Quote from Forum Archives on July 10, 2002, 11:22 am

Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>

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The Burning Bush Devotional
07.10.02

Shading The Truth

"You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another." -
Leviticus 19:11.

It has only been in the past few decades that young students have not been
taught the value of truth telling through the story of George Washington's
cutting down the cherry tree. According to the story when little George was
confronted by his father he said something similar to the following,
"Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut down the cherry tree." The minister
Mason Weems published this story along with others about Washington shortly
after Washington's death. Although the citizenry may have recognized the
cherry tree incident as a likely myth it was believed that the first
President stood for honesty. After all, he said that he had no desire to
hold on to his power and had then kept his word by leaving office. Truth,
honesty, and the American Way once had meaning in our society.

Yesterday in a speech given on Wall Street President Bush called for an end
to "cooking the books", and "shading the truth", in corporate America. The
President conceded that more financial scandals are possible. He called for
a "new ethic of corporate responsibility." What is really needed is a
return to the old ethic of Biblical principles that the country was
originally built upon. What is needed are some political, business, and
religious leaders who once again stand for truth, honesty, and morality.
Those in the political, business, and religious communities have had and are
having a real image problem over the last several years. It has taken some
time for the truth to be revealed but now we see the whole ugly truth is
coming out.

The truth usually is revealed and it is nearly always painful when it has
been concealed through lying, and deceitfulness. A Biblical example is that
of Ananias and his wife Sapphira (Acts 5) who sold some property but lied
when they said they were giving the whole amount to the church. The
shocking thing about Ananias and Sapphira was that the truth was known
immediately and they both dropped dead and that was the end of their lies.
However, in the world we live in the truth usually is not revealed so
quickly but even years after the lies, deceit, and immoralities began the
truth is still shocking.

We are shocked, outraged, and many have been directly harmed by the moral
deceitfulness of our political, business, and religious leaders. We would
like to see justice done and an end to all of this evil. But for the most
part we are powerless to bring it about by ourselves. But we are not
powerless to bring it about in our own lives. If each of us strives to live
in an upright and moral way it could very well have an impact on the
character of the world. Isn't that what being the "salt of the earth" is
all about? Let us preserve and influence those we can as we live our lives
in the way that we would hope that our leaders would live theirs. The
apostle Paul said it and lived it well, "I myself always strive to have a
conscience without offense toward (or "to keep my conscience clear before")
God and men (Acts 24:16)."

Copyright © 2002. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the
devotionals on a non-profit basis with source credited.

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