22/11/2022
DAILY CONNECTION - A Devotional for the young people
By Eastern Nigeria Union Conference Youth Ministries of Seventh Day Adventist Church
Theme: Integrity
November 22
Topic: INTEGRITY: A CRITERIA FOR CHURCH SELECTION
Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them (Acts 6:3 NIV).
Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, sincerity, and uprightness. It is a personality trait that everyone admires, since the person has a moral compass that wavers not. Moral integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching. It is the attitude of knowing what is right and wrong but rather choosing to do the right.
Men of Issachar were qualified leaders (1 Chron 12:32): They understood the times. They knew what Israel ought to do, and all their relatives were under their control. They led and their relatives followed having proved their moral integrity. The church needs "sons and daughters of Issachar" now who really understand "the times."
George Barns said, "The central conclusion is that American Church is dying due to lack of strong leadership. In this time of unprecedented opportunity and plentiful resources, the church is actually loosing influence due to lack of leadership. Nothing is more important than leadership.
Therefore it is incumbent upon the church to be very careful in selecting people into offices. Do not nominate those unknown to you. Consider commitment, honesty, accountability, respect, attitude, courage, trust, ethics, morality and responsibility before any nomination. Anyone in the church that seeks to maintain these virtues and acknowledges and corrects errors promptly is nomination worthy.
Acts 6:3 says "seek out." It takes careful search, selfless action, absolute trust and unbiased decisions. We should know the character of those whom we nominate into offices. Bearing in mind Paul's counsel in Titus 1:6: