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
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
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
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.”
http://originalworks.info/open-my-heart/
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
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
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
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.”
http://originalworks.info/open-my-heart/