16 Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman,
from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman.
17 She has abandoned her husband
and ignores the covenant she made before God.
18 Entering her house leads to death;
it is the road to the grave.[a]
19 The man who visits her is doomed.
He will never reach the paths of life.
20 Follow the steps of good men instead,
and stay on the paths of the righteous.
21 For only the godly will live in the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it.
22 But the wicked will be removed from the land,
and the treacherous will be uprooted.
Proverbs 2:20-22
New Living Translation (NLT)
Ack... What can I say? I have had a rough couple of days. I have been hit with the flu bug that has been going around and stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday, so I have been dealing with being physically down, but I have also been burdened by an extremely heavy heart. I wont go into details, but pray for the Lord to intervene in a supernatural way for a peaceful and humble resolution.
This afternoon, as I like to do, I went out to the Deveroux Slough for lunch time and went through today's passage in my One Year Bible. Today's lesson ended with the proverb above.
I thought it had pretty well encapsulated my life over the last 20 or so years, before rededicating my life to Christ almost two years ago.
Here, the writer uses a promiscuous woman as an example, as someone who "ignores the covenant she made before God." as she seduces men taking them away from the Lord.
My friends, that was me just two years ago. I was seduced by the immoral woman (the sins and lusts of the world) and turned away from Jesus Christ.
Now don't get me wrong. If you had asked me if I considered myself to be a Christian, I would have said "Yes I am". However, the term "lukewarm" would barely do me justice. I neither lived nor acted in a way that glorified the Lord for a period of 20+ years.
I believe it was pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills who once said of believers who identify themselves as having "Fallen Away" is that (paraphrasing) "The great tragedy of the believer who identifies himself as having fallen away from the Lord, is that he once knew what it was like to be in the close proximity of the Lord" - Ouch!!!
The first half of my life, I grew up in the church and loved the Lord, but then around my early to mid 20's "I entered her house" (the ways of the world) and turned away from the covenant I made with God.
Verse 16 says that "Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman" and thank God that I had enough wisdom to see and recognize the path to destruction this world is on, and that the path I was currently on was leading to death. It took 20 years for me to see that, but by the grace of God, the Lord delivered me and he can deliver you too!
Continuing my reading, I then found great joy in verses 20 & 21 "20 Follow the steps of good men instead, and stay on the paths of the righteous. 21 For only the godly will live in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it.
I have been so blessed to reconnect with some past friends who are believers, as well as make some incredible new friendships with other men and women who truly love the Lord. Find good, strong believers and hang out with them! Seek their wisdom, pray with them! Sing songs and enjoy each others company. There is so much garbage and foolishness in the world (Have you tried watching MSNBC? :0) get away from it and turn back to Jesus Christ.
It will be the best move you ever make and will help tremendously when dealing with days of sickness or a heavy heart.
=BM=
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