Rising Bureaucracy

The Compass First Family Church

VOLUME 2

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ISSUE 40

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JULY 12, 2015

AVAILABLE ONLINE AT WWW.THECOMPASS.LIFE/240

Guiding people towards a life of true discipleship.

Rising Bureaucracy

When Nations Die: Ten Warning Signs of a Culture in Crisis

Common sense would seem to point to a strong central government as a strength of a nation, not a sign of its growing weakness. History is replete with examples of great empires that proved to be the model of efficiency, yet slowly weakened and faded into dust as the government bureaucracy grew and eventually strangled the life out of the nation.

The most recent example in modern history is the Soviet Union, which was crushed under the weight of its own bureaucracy in the last quarter of the 20th Century.

There is a subtle paradigm shift that happens as more and more control is transferred to the federal government and away from individuals and small, local governments.

Rather than self-dependence and reliance upon the natural support structures of neighbors, communities, and churches, citizens begin to look to and depend upon the federal government for more and more. As more citizens grow dependent upon government, the ability to provide necessary services diminishes. And as history proves, dependent citizens quickly grow discontent and frustrated with government.

We see this cycle repeating today in America. John F. Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” seem hollow and empty in 2015. To read more about the warning sign of a rising bureaucracy, turn to page 4.–Chris Eller

www.TheCompass.life

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The Compass

Day 1 ENCOUNTER–God’s Word to put yourself in touch with him.

Hosea 1:1-2:5 (ESV) Hosea’s Wife and Children Hosea 1 1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

2 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” 3So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 And the LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9And the LORD said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.” 10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” 11And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Israel’s Unfaithfulness Punished Hosea 2 1 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”

2 “Plead with your mother, plead—

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face,

and her adultery from between her breasts; 3 lest I strip her naked

and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness,

and make her like a parched land,

and kill her with thirst.

4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy,

because they are children of whoredom.

5 For their mother has played the whore;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who give me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

The Compass

Day 2

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ENQUIRE–the answer to these questions to better understand what the passage means.

Use the questions below to guide your reading and to ensure you are grasping the key lessons and themes of the text.

This is called Inductive Bible Study, in which you ask the questions, Who?, What?, Where?, Why?, When?, How? as you read the text. (Also known as the “5Ws and an H.”)

1. Who was Hosea? (1:1)

2. When did the Lord speak to the prophet? (1:1)

3. What did the Lord instruct Hosea to do? (1:2-2:1)

4. What was the symbolism of Hosea’s family? (1:2-2:1)

5. How did Hosea feel about Gomer? (2:2-13)

6. What did God say to Israel through Hosea’s words? (2:2-13)

7. What did the Lord plan to do to win Israel back to himself? (2:14-15)

Summary Notes

Write a one paragraph summary of this week’s text including key areas of interest and significant instruction.

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The Compass

Rising Bureaucracy

by James Nelson Black | www.jnblack.com

This summer we are going to serialize the book When Nations Die: Ten Warning Signs of a Culture in Crisis by James Nelson Black. The book was published in 1994 and is out-of-print, but many of the principles are even more relevant in 2015. We want to thank Dr. Black for graciously granting us permission to reprint this book in The Compass. To learn more about Dr. Black, you can visit his website at www.jnblack.com.

T

he indispensable background to Western democracy is the idea that every individual citizen has, by birthright, the freedom of self-determination. The American founding fathers believed in individual liberty as a right, endowed by the Creator. It was “unalienable.” This constitutional view of the independence and autonomy of the individual is essential to our definition of freedom. Each man has the right to succeed or to fail on his own, without the interference or the complicity of government. But, over time, government has changed this vital covenant. For a variety of reasons, Congress has been persuaded to modify the paradigm of individual liberty in the attempt to rig up a safety net for every citizen and to provide guarantees against the risks involved in every sort of endeavor, from new business to childbirth. Such a prospect was never considered by the American founders. Government was designed as a guardian of law and order; it existed to preserve and protect our essential rights and liberties.

Cradle-to-grave protection was never a democratic notion; rather, it is one of the fundamental principles of socialism—the ideology that has now failed on every continent and in every nation where it has been tried. But for better or for worse, this is the task the American bureaucracy has taken unto itself.

At the March 1994 European “jobs summit,” President Bill Clinton said he was perplexed by the critical employment problems in Europe and low wages in America. Neither the president nor his expert policy analysts could make sense of it. But columnist David Lambro says it is perfectly clear: “The evidence is everywhere that both are due to the excessive growth of government, burdensome social welfare costs, and increasingly higher taxes to pay for it all.”

The Growth of Government The biggest growth industry in America today is government. At the federal, state, and local levels, government is growing faster than any industry. Government consumes

more revenue than any industry takes in, and for the first time in history there are more workers in the public sector than in all areas of the manufacturing sector combined.

In 1994, more than 18.6 million people were employed by government. In 1993, the Federal Register, which is the record of activity in the executive branch, grew by more than seventy thousand pages—a record even by standards of the Carter administration. At the same time, we have read that the Clinton health-care proposals will mandate a 7.9 percent increase in payroll taxes for all employees. Reports prepared by the Heritage Foundation show that these new costs will shackle private business in this country, and, according to the best estimates, increased costs and higher taxes will lead to the loss of as many as 3 million American jobs.

How will the administration deal with the 3 million unemployed men and women who will suddenly be looking to the government for assistance? The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected the Clinton plan would lead to a 27 percent increase in federal taxes—the largest tax increase in history. And the CBO’s line-by-line analysis of the actual costs of the plan indicate that its policies would not save the nation $50 billion, as the president once claimed, but would instead cost at least $90 billion additional. That means the president missed his estimate by more than $140 billion.

Where will the nation come up with that kind of cash?

Sometimes we forget that government does not have any money of its own. The federal and state bureaucracies do not make money. Government takes the hard-earned wages of citizens and pours them into the public trough.

Furthermore, they never get enough, and year after year the tax hustlers come back for more. Many of the most totalitarian regimes of history actually began as free-market systems that were gradually co-opted by revenue-hungry governments. In such cases, they eventually came to the point, as in the Soviet Union, where the government took everything its citizens could earn and then gave back what the bureaucrats thought the people deserved. Are we headed in that direction? All the signs seem to suggest that we are.

Government is extraordinarily inefficient, and whenever the government gets involved in anything, the situation automatically gets worse. Whenever you find a serious problem in your community, you can be fairly certain that government was involved in creating it. When citizens feel they

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The Compass Continued from page 4... have a problem only government can solve, they inevitably discover that, the minute government gets involved, their problems become immeasurably worse.

Taxation without Retaliation The United States Constitution is a fragile instrument; it cannot be changed by whim or even by plebiscite without damaging the vital covenants and principles established by the founders. The Constitution of the United States guarantees each citizen the right to keep and bear arms, and the Declaration of Independence asserts the right of citizens to change the structure of an oppressive government by armed rebellion, which is still a radical idea. But changes in foundational principles by mere custom or by casual modifications of law are not warranted. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration: Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

The patriots held that it was only after long provocation and by force of arms that the constitutional code of citizenship might be altered. Yet, by economics, by law, by diplomacy, and by manipulation of the rights and responsibilities of the individual states established in the Constitution, and especially in matters pertaining to taxation and public welfare, the federal government has already taken upon itself unprecedented and virtually unlimited powers.

Despite the immense provocation, no one rebels! One would think taxpayers would be up in arms. Shouldn’t parents be raging against the assault upon their families, their children, their public schools, and the safety of their communities? Shouldn’t workers be screaming about the lack of safety in the workplace? Shouldn’t employers be outraged about the meddling of federal and state bureaucracies in their business and financial decisions? And what right, after all, does government have to consume more than 40 percent of the entire wealth of the nation while it siphons off $1.5 trillion every year for government spending without making a dent in our national debt of $4.4 trillion?

Thomas Jefferson also said, “I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers,” by which he meant that it is the duty of the government not simply to manage its financial affairs professionally, but to live frugally. Government must be economical in its spending habits, and it is no secret that in re-

Page 5 cent years government has become extravagant beyond all measure.

Jefferson said that financial profligacy, or profusion, can lead only to disaster, and he warned, “We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.” But the alternative is that as government consumes the public treasury it also destroys the people’s freedom.

In the mid-1990s, every working man and woman in America is in bondage to the federal government. Even God only asks for 10 percent of our wages. But today every working person in America must work until May 3 for the substance to pay our federal taxes, until May 20 to pay our portion of what Congress spends, and until July 13 to pay off all our federal, state, and local taxes. That means average Americans work more than half a year for the government before they are allowed to keep even the first nickel of their personal wages. That is the longest period of tax bondage—the longest financial obligation to government—in American history.

“Tax-freedom day” comes later every year.

In effect, we have become sharecroppers for the master in the White House. We are little more than indentured servants to a ruthless totalitarian regime that holds the power of intimidation, financial retaliation, and even imprisonment over our heads at every turn. The political, economic, and spiritual bondage from which our forefathers fled when they first came to America now enslaves the entire nation. We are bound by an onerous form of “taxation without representation” the founders of this nation would never have endured.

Government Out of Control Wherever the state has been allowed to become allpowerful, to grow out of control, dwarfing the interests of the community and consuming the productivity of the nation, the consequences have always been disastrous. Ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire provide historical precedents for the out-of-control growth of government.

Egypt was a remarkable kingdom that survived for more than four thousand years under thirty-two separate dynasties before it finally faded into irrelevance under the Roman Empire. In the early days government administration was remarkable. Highly placed eunuchs, priests, and scribes administered the agriculture, industry arts, and sciences of the day, and in the beginning the system seems to have worked quite well. The scientific and artistic achievements of the kingdoms of the Nile are still stunning to most observers.

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But changes were bound to come, and after 1085 B.C., Egypt went through a series of divisions and internecine struggles provoked by religious and nationalistic disputes.

Rivalries and even civil wars became dangerously common, so that by the eighth century B.C., Egypt had to be divided into eleven separate states. Instead of the open and peaceful communities of the second and third millennia B.C., the nation was now a bizarre network of walls and canals and manmade barriers set up to segregate ethnic groups and to allow for regional defense.

The regionalization of the Egyptian culture promoted the rise of local cults and an assortment of local and provincial governments. Just as religious and social unity had promoted order, growing disunity led to chaos and decay. As dozens of councils competed with each other, factionalism and infighting increased. Bureaucratic meddling only made things worse, and soon the entire structure began to collapse.

In the end Egypt fell to a succession of alien empires, first to the Cushites of Sudan; then to the Assyrians, who occupied the nation in the mid-seventh century B.C.. The kingdom was then conquered by the Persians, who ruled it off and on until the entire kingdom fell to Alexander the Great, who was recognized as Pharaoh in 333 B.C.. But rather than settling in Memphis, Thebes, or any of the ancient capitals, Alexander established his base of operations at Pharos, just off the Egyptian coast. Here, on a tropical island, there was no taint of the corrupt systems of administration that had divided and destroyed the empire.

Among other contributors to the decline of the Roman Empire was the drop in productivity, made worse by bad national policies. Burdensome regulations and taxes made every form of trade, farming, manufacturing, and even common labor unprofitable. Small farms had already been swallowed up by the large estates under the control of a few powerful families. In time, however, corrupt officials and government functionaries found ways to confiscate the wealth and property of even the greatest estates.

These farms were nationalized very much as those in the Soviet Union during the Bolshevik reforms, and predictably, production and revenues immediately collapsed. Most of the estates eventually went to weed and seed, and they became eyesores for travelers, deserted by all but the homeless peasants. And no amount of persuasion or coercion could persuade tenants to reclaim these lands. Some of the best farmland in all of Italy became freehold property no one cared to claim.

All of this was complicated immeasurably by the meddling of government, and as the bureaucracy consumed the sources of wealth, national prosperity was progressively

The Compass eroded. The efforts of the emperors and the senate to manage the nationalized industries damaged productivity even further and led to outright abandonment of not only the best farms but businesses, homes, properties, and possessions of every kind.

The emperors, aided by the senate, preyed on the wealth of the prominent families. In the attempt to pay the army and feed the growing hordes of starving peasants, the industrious classes upon whom the empire depended were driven into poverty and/or exile. The only ones able to survive these burdensome conditions were a few of the most powerful aristocrats who protected their dependents, workers, and slaves from political oppression by bribery, brute force, or some sort of personal influence with the throne.

These conditions placed enormous burdens on families.

Under so many pressures, the population declined. Childbearing became undesirable. Little by little a general barrenness came about among women of all social classes. As life became untenable, life itself seemed to retreat. Very similar conditions are reported today by mission agencies that work in the drought-stricken nations of Africa. ‘When societies begin to collapse, and when even nature turns its back upon a people, life dies in the womb. Nature rebels.

Losing Control The Roman Empire was a thousand years old when the emperor Diocletian came to the throne in A.D. 284. Power was now concentrated in the emperor and his personal council. Unfortunately, the Romans never developed a practical form of representative government with the capacity to deal with the complexities of such a vast regime. Everything hinged on the strength and perception of the emperors; and when the leader showed signs of weakness, the empire suffered.

The bureaucracy grew so large that at one point there were more people on the government payroll than there were taxpayers to support them. The whole administrative system became overcentralized, and as Russell Kirk observes, “When the center could hold no longer, the bough began to break.”

In time, most of the free population in Rome were unemployed—thus they became what Arnold Toynbee has described as an “internal proletariat.” Such people were bitter and jealous revolutionaries who worked from the inside to destroy the empire. Even though there was no work for the lower classes, the rulers believed these people had to be fed and amused to prevent violent outbursts. In large cities in every province, the consuls resorted to the form of bribery known as bread and circuses in order to keep the masses un-

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The Compass Continued from page 6... der control. Large quantities of corn, grain, meat, and wines were distributed daily to the poor, who crowded in ever growing numbers in the ghettos of the capital.

These spectacles and entertainments were designed to keep the masses amused and preoccupied. Under Diocletian this policy of placating the turbulent crowds, known formally as “euergetics,” went from an act of occasional generosity to an absolute necessity. Public welfare, along with the most extravagant and bloody entertainments, were free to the common people. Even as these events demonstrated the cheapening of human life and the debased morality of the people of all classes, they were nevertheless a desperate attempt to preserve the tenuous order of the state. They were a last-ditch effort at keeping the crowds in check.

Naturally, as the population began to shrink, the tax base declined as well. Surviving members of the wealthy classes were taxed exorbitantly to support the least-productive members of society—meaning not just the masses of unemployed poor but also the emperor and his hangers-on. This led to increasing dissension and frequent violence between all classes and races.

So what was the effect of the attempt to placate the masses? In his treatise on the impact of all these social and economic factors, historian Michael Rostovtzeff observes that “the peasants hated the landowners and the officials, the city proletariat hated the city bourgeoisie, the army was hated by everybody, even by the peasants. The Christians were abhorred and persecuted by the heathens, who regarded them as a gang of criminals bent on undermining the state.”

Russell Kirk adds that suspicion and intolerance quickly spread between all classes in the empire. “Between the senatorial and equestrian families on the one side, and the masses of free citizens in the cities on the other, between the freedmen and the native-born Roman citizens; between the citizens, urban or rural, and the millions of slaves; between the urban populations and the peasants—among all these social elements, little sympathy endured.” It should come as no great surprise that in such an environment, when the empire finally did fall to the Goths, many Romans actually considered it a blessing.

The All-Powerful State From these examples, it can be seen that the improvident growth of government and the exploitation of citizens through excessive taxation and overregulation will destroy the initiative of labor and contribute to the decline of industry and productivity. It is very likely that we in America will undergo some intense political and financial testing in this decade. Unless we can get a grip on the bureaucratic night-

Page 7 mare and stop the predations of government—specifically, get government’s hands out of our pockets—there is great doubt whether or not America as we know her can survive.

In his lesser-known study The Old Order and the French Revolution, Alexis de Tocqueville said that the drift toward centralization by government is the very essence of despotism. The French statesman observed that the rise of the allpowerful state is the root of the waves of egoism, selfishness, and self-seeking that perennially overcome great societies at critical times in history.

As government grows, social authority diminishes.

Laws, prohibitions, and increased taxation favor the state but penalize the individual. The purpose of law under such a political regime is not the common good or moral order but the empowerment of the state and the bureaucrats who grow fat and sleek within such a system. Robert Nisbet says, “As the blood rushes to the head of society, it leaves anemic the local and regional extremities.”

Individual states, counties, and towns suffer from lack of authority and lack of support. As the federal government grows into the very image of Leviathan—that is, the state as described by Thomas Hobbes in his famous book—the impersonal mass of mankind under an autocratic government is left rootless and alienated in the world. And this entire scenario of collapse and loss of values arises specifically because government has ascended to the place of becoming society’s predominant authority—its god, a false god, an idol of worldly power—and therefore stands where only the divine authority should be. As we have seen throughout these pages, we are facing dark times in this nation. At times we can see the indisputable image of national catastrophe on the horizon, and the crisis before us is only compounded by the destructive policies of the bureaucracy Nevertheless, I maintain that there is still hope.

If we are willing to risk the scorn of the media and the bureaucrats, there is reason to believe that good things can still happen. If we can follow the practical plans already being drafted by Christian and conservative groups across this nation—plans designed to bring about positive change and a renewal of our time-honored traditions—then there is just a chance that we may be able to halt the siege of ideology and corruption in the land.

There is hope that government can be downsized and that the bureaucracy may be brought to task. The battle is not over; but the time is short. Can we afford to wait any longer to get involved?n

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The Compass

Daily Bible Reading Plan SUNDAY

MONDAY

7/12

TUESDAY

7/13

1 Chron. 12:19-14:17

1 Chron. 15:1-16:36

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

7/14

7/15

7/16

7/17

7/18

1 Chron. 16:37-18:17

1 Chron. 19:1-21:30

1 Chron 22:1-23:32

1 Chron. 24:1-26:11

1 Chron. 26:12-27:34

Romans 1:1-17

Romans 1:18-32

Romans 2:1-24

Romans 2:25-3:8

Romans 3:9-31

Romans 4:1-12

Romans 4:13-5:5

Psalm 9:13-20

Psalm 10:1-15

Psalm 10:16-18

Psalm 11:1-7

Psalm 12:1-8

Psalm 13:1-6

Psalm 14:1-7

Proverbs 19:4-5

Proverbs 19:6-7

Proverbs 19:8-9

Proverbs 19:10-12

Proverbs 19:13-14

Proverbs 19:15-16

Proverbs 19:17

For complete details on First Family’s Daily Bible Reading Plan, visit our website at www.ffclife.com/biblereading.

HABAKKUK, HOSEA, MALACHI

How To Get the Most From This Series The Basics • • • •

For the Diligent Disciple

Read the Text Listen to the Sermon & Take Notes Study with The Compass Memorize Each Week’s Memory Verse

• • • • • • •

Sign Up for All the Resources (Send a blank email to subscribe@ffclife.com) Purchase a 1-1/2 Inch Three-Ring Notebook Inductively Read and Mark the Text Listen to the Sermon and Take Notes (use Sermon Notes Template) Study with The Compass Memorize the Weekly Memory Verse Purchase a Commentary (visit the website for links

How Do I Get the Resources?

To find links to all of these resources, subscribe for on-time delivery of new resources, and to download the resources available, visit www.ffclife.com/summer15.

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The Compass

R2R Life!

Becoming Ready to Reproduce Disciples of Jesus Christ 10 R2R Core Beliefs

The Bible (2 Timothy 3:16–17): We believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible Word of God, and the final authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

God the Father (Psalm 121:1–2): We believe God is personally involved in and cares about the daily lives of His children.

Jesus Christ (John 1:12): We believe in Jesus Christ, His deity, virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious death, burial and bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father and His personal future return in power and glory. We are significant only because of our position as children of God. The Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14): We believe the God of the Bible is the only true God and is eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Humanity (John 3:16): We believe all people are born separated from God by sin, but God in his love sent his Son Jesus Christ as their savior.

Eternity (John 14:1–4): We believe there is a heaven and a hell and that Jesus Christ is returning to judge the earth and to establish his kingdom. We believe in the resurrection of the dead: the believer to life everlasting and the unbeliever to the resurrection of judgment.

The Church (1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Ephesians 4:15-16): We believe in the church as the body of Christ, which is composed of all believers who have accepted Christ as Savior. We believe the church is God’s primary way to accomplish His purposes on earth today.

Stewardship (1 Timothy 6:17-19): We believe that everything we have, including our very life, belongs to God. Salvation by Grace (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:23-25; 8:38-39): We believe a person has a right relationship with God only by His grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. This makes believers eternally secure in Jesus Christ.

Compassion (Psalm 82:3-4): We believe God calls all Christians to show compassion to those in need.

10 R2R Core Practices

Worship (Psalm 95:1-7): I worship God for who He is and what He has done for me.

Bible Study (Hebrews 4:12): I study the Bible diligently to know God, to become like Christ, and to discern His will for my life.

Service (Colossians 3:17): I give away my time to fulfill God’s purposes.

Witness (Matthew 28:18-20): I live to tell the story of Jesus and to make disciples of Him even to the ends of the earth, knowing he is with me always.

Biblical Community (Acts 2:44-47): I fellowship with other believers in a small group to accomplish God’s purposes in my life, others’ lives, and in the world.

Prayer (Psalm 66:16-20): I pray to God to know Him, to lay my request before Him and to find direction for my daily life.

Spiritual Gifts (Romans 12:4-6): I know and use my spiritual gifts to accomplish God’s purposes.

Authenticity (John 13:33-34): I know and understand biblical truths and transfer these truths into everyday life. Who I am on the inside and outside is a pure reflection of Christ and His Word.

Simplicity (Matthew 6:33): I seek to live a simple life focused on God and his priorities for my life.

Possessions (Luke 16:11–12): I seek to maintain an eternal perspective on money and possessions, realizing God has give me all that I have, and that he expects me to manage it wisely for His glory.

10 R2R Core Virtues

Gentleness (Philippians 4:5): I am thoughtful, considerate and calm in dealing with others.

Faithfulness (Proverbs 3:3-4): I have established a good name with God and with others based on my long-term loyalty to those relationships.

Hope (Hebrews 6:19-20): I can cope with the hardships of life and with death because of the hope I have in Jesus Christ.

Joy (John 15:11): I have inner contentment and purpose in spite of my circumstances.

Love (1 John 4:10-12): I sacrificially and unconditionally love and forgive others.

Peace (Philippians 4:6-7): I am free from anxiety because things are right between God, myself and others.

Self-Control (Titus 2:11-13): I have the power, through Christ, to control myself.

Humility (Philippians 2:3-4): I choose to esteem others above myself.

Patience (Proverbs 14:29): I take a long time to overheat and endure patiently under the unavoidable pressures of life.

Kindness/Goodness (1 Thessalonians 5:15): I choose to do the right things in my relationships with others.

About The Compass The Compass is produced to help you connect with the Word of God on a daily basis and to study and meditate on the specific biblical text that will be the focus of the upcoming weekend services.

The Compass also helps tie-in the principles of discipleship found in 10 Core Beliefs (doctrine) 10 Core Practices (disciplines), and 10 Core Virtues (spiritual fruit). Together, we call these R2R Distinctives, or becoming a Ready to Reproduce Disciple of Jesus Christ.

If you would like The Compass delivered each week to your email box, you can to to www. thecompass.life and register.

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