Interpretations:
I asked myself what is the significance of Paul's request?
It is very interesting that Paul writes not to complain or argue while he is still a prisoner in chains. He lets them know how he has lived even in chains according to chapter 1. The emphasis is placed on 'not complaining and arguing' so that they can live out being blameless and pure children of God in a crooked and depraved generation.

I asked myself what does 'crooked and depraved' mean?
According to Microsoft Works Word Processor dictionary 'crooked' is defined as 'illegal or dishonest' and 'depraved' is defined as 'showing great moral corruption or wickedness'.

I asked myself, why does Paul want the Philippians to be counter-cultural?
So they can be the hope for that generation by setting an example of blamelessness and purity!

So that they can shine like stars in the universe holding out the word of life  instead of joining the crowd of complainers and arguers!

I asked myself what is the significance of shining like stars in the universe?
What came to my mind is that stars are really bright emitting a lot of light as you draw close to them. The closer you draw near to them, they shine more. Yet, far away too you can see their radiance.

In the same way, as people inspect our lives closely, they need to see that we do shine brightly as a light because we live for the Light of the World. And that our light comes from the Light of the World. Even from a distance if people hear about you, they can still know that you shine brightly because of your behavior being an imitation of Christ.  Light covers over the darkness and helps people find the right pathway.
 
The Bible says those who want to do right come into the light but those who want to do evil hide from the light because they are afraid their deeds will be revealed. (John 3)

As I thought about that it occurred to me that this is so true so many times when it comes to aspects of pornography. So many people are involved with it in the dark where they cannot be found out yet the Lord sees it in His Light for nothing can be hidden from the Lord. We may hide secret sins from people but the Lord is watching everywhere and holds us accountable for our actions. This does not mean that He is unwilling to forgive us and help us as we turn to Him.

It is interesting that shining out like stars in the universe is mentioned first before mentioning about holding out the Word of life.

I asked myself why is 'shining out like stars in the universe' mentioned first?
It occurred to me unless our lives reflect the Light of Christ for other people in our crooked and depraved generation, we will just be seen as hypocritical and they won’t pay attention to the Word of Life even when we hold it. Instead, we will be part of the statistic about being crooked and depraved. On the other hand, if our lives reflect the Light of Christ, then when we hold out the Word of Life, others will be more attracted to it because they know it is the Word of life that has brought the light in our lives.

IMPLICATIONS:
I asked myself what are the implications for my own life?
I should live my life in such a way that complaining and arguing do not become part of me but my behavior reflects Christ the Hope of Glory who wants to work in me by the power of the Holy Spirit so that I can set an example of blamelessness and purity, so that I can shine like stars in the universe holding out the Word of Life.  This way I can be an example of Christ to a broken and hurt generation. First and foremost, it has to start at home. I need to live my life such a way in the presence of my darling wife Leela and my precious children Esther (7+) and Evangeline (4+) that they never see me complaining or arguing. Not only that but my family needs to see me as blameless and pure before others see me that way. What profit is it to a husband/daddy if the world sees him as blameless and pure but the family does not. It has to start at home so as much as possible I try to model contentment even when it is not easy especially in our circumstances. As I live my life to glorify the Lord, He will help me show the Light of Christ to my family and I will have earned the privilege of sharing the Word of Life with them. If my life does not reflect what God's Word is asking me to do, how can I lead my family and others in the ways of the Lord! Help me Lord Jesus!

Seven years ago, an employee of mine was talking about a T-shirt with flagrant language right in front of me. I told him that would not be a nice T-shirt to buy because of the profanity in it. Another employee asked me why? I pointed to the Holy Bible I carried and said because I want to follow the Bible. You want to follow the Bible, you never cursed, he asked? I never cursed I told him. The employee who used flagrant language regarding the shirt looked at the 'Holy Bible' and said 'I am sorry', I did not see it there. That made me so happy because of the respect he gave to the Holy Bible and apologized for using flagrant language. It was done out of respect to the Word of God and for me who wanted to follow the Word of God instead of out of fear that I was his supervisor. I praise the Lord that I was able to apply what Pastor Hugo Cheng and I talked about from 'Making of a Leader' regarding the exercise of authority. 

When I was doing another job, a co-worker kept cursing but knew that I could not stand hearing curse words because I was a Christian. As a friend, she decided to do something. She told me that every time she cursed, she would give me a dime and asked me to hold her accountable when I heard her curse. She also asked me to pray for her. There were times she did really well in an 8 hour day but a life habit can rarely be overturned in one day or few days. She almost owed  $10.00 from that. She then took that money and took it to a church. What came of that is that she stopped cursing. Another friend of mine decided to do that too after seeing her.

You know because of my actions, I earned the right to be able to speak to her from the Bible and she listened. One time while we were working, we were also able to talk simultaneously as long as we got our stats in a high range. I took her through the entire Book of Genesis in a story format. The next time she was waiting for me to do that for the Book of Deuteronomy. I share that with you because with the Lord’s help I was able to stand out as a light for the Lord at that moment. You know people would say to me, “Ramesh, I would give anything to hear you curse or do this and that.”

You know there was a time that I could not even stand hearing a curse word. I know we live in a world that it is hard to avoid hearing cursing words around us whether it be people around us or what we watch. By God’s grace I have never cursed in my life and curse words were vocabulary I did not even want to hear. My friends knew that too so when they would talk near me and curse, they would automatically come and say ‘sorry oops, didn’t know you were here’. It was really nice how they respected that! They still do that.  I stood on the promises of the Lord for the Lord to help me not to curse, etc. When I do that, I do not have to curse, etc.  

I am not saying as Christians we need to shield ourselves from everything we see wrong around us.  If we do that to the extreme we will be so heavenly minded that we become of no earthly good! The Lord wants us to be in the world but not of the world. Elder Calvin shared a lesson on that from John 15. We need to shine out as light in the world. 

It can be very tempting to send our daughters to a Christian school but as I thought about it, I realized our daughter Esther can be more of a witness in a public school by living out her faith. In kindergarten, for her 100 days of school project, she put 100 different crosses of all shapes and sizes to represent the power of the Cross in our lives. It was hung in the hallway of the public school with other people's projects too. The teacher told us so many people commented on the project. Then for her first grade, she did a project where she showed pictures of herself from birth to the first 77 months of her life with extra pictures for birthdays to give 100 pictures. What was special about that was it was not just pictures but PSALM 139 was emphasized to show God's work in a life from conception to birth to life :) The point of this was to share the Word of God with the students of the public school. Thank you Jesus.

There are times I review movies that have different ratings from the MPAA to bring out the redeeming aspects of the movie and the biblical connections and spiritual implications of the movie to our lives. However, there are movies I would not even watch to review them because I already know they have no redeeming value except spouting out filth.

"We can justify all our deeds but the Lord looks at our motives!" (Prov 22)

Whatever movie I watch, I involve the Lord so He can lead me and guide me to review it, etc! My limitation on watching R movies is very high.

I ask you now dear friends, what does your B.E.H.A.V.I.O.R do for others in life?
Dear friends, our behavior dictates to others who we are following whether we are following the Light of the World or the prince of darkness. There is no middle ground. For we cannot follow both at the same time! When we engage in things like occultism,  pornography, homosexuality, etc we have given ourselves to the devil for the time being. When we are in his control he uses us as a pawn, as he wishes, because we let down our Spiritual defenses and allowed ourselves to dabble in those areas. Those are not the only areas but examples I wanted to focus on because in another version the word 'perverse' is used. Perverse brings to mind perversion and that is what engaging in pornography, occultism, homosexuality, etc eventually leads to.

 "Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done." (Romans 1:26-28, NIV)

Our generation is not any different but maybe worse in terms of being crooked and depraved. All we have to do is watch the news regarding promotion of gay marriage, promotion of homosexuality with parades, pornography, strip clubs, abortion, etc. It is just disgraceful and sad.  It is in this crooked and depraved generation, as children of God we should act in a positive way so that the effect is us shining like stars in the universe, holding out the word of life. But, this must be done in a loving way and non judgmental way. It is totally okay to speak out against sin but not to embrace it. It is totally okay to love the sinner and hate the sin.

A generation that becomes crooked and depraved is not just limited to these  sins but more than that. It is because of a depraved heart that we become crooked. Only Christ can cleanse with His precious Blood and give a new beginning. Even when we struggle with sin, Christ is right there to help us when we turn to Him. He wants to help us and deliver us friend. Yes, He does!

So whatever you are going through or done, never think you are out of the reach of the Savior who wants to help you overcome behaviors that lead to darkness. Oh yes, He does! Jesus wants to be the Light of your world so when you follow Him, you won't be stumbling through the darkness but living light will flood your path. This goes for anyone who turns to Him whether they are involved in occultism, homosexuality, pornography, lying, abortion, etc. We can shine out as light with the help of the Lord, for He who wants us to be set apart for Him will help us. Yes, He will!

For the Word of the Lord says, "Be ye perfect, as my Heavenly Father is perfect" and "Be Holy, for I am Holy." 

Apart from the Redeemer we cannot live in holiness but valiantly seeking after the Redeemer can change our behavior!

Friend, won’t you stand with me on this?
Each of us can make a difference in this world as we have the Light of the World to direct our behavior. We can start with simple things such as taking a stand against watching ‘R’,  'NR', 'Unrated', movies that have nudity in them even though they are not necessarily seen as X rated adult movies.

We can take a stand against reading horoscopes, tarot cards, etc! Nothing is fun about any of that.

If you are a movie reviewer, you can review ‘R’, 'NR', and 'Unrated' movies from a biblical perspective and at the same time avoid scenes that show pornography by turning your head away until the scenes change, etc. You can usually know when those scenes change based on the music, etc. There are movies that have no redeeming value from the beginning and it makes no sense to watch them even to review them.

Friend, I don’t know what areas are the ones you struggle with or if there are other crooked or depraved things that have a hold on you. But this I do know, that whatever your struggle, Jesus loves you so much and wants to help you. He sees you as His child and wants you to be blameless and pure and He is there to pick you up each time you fall when you turn to Him. I know and believe, deliverance is on the way. Keep holding on to Jesus and you will hold on to hope. He wants to be your All in All!

What we need to be aware of is the desensitization aspect because it will happen even in a life of a follower of Christ when they subject themselves to things that are contrary to the Word, whether it be occultism, pornography, homosexuality, promiscuity, abortion, etc. When I now review certain 'R' rated movies, I need to be very careful and alert to avoid scenes that involve pornography. If a movies' plot is pornography based, I do not usually even review those movies.  Ninety percent of the time, I do not even watch 'R' movies because there is no redeeming value in them.

In terms of behavior, I also know that I need not be perfect before sharing the Gospel with others. For in our weakness, the Lord is strong and can work in us and through us even forgiving us as we repent of our sins.

In conclusion, the purpose of today's devotional is to understand that we live in a crooked and depraved generation where we are asked to become shining stars, holding out the Word of Life as we do everything without complaining and arguing but being blameless and pure.

May you be able to come to that point so you can shine out as stars in the universe and hold out the Word of Life being guided by the Light of the World as you do everything without complaining and arguing but being blameless and pure.

"Be Everyday Holy After Victoriously Involving Our Redeemer! (B.E.H.A.V.I.O.R)/”What does your B.E.H.A.V.I.O.R do for others in life?” 

PRAYER:
Dear Jesus, we are in this world and you placed us here. Yet, you want us to be in the world but not of it. Jesus, when people around us are involved in things and they are our friends, for many it can be hard not to go along because of peer pressure, etc, yet, you want our allegiance to be to you foremost as your child Oh God. Father God, we cannot live as shining lights and hold out your Word without your direct intervention in our lives. So, please Father God help us to live for you and serve you. We are so sorry for the wrongs we have done and for not loving you with our whole heart. Deliver us Oh Lord and help us to be blameless and pure as you want us to. Jesus, help us also not to isolate ourselves from the world and our friends just because they do not live the way you want us to live. On the contrary, help us to be examples in their lives and show your love to them. Lead me on Oh Lord. Help us to shine like stars being blameless. I want to be blameless and pure to hold out the Word of Life. For all that to happen we need you to cover us in your Blood so we can live for you and serve you. Help us Oh Lord. Thanks so much Jesus for Romans 7 & Romans 8. For all the help you give, thanks so much Jesus! In Your Name I Pray! Amen!

You are my all in all. You are my Prince of Peace, Rock, Savior, and Friend. You are my Holy Father guiding me through to live a life of righteousness, holy righteousness. Oh God, I need you more than ever. I need to feel your hands around me holding me tight. I need your love to surround me so that you can glow in my life. Help me please Jesus. I desire in your presence. Thank you for guiding me to live a life of righteousness. Oh God you love me more than ever. You hear my voice when I cry out to you. When I seek your face, you fill me up. You are my all in all. Thank you Jesus so much for your help no matter what I face, your grace is available and you take my case. Thank you for hearing us and answering us. In Your Name I Pray Jesus! AMEN! (Part of the prayer is from a vineyard song called “All in All”)