The Character Of The Christian

Popular Definitions:

- do what you say you're going to do

- personal integrity

The character of the Christian should be the character of Christ.

25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis,° Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.  5:1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying:

He was pursued by people – by needy people

Some of us will wear ourselves out for the crowd and the crowds vanish quickly or are very finicky.  A crowd of people who each had their own agenda.

The second crowd is the teachable crowd.  This crowd can change the world.

The third crowd

There are more people in the world who are handicapped by attitude than by physical adversity or disability.

"There is none so blind as he who will not see.  We must not close our minds, we must let our hearts be free."

The Man In The Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for self

And the world makes you king for a day,

Just go to a mirror and look at yourself,

And see what THAT man has to say.

For it isn't your father or mother or wife

Who judgment upon you must pass;

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people may think you a straight-shootin' chum

And call you a wonderful guy,

But the man in the glass says you're only a bum

If you can't look him straight in the eye.

He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest

For he's with you clear up to the end,

And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test

If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years

And get pats on the back as you pass,

But your final reward will be heartaches and tears

If you've cheated the man in the glass.

Never trust a dentist...

 * who wears dentures.

 * who has hairy knuckles.

 * whose drill is driven by a system of pulleys connected to three mice on a treadmill.

 * who sends you a Christmas card and charges you for it.

 * who chews tobacco and spits the juice into the sink.

 * who uses the suction hose to empty your pockets.

 * who is also a barber.

 * who sprays his equipment with Lysol to sterilize it.

 * who uses lead for fillings.

   On the other hand, you can always trust a dentist...

 * who has never chewed gum.

 * who looks like Jack Nicholson.

 * who doesn't ask you questions when your mouth's full.

 * who puts you to sleep two weeks before your appointment.

 * who uses a laser instead of a drill.

 * who cancels your appointment to play tennis.

 * who has mellow rock piped into his office instead of elevator  music.

 * who doesn't strap you in the chair.

n      From an article in Campus Life by Stephen Erickson

3 Levels Of Living

THE LEVEL OF INSTINCT - represents the level where people frankly want their own way, and so far as they are able, get it.  It is the level of sheer desire, where that is the overmastering concern.  It is the level where we most nearly approach the brute beasts.  If a man on the level

of instinct is economically big enough to take a business away from a man who is economically small, or from several such men, he takes it...

THE LEVEL OF CONSCIENCE - And here one has moved up from the level of instinct.  One has seen it's selfishness and shortsightedness.  One realizes that alongside the urge to feather one's own nest and enjoy one's own indulged desires, there is another urge: the urge to

character, service and brotherliness.

THE LEVEL OF GRACE - I mean the level where God's mind is first believed in, and then sought in every matter.  One has moved up from the level of irresponsibility to conscientiousness; and then one has moved through the level of conscientiousness to the level of guidedness.

Taken from a sermon by Sam Shoemaker.