It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The time

There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. (Prov 14:12, NASB)

 

Don’t you sometimes wish there were “do overs” in life. There are more than a few things in my life that I wish I had the opportunity to not do. How many of life’s ouchies are followed by the words “it seemed like a good idea at the time”?

I came across the following quote at some point in time:

“If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: "It seemed a good idea at the time." (Dame Rebecca West, Irish-born author and journalist, 1892-1983)

Wow, is that true or what! There are so many things in life that seem ok to us, that would seemingly cause no real harm, yet God says that our unguided ideas are going to get us in trouble.

We find it easy to admit that children need guidance to keep them from trouble, but we would like to think that as adults we are intelligent enough and have enough common sense and wisdom to make right decisions based upon what we believe to be right and wrong.

God says that human wisdom is faulty. It is distorted by our natural perception, which is not based upon God’s perception. We need someone wiser than us, who knows the end form the beginning, to guide us. I lived a lot of my life without God’s guidance, doing what seemed right to me...I was wrong. Our basic nature is self seeking and denies God His rightful place. We can make our plans, scheme, connive, and do everything we think is right and still die separated from God.

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, the recognizing and giving to God His rightful place. We must realize that our human wisdom is faulty and we need the mind of Christ to guide us. True life is only found through Jesus Christ. Every way that seems right to man will lead only to death. There is only one way and that is God’s way.

I have now lived a lot of my life with God’s guidance, choosing His way over my way. That has worked a LOT better…

Regarding Animal Life

“A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal … “  (Proverbs 12:10a, NASB)

I have never had anyone come up to me and say “Wow, I just read Proverbs 12:10 and it has really changed my life.” As a matter of fact I've never even heard anyone mention Proverbs 12:10.

Of course, it could be a pretty easy verse to get around. It would be easy to think this only applies to those who have a lot of contact with animals in their daily lives, like ranchers, sheepherders, horse breeders, farmers, kennels and such. But then again, this verse, does say animal and not animals. It’s kind of like it is saying that every single animal is important to God, not just the different species of animals. That kind of makes it a single animal.

And it says a righteous man has regard, and not righteous men have regard. That kind of narrows it down again from the whole race of men to a single man. We could even simmer this verse down to a specific man and a specific animal - if we wanted to.

And which of us does not think poorly of the person who has starving animals, or the one who abuses animals. It is easy to make this verse apply in these situations..

But what if we make it even more personal, what if we apply it to ourselves personally? And what if the animal is our family pet, or our son’s pet or our daughter’s pet? Oh, I’m sure we don’t “abuse” the pet, or “starve” the pet. Maybe we just don’t really care for dogs or cats. Maybe we are just not a dog person or a cat person, or an animal lover for that matter. But a righteous man still cares about the welfare of his animal.

It comes down to an attitude. What is our mind set towards the family pet? How do we regard it? If we have a correct mindset we will realize that even the family pet falls under our stewardship. A righteous person has regard for the life of his animal. The Message Bible says:

“Good people are good to their animals.”

I Don’t Look Good Naked Anymore

Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.   (2 Cor 4:16, NKJV)

My brother sent me a song via email the other day. It was called “I Don’t Look Good Naked Anymore.” I listened to it a couple times and emailed it to a few friends, and pondered it a bit. 

I can still remember the first time I got out of a shower and didn’t recognize the back I saw in the mirror. It was not skinny like the one I was used to, it even had a couple rolls of fat on it. I couldn’t hardly believe it was mine.

Then came the times folks would take pictures and I would catch a camera’s eye view of myself.  Wow, my body was starting to go...and grow.  This song really catches all of that.

If there is something we can know for sure, our bodies are in the process of dying.  Some folks spend a lot of money trying to stay looking young, fit and trim and, let’s face it, we would all like to look good.

Now, just as sure as our bodies (outer man) are dying, our inner man is being renewed day by day.  Every day out inner man is filled with life, rejuvenated, and made vibrant.  As we seek God and live for Him, He endows our inner man with His life giving spirit. Now, there is only so much we can do about the ageing process of our outer man, but we can joyously submit ourselves to the life giving power of God on a regular basis and join with Him in the renewing process of our inner man.

And while I enjoyed the song “I Don’t Look Good Naked Anymore”, I am not all hung up about how it is going with my body. I would like to take the song a bit farther though, because not only do I not look good naked anymore, I never really did...that’s what clothes are for.

Levels of Obedience

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence … “  (Php 2:12, NIV)

Obedience is a heart issue. When I was a child, I obeyed my earthly father out of fear and concern of what would happen to me if I didn’t. As I got older, I realized obedience was for my own good. As I continued to mature, obeying was more a matter of not wanting to disappoint my parents. This is still not the level of obedience God has called us to.

God calls us to a higher level of obedience, a mature obedience. When I first came to Christ, I obeyed out of fear and concern of what would happen to me if I didn’t. As I got older, I realized obedience was for my own good. As I continued to mature, obeying was more a matter of not wanting to disappoint God. Eventually I came to a place where because of my love for God, I didn’t want to do anything to offend Him or hinder my relationship with Him. 

When I was a child and my father was around I would be obedient to his requirements.  f he went somewhere, maybe I would be obedient and maybe I wouldn’t. In our verse today, Paul is calling the believers to a higher level of obedience. He says “as you have been obedient in my presence, now be obedient in my absence.”

“Respond in my absence, just as you would if I was there among you.” The obedience Paul is talking about is the kind that is a “working out” of what God has “put in”. There are things that accompany salvation, and these things are to be evidenced in our lives. Not because Paul is there, or a preacher, or Sunday school teacher, or school teacher, or a policeman, or fireman, or Mom, or Dad, but because there has been a change wrought in our heart and we want to do what is right. And we want to do it not because of fear of punishment, but because of love, appreciation, and awe.

You see, God is doing something inside of us. He is giving us the desire to act in accordance with His Word. And as if that wasn’t enough, He is also giving us the ability to do the things He wants us to!  Php 2:12-13 from the NIV Bible says:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Revelation, Boundaries & Restraint II

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.  (Proverbs 29:18, KJV)

Long before having a vision for your life, ministry, church, business, etc was vogue in Christian and secular circles, God had already talked about it in His Word.  First let’s look at Proverbs 29:18 in a couple different versions.  

The NIV Bible says: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.” 

 The NAS Bible says: “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law. “

 The word, vision, or revelation, might be better understood as divine communication. It is a vision, a revelation, a divine communication that comes to us from God. It is a revelatory communication from God in which He reveals Himself and/or His divine purposes.

 The Bible says that without this people are unrestrained. They have no boundaries, no parameters, nothing to regulate or measure their lives by. They have no lines to live between and no rule book to live by as we saw in Part I of Vision, Revelation, & Boundaries. Their lives have no boundaries, restraints, convictions, consideration, or guidance.  The end result is confusion, turmoil, and destruction.

On the other hand people who do have divine communication (vision)  from God and follow it, are obedient to the revelation (vision), have lives that are filled with blessings.  They will be happy, contented, fruitful, and have meaningful lives.  The Word is clear, it is not enough to know the vision, we must be obedient to it. As Paul said in Acts 23:19, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision".

In the context of the verse we have been looking at the vision is the Law God gave to Moses.  In the context of our time it would be the Old and New Testaments.  In the context of a personal vision for our lives, it would be God revealing something specific He wants us to do.  That specific thing will always be in agreement with the greater context of God’s revealed will in His Word.

 

The NLT Bible says “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is happy.

If we don't stay within our realm of authority & conduct ourselves in accordance with governing stipulations we will end up outside of safe boundaries.