GOD SAYS, WORLD SAYS

God says: “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.”
World says: Put yourself forward and listen to your own standards to get riches and honor; for riches and honor are life.

God says: Think of others
World says: Think of yourself

God says: Do what is right
World says: Do for yourself

God says: Give others the way when it seems to be their time
World says: Take your chance, don't let others get in the way or you will miss out

God says: Obey God's rules
World says: Stick by whatever set of standards works for you as long as they suit your goals

God says: Respect authority
World says: Use the authorities to suit you, or get around them, or bribe them.

And you would add . . . ?

God says:
World says:

God says:
World says:

THE STRANGE WOMAN

Proverbs 5 speaks of the “Strange woman”. Here is what happens to the man that goes after her:

• He gives his honor to others
• He gives his years to the cruel
• Strangers are filled with his wealth
• His labors are in the house of a stranger
• His body is consumed (and he knows it did not have to be consumed).
• He knows he did not listen to instruction, his folly is on his own hands.

Think of the “strange woman” as the way of thinking that is not after God's way. It is without regard to God's instruction. In this way a woman (female) can also go after the “strange woman” (ungodly thinking).

BACK-AND-FORTH ON IMAGINATION

I have an active imagination. In my Journal of 1995 I was thinking the following:

I have been trying to do away with my imaginations. I wonder if they do not short circuit good that I might do. I live vicariously through the imagination. I imagine it, therefore I have “done” it, therefore I do not really have to do it.

Yet God says “without vision the people perish”. Some sort of thinking about what will happen is good. How can an event take place without there first being an idea? But I wonder if my imagining takes away from positive action. Certainly the negative imagining is not good for it sets an evil cast upon events which have not actually happened.

Maybe my mind being so full of imaginations keeps me from hearing from the Spirit of God. For example, I imagine “others do not want me around” and I launch my imagination off in that direction. What I should rather say is, “I resist that [negative] thinking; God said, 'resist the Devil and he will flee from you, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh unto you'. In the name of Jesus I resist that thought.”

I need to walk “by faith and not by sight”. But surely “by faith” has a good deal to do with inward thought and therefore imagination. Perhaps God's inward voice to us originates partly through the imagination. Is it not possible he can use this tool?

It's important to know what God says and believe it is true (the faith part) and thereby order my behavior. If I listen to only what I say, I have a motor but no rudder. If I also listen to what other men say, I have a motor and rudder but no map or compass. If I listen to what I think, what other men say, and primarily to what God says, I have a motor, rudder, a reliable map and compass. I must use all sensibly.

NEITHER SEEING NOR HEARING

(Of idols:)
Psa_115:5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
Psa_135:16 They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;

(Of people:)
Jer_5:21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
Eze_12:2 Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.
Mat_13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.