OPEN HEAVENS Devotional – Friday
July 22nd 2016
TOPIC: NOT A VIRTUE!
Memorize: As a dog returneth
to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. Proverbs 26:11
Read: Proverbs 15:20-21,
20 A wise son
maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.
21 Folly is
joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh
uprightly.
Bible in one year: Ephesians
1:1-4:16, Psalms 18:20-28
MESSAGE
Foolishness is not a virtue;
rather it is a vice that costs its victim eternity in hell fire. The Bible says
that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). In other
words, lack of the fear of God is the beginning of foolishness. So, when
someone decides to live without the fear of God, he does whatever he pleases
without consideration for the Word of God, he feels he is free to do whatever
he likes with his life, he behaves as if he owns his life, but in actual sense,
his life is borrowed and the Owner may ask for it anytime. Our Lord Jesus told
a parable of a prosperous farmer who did not reckon with God in all his
dealings. Considering the wealth he had possessed he said:
“And I will say to my soul,
Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” Luke
12:19-20
Some people who claim to be
children of God behave foolishly sometimes. Our memory verse for today says:
“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” Some
brethren who had been modest and holy are now regretting their past pure
Christian life! Those vanities they forsook in the past are now back in full
force. This scripture is now fulfilled in their lives. Jesus said when a demon
is cast out of a man, he goes away but after sometime he comes back to check
whether that life is still empty. If he finds the life empty he goes back to
take seven more powerful demons to take possession of the life (Luke 11:24-26).
It is foolishness to go back to your old lifestyle after you have been cleansed
from your former sins and impurities. The Bible says:
“For if after they have
escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the
latter end is worse with them than the beginning.” 2nd Peter
2:20
In the past, you could
identify a child of God from afar off (with the few exceptions of those who
were pretenders). Many things that are now being celebrated were abominations
in those days. It is unfortunate that a wholesale return to those vanities is now
in vogue. Some Christian scholars were brought to me in my office by their
leaders many years ago and I saw assorted wild paintings – red, green, silver,
brown, pink etc on their faces and lips. I could not help but tell them that
was the first time I would see Bible scholars in such a wild exhibition of
vanities.
Their leader then promised that he would do something about it and
that when Lazarus came out from the dead he was gradually striped of the grave
clothes he had on. Theologians know how to explain things away. Beloved, going
back from your first love is not a virtue; it is rather a vice. Repent today,
tomorrow may be too late.
Action Point
Check your life and see if
there is any foolish act of sin, unrighteousness or backsliding. Repent.
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