JMD Devotional 143 Proverbs 23:29-35 No Escape Earth Being
Most (not all) of us were shielded somewhat from reality in our childhood. It was in adolescence that we began to feel the overbearing expectations and demands of life weighing down upon us. In our teenage years we assembled a mental toolbox of responses to that growing pressure; denial, distraction, evasion and withdrawal. We practiced passing responsibility around like a hot potato; we found protection for our ego by blaming our parents and circumstances; we learned either to hide from our terror by posing among our peers; or by playing on others' sympathies as a victim. We have all learned unhealthy responses to the pressures of life that we carry into adulthood. Some means of medication are considered more respectable then others; but any unhealthy response just makes matters worse; and in the long run multiplies sorrows.
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness and dimness of eyes? Those who tarry long at the wine, those who go to seek and try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the wineglass, when it goes down smoothly. At the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.
[Under the influence of wine] your eyes will behold strange things [and loose women] and your mind will utter things turned the wrong way [untrue, incorrect, and petulant]. Yes, you will be [as unsteady] as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, and [as open to disaster] as he who lies upon the top of a mast. You will say, They struck me, but I was not hurt! They beat me [as with a hammer], but I did not feel it! When shall I awake? I will crave and seek more wine again [and escape reality].
To make life out to be all rosy is at best naive; a distortion, a deception and a delusion. The Gospel is conspicuously and uniquely "the GOOD NEWS". Our message looses credibility when we don't acknowledge how bad life can be without the difference Jesus Christ makes; the promise of redemption, of God's help, blessing, renewal and of our future happiness in Heaven. God is letting Satan run rampant for now because it contributes to the sorting process. People who have hit bottom in their addictions, who have tried every other way, may finally be receptive to the TRUTH.
1 John 5:19,20 We know [positively] that we are of God, and the whole world [around us] is under the power of the evil one. And we [have seen and] know [positively] that the Son of God has [actually] come to this world and has given us understanding and insight [progressively] to perceive (recognize) and come to know better and more clearly Him Who is true; and we are in Him Who is true--in His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah). This [Man] is the true God and Life eternal.
Dear God,
How sad it is that the people most likely to respond to the message of the Gospel are just those who feel most shunned by Christians and the Church. It is true that your people need to police the fellowship, we need to stay pure; but provoke us to go and carry the message to the retched, miserable, poor, blind and naked souls in bondage. Help us to be the compassionate voice, feet and hands of the Good News in every place.
Amen
All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)
If you know of someone who would like to subscribe to
my daily devotional, please forward.
jamesdinsmore_32907@yahoo.com
Short, concise, thought-provoking.
More features:
http://SaintJamesPoetry.blogspot.com
http://recoverydevotional.blogspot.com/
http://jamesezadventures.blogspot.com/
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness and dimness of eyes? Those who tarry long at the wine, those who go to seek and try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the wineglass, when it goes down smoothly. At the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.
[Under the influence of wine] your eyes will behold strange things [and loose women] and your mind will utter things turned the wrong way [untrue, incorrect, and petulant]. Yes, you will be [as unsteady] as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, and [as open to disaster] as he who lies upon the top of a mast. You will say, They struck me, but I was not hurt! They beat me [as with a hammer], but I did not feel it! When shall I awake? I will crave and seek more wine again [and escape reality].
To make life out to be all rosy is at best naive; a distortion, a deception and a delusion. The Gospel is conspicuously and uniquely "the GOOD NEWS". Our message looses credibility when we don't acknowledge how bad life can be without the difference Jesus Christ makes; the promise of redemption, of God's help, blessing, renewal and of our future happiness in Heaven. God is letting Satan run rampant for now because it contributes to the sorting process. People who have hit bottom in their addictions, who have tried every other way, may finally be receptive to the TRUTH.
1 John 5:19,20 We know [positively] that we are of God, and the whole world [around us] is under the power of the evil one. And we [have seen and] know [positively] that the Son of God has [actually] come to this world and has given us understanding and insight [progressively] to perceive (recognize) and come to know better and more clearly Him Who is true; and we are in Him Who is true--in His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah). This [Man] is the true God and Life eternal.
Dear God,
How sad it is that the people most likely to respond to the message of the Gospel are just those who feel most shunned by Christians and the Church. It is true that your people need to police the fellowship, we need to stay pure; but provoke us to go and carry the message to the retched, miserable, poor, blind and naked souls in bondage. Help us to be the compassionate voice, feet and hands of the Good News in every place.
Amen
All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)
If you know of someone who would like to subscribe to
my daily devotional, please forward.
jamesdinsmore_32907@yahoo.com
Short, concise, thought-provoking.
More features:
http://SaintJamesPoetry.blogspot.com
http://recoverydevotional.blogspot.com/
http://jamesezadventures.blogspot.com/
posted by James M. Dinsmore at 6:04 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home