Tuesday, January 17th, 2006
A Study on Love – Edition #14
The three things:
- Is there a fact to believe here?
- Is there a promise to trust?
- Is there a command to obey?
Deuteronomy 28:49-57
49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. 51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. 52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you.
53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you. 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. 56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities.
This reminds me of that dream I had late last year. Parents will actually eat their own children. People known as people of love and compassion, kill others to survive, kill others so they can cook and eat them. It just boggles my mind. It makes me sad, really. And what does this have to do with love? Killing and eating someone, that isn’t love at all (except for Jeffrey Dahmer, he became closer to hem when he ate them… I don’t quite understand that, but OK.). If I am to not become like them and like the man God wants me to be, then I need to be closer to God and not necessarily man. It means I need to be a man of God. A love for God means doing what the bible says.
Nahum 1:7
7 The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him…
In a desperate time, who do I turn to? Do I turn to God or man first? Do I drop and pray? Do I turn to something for comfort, such as food, alcohol, or drugs?
Nahum 1:10
10 They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine; they will be consumed like dry stubble.
Addictions lead to ruin… Nineveh had no chance… it brought in much sin.
Nahum 3:1-5
1 Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! 2 The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots! 3 Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses- 4 all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft. 5 "I am against you," declares the LORD Almighty. "I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.
Wanton (adj.):
- Immoral or unchaste; lewd.
- Gratuitously cruel; merciless.
- Marked by unprovoked, gratuitous maliciousness; capricious and unjust.
- Unrestrainedly excessive.
- Luxuriant; overabundant.
- Frolicsome; playful.
- Undisciplined; spoiled.
Witchcraft (noun):
- Magic; sorcery.
- Wicca.
- A magical or irresistible influence, attraction, or charm.
Sorcery (noun):
- Use of supernatural power over others through the assistance of spirits; witchcraft.
Acts 16:16-18
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
Tarot Card (noun):
- A set of cards (usually 72) that include 22 cards representing virtues and vices and death and fortune etc.; used by fortune-tellers.
What I find interesting is that many include psychics and fortune tellers in the realm of witchcraft… even amazon.com lists the fortune-telling items in the witchcraft section. Nineveh gave into witchcraft, prostitution, and drunkenness… and it was there loss. They lost everything. Even as I studied this out today, I began to turn and think that going to a psychic might be OK. I see now that it is not OK.
Ecclesiastes 8:2-8
2 Obey the king's command, I say, because you took an oath before God. 3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king's presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4 Since a king's word is supreme, who can say to him, "What are you doing?"
5 Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. 6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a man's misery weighs heavily upon him. 7 Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? 8 No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
Nobody knows the future except God. This is the Wisdom of Solomon himself… so why even bother going to a fortune-teller? If I want to have a good future, if that is a concern of mine, then I simply need to love God and obey his commands. A wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. That’s what the bible says. Johnny Out.
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