The Devotional - A Look at the Book #597

The Devotional - A Look at the Book #597

by Jesse Abel

What Papa “J” has to say! #18

It was said by someone that revisions to the wisdom of the world rolled over every thirty eight years before the World Wide Web! Now this worldly wisdom rolls over every year! I’m not impressed… this wisdom is dead and needs revival… often! Take five and read Matthew 5:17-20 and 1 Corinthians 1:18-24. The real picture!

The Devotional

As a child I had little trouble being disobedient; words from my mom like, “you better be good or I will tell your father when he gets home” would be the key that would open the door for some action on my part to be bad and not get caught. Once I stole that nickel off the nightstand and did not get caught, it was easier to steal more items of value. I became very good at it and on several mornings on the way to the golf course to caddie; I would go to the grocery store at the end of our neighborhood. Out in the back of the store there were stacks of empty cases of soda bottles. I would grab a case and go to the front of the store where the owner would give me sixty cents. Two cents per bottle and twelve cents for the wooden case, in those days sixty cents was a lot of money for a kid to steal. Here is the rub! Good discipline will always increase the faith, hope and love in a child, and like it or not bad discipline will decrease the same in that child. As in the spiritual gift passage of 1 Corinthians 13, if love is not present the spiritual gift is useless; it takes sacrificial love to apply correct discipline which in turn produces good hope and great faith. Notice too: Luke 7:1-10.

ECCLESIASTES 3

Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 – God is not far from anyone of us. There is so much proof in the Holy Bible of God’s nearness and yet we think that God does not see our selfish acts. He will use the very things we do to test our estate. He does this to reveal to us that we are nothing more than a beast at heart. You say what? I am not a beast! True but saved or not; you are made in the image of a dead man like Adam and all the beasts, Genesis 5:3-5 (after the fall). However, God has placed eternity in your heart. Genesis 5:1-2 (before the fall) and this separates you from the beast of the field.

So there is this one difference that separates you and me from the beasts of the field. (Only One)… the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth from which it’s body was created, while the spirit of the human goes upward to God while the body returns to the earth. Of all the truths of scripture concerning this thought; this is most alarming, or most pleasant. If I were a beast I could live unaccountable for my actions as all beasts of the field do since their spirit has no pending judgment.

The human spirit (eternity in your heart) returns to God who gave it. So if it is your plan to not include God in your life under the sun. Then do this; rejoice now in what you do and have. This is your portion or lot (heritage or inheritance) be happy with what you are doing because you will return God’s human spirit to Him EMPTY! With your heritage spent in time; Oh my friend what a waste… what a waste!