Under Gods Command
Proverbs 12:21 No harm befalls the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble.
This is a general, but not universal, truth. Although harm does happen to the righteous, they are able to see opportunities in their problems and move ahead. The wicked, without God’s wisdom are ill-equipped to handle their problems.
Under Gods Command
Judges 17:5-6 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some idols and installed one of his sons as his priest. In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit.
Today, as in Micah’s day, everyone seems to put his or her own interests first. Time has not changed human nature. Most people still reject God’s right way of living. The people in Micah’s time replaced the true worship of God with a homemade version of worship. As a result, justice was soon replaced by revenge and disorder. Ignoring God’s direction led to confusion and destruction. Anyone who has not submitted to God will end up doing whatever seems right at the time.
Lets Bring it Home: This tendency is present in all of us. To know what is really right and to have the strength to do it, we need to draw closer to God and his Word.
Under Gods Command
Proverbs 7:1-5 My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “you are my sister,” and call understanding your kinsman; they will keep you from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words.
Sons often neglect their father’s instructions and warnings. If they forget them, they will not be ready, when temptation is in their eyes, ears, heart, and loins. And the temptation here is dangerous and powerful – a beautiful and skilled adulteress (7:5-27). The same lesson applies to young women, when they are infatuated with a handsome man. Solomon begins and ends his warning with appeals to remember his advice (7:1-4,24).
The dangers of not remembering are great. How will a young man resist, when his eyes are full of her beauty, his ears full of her flattery, his heart full of her offered love and submission, and his loins full of desire (5:3;6:24-25; 7:13-21)? How will a young woman resist, when her eyes are full of his manliness, her ears full of his flattery, her heart full of his attention and affection, and her body craves his full embrace (Gen 34:1-3)?
By nature, a son does not value his father’s warnings. He deceives himself to believe that his father is out of touch with the world, that his father overstates the danger, that his father wants to deprive him of pleasure, that his father never met a desirable woman, that his father did not have sexual lusts, or that he can escape the consequences his father describes. All these are damnable lies from a foolish youthful heart and the father of lies.
Sons must trust fathers and esteem their advice and warnings. Every father was once a young man with the same desires and temptations. But a father has survived youth and reflected much on what is best for his son. He has long-term success in mind, not short-term pleasures that will ruin his life! Fathers love their sons more than any woman will ever love them, even a virtuous wife! Young man, keep your father’s commandments!
Young men must resist the attraction and temptation of a whorish woman by having their minds firmly established in their fathers’ commandments long before they encounter this very dangerous creature. Once they are even slightly captivated by the appearance, flattery, or offers of a seductress, it becomes almost impossible to recall any warnings.
But what will a young man do, whose father does not teach or warn him about such a woman? He will be helpless before the drawing power of her body and wiles. Such fathers are accomplices in the destruction of their sons! Though he may have advised and warned about many dangers, he neglected the most harmful. Fathers, save your sons!
Reader! God your Father has given His commandments and law to you. Do you keep them as the apple of your eye? Do you read them daily? Do you meditate upon them? Do you tremble before their warnings and rejoice at their instruction? Or do you deceive yourself that you can forget or neglect them and survive? Do not be a fool!
This is very serious. We wonder why we have hardships. Well, some of them we brought on ourselves. Please read Joe Quatrone blog on Consequences
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows (Galatians 6:7).
Very few things motivate us to give God our undivided attention like being faced with the negative consequences of our decisions. Regardless of our guilt, we find the courage (or nerve) to turn to God for help and oftentimes a miracle. We make promises to Him as if this would change His mind about our situation. Suddenly, we’re concerned for the welfare of others. We look for whatever leverage we can find to get God to do something on our behalf.
Many of us experience tension because we live daily with the painful consequences of sin. Mistakenly, we thought, hoped, or were told that once we accepted Christ, God would miraculously erase our consequences. With the daily evidence He has not taken away our consequences, some of us conclude we have not…
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Under Gods Command
Proverbs 6:1-5 My son, if you have put security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for another, If you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go and humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor! Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
These verses are not a plea against generosity, but against overextending one’s financial resources and acting in irresponsible ways that could lead to poverty. It is important to maintain a balance between generosity and good stewardship. God wants us to help our friends and the needy, but he does not promise to cover the costs of every unwise commitment we make. We should also act responsibly so that our families do not suffer.
Under Gods Command
Idolatry in the tribe of Dan
Judges 17:1-3 Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse-I have that silver with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “The LORD bless you, my son!” When he returned the elven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I will give it back to you.” When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the LORD for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol. I will give it back to you.”
Micah and his mother seemed to be good and moral and may have sincerely desired to worship God, but they disobeyed God by following their own desires instead of doing what God wanted. The attitude that prevailed in Micah’s day was this: “Every one did as he saw fit” (17:6). Everyone should already know that making carved images and idols are against Gods Commands.
Lets Bring it Home: This is remarkably similar to today’s prevailing attitudes. But God has given us standards. He has not left our conduct up to us and our opinions. We can avoid conforming to society’s low standards by taking God’s commands seriously and applying them to life. Independence and self-reliance’s are positive traits, but only within the framework of God’s standards.
Under Gods Command
Sexual Temptations are difficult to withstand because they appeal to the normal and nature desires that God has given us. Marriage provides God’s way to satisfy these natural sexual desires and to strengthen the partners against temptation. Married couples have the responsibility to care for each other; therefore husbands and wives should not withhold themselves sexually from one another, but should fulfill each other’s needs and desires.
1 Corinthians 7:3-6 – The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
A preacher once said “People say that the grass is not greener on the other side, well it depends what side is being water the most”. Do not lead each other into temptation, because that is exactly what you are doing if you are denying each other of sexual attention.
Under Gods Command
Proverbs 27:18 He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored.
With all the problems and concerns a leader has, it can be easy to overlook the very people who most deserve attention-faithful employees or volunteers (those who tend the fig trees). The people who stand behind you, who work hard and help you get the job done, deserve to share in your success. Be sure that in all your worrying, planning, and organizing, you don’t forget the people who are helping you the most.
Under Gods Command
Practice what you preach or teach
Romans 2:17-24 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; If you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law, if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written. “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentles because of you.
Those of us who have grown up in Christian families are the religiously privileged of today. Paul’s condemnation applies to us if we do not live up to what we know. Paul explained to the Jews that they need to teach themselves, not others, by their law. They know the law so well that they had learned how to excuse their own actions while criticizing others. We face this today in our daily walk. We need to remember that we cannot please God without a proper relationship with him. As Jesus pointed out, even withholding what rightfully belongs to someone else is stealing, and looking on another persons with lustful, adulterous intent is adultery. Before we accused others, we must look at ourselves and see if that sin, in any form, exists within us. If we claim to be one of God’s people, our life should reflect what God is like. When you disobey God, you dishonor his name. People may even blaspheme or profane God’s name because of you. What do people think about God from watching your life.
Under Gods Command
Proverbs 24:08 He who plots evil will be known as a schemer.
Plotting to do evil can be as wrong as doing it because what you think determines what you will do. Left unchecked, wrong desires will lead us to sin. God wants pure lives, free from sin, and planning evil spoils the purity even if the evil action has not yet been committed. Should you say, “Then I might as well go ahead and do it because I’ve already planned it”? No. You have sinned in your attitude, but you have not yet damaged other people. Stop in your tracks and ask in Jesus name for God to forgive you and put you on a different path.
Under Gods command 