needless and inconsequential as the head-body unit is regarded. Yes, I'm told
that I must work at loving myself BEFORE I can love anyone else [translate: before I can expect any to
love me]. I'm told that loving myself means creating of myself a traffic-stopping image for the world
to praise and idolize [translate: to covet]. I'm told that if I don't get praise heaped upon me, I will
suffer low self-esteem, which can only be cured by "loving myself" some more. If I display high selfesteem, then others will reward me by esteeming me highly. So if they don't esteem me more highly
than themselves, it's my own fault. Or so I'm told.
Logic brings these questions to my baffled mind. If people must covet me in order for me to
have high self-esteem so I can succeed in loving myself, so I can love others, how can coveting be
evil? And if others are good enough to covet me so I can feel esteemed, shouldn't it be only fair that I
do my part to covet them? If each person must esteem himself as better than others so others will
treat him as though he really is, who will be left to do the work of esteeming the others as better than
themselves? See Philippians 2:3. Could there be a better way than coveting to show one's esteem
for others? What good reason could anyone have for praising me for obsessing myself with making
myself pleasing in order to please myself? Is selfishness to be rewarded only when I am doing it, but
reproved when others are doing it?
I shall not covet? Why would God expect me to even want such a promise, let alone keep and
treasure it? Does He want me to stop meeting demands and stop leaning on others' input for my selfesteem? Must I deny others their joy in knowing that I covet their success and now feel inferior to
them? Is it wrong to want to grow? How do I grow in love if I don't covet the things my neighbor uses
to get more love than I am getting? How can I gain more love unless I become more stylish, sexy,
wealthy, famous, muscular, or popular than he is? Is my carnal view of life perverted or is God ending
His Ten Commandments with the awful jolt of an off-wall joke?
Confusion clouds my view of how God uses the tenth to free me from my self's uncontrollable
tyranny. The ease with which I covet shows my failure to value God's freedom to rule in me by His
Spirit. Coveting hinders God's freedom to rule my own selfish spirit and to empower me to love.
Coveting people or things makes me dependent upon them to sustain my joy or my inner sense of
well-being. I say, "I can't be happy until I have him or her or this or that." This mind-set brings me
under the sad control of others in the hope that theyll give (not withhold) the love they promise. The
people I lean on as my source of joy by coveting them, will likely become my source of misery when
they withhold from me the love that I'm dying to have.
Lord, free me from coveting so I may flee idolatry. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Do you honestly consider coveting a sin? Is coveting about loving or getting love?
Recall some people or things you have coveted. Did you know you were coveting at the time?
Did you feel guilty for doing so? Was it easy to brush the guilt away as of no account?
Why do you think it's easier to escape guilty feelings for sinful thoughts than for sinful behaviors?
Does it have to do with other people finding out about it?
Is it also easy to escape guilty feelings for sinful behaviors that are unknown to others? Why or why
not?
Did you ever get what or whom you coveted? Did it bring you the joy you expected?
How does the phrase about "keeping up with the Joneses" relate to coveting?
What benefit do you think people expect to derive from doing so?
Is there a place on the spending scale that guarantees love to all who reach it?
How does your coveting benefit or harm the person you covet? How does it affect yourself?
Whom do you harm when your coveting wrecks your freedom to let God empower you to love?
How do you feel when others covet you? How do coveting and idolatry relate? See Ephesians 5:5.

243

August 6
244

Do You Value Freedom?

"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32.
Freedom is the tenth of the ten values that derive from the Ten Commandments which the
Holy Spirit writes in our hearts and minds. Freedom is the ability to govern our own minds to choose
what to think, say, and do, and to govern our own bodies to say and do what our own minds have
chosen. Weve been hearing hints of freedom: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free...If the Son [the Truth] therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:32, 36.
By His death which fulfilled the law in Him and by His Spirit who fulfills the law's promises in us, Jesus
gives us true freedom to love beyond what the world can know.
At creation God gave all humanity freedom to choose whether we will ally ourselves with
Christ and good or with self and evil, since self is powerless to resist Satan's control. Choosing self
leads to selfish efforts to get love from others. Choosing Christ opens to us the freedom to give
unselfish love to all. God, who gave His Son, sets the example by freely giving us all things (Romans
8:32) including the power to reflect His character by living to freely give as He does. If I would give
you my son, would I be willing to give you food, medicine, clothing, and a bed for him? Is there
anything I would withhold from you that you needed for his care? Of course not! Nothing that you
could ask me to give would be greater than what I had already shown you I was willing to give. I
would want to do all I could to insure abundant life for you as his care-giver and for him under your
care. I would want to bless whatever could possibly touch his life that would be a concern of yours.
We like knowing that Christians are willing to freely give whatever we may ask of them, but
we have second thoughts about receiving the Master's gift of freedom that causes us to freely love by
freely giving. Of what value is such a freedom in a world where he who has the most toys wins? It
rubs our "fur" the wrong way. We are "fur" getting rather than "fur" giving. When we are promised
that we won't even think of wanting it the opposite way, that is, wanting to covet, we sense our being
tense in opposition to doing that. It will be tough to stand in the governing Head role and take the
lead in freeing our boxed-in governed Body from the behaviors that imprison this whole person from
leading a freely loving life. How can we expect the boxed-in Body to see what the stubborn head can
barely comprehend as we face the outer IN FRONT side of the front door that's clearly labeled TEACH
with Goal? Can we teach the Commandment X (10) promise, Thou shalt not covet, with the goal of
valuing the beauty of God's Freedom which He gives so we can freely love our individual body by
meeting its NEEDS, not demands? Can we resist the urge to buy the world's lie that covetousness can
bring contentment?
Lord, as we relate with me in this head-body partnership, please give me freedom from the
covetousness that You find in me. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
What would your life be like if you were given total freedom?
What obligations would you ditch and what would you gladly add to your life under freedom's
umbrella?
How would your choices affect the freedom of others who would be touched by them?
Is it possible to have more freedom than you are willing to freely give to others without becoming an
oppressor in whom freedom does not function wholly?
Do you truly value God's freedom working in you if you fear dominant people have power to rob you of
it?
Remember how love can only reside in one who lets love function in his behavior; forgiveness, only in
one who forgives; and freedom, only in one who values freedom's function in relationships.
Can you have more freedom than you give to others? to God's Truth to set you free?
How would the Golden Rule affect the way you apply freedom to your relationships?
Would you take for yourself freedoms you are unwilling to freely give to others?
How much freedom do you have for yourself? How much freedom do you give to others?
Can you give people the freedom to love or not to love you and still feel free to love them?
Do people who refuse to "return the favor" kill your motivation and your freedom to love them?

245

August 7
The Beauty in the Mirror
"For now we see through a glass, darkly: but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I
know even as also I am known." I Corinthians 13:12.
As we stand before God's promise that life after coveting contains freedom to love, we see, as
it were, "through this glass, darkly." The beauty that results from using our heads to govern our
bodies in ways that enable us to grow emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically, does not
blaze with brightness yet. Failures dark glass seems to polarize from view any warm, orange glow of
success at building a loving character. It reveals only the ashes of our past efforts to develop the
beauty that self-control produces, and leaves us in the dark about how to improve our act. We sense
our human weakness. We have burned every stick of energy and twig of opportunity we have in the
fire of our endeavor. In vain we peer into this mirror of the law on the door in search of some beauty
in ourselves. The face of Jesus we see in it looks nothing like ours. Still the orange glow shining upon
us from the fire of Jesus love bathes us in His beauty. Can His refining fire heat our brain to the
boiling point at which His love can freely bubble its well-being in our minds? Can it send its beauty
pulsing through our needy bodies to form smiles on our frowning faces and motivate our frail hands to
clasp firmly in friendship?
We look again at the task. We become aware that our face is part of our body, that even our
head is part of our body. The mystery of this head-body role partnership deepens, as we wonder how
we can even imagine that our head can be outside the boxed-in state within which our body is
supposed to be imprisoned. Must we find a way to make our face look free in order to face life
without appearing to be imprisoned by a body whose behavior cannot match the claims the mind
makes to being loving? Can such surface relations suffice? A broken character whose BEING does not
match its DOING is not beauty full. It may reflect a glimmer of beauty here and there, but the
ugliness of unloving deeds scars the big picture that faces us.
What to do? Shall we forget the inner task of building loving character and merely use our
freedom to decorate our face and head with trappings designed to deceive the love-deprived of the
world? Shall we offer ourselves as attractive decoys and hope that some mindless body will take a
shot at trying to get love from us by meeting our demands? Shall we label a life of demand making
and demand meeting a life of beauty? Shall we content ourselves with burying our need for selfdisciplined, well-ordered lives in the pursuit of chances to control others who know nothing of their
duty to control themselves? Shall we station ourselves in carnival booths and sell chances to see who
can strike us right, so winners can carry away the box of our boxed-in potential to love, and hope
they'll have enough power to draw it out of us against our will?
Our will!?! That's it! Our invisible will can face the law on the door and choose to value Gods
freedom to empower us to love, not barricade it from us by refusing to love.
Lord, I choose to use the love You choose to give me. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

List the beauties in your life. Do you think that "every good gift and every perfect gift" James 1:17,
you have comes from God? How has God used others to bring them to you?
Now consider the areas in which your character reveals beauty.
Did God use any apparently ugly or difficult circumstances and/or people to create those beautiful
traits in your character?
Can you look back and see that God had good and perfect gifts packaged for you within those difficult
experiences?
The hammer and nails of life that help to build a beautiful character house may not possess
apparent beauty of their own, but our Creator of beauty can turn every tool of experience to the task
of building loving characters, as we place each tool into His hand.
What are you facing now? Is your failure to cope with it weighing you down or can you see the face of
Jesus reflecting the beauty of His promises upon you to lift you up?
Do you wonder what new beauty you will gain from the growing you are now doing in Christ?
Do you value Jesus' freedom to love you by meeting your needs, not your demands?

August 8
Will Power and Self-Control
"If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."
James 3:2.
James, an inspired Bible writer, makes strong points regarding our need to have what we do
match what we say. He knew that loving words (spoken or silent) must precede our loving deeds.
Any who have tried to offend not in word (myself included) well know how impossible it is to succeed
at doing so in our own strength. Only the Holy Spirit can provide the power we need to "bridle the
whole body." "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Zechariah 4:6.
Under His direction two personal powers need to be developed to make it happen. Will power
is first. The will is the governing force of the mind. The word "head" in the head-body designations
for the governing phase of relating refers to the decision-making function of the mind. The actual
head belongs to both the mind and the body. It cannot be ignored in either role of the head-body
blend.
During May we dealt with the need to rescue the control of the mind from people from whom
we seek love. We learned that we make the mistake of the mind when we stop using our conscience
to match what we do with what we know and start matching what we do with the opinions of others.
Our desire to please people so they will love us motivates us to let other heads govern our body of
behaviors.
Now the tables are turned. We face a selfish will that takes the castle of our character
hostage and tends to tyrannize the body--head included--that houses it. None but the Lord of hosts
can rescue the host thus held hostage. The will power must not be broken. It is already too weak to
resist evil. Instead it must be brought under the power of the Holy Spirit who renews the mind.
The second personal power needed to build strong character is the power of self-control. Self
is deeply entrenched in both the mind and the body. Its poison pervades the total being. Neither the
mind nor the body of flesh can be subject to the law of God's love without the Holy Spirit of God living
in the castle of our character and the temple of our bodies. (Romans 8:3-9) Thus both mind and body
need their ability to love restored.
The will-powered governing mind forms thoughts with words that will express its choices to
love. The self-controlled governed body performs the words and deeds that the person's mind and
body both agree to use. The body is held hostage until the mind activates it. The body, like the child,
says Why-y-y? because it needs a good reason and directions from the mind to free it to move. The
mind is imprisoned without a body to express the words that form its thoughts and to perform the
deeds it chooses. As the mind and body cooperate, the Holy Spirit perfects our act and oversees the
building of our character.
Lord, please don't stop Your work of perfecting me. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

The will is like the wind--invisible but ever exerting its pressure to move us in a given direction.
Without God's power guiding both the will and self-control, the words we speak about the choices we
make will be as hot air.
Recall some choices to act that you have voiced recently about which you still have done nothing.
What do you plan to do about them: act soon, delay longer, forget about them, retract them, deny
them, or change them?
What problems have kept you from following up your words with your deeds?
Is your will careless about making quick decisions without sufficiently wise reasoning to support your
choices?
Do you lack sufficient self-control to discipline the use of your time and resources, so you can do what
you say?
Do you make selfish decisions that leave no room for God's will or providence to adjust your plans?
Read James 4:13-15. The mind's will and the body's self-control will stand or fall together.

August 9
The Mind's Dilemma
"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof...that the man of God may be
adequate, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 NASB.
As I stand before the front door of the box that imprisons this body of mine, I feel ridiculous
until I see God's will at work in this encounter. He wants the man or woman of God to be adequate
and equipped for every good work. That means that who we are as people of God must be
demonstrated in the work we do to represent Him. We cannot successfully covenant with others until
we have achieved the personal integrity that guarantees we will each individually do what we say. It
is more important that I do what I say than that I do what someone else says. Only then is the
covenant I make with God and another person of any value. Only then am I equipped to do what I
agree to do in the covenant. Otherwise I can talk my head off and get nowhere that matters.
The IN FRONT information is clear to me. I need Commandment X which God uses to teach me
to value the beauty of freedom. How shall I open this front door so I can be OUT FRONT with my body
about why I, or we, don't have our head-body act together? A short lecture or two should speed this
to a finish. How many times have I scolded and shamed my body into shaping up and getting it
RIGHT? I may not be adequate, but I am experienced at this, so let's get with it and get on with life. I
reach for the door...oh, oh,..oh no, I can't get reach for the door. This is just my mind on the outside. I
have no arm to reach, no hand to fling open the door, no way to work my will for or against my boxedin body. It is only in my mind that I am on the outside of this imprisoning box.
But wait, I'll call out that I know what's right. The law and the freedom it brings is right IN
FRONT of me. I'll order my body to press on the OUT FRONT side of this door and come out to do what I
say or else face being WRONG. My body hates being wrong. It becomes flooded with distressing
feelings and shame whenever I send it the message that it behaved wrongly. I can imprison it for
days with my spirit of distrust or depression or guilt or anxiety or grief. I barely have to think about it
to send a crippling emotion to disable my body's freedom to behave in any loving ways. There should
be no doubt about who's the boss in this relationship. My head rules my body, so it doesn't escape
the slightest mistake it makes. Yes, that's what I'll do. My claim to be right always works to demand
a response from the one who ends up being wrong by my self-righteous decree. "I know what's right
for you, Body. Do as I say: come out of that box!" I holler in my mind. But nothing happens.
Absolutely nothing happens! Now I feel like Br'er Rabbit punching the tar baby. Nothing I can do in
my mind can set my body free or set me free of my body. I think--forget the say--with Paul, "Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7:24.
Lord, "I thank God through Jesus" Romans 7:25, that You can set me free. Please empower me to
follow the light You give me. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
How much do you value people's freedom to do what they say?
Have you considered what a treasure that ability is?
Do you think two heads are better than one?
When you unite your head with another's, is it wise to choose a person who will do what he says?
Do you come to agreement with him about what each of you will do to fulfill your plan?
Or do you think that the "I'm right, do as I say or you'll be wrong" plan works better to motivate
people to cooperate with you?
Can such a plan really be termed co-operating of a kind that permits both to be operators with their
authority (know-how) put to maximum use?
Have you stopped to realize how helpless you would be without a body?
How much basis do we really have for abusing or oppressing our bodies, considering how little we can
actually do for them?
What questions does this section bring to your mind for solution?

August 10
REPROVE Discontent
"There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness."
Proverbs 30:12.
The reality of my selfish, tyrannical style of governing my body and others is inescapable. I
have only imagined that I love the law that promises, Thou shalt not covet. Face it! I am so deeply
covetous that I cannot be content just coveting things. I covet control of the person himself by using
his areas of WRONG to gain control over his behavior. "I'm right, so you must do what I say or be
wrong." I'm not content until--even when--I try to destroy his very humanness, his status as a free
moral agent, by stealing his freedom of choice with my oppressive "I'm right" tool.
My
coveting
shakes a fist in the very face of God who created each person--myself included--to be free from
control of self. I covet to bring this body under my control and use it as my kicking post, a private
burial ground into which I can dump all my abuse. Thus absorbed in lusting for power, I am opposing
God's Freedom to empower its governing via love. I see that my claim to value God's Freedom is an
absolute lie. The behavior of my mind and body reveals this filthy lie. The one body--mine--that I am
given to lead to value its freedom I have imprisoned in the slavery to self. Can I do worse than to
covet the control of my own body's freedom to grow by disconnecting it from God's freedom to
empower it to love?
How right am I really? What right do I have to piously govern my body to death? In doing
thus, I am not truly governing my body at all. Self holds governing sway over my mind and my body.
This tyrant knows nothing of self-control. Reality places me squarely inside the box where my body
and mind share this dilemma of self's tyranny.
Now inside the box, I see that neither the body nor the mind can escape the box through the
OUT FRONT door. When we are truly OUT FRONT with ourselves, we know that neither head nor body can
ever "get it right". For all my coveting I gain discontent with life. My miserable self knows no joy
while I lack control over the people who appear, by the looks of the things they have, to have the love
that I need. Even control over their freedom fails to bring joy.
Who cares that no one is able to mind this business of freeing my head and body from
imprisonment to self? Despite the darkness discontent drapes over my life, Jesus, who is ever where
we need Him, speaks light to my mind: "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." I
Peter 5:7. Now? in this ungovernable state of mind and body? Yes, now. "Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus:.." Philippians 2:5. With body cooperating I fling open the door to Jesus
who lights up its OUT FRONT message--REPROVE with Reason. Reprove what? Discontent, symptom
of sin!
Lord, is my discontent signaling my need for You? Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

What do you know about discontent?
Does anything bring more discontent than the risk that you might be labeled wrong?
Can you drop an issue before you gain your coveted control over another by proving him wrong?
Do you try to be right in order to gain the power to coerce another to do as you say?
Have you seen how attempting to force decisions is coveting (wanting to own) that person's freedom
of choice--the thing that makes one uniquely human? Such tyranny dehumanizes people.
Why should we need to be reproved when we are discontent because others, or even our own bodies,
are wrong about something? Is it wrong to condemn people as wrong when they really are wrong? If
so, what is the right way to deal with wrong?
Should we see their wrongdoing as symptoms of needs they have and try to help?
Whose business is it when we are tyrannizing our own bodies with condemning pronouncements of
"I'm right about the fact that you're wrong--wrong size, wrong physical features, wrong color, wrong
sex, wrong nationality, wrong background, wrong past. No wonder none love us. Fix it."? I
Corinthians 6:19 says, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost ...and ye
are NOT your own?" Are you slow to attack and abuse what God owns?
In what ways do you tyrannize your body and blame it as the reason that you get no love?

August 11
The Reason for Discontent
"These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven...[No. 6] A false witness that speaketh lies.."
Proverbs 6:16-19.
From my days of teaching students this sentence comes to mind: Don't practice what you
don't want to become good at doing. The sin of coveting fits in this category. The more we seek
control by coveting, the more the people and things we covet gain control over us, wreck our joy, and
curse us with misery. "I cannot be happy until I control her, unless I possess him, until I own that,
unless they do what I say." The more we practice coveting, the more we're consumed by discontent's
insatiable appetite for power. What we choose to put in control, chews at us until we are out of
control.
Let us review the history that brings us to the reason for our discontent. The list of things God
hates sketches a picture of our universal problems and the needs they spark: (1) The proud look (the
set of behaviors to build worth and win approval) show that we lack love. (2) The lying tongue says
we love, when really we try to get love. (3) The hands that shed innocent blood show that we
need to learn to love. (4) The heart that devises wicked imaginations indicates we need to be
filled with love. (5) Feet that be swift in running to mischief show that we need to love. (6) Now
in this lesson a false witness that speaks lies emphasizes how we need to love freely with no
strings of control attached.
The cause of discontent is the sixth abomination that God hates: a false witness that speaks
lies. This is the first time that a person has been named. The five prior to this referred to parts of the
body. Now the whole person (mind and body) is involved in doing the very sin that commandment IX
warned us to avoid. Those who reject the promise "Thou shalt not bear false witness" will go on to
become false witnesses that speak lies.
We have watched the strategies for getting love move from one scheme to another. The Nice
Guy (or Gal) who had tried to do every possible favor, had given up on ever winning love by doing
favors. Next that person tried to put debts against people for favors done, but failed to collect the
debts and became a Loser. The Loser's mischief gave the debtors plenty of reasons to choose not to
pay. Now the Nice Guy devises a new strategy to get the love he seeks. As a false witness who speak
lies, he uses his political skills to gain control over the people who need love from him. He wins their
vote of confidence, proceeds to govern them, and claims that he is doing what the people voted to
have him do. He speaks lies which imply that all he does is the will of the people who chose him.
Since he's merely doing their work for them, it's only right that they pay taxes for the services they
themselves ordered. His accountability shifts to his voters: if he errs, its their mandate, therefore
their fault. He speaks of freedom of choice, but fosters taxing relationships.
Lord, does my freedom talk hide a controlling walk? Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

No happy campers inhabit the discon-"tent." They see God's showers of blessings as "being rained
on".
What could be joys are clouded with the gloom of discontent over unmet expectations.
How might you finish the sentence: I can't be happy or content until.... or unless.....?
Can you think of times when coveting someone or something to satisfy yourself has brought you
misery?
Do you ever blame someone or something as the cause of your out-of-control behavior (anger, crying,
etc.)?
If someone or some thing can control your behavior, is it not actually controlling you?
How does our attempt to control others give them opportunities to control us?
Review the six messages we've seen from the six abominations we've studied.
Notice how each relates to perfecting the loving process.
Do you think God hates what hinders His freedom to empower us to love?
Trace the path of a Nice Guy that you know who became a loser.
How did failure to expect zero lead to his downfall?

August 12
The Gray World of Lies
"Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are His delight." Proverbs 12:22.
The world of lies contains no covenant rainbow of love: it is a broad gray expanse that lies
between white and black lies.
The false witness who speaks lies reigns as chosen king over his
citizens. They elect him as the one best able to Keep the Image of a Nice Guy (K.I.N.G.), the one who
appears to do favors for everybody without "writing wrong" over anybody for not returning his favors.
His supposed favors consist of letting others do him the favor of meeting his demands to try to win
his flattering white-lie love.
His chief white lie is his claim to love everybody freely. He attaches no visible strings and
makes no outright demands upon his citizens. They need not "be right" or "do right" in order to earn
his acceptance. They need only pity and support him in his very taxing task of using his head to
govern their bodies. He cares not if they sin against each other as long as they do nothing to "write
wrong" over his royal agenda or to put him in debt by failing to supply the funds he expects to fill his
coffers. But he need not worry. All who covet his favor gladly volunteer their donations. They know
the unwritten laws of the gray world. They have enough savvy to do what the KING expects of them
before he has to make any nasty demands. People of this caliber readily testify that the KING loves
them. They read their wealth in the fact that they are being taxed to death. They dare not admit to
being unlovable in the eyes of the KING from whom they covet love. They fondly dream of being
next to the KING.
However, the KING includes no Losers among the "everybody" he loves. All who dare cross
him by "writing wrong" on him or draining his treasury are imprisoned in the silence of Loser's
Lodging--Debtor's Prison. What more befitting fate could befall people who dare to assign, let alone
collect, debts? "Long live the king!" cheer the debtors. The losers have no say in society as free
citizens, but neither do the citizens who claim to be free, yet relinquish the God-given use of their
heads to govern their own bodies. So what? It frees them from having to choose life and good and
eschew death and evil. They dislike counting on love from a God who counts on them to use their
heads to govern themselves so all can grow.
Within the KING's gray area of reign the absence of law keeps the rain of God's love from
falling on the just and on the unjust. Without law there are no just and unjust. The equality that all
have hides in their gray mists of discontent in which formless foglike fingers wrap guilty feelings
around each. Each depends upon others to blow hot air upon his own gray areas to dispel them. No
covenant rainbows brighten these mindless bodies that do not mind not having to mind laws of love,
as long as the KING minds them. What once captivated them now decapitates them.
Lord, I'm glad your kingdom is not of the gray world. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

What traits made your leaders in your past popular? Did they do many favors for their followers?
Did they have qualities people wish for themselves? How did you benefit from their group leadership?
Do any fit today's description of the false witness that speaks lies?
Do some people claim to love freely, yet have unwritten expectations or prices on their affection?
How did you discover the expectations? Were you shut out of the relationship as a loser?
Scan your circle of friends. Do you allow any losers in it?
Do people not state their expectations for fear others will refuse to love them?
Are you speaking lies to someone about loving freely, hoping that they will have enough savvy to do
what you expect of them without having to demand them to do it?
Do you test peoples love for you by how they meet your expectations for your birthdays and giftgiving holidays?
What factors besides their love may influence decisions re the gifts they do or don't give you?
Would the difficulty in meeting your expectations be one factor, and their dread of your disapproval
be another factor? Are you just or are you unjust?
Do the misty fingers of guilty feelings cling to you whether you do the right thing or not? Why?
Do they relate to the absence of love you expected for your deeds, but did not receive?

August 13
How the King "Treats" His Citizens
"..there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt." Ecclesiastes 8:9.
When nothing's wrong it's just not right that so little love should be in sight. Even the KING
noticed the lack. He chose August 13 as the annual Nice Day for Nice Guys and called for a
celebration, to which the hopeful hurried and the fearful filed. "You all know how much I love each of
you. I have decreed that today shall be a Nice Day, and I insist on being the first one to be nice to
you. I have emptied the treasury to see that each of you has 5 coins. I know you love beauty, so you
shall have it! But first my clerk must collect just 1 coin, only 20% of your wealth, so I can buy a robe
of fur. Then you can enjoy its beauty as I parade before you. You'll see how much I love you." [How
nice; what's next?]
"You are such dear and valued citizens. I prize the minutes we spend together. I shall prove it
with another gift. But first, you must add 1 coin, only 25% of your remaining wealth, to the clerk's
purse to pay for this symbol of my love. See, I bought a gold watch, so I may be on time for our
meetings and not waste a moment of your valued time in waiting for me to grace you with my
presence." [What a nice guy! What's next?]
"You fear that I think only of myself? That's not so. You are ever in my lusting trusting heart.
Your value to me grows as your tax rate grows. With only 1 coin, 33% of your present wealth, I will
prove it. Watch! One who deserves it most shall have it. The tax-collecting clerk, a treasured citizen,
counts with all of us. He gets it all!" [What about us? What's next?]
"Clerk, collect the funds for the next surprise, but only 1 of their two coins, that each may
enjoy a 50-50 partnership with me. The least that any should do is give 50% to making a partnership
work. Citizens, you wept for joy at my last gift to the clerk. You seemed glad to see his needs met.
How it warmed my heart and made me feel like a better man! You'll be doubly glad, as I again give
him all the tax coins we collect!" [Not fair!!]
"Now I fear that some feel left out, but I have more in store. If you will put your all into it and
give me 1 last coin, I'll reward your faith. Either you will overcome selfishness or foster an evil love of
money. Give until it quits hurting. There now, this shall become a savings account in my name, since
I'm the King of the Nice Guys. When you really need a loan, come to me. Trust me to have high
interest for in you." [Trust you? No way!]
"I've saved the best for last. I gave you five; give me five! It's only fair. Put all you have into
this greatest gift, and you shall have nothing to regret! ...What is this? The clerk reports zero from
you. You'll regret it! I intended to give you love, but you'll get just what you gave--Nothing! You've
wrecked our nice day and deserted me when I need you and your funds to maintain the gifts I bought
to benefit you. How can you ruin such a nice guy? I hate you! All of you! You're all worthless to me!"
[He's discontent. So are we. On one thing only we agree: bankruptcy. Both dynamics, controlling
and being controlled, lead to bankruptcy.]
Lord, let me not falsely witness to your kingship by mistreating people who need love. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
How does the KING Keep his Image of
you imagine that their desire for your
them to do what you want by feeding
by withholding your love until you can
as using people for selfish purposes?

a Nice Guy? How do you treat the Nice Guys in your life? Do
affection gives you more power over them? Do you try to get
their hope that you will reward them? Do you milk their hope
get all you want from them? Is doing that defined as loving or

Do you suppose you are getting love when people meet your demands?
Do any people pretend love as they "use" you to meet demands? What hazards await people like the
KING who control others? Do you see that we face the fate of bankruptcy whether we control or
others control us?
Would you become discontent if you had to live on what little you squeeze from lots of people via
taxing relationships? Citizens have one big boss, but kings have many little bosses controlling them
that they must please (or tax) to get them to pay. Do you covet this KING's role?
Can you create a life of contentment by taxing many who will only give discontented loveless
responses?
Do multiple commitments to taxing relationships consume your time and achieve nothing? Does
Keeping the Image of Nice Guy to get what you want from others rob you of time to fulfill your life's
purpose?

August 14
What Makes Politics Tick?
"Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?"
Ecclesiastes 8:4.
In the gray world's struggle for power, many people seek not only to be next to the king, but
to be the king. Jeremiah 8:10 notes that "for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given
to covetousness." Kings who lose power lose their thrones. As we saw yesterday, the KING's power is
vested in his people. If he is to protect his kingdom from other would-be kings, he must cultivate a
divisive, warring spirit among his people to destroy their power to dethrone him. Discontent fosters
that spirit and provides their training in warfare.
The KING loves the warring among his citizens. As he works to Keep the Image of a Nice Guy,
he also stirs discontent in his citizens. We saw it happen on annual Nice Day. His favoritism toward
the people who count, sends the message that others do not count. They notice the KING's
partialities but "who may say unto him, What doest thou?" Trust in his goodness or fear of his wrath
leads them to direct their discontent against one another, not him.
The discontents, both the fearful and the feared, seek his use of power against their enemies.
Their discontent fuels his power. They go to him like vying children to complain of abuses they suffer
from one another. The fearful beg his protection of their rights. The feared press him to destroy their
enemies. Both magnify the fearless KING's good power and their enemy's threats in order to win
support for their causes. Glad to be of service, he states the added tax for protection. He sets his
mafia to work painting ugly black lies over the targeted disloyal and presses them to conform. As
they too run to the king, they too are pitied and sent to defend themselves. Many see him as a
protector, few see him as a lying contributor to their discontent.
Citizenship is fragile. All the people wear N.G. labels, that mean Nice Guy. When newcomers
enter they have no label. They are carefully watched and wooed to join the group. When they pass
the initial tests of the Nice Guy, they get their label. They learn that the KING lets informers stand
next to him, so he can learn of any uprisings or downfalls . So both the fearful and the feared feed a
constant flow of reports to the KING about the newcomers loyalty. He listens best to rumors relating
to any threats to his own power, so he can catch the rebels. As corrupt motives move informers to
falsify and distort their reports, they gain increased political power to squelch their competitors. By
painting black lies over their competitors words and deeds, they can label them as disloyal to the
KING. Once any are suspected of disloyalty or of having connecting links with other KINGS, their Nice
Guy labels are reclassified as No Good. They may look, talk, and act the same ways, but they are
condemned and ostracized. If they seek to bring about reformation rather than silently, shamefully
conform to their TRASHED status, they are targeted for destruction. As the smaller groups band
together under more powerful KINGS, two big political parties form under the two most powerful
KINGS. Sound familiar?
Lord, may I resist painting labels on Your people. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Do you have any situations in which you along with others are oppressed by a person or a policy over
you that creates the trouble between you and your fellow citizens?
Do you tend to attack the one in power or the one that shares the same dilemma with you?
Have you seen a rumor lead to the removal of a person from the home, workplace, city, or church?
Daniel 6 describes how flattery almost worked to remove Daniel.
Have you seen fear used as an excuse for reporting a destructive lie about someone who is seen as a
threat to one's personal agenda? Do you feed rumors that people want to hear in order to win the
favor of your listeners? Have you ever seen the labels switched from Nice Guy to No Good because
someone took a stand that crossed the KING or that supported another KING?
Do you think that rumors and hate speech leveled against political leaders models disrespectful
speech, which, once learned by youth, will likely corrupt their behavior in all their relationships?
If your child learns to disrespect one leader, what will stop him from aiming his disrespect at you and
others?
Is it possible to exercise love in the governing roles of society?
Is love's power needed to overcome the oppressive forces in them? Who are societys 2 most
powerful KINGS?

August 15
Exposing the Control Dynamic
"..thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Genesis 3:16.
Who was first to pinpoint the control-or-be-controlled dynamic in relationships? Shortly after
Adam and Eve sinned, God Himself announced its arrival. "Unto the woman He said, I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Genesis 3:16. Bad news: sad changes came by
which sin would work ruin in human love relationships. Good news: In saying "I will greatly multiply
thy sorrow..." God took responsibility for sin's consequences, so He could provide us a way of escape
from them, just as a loving parent takes responsibility for whatever happens to his children and fixes
it.
God's sentence was not merely for a wife about marriage. Adam and Eve listened as the first
two human beings, not just husband and wife. Gender and roles were secondary matters. The major
issue was the expulsion of God from his position between two human beings dependent upon Him as
their source of love so they could love one another. God had planned that Adam-God-Eve (A-G-E)
would be voluntarily united as one in love through the ages of eternity. The plan maintained their
freedom of choice to enable God to always know their choice and thus never violate their freedom by
forcing His love upon them. He had chosen as their "NO" signal the act of eating the non-poisonous
fruit of the tree. (All God had created was good, even that tree!) Resisting the fruit meant "Yes, God,
we choose you as our First Lover." The Yes required no repetitive behavior that one might forget to
do. To say "No, God. We reject you.", they would purposely have to go to the tree and eat the fruit, so
the fateful choice could not accidentally occur. Despite God's perfect love for them, they chose to eat
the fruit and break the covenant.
They now faced death, the natural consequence of "No, God, I reject You, the Life-giver, and
Your love which gives life." Although forced from between them, God stood before them (G_A_E) and
made the first move to reconcile them to himself. The Redeemer Christ would come to restore their
covenant unity (G-R-A-C-E).
Meanwhile they would need grace. Eve would direct her hope to her husband for love rather
than to God, giving Adam a position of control over her because of her dependence upon him for love.
Eve had chosen works to win love: she would demand love by DOING. Adam had chosen to accept
her human works (love of the world) as a substitute for God's love: he would demand by BEING. As
long as he'd BE discontent with what she would DO, he'd have excuse not to give unselfish love that
he didn't have. Thus he had rule over her until he died, or until he died to sin. In sorrow she'd raise
children to face life death without the Lover or His law about how to love.
Lord, empower me to choose to change from my sinful way of Genesis 3:16 to Your saving way of John
3:16. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Why have we built such sanctity around a style of relating that results from sin in our lives?
While many attempts have been made to help the control-or-be-controlled dynamic operate in a
graceful manner, so that God can work it for good in our families, we need only endure this until we
choose Jesus to be central in our partnerships.
As you study how sin's ruling dynamic operates in partnerships, do you think it works or wrecks?
Do you know of wrecked partnerships due to partners' inability to survive within this dynamic?
Do you know mothers in sorrow over its effects upon their children?
Do you know adult children who are handicapped at loving because of having been raised in families
who use that dynamic?
Are you content to bandage bruises for your damaged relationships?
Would you rather have God's reconciling skills used to restore them?
Do you know people who would stop using these dynamics if they knew how to escape them?
Can you see yourself teaching them? The appendix contains principles and texts to aid you.

August 16
Stage C of the Guilt Cycle
"As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they
which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths...What mean ye that ye beat my
people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor?" Isaiah 3:12.
Lest some should try to use yesterday's page to fan careless fires in our dialog about the roles
of men and women in society, let us hasten to note that switching roles so women rule over men is
not God's solution to society's ills. In fact, doing so can facilitate the turning of children into
oppressors of men. The moral fabric of society weakens, as the breakdown of our traditional headbody family structure occurs. As crime rates among our children and youth race upward, we need to
examine this phenomenon. Let's do the C stage in the Guilt Cycle which, lesson by lesson, is
exposing this deadly dynamic that operates as people seek control over others rather than over self.
To trace the past sequence revisit July 10, 11, and 12.
Les and Lena, now unhappily married, have done the F and A stages of the 2-D Guilt Cycle.
The love they had thought to get and give has been derailed by Les' inability to give it and by Lena's
mischief, which he used as excuses to deny her bid for love. As he reflects upon her apology, he
faces two options: He may forgive her mischief or, on the basis of her apology by which he
establishes her guilt, he may condemn her. "Forgive her? Love her when she hasn't earned it and
doesn't deserve it? If she gives me no love, I have none to give her back. The only love I have is what
I wring from her. Option No. 1 is an option for no one. Who can forgive but God? I'm certainly not
God!! I must Condemn her."
What brings Les to this CONDEMN stage of the Guilt Cycle? Since Lena refuses to meet his
demands whether he is nice or nasty to her, he fears she may not love him. Dreading her rejection of
him, he speaks his rejection first: "Lena, your apology proves you're wrong, and I cannot forgive you.
Justice demands that you be Condemned. It's simple. You DID wrong, so you ARE wrong. You DID not
love, so you must not BE the lover for me. I must reject you and find another who will do as I say."
Thus Les unites her "DOING = BEING" and decides her fate--hopelessly WRONG!
Lena had no plans to reject Les. Her desire was to him, and she had placed him in rule over
her. She had planted her hope in him to be her source of love, her god, and was willing to endure
whatever it took to win his love. Now as rejection threatens, her threatened hope intensifies, and she
imagines that her love for him is greater than ever. "Oh Les, she pleads, "I'll be whomever you say; I'll
do whatever you ask. If you need a thief, I'll steal for you. I'll slave for you even if you beat me. Just
puhleese don't leave me." Lena Conforms the behavior of her body to his Condemning head in the
name of love, hoping still to gain a little love. [C stage of Guilt Cycle]
Lord, empower what I do to = what I say so I need not lean on those who condemn me as guilty for
not doing what they say. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
How much love do you expect from people who condemn you for not loving them as you should?
Likewise, Lena will expect little love and get less. Do you "write wrong" over others, so theyll
conform to your demands? Do you notice that people you criticize may try to conform to your
standards, but don't expect much love from you or give much to you? Do you conform to people's
demands to avoid their rejection? Where? in the workplace? among relatives? at school or church?
What do you need from them badly enough to put their condemning heads in control of your body?
Does life improve when men rule women, or women rule men?
Do children learn to be oppressors by watching people oppress?
If you were raised by oppressive parents, is it hard to act from principle-based self-control rather than
react to the control you fear others still seek over you?
Is it hard to say "yes" to requests without feeling people are subjugating you under their control?
Is it hard to say "no" without first devaluing their roles in your life in order to lessen the control you
imagine they hold over you? Need we lose self-control when others may try to control us?

August 17
I Thirst.
"Then I came to them of the captivity...and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished
among them seven days. And it came to pass...the word of the Lord came.." Ezekiel 3:15, 16.
Enough, enough! My head aches and my body hurts in behalf of every body that must endure
the insanity of captivity. I have sat where they sat, as I sit where I sit. The mind of Christ to which I
opened the REPROVE with Reason door that I might see the problem, has clearly detailed the reason
for discontent. But why does that same mind of Christ seem to take no action? What is this? Isn't
the fact that I feel my misery and hate the sin I heap upon my body and everybody by my senseless
domination enough to move Him to act?
Then I remember how in my mind I stood outside the door with no arms to reach the door, no
hands to grasp the knob, or voice to yell my will. Minds can think but bodies must act. My opening
the door to view my need for reproof does not invite the mind of Christ to work His correction within
me. I see my need. And simply sitting where I sit will not correct the abuse that my sin-corrupted will
inflicts on my world-conforming mind and body. God, I need the mind of Christ to enlighten this gray
matter of mine.
At once I see the incoming light reveal the cross sketched on the inner OUT BACK side of the
back door. I appear to be alone, and yet this time I am keenly aware of what is happening in the mind
of Christ on Calvary. He anguishes in exhaustion from his internal battle with the weight of sin that
pressed "FORSAKEN BY YOUR FATHER" upon Him. He pays the penalty for our guilt that we might be
free from sin's deadly poison and guilt's prison. He has spent all of heaven's love in His effort, and
now He is spent. All this has taken a heavy toll on His body. Exposed to the heat of the day and the
stress of the task, his entire body pleads its human need for water. Thirst, deep thirst, is not a
passing whim of the mind that can be brushed aside. It is a warning of impending death that the
body thrusts with all its fading strength upon the mind that governs it. Foolish is the mind that
ignores its body's dying request for water. Hopelessly proud is the will that refuses to issue a warning
of the need for water in the face of death.
"I thirst," comes the simple fact from the dying lips of the Son of God. He will demand no
water. He will condemn none who refuse to volunteer their aid. He will trust the will of His Father to
sustain Him on earth until He has finished the work that He has come to do. The religious gaze
blindly upon Him, glad now to excel Him. Often his selfless life had exposed their sins to their proud
minds and had stirred their desires for the mind of Christ to correct their evil behaviors. But they had
drowned their guilt in an ocean of good deeds. NOW HE thirsted for water. He had none, and THEY
by their good deeds, had amassed plenty! Who's sorry now?
Lord, how can we sit by the river of time and will to die in captivity to our discontented minds and our
dying bodies rather than come to you for the water of life? Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Do you wonder why God doesn't take over your body and force you to fix misery that engulfs you?
Could it be that the need for the body to co-operate with the mind of Christ must be learned before
the misery can be removed?
Can you think of cases in which the problem is clear but the solution is missing?
Have you ever explained someone's problem and not been invited to help in solving it?
What is it like to be really thirsty?
Does the thirst belong to the body or the mind?
Can the mind quench the thirst without the body acting?
Can a crucified body remedy its own thirst?
What about the thirst for love?
Can a body bound by sin quench its own thirst?
Does thirst for love go away if you hide it or hide your sins under a salty ocean of good deeds?
Can thirst for love be removed by pretending that we are loving freely with no strings?
Is it wise to hide that thirst?
What happens when you reveal your thirst for love to people who have none to give?

August 18
Victory over Covetousness
"After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished,....saith, I thirst." John 19:28.
In the world many know the horror of thirst. Though honest in heart, still they cannot find the
way to quench their thirst for unselfish love. Their prosperity and possessions only exaggerate their
lostness and deepen their discontent. They wait for a son or daughter of God to sit where they sit and
to verbalize for their minds the feelings that wrack their bodies with incessant pain that refuses to be
quelled by any earthly pill or potion or pleasure. As they wait for me and you, they rush to the aid of
any who offer the slightest hope of understanding them. So it likely was with the man who heard
Jesus say, "I thirst." The words struck a painfully familiar note in his heart. For this he was willing to
stand out in the crowd of people who just stood there. Deaf to the rest who said, "Let be, let us see
whether Elias will come to save Him", he "ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it
on a reed, and gave Him to drink." Matthew 27:49, 48.
History hides whether Jesus drank it or not. God would have none pass judgment on the mind
of the Son or the body of the one who in unpretending kindness gave what he had to the suffering
Son. If it be good, then it is a hallowed gift. If it be evil, then it is a hallowed giver who stands at the
cross turning over his worst to the Saviour's forgiveness that pours from His dying lips. "Judge not,
that ye be not judged." swirls around the scene, as the spectators wait for Elijah to save Jesus.
The real mystery is not the vinegar, but the Vine. As He hung fastened to the cross, as a vine
to a fence, His body burning with thirst, life's great battle raged in our behalf. When one's energy is
spent and God's back seems turned against him in rejection, the forsaken soul feels an intense thirst
for love from somewhere, even anywhere. At that time one is severely tempted to drink from the
polluted sources of selfish love which, like salt water to thirsty people, only heighten thirst and hasten
death. Were the body given control of the will, it would stuff itself with any worldly option. So the will
must discipline the body to wait for God's love to quench the thirst or to die rather than drink the
world's potion that is poison with covetousness--self's addiction. If the will does not govern, self
repeatedly returns to drink the poison in hope that the world's evil brew will do what it thinks God is
refusing to do.
From this cup Christ refused to drink despite His human thirst for divine love. He knew the
sting of sin's bitter bite far better than any. He did nothing to pollute the purity of His unselfish love
upon which we must depend for everlasting life. He won this victory over covetousness for all who
dare to be crucified with Him and to claim it. Covet-free love flows freely for us at Calvary.
Lord, may I be crucified with Christ so I may live covet-free by having Christ live in me.
Galatians 2:20.

Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Do you know someone who succeeds in the world's eyes but suffers from discontent?
Does that person perceive the cause of his extreme misery?
Do you find that you readily identify with others who share the same problems you have?
Are you quick to help them because you know what it's like to feel as they do?
Can you tell if your help conveys mere good intentions or actual solutions?
Have you ever stood out in a crowd to help someone whom the crowd ridiculed?
Have you ever jeered or tried to stop another from standing up to speak and act in behalf of someone
being abused by authorities?
Have you experienced the temptation to covet a drink from the cup of someone's selfish love?
Does the selfish love, like salt water, quench or heighten one's thirst?
Do you feel better or worse when people treat you selfishly while claiming to love you?
God's love meets needs. Selfish love heightens discontent.
Do the people you love feel more loved or less loved when you do it?

August 19
The Wine of Eternal Love
"Drink ye all of it;.. I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day
when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." Matthew 26:27, 29.
Time stands still at Calvary, as I see the sponge lifted high on the reed. I even smell the
vinegar. Im embarrassed that it's so familiar to me. It wraps its scent about my memory of what I
have sponged to Christ rather than from Him. When my gift of life was bursting with youth and
energy, like grapes sweet and fresh, I consumed most of it on raising my self worth, not content with
the value that Calvary states about who I am. I hoped others would see my worth and "love" me by
catering to my demands.
As encounters with sin bruised my innocence and dried up my feelings of pride and
superiority, I pressed my efforts toward winning what joy I could from meeting others' demands upon
me. Like bruised and wrinkled grapes being crushed for wine, I allowed myself to be crushed by the
demands upon me and served up like wine to entertain the selfish. The supposed good life of joy I
sought by wasting my life seeking their worldly love escaped me, like wine's empty bubbles escape
into the thin air. Finally selfish pursuits no longer stirred any bubbles of interest in me. The promises
of the wine of the good life had soured into the vinegar of vanity. I no longer had anything that people
sought to obtain. Who wants to be disillusioned and left without hope of gaining joy? Few drink
vinegar in goblets and imagine themselves having a good time. While some swear that vinegar cures
countless ills, it seems that people who discover vanity's vinegar in life's glass are ill. Sin's
fermentation has completed its work, and death awaits them. As awareness of their wasted life
looms before them, they feel sick to realize that gone are the chances they had to make a difference.
Calvary is no stranger to the discontented souls that long to restore their years that the
locusts of lust have eaten. The mind of Christ knows their need. Was He, filled with promise for a
good life, not crushed by the demands of a sinful world, and exposed to the jeers of a joyless world in
their behalf? Had he not been tempted to think his life would be wasted and without fruit for His
labors? Yet He had refused to turn His gift of life for His people into vinegar. As He touches us in our
vinegar stage of life, He reminds us of His plan for us to share His love, the wine of joy, in communion
with those for whom He is satisfied, content, to give His life. Just as lovers share a special joy that
becomes a symbol of their love, Jesus chooses the symbol He saves to share with us: "Drink ye all of
it;..But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it
new with you in My Father's kingdom." Matthew 26:27, 29. Let us ever drink and never thirst! God's
love, pure fruit of the Vine, crushed into wine unfermented by selfishness, is ours to drink and to pour
to a thirsty world.
Lord, may the wine of Your love bring lasting joy into this vessel and pour out through me to meet
true needs, not demands. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

As you scan your life, can you pinpoint the grape, wine, and vinegar stages of it?
Are you still feeding on pride, trying to round out your grapes of worth so others will cater to
demands?
Are you crushing out personally valuable priorities to squeeze time to meet everyone's demands?
Have you turned sour on the idea of even trying to win your love from others?
Are you willing to expose the vinegar-soaked sponge of your life to the One who was "tormented
[margin] for our transgressions,...bruised for our iniquities" Isaiah 53:5, and crushed under our sins
that we may drink with Him the wine of heaven that bubbles with the joy of eternal life?

August 20
Pure in Heart
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8.
With the message of Calvary fresh as fruit in my mind, I look at myself. No longer does my
mind castigate my body for its ugly traits. Aware of the need for wholeness in mind, spirit, and body I
take a repentant view of how I have been living. No longer can I stand to live as a tyrannical ogre
crushing the life out of my body, the castle of my King on Calvary. Instead my mind takes the
figurative towel and the basin and prepares to wash the feet that I have sent to mischief. The proud
look, the lying tongue, the hands that shed innocent blood, and the wicked heart all cry out to be
washed, but by placing my feet at the feet of Jesus, I know that His love will remove every evil trait. I
meet Him now at the Mountain of Beatitudes so He can teach how He CORRECTS with Obedience.
"Jesus, I have been caught up in trying to control my body, but I succeeded only in imprisoning it with
feelings and habits that keep me from becoming free to love. How shall I remove the ugly gap
between what my mind thinks I am (loving) and what my body via my behavior shows I am
(unloving)?"
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God," He promises me.
If my heart symbolizes the seat of my desires and feelings, the place described deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked, I am not pure. In Ezekiel 33:31 God says, "they come unto
thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as My people, and they hear thy words, but they
will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their
covetousness." If that's true, my heart is not pure. If I'm loving the whole world unselfishly except
the one person--spouse, child, boss, whomever--whom I covet and exploit to gain love, I am not pure.
Does not a drop of selfish poison in the goblet pollute the whole drink of love I offer to a needy world?
Is pure in heart even possible? It's not something that I can cause to happen.
Pure in heart can be likened to pure in cup. The cup covered with grime from the residue
of potions that had filled it becomes cleaner as hot cleansing water pours through it and gradually
loosens the dirt, until at last it is pure in cup. Similarly, pure in heart happens as we open our
selfish, coveting, lust-filled hearts to let Gods unselfish, need-meeting love flow into our
relationships. His love at work within us cleans away the coveting that poisons the love we offer to
others. Paul wrote, "Be not deceived: neither...nor covetous... shall inherit the kingdom of God. And
such were some of you: but ye are washed...sanctified...justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. The pure wine of Jesus' blood that distills into love (not
vinegar) that the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5) pulses through the figurative
blood vessels of our behavior and washes away the hidden selfishness from our lives. As our mind
sees the beauty of this sacrificial gift of the Vine transforming our ugliness, we shall see God as our
true source of love..
Lord, I want to see You wash me in the beauty of Your holiness and feel pure love pulsing in my heart.
Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Have you ever had a dish or a cup so hard that your cleaning solutions could not cleanse the dirt from
it?
Can you imagine a heart so hard that the blood of Jesus distilled into God's love cannot make it pure?
No heart is too hard for God's love to empower it to love.
The words, pure and clean, derive from the same ancient word.
possible. What is impossible with men is possible with God.

Despite past pollution, pure is

Have you reached an impasse in a partnership that makes sharing pure love again appear
impossible?
Do you feel forever branded as "a false witness who speaks lies", or have you branded someone as
such a person?
Do you fear that your polluted past prevents God from restoring to you the joy of your salvation, the
beauty of His wholeness, and the freedom to love with no strings of selfish control attached?
Does His "Blessed are the pure in heart" promise persuade you that "you shall see God" as your
Source of love
when you put His word to the test?

August 21
What Is Temptation?
"And lead us not into temptation.." Matthew 6:13.
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." While it sounds like an impossible
dream, God wants me to love with all my heart by trusting that He can fulfill this promise to the pure
in heart. But I hesitate. While God's love is beautiful theory, I prefer the beauty that human skin
adds to love's appeal. Again I see how I've been caught up in "body" as being a source of love rather
than a vessel for storing and pouring God-given love. I think I must have a human pouring the love
into me. I forget that I am the human being into which God waits to pour His love. I am the body
which He prefers to fill with the beauty of His love, so I can really truly BE a lover DOING loving, not
merely have a worldly "lover". He wants spirit, mind, and body united into one loving unit governed
by my will that is choosing to obey the mind of Christ and by my conscience that is matching what I
do with what I know God wants for me. "Jesus, I know this, but I can't do it."
Pleased that I passed the faith test, I next need to love God with all my soul by praying in
hope that He will do what I trust He can do. "Pray," Jesus says, "And lead us not into temptation."
What is temptation? Strong's Concordance shows it derives from "a putting to proof (by
experiment [of good], experience [of evil], solicitation, discipline, provocation); implying adversity."
We readily see the soliciting, provocative aspects of temptation. But we think little of temptation as
an experience of evil that brings adversity upon us and proves that man's way leads to misery. We'd
rather think we're putting to proof by experiment that man's way is good, even better than God's way.
Whether for good or evil, my body (head included) is at the mercy of my mind and will which
decide what I shall experience. If I will to jump into an icy lake, my body must endure the shock of it.
As a child can be scared into conformity with the parent's will, a body under the frightening force of
the will can be refused the freedom to object. Paul writes, "O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? Since his carnal mind neither is nor can be subject to God's
law of love, his body must suffer the results of the course of sin that his mind wills to follow. With his
discipline dial set on sin, his own mouth can't change his mind.
Mind and body both face peril without the mind of Christ to inform the conscience of truth and
to empower the will to wisely direct the behavior of the human head and body. Christ's mind will not
violate the freedom of the human will, and thus is helpless to govern the human soul (mind and body)
unless invited to do so. The prayer, "And lead us not into temptation." places our hope in the mind of
Christ to provide the power for self-control of our mind and body that we may reject evil and choose
good that benefits our whole being.
Father, govern me in a way that frees my mind and body to love many and covet none. Lead us not
into temptation. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
Uncontested obedience to God's moral law best shows our faith that His governing authority can lead
us to life. It shows we are content to accept His conclusions about good and evil without having to
experience evil for ourselves.
Think of examples, such as teacher and students, which show that one's governing authority involves
gaining the voluntary cooperation of the governed.
Upon what bases do we determine the degree of authority (know-how) that governing persons need
before we let them govern: a) personal charisma? b) education? c) power to punish?
d) amount of success they have using their tools in fostering fourfold growth in those they govern?
How is growth in those we govern (ourselves included) measured? Can we do growing for another?
Then is governing in Christ best directed at helping people learn to govern themselves in Christ?
Can I govern myself in ways that foster others growth in freedom to love without my having to
control them?
Does my freedom to grow have any value if I don't preserve God's Freedom to empower my love?

August 22
Integrity Via the Mind of Christ
"Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established." Proverbs 16:3.
As we continue letting God "first love" us through the process that cures us from being false
witnesses that speak lies, we realize that heart love and soul love toward God are not enough. After
we trust that it's possible for God to restore people to be "pure in heart", and hope that, as He dwells
within us, He'll not lead us into experiences of evil, we then need to love Him with all our minds. He
waits for our will to give permission to let His Spirit to write commandment X of His law in us and
apply His promises to our needs.
In every role partnership we have seen the need for God's Spirit to empower His BEING
promise and His DOING promise to create integrity in our roles. Now if, according to the Beatitude 6
promise, I am to BE pure in heart and, as Commandment X promises, DO loving without coveting, I
must commit my works unto the Lord. Only as I do can my works--what I do--establish my thoughts
about who I am to be true. As what I know God says about loving matches what I do about loving, my
conscience stays guilt free. No sense of sinning causes me to feel separated from God. My will can
co-operate with the mind of Christ and know that His indwelling Spirit can empower my deeds to
match what I say about who I claim to be.
Now the bond God seeks with us is more intimate than any so far. Will we agree to think in
our hearts what He thinks about good and about evil and be content with His definitions? Will we be
content with the way He chooses to dispense good to us despite the fact that our selfish evaluation of
it may wish to call it evil? Are we ready to believe that God tempts no man with evil, but that lust in
our hearts moves us to feel that way? (James 1:13, 14.) Are our thoughts so united with what He has
in mind for us that we reject our opposing selfish desires as sinful rather than be a false witness
speaking lies about what Christ has in His mind for us?
Are we willing to have the will of this divine Being permeate our being so fully that when we
are doing God's will we are doing our own will because they are one and the same? This is more than
matching ideas. This is choosing His way of arriving at good to become our way of arriving at good.
It's one thing to say I'll do God's will. It's quite another to say I will exercise no selfish will of my own;
instead God's will shall be my will. It will be clarified by His clear revelation, not clouded by selfish
bias. He will convey it to me through the mind of Christ that speaks in the Spirit of power, love, and a
sound mind, not fear. Loving Him with all my mind and all my strength, I choose Him to fulfill His
promises to will and to do His good pleasure in me. Let self's tyranny step aside, as I trade my
weaknesses for God's powerful work of grace.
Lord, what is man that You are willing to give Your mind to attending to our total well-being? How
marvelous You are! Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
Can you grasp the kind of love that would bring the master musician to serve the 24-hour growing
needs of a beginning pianist? the master craftsman to be at the beck and call of a novice?
What love leads the mind of the Creator to govern His thoughts and deeds to bring greatest benefit to
His cooperative created individuals?
Is relating with Him slavery or is it a plan to bring us the greatest freedom to love?
In clothing stores we select garments that do the most to create the image we desire to portray. In
life shall we not feel just as much in control of our free will when we are choosing the Mind most
capable of governing to achieve the highest measure of freedom to love?
Does loving (not waiting to BE loved) provide the greatest amount of joy known to man?
Can you find greater joys in the right/wrong malls of the world's lovers at the "right" price?
Is independence that leads to poverty and ruin more to be desired than our God-owned individuality
that leads to moral integrity and eternal life?
Shall we insist on learning to sort out good from evil the hard way?
Or shall we co-operate with His will to remove self, Satan's avenue to our ruin, from control?
Should an omniscient God expect us to see His will as good for us even when it opposes our own?
While God gives us freedom to choose evil, why do that when we can think and do loving things?

August 23
A New Song of Contentment
"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for ....training in righteousness; that the man of God
may be adequate, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 NASB.
As the CORRECT with Obedience process finishes near the OUT BACK door, the bond my whole
person--mind, spirit, and body--feels with Jesus is fastened snugly in place. I have no fear of losing
Him, as He, the Door to freedom to love, swings open the back door and ushers me out of my boxedin state of discontent. I see the BACK IN words on the back door's outer side welcoming me BACK IN to
relating with love in the larger world. Its message sends me forth to TRAIN with the Work of Grace.
I'm glad Jesus never fails to bring me BACK IN to love relationships better prepared to love my partners
than before. I had loved before, but not without coveting strings attached to rewards I hoped to get
for it. Now the mind of Christ leads as I TRAIN to love without coveting.
As always, God's rainbow family circle glows it messages on that outer back door. This time
six concentric rings fit snugly around each other. Each new ring is dependent upon the preceding
ones being well formed in order to take its cozy position around them. Beauty now tops the sequence
of essentials upon which it's built: Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Prosperity, Health lead to it.
The newest orange Governing Head-Governed Body partnership, in which we govern and grow, must
wait to do its complete work until human needs are defined and roles are established to meet them.
Having learned to guide, decide, teach, learn, commit, submit, provide, produce, give, and receive, we
must now wholly govern our lives to perform these roles, so we can grow more free to love, as the
mind of Christ guides us to do so.
The ring of orange represents the free state in which governing must occur in order to reveal
the beauty of our God-given freedom to love all. Commandment X (10) gives weight to its bottomline value of freedom, so needed in the governing phase of building character. What can orange
teach? The growing orange fruit needs cool nights to keep its orange color from turning green.
Likewise, we learn to keep from turning green with envy, as we TRAIN to love people who dwell in cold
unloving darkness. In the absence of any rewarding warmth from them, we learn not to seek love by
coveting neighbors' houses, wives, servants, or anything. We learn to limit our range of expectations
for love from people to zero beyond what they can and do freely give. We value such freely given love
as God's love emanating from others to us. Only He can empower it. God TRAINS us to look to Him
for life-sustaining love. People's coldness increases our awareness of their need for the warmth of
God's love and our duty to give it. Thus we grow more loving, as their cold behavior exposes their
need to be loved.
Just as robins dressed in orange breasts sing "cheer-up" from their hearts, so we with zero (0)ranges of expectation find contentment glowing from our "pure in heart" states. We know that
cheerfulness flows from hearts content to have God's love overflowing in them. Yes, we'll need much
training in righteousness to become as good as robins are at using life's "worms" to energize us to
sing our new song of contentment with our God-given freedom to love any who need it.
Lord, please use people's "wormy" loveless behavior to TRAIN us to gladly and freely love while we
expect zero. TRAIN us to sing and to feel at "Home on the [expect 0] Range". Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
Review the box diagrams to trace the teach, reprove, correct, train process to overcome discontent.
Do you feel discontent toward those who don't love you, even though you know they have no love?
Are you using your will power to match what you expect (or do) with what you know?
Do you claim Jesus' promise that "You shall not covet" and let the mind of Christ empower you to gain
the freedom from others control over your joy (or misery)?
Within what range do you still love people who have triggered your discontent: 10? 5? 1? 0?
Within what range did you actively love them before you felt the discontent? 10? 5? 1? 0?
Could it be that their freedom to love you was hindered by their discontent with your coldness?
We tempt others to covet (seek love) by our failure to freely love all with whom we relate.
Do people tend to covet love that is freely available to them or to take it for granted?
Do you pursue love from those who obviously love you or from those who hint that they might?

August 24
Characters as Temples
"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He
hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5.
What is the Gift that frees us from coveting every other? It is Jesus Himself: in Him we have
the covet-free mind of Christ. He who never leaves nor forsakes us can provide the never failing, ever
flowing love which He sheds abroad in our hearts to remove coveting.
Contentment and
covetousness cannot coexist. Counsel to "be content with such things as ye have" reminds us that
whether our things are many or few, costly or cheap, means nothing in matters of contentment. The
God-given faith, hope, and love we have in Jesus are the very content by which we find contentment.
By grace through faith He fills and satisfies the heart's desire. "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and
He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Psalm 37:4.
The heart's desire is freedom to love. The love we seek comes with the Lover. As we
welcome one, we gain the other. God is love. He is the crown jewel of covet-free covenant relating.
In the mind of Christ we have the power, love, and sound mind we need to govern our bodies to love
freely so that others can grow to do so.
When King David desired to see a temple built to God, he directed his son, chosen by God for
the task, to do the job. Before Solomon could begin to build, David had gathered excellent materials
from everywhere for the task. No doubt Solomon had watched them stockpile in readiness for the
temple project. The last main thing David did for Solomon was to relinquish his reign over his son.
He knew that Solomon could not begin the work until he was free to govern himself under God. Recall
how Solomon prayed for the wisdom he needed to govern himself for the good of all.
So it is with building our characters to be temples wherein God dwells. Parents and other
leaders surround us with the best they have for the task before us. We learn all we can by what they
can contribute to our lives. But each of us must individually build the temple of the Lord in which we
plan to dwell forever. God wants no bloodied hands reigning over us to corrupt its purity of
construction. As He assigns to each of us the authority we need to do the task, let it be clear that
none of us will be given the luxury of blaming anyone else for the job we do. We are each given
charge of our own temple, so we bear the responsibility for whether it is built for self's rule or for
God's. We cannot begin a temple for God until we are free from the control of other human beings.
God will not force His way into a temple that's controlled by self. "And what agreement hath the
temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God;" 2 Corinthians 6:16. What is a
temple? It is a dwelling wherein one communes with the mind of Christ Who, if allowed, will bring self
under the control of His governing love.
Lord, place my self under control of Your love, rule my spirit by Your Holy Spirit that I may be free to
love. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Is it possible to be content without the contents of faith, hope, and love which provide it?
Can
discontent or coveting bring freedom to love? Should we be content with what we have if we lack
freedom to love?
What can you offer children for use in building a character temple which God can fill with love?
Do you govern yourself so they can freely grow, or try to force their bodies to do what you say?
Can your mind or mouth move their hands?
Do you tell them that if they know what's good for them, they'll do as you say?
Is it good to bypass their reasoning and force them to let other minds control their bodies?
Can you govern yourself to be free to love without the mind of Christ? Why not?
Why do you need God's love to become free to love? What hinders you from seeking God for love?
Do you expect to be loved because of a deed you did? [Is the deed an idol used to get love or is it a
sacrifice you make to earn the love of some other idol. Or like the golden calf at Mt. Sinai, is it both a
sacrifice and an idol?] Why is it hard to accept "love" if you haven't "earned" it?
If your mind forces your body to work to earn love, is your body a temple to self wherein your own
body sacrifices its works to self? Is the mind also serving self?

August 25
Self-Control Builds Character
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance [self-control]: against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22, 23.
Earlier we discussed how one's spirit affects his character. A spirit of discontent can produce
a bitterly critical, envious character. One who invites the mind of Christ to govern the spirit will allow
the Holy Spirit to write God's law of love in his mind and heart. As man values each commandment,
the Spirit uses it as His tool to develop a new fruit. Now He uses Commandment X (10) which values
God's Freedom, to develop the fruit of temperance, self-control.
Often self-control is only noted when it's lacking. "Sorry I lost my temper," we say. Then we
promptly dismiss the need to cooperate with the mind of Christ in developing self-control. We view it
as a brake on bad behavior rather than as a mechanism for providing a creative, positive thrust to
governing our behavior. Unschooled in appreciating the beauty it fosters, we have become schooled
in controlling others. But clearly understood, the task of self-control leaves no time or desire for
controlling others.
Self-control is not about piously supposing we're going places in life's car while parked timidly
in the garage making fumes of exhaustion to cloud our lack of real achievement. God's Freedom at
work empowering our self-control enables us to move efficiently through the traffic of life on missions
of mercy without crashing into the very people that await our help to solve their problems. God sends
us forth equipped for the task. We have at least ten talents that need groomed by self-control to
make maximum use of them. Despite our scramble to devalue ourselves as one-talent workers, few
would want to do without these any of these ten. They are mental faculties, speech, influence, time,
health, strength, money, kindly affections, generous impulses, and quick apprehension of spiritual
truths. (See E.G. White, Christ's Object Lessons, Chapter 25.)
God gives us Ten Commandment values to apply to the creative use of our ten talents. They
are faith, hope, love, grace, authority, life, unity, work, truth, and freedom. If we simply matched the
first with the first, second with second, and so forth, we would gain great help in developing our
talents. For example, what benefits would accrue from applying faith to the use of our mental
faculties, from charging our speech with hope, from making sure that love pervades our influence and
grace governs the use of our time? What if authority (know-how) governed the uses and care of our
health? What if our strength were directed to valuing life, if unity were the chief concern in the
spending of money, and work were our means of showing kindly affections? Imagine how truth would
affect the direction of our generous impulses and how freedom to love could speed people's
willingness to gain quick apprehension of spiritual truths? Now imagine the maximum benefits that
wed gain if each of the ten values were applied to all of the ten talents. Self-control could then be
fully employed!
Lord, our character growth is unlimited when the mind of Christ governs us with Your love. Thanks!
Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Consider designing yourself a type of multiplication table using the ten talents in the horizontal row
and the ten values in the vertical column. It will create 100 combinations for applying the values to
the use of the talents. Then apply your table to ways that you can increase your effectiveness by
improving the quality of love you are sharing in your various partnerships.
Consider a parent-child partnership you have. How can you within that partnership enhance the use
of your mental faculties, speech, influence, time, etc., by applying your ten values to it?
How could mental faculties be enhanced by faith, hope, love, life, unity, truth, etc.?
How could your shared speech and influence be enhanced by faith, hope, love, authority, etc.?
Apply the benefits of the ten values to your use of each talent within that partnership.
Then apply your table to another partnership and another until you have explored all cases of the
seven basic partnerships you have.
While one could spend a lifetime doing that, any time spent at it would help to break the habit of
trying to control others, a mistake which leads to their control over you.

August 26
Jesus, the Way of Escape
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to
escape, that ye may be able to bear it." I Corinthians 10:13.
A rapid survey of the catalog of sins people choose to indulge causes me to pause at the text
above. Can all sins in the list be part of something that "is common to man"? Most of us deny having
anything in common with the repulsive sins the media reports. We use the shock, horror, and anger
we feel toward the evil as evidence that we claim nothing in common with their evil. Still the detailed
media accounts draw us en masse to feed our fascination with sin.
Then, as if factual incidents happen too seldom to quench our thirst for evil, we spend sensual
sessions before large and small screens with animated novels to lap up more novel ways to indulge
vicarious sin. As we see immorality parade before us, we say that we would never do that. The sinful
scenes are but exhibits upon which we base our claims that we are good when compared to the evil
exhibits A-Z of sex and violence. But as junk food expands the waist and lowers the belt, so also
mental junk expands the waste we tolerate (-eat?) and lowers the belt we draw as our dividing line
between good and evil. Will power bids good "bye". Self-control fades into a mythical troll that lurks
just beyond the electronic glow of sin that daily molds our real world. As we dwell amidst trash, the
enemy turns it all into one continual temptation to refuse God the freedom to empower our selfcontrol to behave in loving ways. He coaxes the lust of the eye to fulfill the lust of the flesh by
building the pride of life upon mere suppositions that we are better than they who are so polluted
with immorality. Sadly, to do so involves becoming polluted with the very immorality that we use to
establish our purity. As we thus try to earn the love of the world, sin blinds our eyes of faith to the
beauty for us in the mind of Christ.
Sin clings so closely that we risk confusing sin's "hide" with our own skin. We dare not risk
our hides by exposing sin lest we expose the evil of our own hearts. Instead we trust self to control
our behavior so that its restraint blended with good deeds can make us appear right to eyes who lust
for us. While Self's sin-hiding gap between our think and our do, can bear a false witness of a truly
self-controlled body, true Self-[under]-control has no good substitute.
Calvary shows the evil depths to which lust fostered by self can plunge us. Still God is faithful
to make a way of escape in Jesus. His sharp, quick sword can sever the lust we plant in our minds
before it yields sinful behavior. It goes to our center of being where by His Spirit Jesus stands
between us and our lusting desires. The closer we draw to sin, the closer we press to Jesus, as He
stands between us and our tempting target. Remembering His own thirst, He pours His love to us, as
He TRAINS us in righteousness: "Which will you choose now: Me or the sin?" Each time we reach
toward temptation His outstretched hand offers to take ours and lead us not into it. Again and again
He asks in essence, "Which will you choose now: Me or the sin?"
"I thirst"...for You, Lord. I choose You, Jesus. The best way I know to say I love you is to choose You
and reject the evil that paves the path to death. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

As you live each day, zero in on your chances to say "I love You, Jesus" by choosing to obey the mind
of Christ; reject any evil that would corrupt the purity of your thoughts and lessen the flow of His
unselfish love into your mind and your behavior.
What lustful desires infect your affections or lodge as guilt-engendering anxieties in your mind?
What grudges or bruises or abuses lie under your skin awaiting chances to spark bitter memories?
What beautiful people still have your strings of hope for love dangling from them, strings you grasp
for fruitless trips to fantasy land? What neurotic mental hang-ups harass your body with fear of
making mistakes, accuse yourself of misbehaving, and set off time-wasting bombs that explode
simple tasks into impossible feats?
All these box us into futile thought processes we dare not express in our behavior. We become
unbalanced beings with overactive minds and pitifully underdeveloped bodies of loving behaviors.
Let us forsake the futile by choosing to let the mind of Christ, who never forsakes us, refuse to allow
Self to harass and torment us.

August 27
How Can the Mind of Christ Work in You?
"Let this mind be in You, which was also in Christ Jesus.." Philippians 2:5.
"But we have the mind of Christ." I Corinthians 2:16.
In the struggle to escape the carnal mind's tyranny, we face a tough task. Our Governing
Head-Governed Body partnership has so wholly adopted the demand-making-meeting system we use
on others that we also use it on ourselves. Fed by carnal desires, Self tyrannizes my own mind and
body just as mercilessly as it tyrannizes others, if not more so. It creates inner conflict by urging my
mind to will my body to sin. My body gets conflicting messages: Guilty feelings about doing wrong
mix with my body's urge to conform to sin to win my Self-ruled mind's approval. My feelings churn
until my body conforms its behavior to the Self-ruled mind's demand, and sins. It cannot feel "right"
until its "DO" conforms to what my mind "knows". When my mind is wrong, my body must do wrong
in order to feel right because it depends upon my Self-run conscience for approval. After the wrong
behavior, while my tyrannized mind tries to justify the wrong, it may also force my body to indulge
some "escape" or neurotic behavior to relieve stress, so I can feel good, be right again, and
expect to be loved.
If I do find a good way to resist sin, before long Self attacks it. Using some fear or fault to
trigger my guilty feelings, it oppresses and harasses my mind and body until I succumb again to the
sin that Self perpetrates in my behavior. No matter how I try to win ground against it, this Guilt Cycle
mental process grinds all good ideas into mud and leaves me feeling defeated. "What's the use?"
becomes my mind's excuse to appease Self and order my body to sin again. Perhaps you've found
that one after another of your ideas for resisting temptation work until this faulty head-body relating
process permeates and destroys them. Even the best ideas for defeating sin cannot be turned over
to the carnal mind without becoming caught in the Guilt Cycle grinding machine and destroyed.
"But we have the mind of Christ." We need not keep doing the unloving deeds that the
passion-driven carnal mind demands. Within the mind of Christ, individuality, power to think and to
do loving, awaits our reception. When Self begins harassing us, we can appeal to the mind of Christ
as our higher authority to obey, and let Him empower us to reject its demands. We need not run in
guilt cycles that press the mind to tyrannize the body with guilty feelings and demands for sinful or
neurotic behaviors. The mind of Christ provides a mental position from which we can say, in essence,
to Self: "You're not my boss now. I have submitted my will to Christ, and I am His person. He forbids
you to tyrannize His person by harassing my mind or body. I do not play the Im right, youre wrong;
youre right, Im wrong mind-body game anymore. I no longer allow the spirit of fear to destroy the
power of Gods love to maintain my sound mind and body in my relationships."
The mind of Christ wont force our will, but if we unite it with His by faith, He works to link our
thoughts and our behavior as one, and establishes our integrity. Only He can stop the demanding
process of Self that accuses and harasses us, as it covets lust. In Him we are just; we know that
condemning thoughts and feelings do not come from God. So we can in good conscience refuse to
indulge them. Gods sheep know His voice.
Lord, work in me to will and to do Your good pleasure. Amen. See Philippians 2:13.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
How can we distinguish the thoughts of the mind of Christ from our own? They will not come to our
mind in a spirit of fear. Read I John 4:1. Christ has in mind for us all the essentials for abundant life:
wisdom, knowledge, understanding, prosperity, health, beauty, and glory to God. His thoughts of us
are of peace, not evil. See Jeremiah 29:11. They are given with power to convict, power to act on
them in harmony with His known will, with love we can use to meet needs we see. They foster a
sound mind by appealing to sound reasoning and establishing our thoughts on the issues. They
prompt us to base choices on sound principles; they positively affect our emotions. See 2 Timothy
1:7. They will agree with, perhaps even be, Scripture. The more we desire to know His mind, the
more we'll search His Word and expand our repertoire of things His Spirit can bring to remembrance.
As were willing, He reveals His will to us, and causes us to do it! What does your head need to think,
your body need to do? What sin imprisons you? Discover how much loving God has in mind for
you...and for you to do. Learning self-control beats leaning on the Self-troll whose method of control is
the Guilt Cycle.

August 28
Self-Control: The Ruler's Tool of Choice
"And He said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you?" Mark 10:36.
John writes, "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,...the prince of the kings of the
earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us
kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
Revelation 1:5, 6.
Jesus, King of equality among people, identifies with us both in our poverty and in His royalty.
He shares His kingship with us by making us kings--governing heads appointed to meet the needs of
the body we govern. What King would set up many kings alongside Him? Most would call such a
move political suicide. But this King Jesus sets a better precedent for our kingly behavior than the
taxing behaviors we see among the world's KINGs. He bids us, as kings equipped with self-control, to
willingly meet the needs of any could-be king who wants to govern himself in ways which allow all
within his sphere of influence the freedom to grow more loving, not more self-centered and
demanding. He governs to halt our discontented struggle for power by placing us in power. King to
king He asks us, "What would ye that I should do for you?"
"Jesus," I answer, "you have made me a king as per Revelation 1:6. This position of power
overwhelms me. But I have no power to govern my own thoughts and behavior with a loving spirit. A
spirit of discontent shadows my frustrating attempts to control others. I give the "WRONG!"
treatment to any who challenge me. The puny, lack-luster rewards I get for lusting force me to exist
in poverty and to covet even more. Thus self imprisons my mind and body by coveting in countless
ways. These seemingly innocuous sins are doubly deadly due to the ease with which they can be
harbored unseen in the thoughts of my heart. Like little foxes inside my robe of self-righteousness
eating away the contents of my body, they not only consume the contentment of my life, but they
also destroy the connecting vines through which the content of God's life-sustaining faith, hope, and
love flow to me. No man who is imprisoned by a spirit of discontent is free to love freely. None can
imprison people who do freely love.
"What do I need, Jesus?" I ask, knowing that only the Spirit's fruit of self-control can meet the
need of any imprisoned by self. Aware of the imprisoned people awaiting this key to escape, I know I
must have this key to assist them in becoming free. I listen to Revelation 3:11 speak to my mind:
"Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." My crown? it's
the self-under-control-of-Gods-love by which I govern what God gives me--my own mind and body-when I give it to Him to be His temple. It cannot be stolen; I lose it only when, by failing to use it, I
give it over to others who take it.
King of kings, what would Ye that I should do for You? Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Note this simple truth: The King who holds the key that locks one in prison is the one who holds the
key to his becoming free. We tend to imagine that other human beings keep us imprisoned, and we
waste our energies resisting or avoiding them. But he who has no power to free us has no power to
enslave us. The enslavement we suffer results from our giving consent to these imposters. We
consent to their control in hope that they will freely love us and thus equip us to love also, but any
who seek control over us seek to get love, not give it.
To whom have you given the keys to control you? Who can cause you to lose your temper? Who can
make you angry? What do you hope to gain from people who control? Do you want to give people
who upset you control over you?
How much do you treasure the crown of self-control God offers you? Your answer lies in the values of
what you allow to rob you of self-control. Is the tyranny of those things and people really worth more
to you than the freedom-granting self-control that you lose in your efforts to get those items?
To keep us in top condition and minimize losses of self-control, the mind of Christ does maintenance
on our minds and bodies by spotting deadly attitudes and empowering the removal of the sins
causing them. Can you expect to maintain beauty if you ignore provisions in Christ's mind for your
personal renewal?

August 29
Meet the Greatest Head
"And the King shall answer and say unto them,... I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. ...in prison,
and ye visited me not." Matthew 25:40, 43.
The streams and rivers of human history that are splashed upon the canvas of time race their
way to the ocean of truth that is painted in bold strokes by Jesus' parable of Himself as a shepherd
King. He sorts all people into sheep or goat groups, not Christian or heathen, not "nice-guy
somebody's" or "no-good nobody's", not "right's" or "wrong's". Those who've loved to meet the needs
of the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and imprisoned He commends as sheep to be welcomed
into the kingdom. They had no idea that the King, their Governing Head, had benefitted from their
care of His body.
Those who slaved to appease and cater to every self-proclaimed carnal king, are classed as
goats. Having never missed a chance to walk with or chase after carnal kings, they act shocked to be
listed among those who did not help the King. The fact that they lived to project and/or accept guilt
while making and/or being scape goats should be no reason, in their opinion, for them to be so
designated. How could they know that this King, unlike carnal kings, would use His head to identify
with the needs of His body of citizens? Hadn't temple scenes taught them to sacrifice sheep to create
good lives for their owners? Having been thus sacrificed to fund royal lust, must they now be
punished for it by exclusion from the kingdom? Death's wake-up call is not music to ears plugged by
a lifetime of indifference to the cries of the needy.
Despite the "best" efforts of many, acts cannot be removed from the facts of life--temporal
or eternal. Goats lack the attitudes, will power, self-control, and skills needed to enjoy ministering to
the needy. A life of na-a-a-ing the countless opportunities they have to develop these qualities, shows
that they do not want training in ministering. Thus in mercy the King ends their misery.
How shall we tell carnal KINGs from the Christian kings Jesus has made us to be? The answer
lies in how we govern. My carnal governing head mistakenly claims I have a God-given right to ride
my body--individual or corporate--to get where I'm going. I claim that what I'm doing is for its own
good. Since God has given me the divine right of kings (really?) I need pay no attention to my body's
or anybody's needs. Such useless data can never carry more weight than my selfish instincts. Heads
are mere cisterns for my orders. "Off with the head" of any who use it to oppose my demand. When
my head works so hard to take the place of yours just to benefit you, you must trust my head to run
your body, then mindlessly support my plans, and let me tax you to the limit.
How does the King of kings measure how we govern behavior? "Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Matthew 25:40. We govern so
our bodies can grow free to love, as we cooperate with God to overcome misbehaviors that keep
God's love from working in us. When we meet the needs of the least, they'll be set free to love. That
is God's goal for all of us.
Lord, empower me to co-operate with You in all I do. Amen.

How do today's concepts relate to you?

Imagine joining a crowd of people on their journey to meet the King who is coming quickly. A fellow
traveler matches eyes with me, expecting to be loved. Suddenly I say, "Wow, you're the King!" and I
remove my crown of self-control from my head and place it on him. I fall before his feet, and imprison
myself in the hope that he will meet all my needs. I lose my identity in his, place him in charge of my
conscience, and begin a futile "get-love" game with him.
Ridiculous! you say? Anybody can tell a real King from imposters.
But what if I myself AM the imposter, hoping to flatter my fellow traveler into a bondage which I hope
to control? Coveting works that way. I let myself be controlled by my desire to get things. Why? I
want to use them to meet my demands; I want to control or rule over them to satisfy my greed. As
greed grips the grapes I grasp in hope of squeezing some wine of joy for my life, discontent ferments
it all into the vinegar of vanity.
King Jesus is unmistakable: He's the One whose Holy Spirit can place self under control of Gods love,
and thus provide us with self-control and free us to love.
Where do I stand now in His kingdom? Or have I set up my own kingdom of covetousness?

August 31
Beauty Is as Beauty Does
"Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me
meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: Naked, and ye clothed
Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Then shall the righteous
answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee
drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee? Or when saw
we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done
it unto Me." Matthew 25:34-40. Read the rest of the story in Matthew 25:41-26. Also read Proverbs
6:16-19 which relates to the following poem:
INASMUCH
I am hungry.

am

sick.
Empty inside.

Grief
wrecks my fun.

I hide it with a look of pride.

My

feet

swiftly

to

mischief run.
I am thirsty.
Need a well.
My tongue would rather lie than tell.

I'm in prison.
Life's one long lie.
A false witness now am I.

I'm a stranger.
None open to me

I'm IN AS MUCH
Need

as

sound.
If my blood-shedding hands they see.

I sow discord where love is

found.

I am naked.

Just as I
am,

Every spot.
My wicked heart imagines a lot....

You
once were too,
Before someone brought Christ
to you.

My deeds belie
What I claim to be.

INASMUCH
As God helped
you,

No wonder folks lack faith in me.

Please
freedom, too.

teach

me

to

find

by Norma Timm
Lord, inasmuch as I can do nothing without You, cause me to love You by loving them. Amen.
How do today's concepts relate to you?
How will the rest of our story read in the judgment day if we let Self rule? if we let Jesus rule?
Am I on the side of the sheep or goats when I relate to the needs of the hungry, thirsty, strangers,
naked, sick, and imprisoned? Do I cooperate with Jesus or covet control over them?
What needless burdens have I forced upon my body by lying that I need this jewelry, luxury, car, or
furniture as tools to equip me to love others as though they were Jesus? How much have I overtaxed
my body to pay for nonessentials that leave no funds or time to love others? Builders value tools for
their usefulness. They do not decorate them as decoys or treat them as idols.
Beauty of character, the crowning jewel Jesus gives, is the tool we need for loving. This tool is
not gained by trying to BE somebody who makes or meets demands to win love. It develops by
meeting needs. Each need God reveals provides a canvas of opportunity upon which we may paint a
reflection of God's love for His body. What can you BE for Jesus? a lover who loves as Jesus loves you.
What can you DO for Jesus? love others as if you were loving Jesus. Our loving deeds can convey His
beauty to others. Hear King Jesus in Revelation 3:11, "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which

thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Ready or not?