1st John 4:1, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
I love King James Bible preachers! I love preacher quotes. I collect preacher quotes like baseball cards, I save them and I cherish them for life. I suggest that you do the same! If you don't jot it down, you will forget, with few exceptions.
However, men are sinners, imperfect and we all say stupid things at times. I am guilty as well. I challenge you dear reader to learn to be objective. That is, learn to question everything. When I attended Bible college as an 18 year old young man, I heard one of my Bible college teachers criticize the popular bumper sticker which reads: “QUESTION AURHOTIY!” In my youthful exuberance and ignorance I thereafter hated that bumper sticker too. But now that I am 54 years old, I can say without any reservation that I was wrong. I now fully agree with that bumper sticker!!! Always question authority. I don't mean be irreverent, sassy, a troublemaker or disrespectful of authority. I mean to never accept the word or authority of man as being equal with God. Your pastor is not above the law. Your pastor is not above the Word of God. There is only one God, one Holy Bible, and man is neither.
Anyway, I check my Twitter account almost daily, to see what my favorite preachers have to share and say. Oftentimes Twitter shares other stuff too, by different preachers. I won't mention the following preacher's name, but he is a popular fundamentalist Baptist preacher. I read this quote by him today, as an example of something that is not true. He states:
“Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.”
At first I instinctively gave him my approval, by clicking on the heart symbol on Twitter, but then I pondered his statement a bit more and realized that it is false, so I removed my approval. Your reputation may be lost by a single act, but never your character. Pastor Jack Hyles rightly taught that, “Character is the subconscious doing of right.” Character is when we develop a HABIT of doing what is right. The way to develop a habit is to repeat doing something over and over and over, until it becomes second nature.
Dr. Jack Hyles teaches this subject in this helpful sermon called: 'WHAT HAS DESTROYED AMERICA.' Dr. Hyles teaches that children need to be forced to do what is right. The way to destroy a child is to let them do what they want, when they want, without any rules or restraint. Proverbs 29:15, “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” Letting a child do whatever they want without any limits or rules is a form of child abuse. The Bible says, as we just read, that a child left alone brings shame. I think the reason why the Bible mentions the mother is simply because historically men have worked to support the family, while the mother worked at home raising the children. What we have in America today is a ungodly disaster. President Joe Biden is now passing new spending bills in 2021 to provide daycare for small infants. I think that is tragic. The government wants to brainwash children at the earliest possible age, and get women into the workplace, leaving strangers to raise your children. Daycares don't care!
Going back to the quote I read today on Twitter:
“Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.”
That is not true. Character is indeed made by many acts, doing what is right until it becomes a habit. But it is not true that making one mistake, committing one sin, breaking one law, et cetera, causes a person to lose all their character. It does reveal that they lacked character in the first place, otherwise they wouldn't have done that SINGLE ACT. A man with exceptional moral character doesn't just go rob one bank. If he truly had exceptional character, he never would have robbed anyone! Obviously no one has perfect character, because everyone commits sin. Character is what God knows about you when no one else is looking.
You don't lose character by a single wrong act. You lose character by a slow process of wicked thinking. Dr. Bob Jones Sr. (1883-1968) wisely said: “Behind every tragedy in human character is a slow process of wicked thinking.” When someone jams their thumb in a shopping cart in public, they don't just take God's name in vain all of a sudden; but rather, they have been cursing in God's name at home in private, hearing it a thousand times blurted out in horrible movies, and their true heart was revealed. Adversity and moments of anger don't shape our character, they reveal it.
I believe that is what the Bible means in my favorite Scripture in Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:” Jeremiah 17:9 indicts the human heart as being deceptive and wicked above all. Never trust the man who trusts himself. When a man says you can trust him alone with your wife, you're a fool if you believe him. The same goes for every wife. No unmarried people ought ever be alone together by themselves, because that's how the sin of adultery starts.
The best way to avoid sinning is to avoid the situations that lead to sin. Only a fool would disagree with me on this. A wise person sets up safeguards and boundaries in their life to prevent sinning. We all still sin, but so often we totally ignored all the warning signs and failed to take any precautions. True Christians who walk with God are loving people, and often vulnerable. Wicked people know this and often try to take advantage of others. Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Jesus said that out of THE HEART comes all manner of evil thoughts.
I am not criticizing the preacher who made the previous quote. I do disagree with him. I am simply encouraging you to apply 1st John 4:1, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” Test everything with the inspired King James Bible. Just because a man or a woman makes one bad or sinful decision in life, doesn't erase all of their character. It means that they didn't have that great of a character to begin with. It means that their reputation may be ruined. It takes years to build a good name, and one single act to destroy it. That is definitely a true statement! Reputation is what people think about you; Character is what God knows about you! Everyone thought Haman was a great man in Medo-Persia, but God knew that he was a scumbag. Many people in the Bible even thought that Jesus was crazy, had a devil and was a deceiver, but we know the Lord was totally innocent and sinless.
So be careful about repeating things that you hear, even from preachers, because they may not be true.
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