You’ll be a lot happier
JANUARY 25, 2008 (FRIDAY)
Psalm 1:1 urges us to avoid sin while showing us how it can progress in a person’s life. Here it is: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.”
OK, now, look at the progressions:
Walk – Stand – Sit
That’s the way sin takes over in our lives. First, we walk by it, the next time we stop and stand near it for a while, and the third time’s the charm, we just sit and participate.
Counsel – Way – Seat
Or, to look at it another way, First we hear about sin from those involved in it, then we get a little more comfortable with the idea as we walk with those folks, and finally we take our seat with those guys.
Wicked – Sinners – Mockers
The third trilogy shows how we get more deeply involved as time goes by. First, we hear the talk of the wicked, then we watch as words become deeds of sinners, and at last we join with the worst of them in mocking God.
Satan is smart. He does not tell you the whole story. He lets you know just enough to get you started down the wrong path, and that’s all he needs to do, because it’s a downhill, slippery slope. Jesus, on the other hand, cautioned us to guard our thoughts, because thoughts turn into actions. One thread wound around your clasped hands can be broken easily, but when the thread is wound around your hands many times, it is just as strong as a rope. “Nuff said.
Here it is in plain parental language: Don’t listen to those guys. Don’t hang out with them. Don’t do what they do. Or, if you want to put it in positive terms: Be your own person. Choose your own friends. Decide for yourself what you do.
Hey, here’s what Psalm 1:1 sounds like in “The Message:” “How well God must like you— you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon, you don’t slink along Dead-End Road, you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.”
If you prefer serious terminology, listen to Jesus: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14 NIV) Wow, now that’s serious business.