1. Balance Ata Marie (Good Moring)
Ka nui nga mihi kia koutou katoa (my greetings to you all)
i tenei ra (on this day)
Eoin Crosbie
Elder at Calvin

2. Blaise Pascal?
“No one is strong unless he or she bears within their character antitheses strongly marked.”

3. In other words…
“In order to be a fully developed person, one’s virtues must be held in tension, for it is in that very tension that strength is found.”

4. Virtues taken to extreme…..
Determination
Enthusiasm
Thrift
Strong conviction
Determination stubbornness
Enthusiasm fanaticism
Thrift meanness
Strong conviction blindness to another point of view
A Scottish Theologian once said. “God grant that I may always be right, for I will never change.” One must admire a person with strong conviction but we must make sure that they are convictions and not just opinions.
The person who thinks he is always right and will never change, is always wrong!

5. So what can you ‘mark’ these with?…..
Words
Fear
Mind
Striving
Words action “Moses was strong in speech and action” Acts 17v22 Non Christian will tell you instinctively that these two go hand in hand. How often are we reminded that we must walk the talk
Fear God’s perfect love – casts out all fear 1 John 4:18
Mind Emotions Some people train the mind to neglect the emotions, others indulge the emotions to neglect the mind
Striving trusting e.g. Sarai encouraging Abraham to sleep with Hagar, to father a child by her. Sometimes we have to wait on God’s timing by trusting.

6. “…speaking the truth in love we will in all things grow up into him”.
Ephesians 4:15
“…speaking the truth in love we will in all things grow up into him”.
Truth Love
Scripture holds these two in balance and so must we.
Forgetting doctrinal differences in the interest of love is not biblical.
If in pursuing truth with such Zeal you become harsh, rude and downright obnoxious, then that is wrong as well.
Scripture binds truth and love together and that is our prayer for this assembly, that as you come and debate and decide, truth and love will abide as one in all that you say and do