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About presumptuous sins
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14:12 )
Presuming things have caused people lots of harm and heart break. Let me make it real to you;
1) Some people assumed that not wearing the seat belt is harmless, and then got hurt severely in the car that they were in.
2) Some people have assumed that they can speak anything to their spouses and get away from it, and then have been fighting nasty divorce cases instead.
3) I know of people who’ve spoken vile words to their father and that very day their father died later in the same day due to a heart attack. And now these people forever regret their harsh words.
4) Some girls and boys in have tried drugs that are very much illegal just for fun but died on their very first try. And their parents have been in grief ever since that.
The sin of King Saul:
And then we have the case of the first King of Israel Saul who presumed what he felt was right in doing and thereby rejected the whole instruction of the Lord God. And so the Prophet Samuel was sent to him to inform him of God’s punishment for the sin of presumption. You can read the whole of 1 Samuel Chapter 15 to get the details on this.
Because King Saul acted very presumptuously against the commandment of the Lord God he had to hear the following from the Prophet Samuel;
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.”
Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.” And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore. And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” (1 Samuel 15:22-29)
If you think by the coming of Jesus Christ and with the preaching of the Gospel, we need not bother about presumptuous sins, are you unfortunately in the wrong.
The Sin of Ananias and Sapphira:
You can refer to Acts 5:1-11 about The Sin of Ananias and Sapphira
A man by the name of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, sold some land. 2 He kept back part of the money for himself. His wife knew it also. The other part he took to the missionaries. 3 Peter said to Ananias, “Why did you let Satan fill your heart? He made you lie to the Holy Spirit. You kept back part of the money you got from your land. 4 Was not the land yours before you sold it? After it was sold, you could have done what you wanted to do with the money. Why did you allow your heart to do this? You have lied to God, not to men.”
5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down dead. Much fear came on all those who heard what was done. 6 The young men got up and covered his body and carried him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in. She did not know what had happened.
8 Peter said to her, “Tell me, did you sell the land for this amount of money?” She said, “Yes.” 9 Then Peter said to her, “How could you two have talked together about lying to the Holy Spirit? See! Those who buried your husband are standing at the door and they will carry you out also.” 10 At once she fell down at his feet and died. When the young men came in, they found that she was dead. They took her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Much fear came on all the church and on all who heard it.
Ananias and Sapphira presumed that they could lie to the Holy Spirit about withholding their offerings towards the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Why do people presume that the Holy Spirit cannot take action against those who sin against Him?
Maybe they have forgotten that each judgement that the Lord God has ever taken, be it against the Fallen Angels, Adam and Eve, the vile Pharaoh of Egypt, the Holy Spirit has never contradicted the Word of God when it comes to judgement against sin. But you O people of God, do not forget this lest you suffer the same fate as Saul or even like that of Ananias and Sapphira.
Verses for reflection:
- Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. (Psalm 19:13)
- Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
- Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. (Psalm 19:12-13)
- Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)
- Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)
Never rashly presume things to be holy especially when making vows in marriage
It is a snare to say rashly, “It is holy,” and to reflect only after making vows. (Proverbs 20:25)
There are people at times who rush into getting married. These rashly say they are doing what is holy since they love their soon-to-be spouse and their soon-to-be spouse loves them. And five years post marriage, there are arguments in their marriage, with the eventual divorce.
These never checked each others temperament nor adaptability before marriage. They just only “saw” love but didn’t both to check the truth. I mean the truth about being long term, even till death do them apart upon getting married. These are the one’s who make their wedding vows first and only few years later reflect if they made the right decision. “A few years later”, yes that’s correct.
Instead of checking things out before marriage they only do their assessment of marriage much later. Now not every divorce happens due to rash decisions going into marriage, there could be other things which might have not been possible to detect earlier, but I do hope you get the idea that faulty plans can get into faulty marriages.
Yet, if these couples who are thinking of divorce get Bible based counsel or just pray with sincerity to the Lord God they can save their marriages from ending into disaster.
Now, the Biblical warning mentioned above in Proverbs 20:25 is not limited to marriage vows. It can be your business decisions, various types of contracts, friendship agreements and anything that involves taking oaths, including taking the oath of speaking the truth in the court of law.
Be wise everywhere for the glory of God!
Speak words of faith
Speak words of faith,
Fear not any wraith.
Be bold in the Lord God,
And keep your vision broad.
Speak not fear nor despair,
But of each word be aware.
Guard your heart with full attention,
As life’s issues from it have ascension.
Speak only what is right,
Keep on your tongue wise insight.
Talk to encourage and guide,
Let your speech be courteous and dignified.
Speak never words unseemly and unwise,
Lest good fortune you lose and despise.
May your confession be from God’s word,
That your life be sure and not blurred.
Always speak words wise
Always speak words wise,
That God doesn’t despise.
Always speak words wise,
That goodness you maximize.
Always speak words wise,
That it be good advice.
Always speak words wise,
That kindness you verbalize.
Always speak words wise,
That you’re favored in God’s eyes.
Always speak words wise,
That sincerity you realize.
Always speak words wise,
That avoids any false guise.
Always speak words wise,
That faith in others they energize.
Why blame religion? (Christian poem)
{A poem on those who mock religion using foul and ungodly language while totally ignoring the Biblical concept of religion, the Christian religion founded by Jesus Christ. May God open the eyes of those who attend church but attack religion. May others who are true to the faith, continue to be working for God instead of hating religion.}
Call it a fad or a lack of vision,
Some people say they hate religion.
As if it’s a serpent red or blue,
they label it as very untrue.
Religion is not legalism by any fact,
but they think that both are same, exact!
Maybe their dictionary doesn’t say belief,
so of religion they think it means thief.
Unwitting they fight what is God ordained,
using perverse words all fickle and unrestrained.
Instead of tackling the hypocrites by name,
their own actions make them the same.
Vainly they say religion preaches to harm and hate,
even when the Bible encourages to love the reprobate.
And yet they claim Jesus is their Lord dear,
when they have only have spread foolish fear!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
James 1:26-27
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
2 Timothy 3:5
having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
Further reading:
- Is Christianity a religion or relation? (disciplesofhope.wordpress.com)
- Effects and dangers of preaching an incomplete Gospel (disciplesofhope.wordpress.com)
- Legalism won’t make you righteous (disciplesofhope.wordpress.com)
Keep away from rude talk
A much needed thing for everyone is to speak politely and keep away from rude talk. I’ve noticed that on many online social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and other online forums there is a lot of rudeness. People are giving death threats, going fully racist, using a lot of vulgar language when commenting online, thanks to being able to remain anonymous on the internet. We are not supposed to follow the stupidity the online world is doing at large.
Not just the online world. Its even in the movies, where you hear actors cussing a lot. It would therefore be good that before you watch any movie you try to find out whether it adheres to Christian teachings or goes against the faith. If a movie has a lot of bad language, you can give it a miss, especially if you have plans to take kids to that movie. A good online service that reviews movies from a Christian point of view is christiananswers.net who do a detailed analysis if the movie has any moral or spiritual problems or good points. Here the link to their website:
http://christiananswers.net/spotlight/
Even in day to day life, people who are very polite in church speak very rudely to their employees or colleagues. There are college goers who use profanity in almost every sentence they speak to each other and then try to behave nice in church. Maybe the preacher doesn’t know what you do outside church but God and his angels know it for sure.
Never use the name of the Lord as a curse word for anyone, even if they have done a very wicked sin. Its a very faithless thing to use the Lord’s name as profanity. A lot of movies, music videos and books have stuff that misuse the name of God as a curse word. They will surely be held accountable for their sins.
If you use the excuse that you want to make a point to someone who doesn’t understand easily, then make a point politely without losing your mind because using rude words won’t awaken an ignorant persons intellect. This doesn’t mean that you keep silent but instead that you dispel ignorance the right way (refer: Is correcting and judging others a sin?).
Keep away from rude language as this is not really a good tactic in marriage, office, school, college or anywhere else. Using violent language on a passenger aircraft is considered a crime in most countries and may result in arrest or huge fines or both. Some countries have rules that allow you to file a law suit against any one who insulted you racially on TV or in public. People get fired for using vulgar language at work. Rude words do cause problems this way.
Here are a few scriptures to enlighten you:
Matthew 12:36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak
Matthew 15:10-11 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
James 1:20 For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Colossians 3:8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Deuteronomy 5:11 ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
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