CHARACTER

This is too help you go further in our devotional from youth group at Wellborn Baptist.  Some suggestions for you:
1.) Consider using a Journal to write down your answers to the question prompts.
2.) Use your own bible to look up the bible passages.  This helps you to learn to navigate your Bible, and also may help you gain some insight into the passage meaning.  Your translation may be different from the ones I have used (New American Standard Version).
3.) Pray and ask God to guide you as you go through this.
4.) Don't worry how long or quickly you work through this.  Take the time you need and feel led to take.

Character comes from the inside out.  What does the bible say about Character?

First, the heart.  You have heard the phrase, "Let your Heart lead you."  The Bible says that the heart is not a good thing to follow.

Jeremiah 17:9

"The Heart  is more deceitful than all else, And is desperately sick;
Who can know it?
I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind
Even to give each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds."

Ask yourself:
1.) What does it mean that my heart is sick?  What is your initial inclination about the decisions you make?
2.) What does it mean that no one can know the heart?
3.) Some may say they know their heart.  If this is so, then why do we do bad selfish things that we know are wrong and sinful?

The Bible says that Character comes from within:

Matthew 23:27-28

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful,
but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleaness.
So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are
full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

What we do to the outside can not change what is inside.  No matter how much you decorate the outside of the tomb or the grave, no matter how beautiful it may be, it doesn't change that fact that inside is death, corruption and decay.

Ask Yourself:

1.) what are somethings that people (or me) do to hide the fact that deep down they are only concerned with their own interests or pleasures?
2.) what makes what good things a person does actually good?
3.) what does it mean to be a hypocrite?  How do hypocrites make me feel?

The Bible says that once we have accepted Christ, we become a Temple for the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 6:19

"Or do you know that your body is a temple of the
Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?"

Also, the bible says that Jesus has defeated death

1 Corinthians 15:56-57  (also read verse 50-56)

"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ."

Ask Yourself:
What is the difference between the power of this world and the power of the Holy Spirit?
What is the difference between and Temple and a Tomb?
What are you making a home for inside you?

The Point
We are home to one of two things: death or life (the Holy Spirit).  We come into this world born into sin and fallen.  From the moment of our birth, our hearts are sick with sin and can not be trusted.  This is why Jesus say that no one can come to Him except those lead by the Holy Spirit.  If our hearts could lead us to Him, there would be no need for Him to give us grace by defeating death.
Ultimately we are either a tomb, or we are a Temple.  Too many people make themselves look good on the outside, so much that it is hard to believe that in reality, on the inside they are still a tomb.  Think of the Taj Mahal in India.  It looks like a palace and it is very beautiful.  But, ultimately it is still a tomb for a queen.  The queen is still dead and always will be.  Nothing can change the fact that ultimately, it is a monument to death.
A Temple is a house for God.  It is a monument to the idea that inside lives something that never dies.  Jesus offers you the gift of life.  He offers to transform you from a tomb, a monument to illness and death, into a Temple where His Holy Spirit lives inside of you giving you life here and in the future.  This means that the good things you do come not from your own weak strength, but are product of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and a sign of life...not death...within us.
If you haven't asked Jesus to change you from a tomb to a temple, is the Holy Spirit moving you to let him?
If you have, are you doing your part to make a good, peaceful home or the Holy Spirit?
Are you the real thing?