by David Brenneman
"The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; To give prudence to the naive, To the youth knowledge and discretion, a wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching; Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause; Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit; we will find all kinds of precious wealth, We will fill our houses with spoil; throw in your lot with us, We shall all have one purse,” My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path," Proverbs 1:1-15.
Many meme's exist to make fun of the masses concerning the day after Thanksgiving. Of how on Black Friday people are essentially ravenous wolves at stores concerning grabbing up so-called deals. Pretty much throwing their humanity aside to succeed at getting that supposed special thing for someone or themselves.
We have seen or heard of such people. It's a very real thing.
On every single day that ends in "y" people are the same towards each other concerning various things related to sports or entertainment or even politics.
Christians can and are as bad as the rest of the world in this. There's no single reason to spew hatred of any kind towards another human being. Every single person alive in this very moment and going forward until the predetermined plan of God marking the end of time...Jesus still came, lived a sinless life, died, was resurrected and has the offer of salvation open to them.
The very day of Christmas gets targeted for such useless bitterness. What should be a singular day of celebration of the birth of Jesus...has been beyond severely commercialized. It's become a byword. An afterthought of living life.
Dr. David Jeremiah's devotional last night asked the question...did Jesus cross your mind at Christmas?
Was Jesus a part of your Christmas?
Is He a part of your today?
The radical acceptance of hatred and bitterness in our world is one of the signs of the end times to look for...and people are ignoring the signs because the truth is increasingly uncomfortable.
"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these." 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
This is directly related to what we begin with from Proverbs. If Believers are really seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness then they will be seeking to learn what it means to be a disciple and then will be living it out.
Here we are a few days after Christmas...is Jesus still in your thoughts? Are you now pondering bitterness towards those who gave you the gifts you were given? Videos surfacing in YouTube and Facebook are right now very prolific concerning this. It's amateur hour of "The View".
If Jesus is the reason for the season...why...does...it...matter?
What did Jesus get for Christmas? Over the last 2,000 plus years He's gotten billions of ungrateful people. Billions falling into Hell at an alarming rate at times.
What did He get from you and I?
What will He get from us between now and Easter? Then from Easter until next Christmas?
Personal happiness is as fleeting as the wind. There's no guarantee that it will stick around long enough to be enjoyed.
We choose to be grateful or we choose not to be. We choose to be thankful or we choose not to be. We choose...the Jesus way or we choose our way.
How often do we start off in the right place and something of this world pops up n we instantly say "oops, gotta go..." to God as if that time with Jesus really means that little to us?
Where is your heart during Christmas?
Where is your heart after Christmas?
As a song that I love says "give thanks with a grateful heart give thanks to the Holy One, give thanks to Jesus Christ His Son..."
Where is your attention, your heart, after Christmas?
All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.
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