{"id":1399,"date":"2022-12-18T13:09:31","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T03:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/?p=1399"},"modified":"2022-12-18T13:09:33","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T03:09:33","slug":"my-righteousness-or-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/2022\/12\/18\/my-righteousness-or-gods\/","title":{"rendered":"My &#8220;righteousness&#8221; or God&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bible Reading:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>John 3<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Devotional Thoughts:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We act upon the things we are convinced of. Right or wrong, once we have convinced ourselves something is the right thing to do, that\u2019s what we do! Why is the right thing to do? Because that\u2019s what we think will make us happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you don\u2019t think this is true, take a minute to analyze the last time you willfully did something you knew was wrong. Why did you do it? I\u2019ll bet that when you boil that action down, or that thought, or that attitude, at the core of the motivation behind it will be your happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can remember an example of this from when I was in 6th grade. There were a couple of popular boys that I wanted to be my friends. We had gone on a field trip to our teacher\u2019s farm. While we were walking through the woods at his farm, I stepped into a mud bog and lost my shoe. I could see the two boys in front of me. So, in an attempt to impress them, and win their favor, I swore. I knew it was wrong. I had been raised not to say words like that. But, at that moment, I had convinced myself that the right thing to do in order to insure my happiness and get those boys to like me, was to disobey God, disobey my parents, and act like them by swaring!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This may seem like a severe example, and it probably is. But, as I have been meditating on this concept, I see in myself, such a propensity to this. To redefine what is right and wrong based on my own happiness, comfort, security, etc. And that my friends is the very definition of idolatry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, trying to wrap his head around the utter disparity he saw in Jesus\u2019 life and teaching, and that of his peers, Jesus answer to him was \u201cYou must be born again!\u201d (John 3:3) You need a completely new outlook! Everything you have been operating by needs to change!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus continued in John 3:19 to say, \u201cGod\u2019s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.\u201d We prefer our own definition of what is right. That was certainly the case for those religious leaders, and Jesus confronted them on it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John 3:20-21 \u201cAll who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.\u201d When someone confronts you about something, how do you respond? I know I am certainly not always that quick to just embrace it. I was reminded of this just yesterday, as we read through the program evaluation from one of our students who just finished. I found myself justifying and defending myself over the words this person had written about us and the program. But, Jesus tells us that \u201cthose who do what is right, come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.\u201d They come to the light so their actions can be exposed, and they can be instructed and directed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As John wraps up chapter 3 of his gospel, he says, \u201cThe Father loves His Son and has put everything into his hands. And anyone who BELIEVES in God\u2019s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn\u2019t OBEY the son will never experience eternal life\u2026\u201d John links belief to obedience! To believe God\u2019s son and have eternal life means that we obey Him. In contrast to the religious leaders who defined their own righteousness (showing they don\u2019t really believe), Jesus tell us to obey what He defines as righteous, and in so doing it will prove to those who witness our lives that we belong to God. (John 3:21)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Declarations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I can so easily redefine what is \u201cright\u201d for me based on my desire for happiness, comfort or security. God\u2019s definition never changes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>My happiness, comfort or security is not the most important motivation for what I do. If it is, then it is an idol that needs to be dealt with.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Belief and obedience go together. I can\u2019t say I believe in God\u2019s Word and His salvation without obeying what He says! Well, actually I can \u201csay\u201d I believe, but my actions is what shows what I really believe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bible Reading: Devotional Thoughts: We act upon the things we are convinced of. Right or wrong, once we have convinced ourselves something is the right thing to do, that\u2019s what we do! Why is the right thing to do? Because that\u2019s what we think will make us happy. If you don\u2019t think this is true, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[130596],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-declarations-of-truth","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}