Category: General

I have heard the term “moral excellence” many times throughout my life, but I never truly understood what it meant. In my mind, excellence was equal to perfection. Perfectionism and people pleasing have been struggles of mine for as long as I can remember. Because perfection is unattainable, living life in this mind set led to many insecurities, fear, and self-doubt, which led me to believe I could not make a difference in the kingdom. Instead of being bold and speaking up at times when I should have, it was easier to be invisible. When people don’t notice you, they don’t see your failures. I couldn’t be perfect, so I didn’t want to be seen.

Thankfully, through maturing in my walk with Christ and through discipleship, I have been letting down my “shield of invisibility”. I had a choice to make and was ready to step into who he created me to be. I could choose to partake of his divine nature or continue the path of pridefulness and perfectionism. If moral excellence doesn’t mean I need to be perfect, what does it mean? I’m going to be vulnerable and admit that it took a lot of prayer and diving deeper into the definitions of perfectionism and moral excellence for this blog before I truly began to see the difference between the two.  

What I discovered is perfection is striving to be better than everyone else, but moral excellence is striving to be better than what one already is. Perfection puts the focus on worldly characteristics whereas moral excellence puts the focus on building Christ-like character. Webster defines moral excellence as “the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong”.  In other words, living a life of moral excellence means living with virtue and integrity.

As followers of Christ, we are called to increase in moral excellence so we will not be “ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:8). I don’t know about you, but I have spent too many years as ineffective and unfruitful. I would much rather grow in knowledge and virtue and have a heart open and ready to be used by the Lord. So where do we learn how to practice moral excellence? 

First, through the example of Jesus-the only one who is, and ever will be, perfect! The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Jesus and moral excellence is Matthew 4:1-11 when Jesus is tempted in the wilderness. Even through hunger and exhaustion, Jesus resisted temptation (and used scripture to do so).

Second, through being diligent about spending time in prayer and in God’s word. Jesus was able to use scripture in response to Satan’s temptations because he knew the word in his heart. Through reading God’s word and hiding it in our heart, we will learn what Christ-like character looks like and how to respond like Jesus against the corruption of the world.

Across the nation, there seems to be more and more churches teaching “Progressive Christianity”. If you are unfamiliar, this movement seeks to re-define or re-interpret the Bible and the Christian faith. There is also a Christian deconstruction trend all over social media-which has ultimately led to many abandoning their faith. Instead of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong, so many have chosen to adopt the practices of the world. Peter writes “be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall” (2 Peter 1:10). We must consistently study God’s word, spend time with the Lord in prayer, and choose to stand for biblical truth. Not to show the world how “perfect” we are, but to show them who Jesus is. 

We want to thank Courtney Harper for sharing this post.

You asked, and we answered! Over the next few weeks we will be sharing some of the questions that were submitted during our 2022 Harvest Women’s Retreat, and the answers from some of the women in our church.

When I let fear start to creep in:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

When I become overwhelmed, I remind my self of who He is:

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:10-11 

When I doubt, I cry out:

… “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24 

When I need a reminder of His faithfulness:

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth..” Psalm 121 

We want to thank Sandra Villa for answering this question.

The definition of moral excellence is doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong. 

After looking up this definition I thought to myself, “oh yes, I do that”. I have stood strongly to my convictions. Growing up, I chose to strive for moral excellence because I wanted to be a good example to my 3 younger siblings. I withstood the pressures of high school and college without doing the bad things. But then I caught myself wondering what about now and felt God leading me to dig deeper. 

Moral excellence is the pursuit of the moral will of God in every area of life. Not just the big things. Do I do this? Do I show moral excellence in all things? Do my small children who are always watching see moral excellence in me? I found a definition that mediocrity is undeserving of blame but unworthy of praise. I don’t want to be that. I want to be morally excellent. 

In order to be morally excellent we need to have the desire to please and glorify God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 states, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 

To glorify God means we value Him and honor Him in our actions. God is glorified when we obey Him and live the way He calls us to live. I want others to see God in me. 

The desire to please and glorify God isn’t to earn His love but instead is because we love Him. 1 John 2:5 says, “But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.” 

God wants our willingness to do what he asks of us. He wants us to choose what is right and avoid what is wrong. God loves us and wants the best for us.  Making wise choices sows blessings now and for the future. “Be careful to obey all my commands, so that all will go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and pleasing to the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 12:28

Choosing moral excellence glorifies God, but it is also for our good. Let’s choose to glorify God in all things. 

We’d like to thank Bailey Adams for sharing this post.

You asked, and we answered! Over the next few weeks we will be sharing some of the questions that were submitted during our 2022 Harvest Women’s Retreat, and the answers from some of the women in our church.

There are probably many ways to introduce a non-believing spouse to attending church, but I feel the most effective way is through our life groups. The settings of our life groups are informal and a great place for fellowship and an introduction to people just like you and your spouse. Life groups and fellowship give a great opportunity to invite people to the church in a more comfortable atmosphere.

I would also like to add, there is no greater invitation than living a life of example to our spouses. Jesus is the greatest example of how we should approach an open invitation of salvation to people we love. Galatians 5 tells us about the fruits of the spirit that help us display Jesus in our homes and in our marriages. What does the heart of God look like? Patient? Kind? Gentle? Loving? I think these attributes help us draw our spouses into the open invitation of Jesus.

We would like to thank Crissy Urrutia for sharing this answer.

“ …and this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ- to the glory and praise of God.” Phil. 1:9-11

In this prayer of Paul and in 2 Peter we are called, as children of the Heavenly Father, to pursue the moral excellence of God’s will. To become a reflection of Jesus. I don’t know about you, but this would scare me into not even trying if it stopped there. But we have been given all the promises of God, and His Spirit living within us, to help us accomplish the purpose for which He has called us.

  “ …and if someone takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well.” Luke 6:29

My father had the reputation of following this principle. People would say of him “… if you ask Joe Bontke for the shirt off his back, he would also give you his coat, pants and shoes as well.” He gave whatever he had to help someone in need. Family, neighbors, and acquaintances were always borrowing money, farm equipment, whatever they needed and not returning it or bringing it back broken. I never saw my father angry or worried. My mother would be the one to be upset and angry, telling him he was being taken advantage of and that they were just using him. Dad would just say, “it’s going to be okay, it will all work out”.

I would love to say I take after my father, but truth is I am more like my mother. I did marry a man like my father. Stewart is a good example of the pursuit of moral excellence. He believes and lives, that whatever you do, do it with all your heart, as to the Lord and not to man. Colossians 3:23.

Moral excellence is not merely a matter of what is good over what is bad, but what excels and is best. Going that extra mile. Doing what is right even when no one is looking. It is wanting God‘s will in every area of our life. This includes values, attitudes, priorities, goals, or purposes, how we live and act in our homes, at the office, at church, in our community, one’s hobbies and entertainment.

People are watching us in how we speak, how we act and how we live our lives. The old saying that we might be the only Bible some people will ever read, is true.

A few years ago our son-in-law, Matt Gilleland, came to share with us how God had blessed him at his work that day. Matt was manager of a fertilizer chemical company here in Plainview. One of their trucks broke down around the Clarendon area. It was late in the afternoon and Matt was not able to find a mechanic willing to go check the truck to see if it could be fixed. He had about given up but had one more lead. This man also said no, but while visiting with Matt found that his family farm was next to my family farm. He told Matt of how good my father was to them and how they had been helped so many times. My father left a legacy for his family and his granddaughter’s husband received one of the blessings.

   “… do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” Rom.12:1-2

How do we have our mind renewed? We asked the Holy Spirit to fill us, give us faith, wisdom and understanding. We receive the truth of knowing how much we are loved by our Heavenly Father and who we are in Christ. We meditate and study His Word, and this grows our relationship with Him. This is a lifelong journey, not a short weekend trip.

I want to be a reflection of Jesus and leave a beautiful legacy for my family. I never want anyone to wonder if I’m a Christian, but to know without a doubt that I am! When I pass from this life, I want to hear these words from my Heavenly Father “WELL DONE DAUGHTER! WELCOME HOME.”

We would like to thank Elaine Norrell for sharing this post.

You asked, and we answered! Over the next few weeks we will be sharing some of the questions that were submitted during our 2022 Harvest Women’s Retreat, and the answers from some of the women in our church.

Check out this video to hear Laura Brandenburg answer this question:

“How do you stay faithful in the storm? I’m struggling to get pregnant and want to keep the faith, but I get discouraged.”

My prayers of late come from a place of brokenness, a place of earnest, a place of longing for the nearness of God.

In my study of diligence, I discovered that it means so much more than working hard. I’ve done that my entire life as I grew up in good ol’ West Texas. I know how to work hard. But lately, the hard work has felt more like running in a hamster wheel, sweaty, futile. From a place of requirement rather than from a place of the heart.

2 Peter 1:5 speaks of adding to our faith with “all diligence” the attributes of godliness that follow. I love the rich language of the word diligence. We are to seek God not merely with hard work, but with every effort, with diligence which is sincere and conscientious. Strongs concordance explains the Greek word as “earnest swiftness…we need to quickly and carefully and intensely prioritize God’s truth, adding His attributes to our faith.”

Earnest is “sincere and intense conviction;” it’s real and undeniable; it’s passionate and authentic.

Diligence is “careful and persistent work or effort” or “having or showing care and conscientiousness in one’s work or duties”

Therefore, we need to work with sincere and thorough care when it comes to increasing in the attributes of God. It’s an act of faith, not of works.

The conviction of this word and the prompting of the Spirit have been ruminating in my heart in this personal season of healing and restoration. I have known the nearness of God. I have walked with Him in faith. I have hurt. I have numbed out emotionally to keep from feeling pain-not with substances, but with work some days. With social media some days. With brainless games that help me “unwind” at the end of the day. But it doesn’t only numb the pain. It also numbs the joy. It robs delight. It robs me being fully present with my family, with my friends.

In a moment of quiet, while watering my garden, I prayed a prayer that is vulnerable because it reveals the state of my heart. “More than a move of location, I need a move of the Spirit. May I always seek Him first. May I have a passion about my calling again. May the jaded edges be refined and may hope reside in my heart again.” It’s not that I want to return to the same closeness that I’ve experienced with God in the past. It’s that I long for my heart to beat with His-like a transplant. My very existence depends on Him.

I shared this prayer with a dear friend. She replied, “that we would all pray that prayer with as much sincerity” as me, but honestly, that sincerity comes from a place of utter longing. When we are saved we rejoice because God through the sacrifice of Jesus has taken our utter depravity, our entire incapability of overcoming sin on our own, and He gifts us with, He graces us with, salvation. When we acknowledge our need, how much greater is the satiation of that need?

My initial internal response to her was the desire that no one would experience the pain that provoked such sincerity. And yet, we all already have experienced that pain-the pain of distance from God. Since the fall of mankind in the garden of Eden, we all have.

Diligence looks like hard work, but it’s not. It’s not hard because it is sincere, it’s careful, it’s conscientious. Adam and Eve worked before sin entered the world. Work is good, but it doesn’t have to be hard. May we all diligently pursue the heart of God.

We would like to thank Mary Coleman for sharing this post.

You asked, and we answered! Over the next few weeks we will be sharing some of the questions that were submitted during our 2022 Harvest Women’s Retreat, and the answers from some of the women in our church.

Check out this video to hear Bambi Lutrick answer this question: How do you surrender to your husband when you are struggling with his reasons for leading you in that direction? (Not ungodly leadership, but inconsistent leadership)

Growing up in the church, I regularly heard the word diligence, “be like the ‘dilig-ANT’ Dad would say”, or I’d read “…go to the ant you sluggard (lazy bones) observe her ways and be wise…no one has to tell them what to do…so wake up sleepyhead…”(Proverbs 6:6) Diligence meant working hard, doing what needs to be done and not being lazy! “See a need, fill a need” was a quote from the movie ‘ROBOTS’, that ran through my head constantly. I became very work oriented. If I wasn’t working hard, I wasn’t pleasing my parents, friends, employers, and more importantly God!

My family was a part of a ministry that taught families how to become Character Families. Achieving true success by applying the Character Qualities of Jesus Christ, to life. We taught scriptures, songs, and stories to help them understand each character quality and how to display it. The opposite of diligence is slothfulness – such a negative picture, in my mind, of what we looked like if we weren’t working hard and going, going, going! 

Diligence was defined as ‘Accepting each task as a special assignment from the Lord and using all my energies to do it quickly and skillfully.” Problem was, I lost sight of the ‘assignment from the Lord” part and just accepted every task given to me, and used all my energy to do it quickly and skillfully. I became a “yes woman” (and to be completely honest, I married a “yes man”). Looking back, I realize, that I am STILL very works based. If my kids are not DOING something productive, I tend to give them a job or get onto them asking, “what could you be doing to help?” Sometimes I’ve even seen my husband sitting on his phone, not doing anything productive (in my opinion) and feel resentment in my heart about all the things that need to be done and wonder why he isn’t helping! I had begun to get exhausted as I took on tasks, not wanting to say yes, but saying yes to please people anyway. 

I know there are many of you reading this that feel the same way. As a wife and mum of 5 who homeschools, has a baking business, and helps run a children’s ministry (insert here whatever it is you regularly do), it feels like the work is never done and that we don’t have time to be lazy! “I’ve got to get the kids to this, that or the other sport/school/church event! I’ve got to do this, that or the other thing for my coworker/family member/friend.” Let me encourage you to think about it from a different perspective: God has given me opportunities to be diligent and to do everything I do, with my whole heart, as if I’m doing it for the Lord— seeing every task and activity in life as an assignment specifically from Him and using ALL my energy to do it quickly and skillfully—FOR HIM. Finish the dishes AND wipe the counters-FOR HIM. Teach your children to put their toys and clothes away AND pick up the rubbish—FOR HIM. Demonstrate to them, by example, how to change their perspective.

I’m learning that no one else may ever notice OR care about the work we do as wives, mothers and employees… in some instances it’s even expected-that’s what you’re SUPPOSED to do. BUT GOD! God notices! God cares! God SEES us! If WE can see our day to day activities as individual assignments FROM GOD to grow our character and see Him as our ‘employer’, we don’t need to worry if others don’t recognize what we do for them, nor do we need to wonder whether we are appreciated or be concerned when we are overlooked or taken for granted. Instead, we can be motivated to fulfill the instruction of Ecclesiastes 9:10 “whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…” 

Let’s change our perspective to the Lord’s. Let’s take on our daily tasks with the motivation of love and an attitude of joy, and see them as opportunities to serve and be a witness for the Lord. Let’s ask Jesus to be Lord over each aspect of our day, to help us see that ultimately it is He who we are serving, and that with a changed perspective we CAN be content and do every task as if Jesus Himself asked us to do it for Him! We CAN do ALL things through Him who gives us the strength and the empowering of the Holy Spirit to do it.

Am I doing this _____ as if I’m doing it for the Lord Himself and not merely for others? (Colossians 3:23) The DOING of the work is a given. It’s a constant; it doesn’t end. The HEART of the work, the ATTITUDE in which it is done, is the key. THIS is the part that God cares about…and that we should care about.

We would like to thank Bree Elam for sharing this post.

I have a 3-year-old daughter who is full of life, FULL of questions, and watches just about everything I do. Anyone relate? 

The other day, I found myself pressing pause on the never-ending task list running through my brain to sit down and color with Charis for 10 minutes. She opened the coloring book to a spot where there were 2 blank coloring pages right next to each other – one for me and one for her – and began carefully coloring. Sometimes she likes to be silly and scribble all over the page, but most of the time, she’s pretty careful to color inside the lines because she has someone in mind that she wants to give her picture to when she’s finished. As we color, she asks me 50 questions about why I’m coloring the flowers purple and the girl’s shoes red, and any other “why” that crosses her mind. Then she says “Mommy, ask me why I’m coloring inside the lines.” I oblige, and she answers, “Because, ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for man. – Colossians 3:23.’” Wow! I celebrated that she’s applying God’s Word to her life in her own little 3-year-old way, encouraged her, and then heard her little voice echoing this scripture in my head the rest of the day.

Life and motherhood are full of opportunities for sanctification, aren’t they? There’s nothing that will spur you on toward Godliness like having your child understand, live out, and speak a biblical Truth that you still sometimes struggle with well into your walk with the Lord.

If I’m being honest, I’m easily distracted. Sometimes I lose sight of the greater picture in the middle of all the things I do daily that seem mundane, tedious, repetitive, unnoticed, and even meaningless. And when I allow my feelings to distract me from the bigger picture, I can easily fall into a pattern of working half-heartedly or even begrudgingly.

Sometimes, though, all it takes is a simple reminder from my preschooler for my heart to remember that I’m a partaker of God’s divine nature and have been given everything I need for life and godliness.

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

2 Peter 1:3-4

Diligence is part of God’s very nature and is foundational to my spiritual growth.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8

When we work diligently, everyone in our life benefits. It brings peace to our own lives, serves those around us in a way that makes them feel the love of the Father, and brings Glory and Honor to God, the One who created us in His image and prepared for us good works to be done while we’re here on Earth (Ephesians 2:10).

When I remember this, I can work wholeheartedly in everything I do, as if I’m working for the Lord and not for man, because I really am working for the Lord and not for man.

When I’m diligent in disciplining my daughter, I’m working as God’s agent for her good and for His glory.

When I’m diligent to keep my home in order, I’m working for the Lord so that my home is a place where my family and others experience the peace of His presence.

When I work diligently in my job, I’m representing His excellence to my sphere of influence and drawing those around me to Jesus. 

Elisabeth Elliot, a missionary, author, speaker, and woman of incredible wisdom, summed it up this way:

This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.

So I want to encourage you today like Charis encouraged me: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for man.

Because you really are working for the Lord.

We would like to thank Catherine Dunn for sharing this post.