Wednesday, January
21, 2015, 5:30 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “How Sweet the Sound.” A little later he
put in mind the song “Open My Heart.”
Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. The Lord led me to read Proverbs 5-6 (selected verses NASB).
Drips Honey
My
son, give attention to my wisdom,
Incline
your ear to my understanding;
That
you may observe discretion
And
your lips may reserve knowledge.
For
the lips of an adulteress drip honey
And
smoother than oil is her speech;
But
in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp
as a two-edged sword.
Her
feet go down to death,
Her
steps take hold of Sheol.
She
does not ponder the path of life;
Her
ways are unstable, she does not know it. ~ 5:1-6
We must pay attention to what the Word of God teaches us
with regard to holy living and to the things we are to keep away from, to cast
off and/or to avoid. We should not reject godly wisdom in favor of going our
own way and doing our own thing. We must test everything we see, hear or read
against the Word of Truth and against what we know to be God’s divine character
and will for our lives. We must be careful that we don’t buy into what sounds
good and pleasing to our ears, but is filled with lies, deception and manipulations
of truth. An adulteress is not just one who tries to get us to have sex with
her or him (virtually or otherwise), but is anyone who tries to lure us into
sinning with her (or him) against our God and/or against our spouse in any way.
She represents what is forbidden for us by God.
An adulteress (in reality or metaphorically speaking), and
anyone who decides to walk in her ways, is like those who are descending a set
of steps only to get to the next round of steps and realize too late that the
last set of steps had been removed, so when they step forward they step down to
their deaths. They are on a moral decline, and the steps (decisions and
actions) they are taking are leading them straight to hell. Yet, they don’t see
it because they just think more steps will always be there. They give no
thought to their ways, because they think they can continue on in their course,
and that things will always be as they are. Yet, none of us knows if we have
tomorrow. We don’t know when we will take that last step and after that is
death, so we shouldn’t play with fire thinking we won’t get burned. God is
warning us to watch our steps so that we don’t fall into sin.
The lips of an adulteress drip with honey and her speech is
as smooth as butter, but in the end, if we buy into her deceptions and
allurement, it will come back and bite us. I believe one of the biggest areas
of allurement where people get trapped these days is on the internet, where the
whole world of evil is available to us at our fingertips and in the privacy of
our homes, our bedrooms, and our cars, etc. with little to no accountability to
anyone concerning what we look at, read, hear or take into our minds and
hearts. It is easy to think that no one sees so no one knows, but since
everything is on the cloud these days, I suspect that there is a record
somewhere. I do know that when we go to internet sites that it leaves cookies,
so people who go where they are not supposed to go often must wipe out their trail,
but is it really wiped out? God sees what we do, even if no one else does.
Do Not Go Near
Now
then, my sons, listen to me
And
do not depart from the words of my mouth.
Keep
your way far from her
And
do not go near the door of her house,
Or
you will give your vigor to others
And
your years to the cruel one;
And
strangers will be filled with your strength
And
your hard-earned goods will go to the house of an alien;
And
you groan at your final end,
When
your flesh and your body are consumed;
And
you say, “How I have hated instruction!
And
my heart spurned reproof!
“I
have not listened to the voice of my teachers,
Nor
inclined my ear to my instructors!
“I
was almost in utter ruin
In
the midst of the assembly and congregation.” ~ 5:7-14
As I said already, an adulteress is not just someone who
entices us to sin sexually. She represents all that is forbidden for us by God,
and she represents deception, lies and manipulations of truth intended to lure
us into following after her lies and not after truth. So, we must keep away
from her no matter where she exists. The modern institutional church of today
here in America, which is following after the flesh instead of after the Spirit
is an adulteress who lures God’s people and the people of this world into
following a false grace gospel which leaves people still bound in sin and gives
them carte blanche to continue that way, and then assures them that God is
pleased with them no matter what they do.
The government and media also serve as an adulteress with
their smooth talk and their pleasing words which sound good, but is mostly
based in lies and deceptions and false promises. We have to stop believing
everything we see, hear and read and we must begin to test everything against
the Word of God and in prayer for discernment and wisdom to know what lies are
and what truth is so that we don’t follow the adulteress and her ways, thinking
we are right when we may be dead wrong. We live in an age of deception. We have
to stop being so naïve and realize that much of what is out there is not truth,
even if it looks like truth. TV news can also be so alluring and captivating
and is emotionally charged to get us to believe their stories. Remember,
anything can be faked. Be wise! Be discerning!
If we are not wise and discerning, and we choose to reject
godly counsel and the wisdom of scripture, and we instead embrace the words of
humans, because we want to believe what they say, and what they say sounds good
or makes us feel good, we must know that one day it may come back to bite us.
One day we will see with our eyes and know with our hearts all the lies we
believed and we followed, because the truth will be revealed, and then we will
lament that we did not listen to godly counsel and wisdom but we decided to go
our own way instead. Perhaps someone will discover the porn sites you have been
visiting, or your boss will discover that you have been cheating him or her on
your time sheet, or your eyes will be opened when this nation is judged for its
sins and you realize that we are not the “good guys” going around the world
spreading democracy and giving help to people.
They Will Guide You
My
son, observe the commandment of your father
And
do not forsake the teaching of your mother;
Bind
them continually on your heart;
Tie
them around your neck.
When
you walk about, they will guide you;
When
you sleep, they will watch over you;
And
when you awake, they will talk to you.
For
the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light;
And
reproofs for discipline are the way of life
To
keep you from the evil woman,
From
the smooth tongue of the adulteress. ~ 6:20-24
So, what is the solution? First of all, we must know Jesus
Christ as Lord and as Savior of our lives, have our sins forgiven, be delivered
from hell, and have the hope of eternal life with God in glory. God made the
way for us to be set free from our sin via Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is
by his grace, through faith, that we have salvation. So, what is faith?
Scriptural faith is described as us dying with Christ to our old lives of
living for sin and self, us being born anew of the Spirit of God, and of us
being given new lives in Christ to be lived out in his righteousness and
holiness – all in the power and working of the Spirit within us, as we cooperate
fully with that work of grace (See: Luke 9:23-25; Ac. 26:16-18;
Ro. 6-8; 2 Co. 5:15; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:8-10; 4:17-24; Tit. 2:11-14; 1 Pet.
2:24-25; & 1 Jn. 1-5).
As believers in Jesus Christ, we are now the children
of God. We were bought with Christ’s blood shed for us, so our lives are no
longer our own. As Christ’s followers, our desire is for him – to walk in his
ways and to do what he says. Our desire should no longer be to walk after the
ways of the flesh. It does not mean we will never sin again, or that we will
never be tempted to sin. We will. Yet, what it does mean is that sin is no
longer our master. It no longer rules our lives. We don’t live in sin and walk
in the ways of this sinful world as a matter of due course. We are surrendered
to Jesus Christ and are committed to do his will.
The Christian life is not instantaneous perfection,
though. It is a process of being made holy; of being made like Jesus, and of
putting off the things of the flesh and putting on the things of the Spirit.
Yet, as a follower of Christ, we should not willfully hold on to our old life
of sin thinking that God’s grace covers it all. There are many warnings in
scripture that tell us if we say we know God or that we have fellowship with
him, but we continue to walk in sinful ways (in lifestyle), then we don’t know God
and we are liars. For us to be genuinely saved, a transformation of heart and
mind of the Spirit had to take place. We have to be reborn of the Spirit, and
we must choose to die with Christ to sin.
There is also much teaching in scripture about us
continuing in Christ and in his Word, keeping his ways, persevering, and
putting off the flesh and putting on the Spirit as part of our daily walks of
faith in Christ Jesus. We are not saved, in other words, just so when we die we
escape hell and gain heaven. Jesus died so we would no longer live for
ourselves but for him who gave himself up for us. His grace teaches us to say “No”
to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and
godly lives while we wait for his return. Jesus Christ gave himself up for us
to “redeem us from ALL wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are
his very own, eager to do what is good” (See: Tit. 2:11-14; 2 Co. 5:15). In
other words, we should be climbing up the steps, not going down them.
In order for us to maintain living for the Lord and
doing what his Word teaches us, we must be consistently in his word, listening
with our hearts to what his word says to us, and then we must obey what we have
been taught. If we do sin, we must repent (turn from it) and keep trusting in
our Lord, and following him and his ways. If we get trapped again, we need to
confess our sin, and we need to turn away from it and follow Jesus. And, we
must stay away from places that tempt us to sin against our Lord and that
allure us to do wrong.
Open
My Heart / An Original Work / July 2, 2013
“Be
wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil”
(Rm.
16:19b).
Open my heart. Let Your truth in.
Make of me a servant, pure within;
Sing of Your praise all of my days.
Let Your Spirit transform all my ways.
Jesus Christ died on a cross to
Save me from my sin.
“Repent of sin. Be cleansed within.
Obey all of His commands today.”
“Why do you doubt? Why do you fear?
Jesus Christ will wipe away your tears.
He cares for you. He feels your pain.
Die to sin, and life with Him you’ll gain.
Follow Him where’er He leads you.
Talk with Him each day.
Then you will know what He has planned
For your life before your world began.”
“Come unto Me, weary in heart.
Let My love and grace to you impart.
Believe in Me. Trust in My care.
Take your burdens to the Lord in prayer.
He will meet all of your needs,
And give you peace within.
Rejoice in Him! Tell of His love.
He will give you comfort from above.”
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