The Prudent

"Well, I didn't know I shouldn't poke at that black buzzy thing," the boy says, nursing a bee sting.

"I didn't know if I pulled the kitty's tail she would scratch!" the little girl exclaims, showing mom a nasty scratch.

Did you ever know something, only to come to really KNOW something? Many times I have told my children not to do something then...after they do it anyway...they say, "Well, but --I didn't know...!

I look out my window and what do I see? The little children's song begins. We look out the window and see God's creation (ie. birds flying, clouds floating, trees growing, etc.) and recognize that God made these things for me.

Proverbs 22:3 A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself; But the simple pass on, and suffer for it.
Proverbs 27:12 A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself; But the simple pass on, and suffer for it.

How many times does something have to be said in the scriptures for it to be a truth? This must be important. See evil and what?...hideth himself? The simple pass on and suffer?

What is evil? What kind of evil can we see? What ever it is-- we need to pay attention and stay away from it!

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me." Ever been tricked by some dishonest person? Did you fall for the same trick twice? Sometimes we do. The first time, any one can fall victim, but if the person does the same thing again....?

Genesis 3:4 "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:" Oh, how many times people fall for that lie!
And just like Eve in Genesis 3:13 (And Jehovah God said unto the woman, What is this thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.) We have to confess, 'the serpent beguiled me'. Beguiled-- that means deceived or tricked.

We are tricked when we aren't content. When we begin to look for something 'more', or something 'different'. Genesis 3:6 "And when the woman SAW that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the EYES, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat;" Perhaps she wasn't looking before, but Satan planted the seed in her heart-- and there you go...and there she went.

Why is it that children of God seem to have so much trouble identifying 'evil'? There are things that a few years ago shocked everyone, not just the children of God, but society in general. Now, all people just take such things to be normal. "Well, we just don't know...we don't have the right to judge others." But wait...are we left to wander through this wilderness of woe...without direction?

Psalms 91:1-2 "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2) I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust."

As baptized believers we know that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1Corinthians 6:19-20 "Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; 20) for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body." Anything that destroys the 'temple', which was 'bought with a price', or doesn't glorify God, is wrong (sin).

Keeping with the principles taught in Psalms 91:3 --For he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, And from the deadly pestilence.-- would deliver us from many problems we face today.

Well--- I think as I look around. I'm standing in the middle of a thistle patch. Not on the edge of a thistle patch, mind you, in the middle of a thistle patch, and I'm barefoot. How--- I continue the thought--- did I get here? and (more importantly) how will I get out?

Ever since I can remember the principle ' the shortest distance between two points is a straight line', has been my rule of life. And that is how I've found myself in this predicament.

Well, here we are amid the thistles of life. Yes, we can judge our lives, and the lives of those around us. By applying the Godly principles of: 'Does this glorify God? Will this help improve my life...for God? Does this bring me closer or further to God and His will for my life?' These questions will help us 'be delivered from the snares of Satan (the fowler) and from his deadly pestilence (sin).

Maybe the thing we should do is stand back, take a deep breath, and say, "Lord, this is your life. Help me to live for you. From now on you take the lead. It's your life, Lord."

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!