Tim Boyd's Blog

In this election season it’s good for us to take a good hard look at what we believe is right and what we believe is wrong.  We may not be ready to vote unless we have clearly unconvered what we value ourselves.  For the Christian, we need to undertstand the difference between right and wrong from Jesus.  Jesus’ values need to replace the values that we have in our hearts. Just what are the ethics of Jesus?  What values were close to his heart?  In order to know his heart we need to understand his ethics.  Here are three easy to remember rules and questions that we can use in order to carry out the values and ethics of Jesus. Rule 1: Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, mind, and strength. (Matt 22:37) Love is a commitment based on a covenant relationship.  It means that His desires are more important than yours.  It means giving Him your adoration, worship, and life.  The question to ask ourselves when making decisions is this: Will this honor God? Rule 2: Love y

Again, I'm researching, reading, listening, and praying for my sermon and I came across something super interesting. John Wesley came up with an idea of building good ethical thought in Christians (or anyone really).  Here is the graphic that represents it well. The idea is to build from the bottom up like you would build a house.  For a person to find out what's right and wrong you should learn first from scripture.  Read your Bible and look for teachings, lessons, principals, virtues, etc and then use them when you are thinking about what you consider right or wrong.  Use it in your decisions.  That's step one. Step up two is then you look at what the church teaches.  (Notice it's Bible first and then church).  That's not just the local church but what writers and theologians think about a subject. From there you look at your life experience to determine what is right and wrong. Finally, you use your reason to determine what's right and wrong. H