The Devotional - 116 - Discipline

Thought for the Day – 116 – Discipline

Proverbs 19:18 – When was the last time you chasten your child? (Failure in these matters is found written in one’s eyes so don’t look too deeply into mine.) If the first time of chastening was after six months of age; you failed. Also proper chastening is not destruction, but builds love and constructs good character. Proverbs 22:6

 

Comments and challenges

When I worked for a ship builder after retiring from the military I was assigned to a training department. There I learned a logistics program, wrote a study plan and implemented it to train civilian employees who worked for the U.S. Navy in various parts of the country from Georgia to Washington state and points in between. My assistant and I traveled together; I got to know him very well. He came from India a religious Hindu and a professing vegetarian who loved pizza. I am not sure how he got around the “cheese and pepperoni” he sometimes had but what interested me most was the little red string he had tied around his wrist.

He went NOWHERE without the string as it warded off all “evil spirits” and kept him safe while we traveled. I would say to him; “I do not wear a string like that and I bet if you checked it out, no one else on the plane wears a red string on their wrist and we are all safe, doesn’t this pose a problem for you?” “No, not at all since I am protecting all of us” Well, I said; “you are not protecting anyone and if there is any power in the little red string, it is the STRING and not YOU, what if I cut the string and it falls on the floor, will it still have the power?” This would frustrate him and he had no answer.

I did have limited opportunity to talk with him about God, but he and his wife were very religious; once my wife and I visited his home in North Stonington and he explained a rug on the floor that told a story about their religious beliefs all of which is a systems of works related to ancestors and family traditions. He has two daughters and as he puts it; they are more liberal with their beliefs than the parents simply because they are raised in the United States and go to school where the influence to pull them away from their religion is very strong.

Cultures, religions and traditions are strong influences in all of us; we cling to our roots so to speak. My grandfather would say to me; “be thankful to God that you are born in the United States, that you are a free man and that your parents are good people” as a young person I treasured that thought and when I learned that my family did not live up to my grandfather’s statement. I assumed that it was no longer necessary to be good and evil prevailed. Now was it because I failed to wear a little red string around my wrist?

Absolutely NOT, even if the little red string was powerful enough to ward off evil (NOT!) the string has no power over SIN. Sin is not in the vocabulary of Hinduism, it is all about evil spirits. So what might be the point of all of this? We live in a complicated world of deception; practices and beliefs that control our lives and lead us to an eternity void of God. There is but ONE God, there is NONE other than HE so idolatry is FOOLISHNESS.

Now please take the moment and read Isaiah 44:9-20; the workman, the craftsman and the common laborer foolishly use the materials of creation to feed themselves, clothe themselves, protect themselves and then with what is left over they create an idol and worship the wood, the hay and the waste to be their god, in other words these idolatrous people are willing to fall down and worship a block of wood that cannot deliver their soul, nor can the block of wood reveal the lie in idolaters right hand. A pity? Yes a pity!

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life; He is not a stick or a figment of the image of God, Jesus is God; notice John 11:17-27 and that Jesus has a better ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, with better promises, better sacrifices and a better and enduring possession for those who believe in Him because HE is RISEN from the dead and seated alive in heaven. Hebrews 9:23-28 is the answer to all of the religions of the world, including modern Judaism.