OLD TESTAMENT
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And aftermy skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me! Job 19:25-27
NEW TESTAMENT
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galations 4:4-5
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14
Integrity is defined as honesty and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change. I would add the characteristic of unwavering. One with integrity keeps their word even when it is hard to. Sadly, I think it’s a dying word, especially amongst our leadership in the U.S. To keep this word alive, we should look to THE Promise Keeper.
God, The Promise Keeper
Jen Wilken, recently wrote a piece entitled, “Our Advent Waiting Goes Back to Eden: At Just the Right Time, God Fulfills His Promise.” In it she shares something very interesting that I did not realize:
Now think back to that earliest of temples, the Garden of Eden. Face to face with God, a man and a woman bore witness to the prophecy of a son who would crush the Serpent’s head. Adam heard and gave a prophetic name to the woman: Eve, mother of all living. Eve heard and, after the travail of childbirth, proclaimed, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man” (Gen. 4:1)…As James Montgomery Boice notes in his commentary, it’s a proclamation of a deliverer. Though you and I know the wait would be millennia, Eve did not. She expected that Cain was the immediate fulfillment of God’s promise. She couldn’t have been more wrong…For centuries, in the travail of childbirth, Hebrew mothers who bore sons would have wondered, Is this the one? Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, mothers in Egypt, mothers in the wilderness, mothers in Canaan, mothers in exile, mothers in the 400 years of silence, mothers under the fist of Roman rule. Hebrew mothers whispering, Is this the one? Hebrew fathers praying, Send us the consolation of Israel.