A Devotional Look at the Book #556

A Devotional Look at the Book #556

by Jesse Abel

A Thought for today by Papa “J”

Psalm 119:9 – The upright in heart has no need to cover their tracks; since the cleansing effect of God's Word keeps them pure. Oh taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who trusts in Him. Psalm 34:8

Good Morning

This is an incredible story, but true: Once there was a man in California who decided to tie several helium filled weather balloons to his lawn chair; he weighted the chair so it would not take off. He strapped himself to the chair; and placed his .22 cal. Rifle in his lap. Then he cut the ropes holding him to the ground. His plan was to see if he could get lift-off! He thought that one by one he would shoot the balloons and return safely to the ground. All was not well; the chair shot off the ground so quickly that he was above his house by several feet before he could get hold of his thought to pull the trigger on the rifle. Now he was presented with another problem in his mind. “What if I hit more than one balloon and I fall like a rock, I'll die” So! Scared to do anything; he just sat there. Soon a passenger jet that was landing at a nearby airport passed him. The air passengers where alarmed and reported that the plane had just past a guy sitting in a lawn chair holding a rifle. I would be alarmed, wouldn't you? The pilot reported to the local airport that he had just passed a guy sitting in a lawn chair with a rifle; of course the airport personnel believed him! After some debate, the pilot was able to convince the ground people that he had not lost his mind. A military helicopter was dispatched to assist the guy in the lawn chair. The pilot was able to push the chair back down by getting above the balloons and forcing the chair downward. The chair, the rifle and the man were safe, the balloons were destroyed and life goes on. Should there not be a warning on all lawn chairs about flight safety or something! After all there is a warning on most everything else we humans misuse… just a thought!

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 6:11-18 – In the paragraph above we simply see that mankind is restricted in his logic. Now I know you are saying… I would never do something as stupid as strapping myself to chair and flying off into the air, but you do know as well as I that foolishness of life has always been at war with integrity which demands we live responsibly. Thus we have a relative righteousness that is mixed with a relative foolishness. This is a mixture of selfishness that causes suffering of every kind in our lives and the lives of those associated with us.

Preachers and teachers call out to us with affection for our soul, but we mostly do not respond back with the same affection. Why? Because our affections are strapped to foolishness, or as the apostle plainly states; we are not wholly separated from worldly affections. We live our Christian way of life by ignoring the command to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. These unbelievers include friends and blood relatives who strapped to the foolishness and the powers of the evil air around us.

We have learned from earlier verses that we have this excellent power in these earthen vessels and here in these passages we are told that God will walk among us. He willingly then has done all to be our God; but we must be willing to be wholly separated to Him as His people. He requires that we remove the straps that bind us to the unbeliever, the world and too be HOLY. Be separate says the LORD and I will be your Father and you shall be my Sons and Daughters; says the LORD God Almighty!