Read Proverbs 7:4-23, Romans 6:11-12 Proverbs 7:4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your kinsman; 5 they will keep you from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words. 6 At the window of my house I looked out through the lattice. 7 I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment. 8 He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house 9 at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in. 10 Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. 11 (She is loud and defiant, her feet never stay at home; 12 now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks.) 13 She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: 14 “I have fellowship offerings at home; today I fulfilled my vows. 15 So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you! 16 I have covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt. 17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. 18 Come, let’s drink deep of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love! 19 My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. 20 He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon.” 21 With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. 22 All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose 23 till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life. Romans 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
Captain E.J. Smith, Senior Commander of Great Britain’s White Fleet, was given the honor of commanding Titanic’s maiden voyage.
His plan was to make that voyage his last. He was still in good health and there were many things he wanted to accomplish in retirement. His plan was to take the ship only as far as New York. But serious errors and misjudgments resulted in his going farther than he wanted to do. About 13,000 feet farther - in the wrong direction.
That’s the thing about shipwrecks. They take you farther than you want to go. So does sin.
When David, King of Israel, stood on his roof one balmy evening watching Bathsheba step out of her clothes, the only on his mind was to enjoy her charms firsthand. That was about as far as he wanted to go. But sin will take you farther than you want to go. So while David only planned on a discreet evening of adultery, within weeks he was guilty of betrayal, murder, and a heinous cover-up.
He was shrewd. When Bathsheba turned up pregnant, David immediately brought her husband Uriah home from war. One night together, and no one would know if wasn’t Uriah’s child. But David made the classic mistake so many of us make: he thought he could use deception to cover disobedience. When Uriah refused to take advantage of being home because his friends were dying on the battlefield, David had him murdered to maintain his cover-up.
That’s how sin and deception work. They just make things worse. Your sin will surely find you out. And it’ll take you farther than you wanted to go.
I believe it was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who once said, “To act is easy; to think is hard.” David acted, but he didn’t think. And it took him farther than he wanted to go.
I don’t know what’s going on in your life; and you don’t know what’s going on in mine. But I can tell you this. If either of us is playing around with hidden sin, it’s eventually going to come out.
So stop. Now. If you don’t, you’re going to find yourself a lot farther down the road of destruction than you ever planned on going. And it’s tough - so agonizingly tough - to come back.
-Steve Farrar-
Responding - Where will my sin take me?
Following - When we sin, Satan smirks.
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Read Luke 23:32-38 32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” 38 There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
The Last Seven Word of Jesus - The magnitude of the moment of the cross in universal history cannot be overstated. Everything in Jesus’ life led up to it. The cross was the reason He was born in poverty, amid the laments of Rachel weeping for her children, slaughtered by Herod’s ruthless soldiers. The experience of His entire life of becoming acquainted with our deepest sorrows was simply the prelude to this final moment. The fundamental proof of His incarnation, along with blood, was His tears. When the Man of Sorrows was being most used by God, He was lamenting.
There are seven excruciating pieces of this final puzzle - the last words of Jesus from the cross. You will notice that they are all short, gasping phrases. You must understand that in order to utter them, Jesus had to push up on the nails in His feet in order to draw a shallow breath. Once each of these seven statements was made, the full weight of His body fell back onto the nails in His hands. These seven last words make up Jesus’ final lament.
We will look for a progression as Jesus moves deeper and deeper into the misery our sin caused him to suffer. At first He will reach out, calling God, “Father.” Toward the end it will simply be “My God.”
Notice that His eyes are on others - not Himself. He forgives the Roman soldiers who are nailing Him to the cross. He forgives the criminal who asks His forgiveness. He thinks of His mother and of His disciple John. Never Himself.
Jesus’ last statements were scattered throughout a 6-hour ordeal. During the final 3 hours, He was covered in darkness. It must have been like the “darkness that cannot be felt” of the Passover (Exodus 10:21). Luke says the sun simply quit shining. Darkness. Gasping phrases punctuated by lengthy silences. Unutterable pain. A sight that would have sickened even a stranger. That’s the setting of the seven last words of Jesus. Try to hear them as you have never heard them before.
-Michael Card-
Responding - What adjectives would I use to describe the setting of the crucifixion?
Following - Seek to hear His voice.
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Read 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil.
Is the habit of praying continually something you can’t imagine becoming a reality in your life? It needn’t be. Once you grasp the meaning of the phrase, you’ll see that the pursuit of it is not out of your reach.
By telling us to “pray without ceasing,” Paul most likely didn’t have our repetitive, wearying formulate in mind. He was talking instead about a perpetual line of open communication with God throughout the day. We’re not given to this kind of mentality naturally, so I’m convinced that we have to learn how to pray unceasingly. This will be an ongoing pursuit and one we aren’t likely to master, but isn’t prayer just like that - a pursuit?
Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century monk, called praying without ceasing “practicing God’s presence.” It simply means to develop a constant awareness of God’s presence at all times. When we live with such awareness, we naturally pick up a conversation with God at any given moment in a day as we would with someone sitting a few feet from us.
Maybe this example will help: my friend’s husband of many years recently died. She says she still catches herself talking to him. The difference is, when we talk to God, He’s always there. It’s called omnipresence.
A “pray without ceasing” relationship includes seeing everything against the backdrop of His presence. In other words, a rain shower reminds us of Him. A difficulty at home or work turns our thoughts to Him. The first bite of a pecan pie prompts us to thank the God who gave us the gift of taste. A near-empty gas tank keeps us hanging tight with God as we coast on fumes to the gas station. Even listening to a worship CD while putting dishes in the dishwasher is prayer without ceasing. It’s constant communication. Sometimes saying a lot, sometimes saying little, but living each moment of life as if He were right there. After all, isn’t He?
-Beth Moore-
Responding - How can I be in constant prayer today? What will help me to remember to pray?
Following - Praying without ceasing is constant communication with Him.
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Read Psalm 8:3-9 3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
In his excellent book The Voice of the Heart, Chip Dodd makes this penetrating observation about our obsession with our own worth and value: “We’ve been insanely taught that we can create our own worth. We spend our lives forever building our self-esteem; having it destroyed and building it back up again. The tragedy is that anything that can be constructed can be deconstructed. Self-esteem is something we manufacture in order to create a sense of control on our achievement only. ‘I did, therefore I am.’ This is the opposite of what God made us to be, ‘I am, therefore I do.’”
When we struggle with our worth and value, we need to revisit what God has to say about us. I think that’s what Dodd is saying. In fact, when I read his quote, I thought of Psalm 8: “You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all all things under his feed, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea” (vv.5-8).
God estimate us highly. We are of incredible value to Him. He created us a little lower than the angels, crowned us with glory and gave us dominion over the earth. In all these things, He demonstrated His love for us.
The apostle Paul talked about our incredible value to God when he said, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). This is what God says about us.
We all might have devastating experiences in life. And if we look to where we are or where we will be tomorrow to give us a sense of value and worth, we are in big trouble. The good news is that what God says about us is permanent and sure, and you can go to the bank with it.
-Crawford W. Loritts-
Responding - Do I base my self-esteem on the things I do rather than in who God made me? Do I feel as if I have to work to earn my self-esteem?
Following - What God says about us is far more valuable than what we say about ourselves.
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Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-9 1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
My wife Martie and I will never forget the days we spent traveling in open-topped, four-wheel-drive vehicles through the wide African plains all the nights spent sleeping in tents under the endless sky. For months beforehand, we devoted hours to preparing for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. We pored through good travel guidebooks and consulted with the safari company about what to bring, the weather and other aspects of such an adventure.
After months of planning, we thought we knew what to expect, but it was so much better than we imagined! To be alone in God’s creation with majestic lions and massive elephants, and to see the beauty and grace of giraffes, zebras, and other exotic wildlife in their natural habitat was a thrilling experience. The African night sky was breathtaking. And the guide’s explanation of the amazing way the entire ecosystem worked made us want to break out in songs of worship to our Creator.
Obviously, the experience was far more enjoyable than the preparation, but the trip wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t carefully planned for the journey. In a sense, it’s life that with heaven. The planning and preparation starts now, beginning when we place our faith in Christ alone for salvation. With the end in view, we read His “guidebook” and pray daily. But thankfully God does the planning. As Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:5, God is active in preparing us for the new heaven ad new earth. In this world, the Spirit guides every step of faith, while Jesus is busy preparing a place for His followers (John 14:2).
When we get there, it will be infinitely better than we imagined! The bible tells us enough about heaven to make us eagerly anticipate the place where every tear will be wiped away and where God’s brilliance and glory will negate the need for the light of the sun. His throne will be surrounded by worshipers who delight in worshiping him with unhindered joy and satisfaction.
God wants us to appreciate and enjoy this search until He calls us home. But heaven is a better place to prepare for - and we’ll have an eternity to explore it. It’s a trip worth preparing for!
-Joe Stowell-
Responding - What can I do to focus my heart more on heaven today?
Following - Don’t forget to plan and prepare for your eternal destination.
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