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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!
Do you discern?
Do you ever the things of life discern?
Or is it for you less of a concern?
The wise their decisions review,
And folly they don’t pursue.
Think before anywhere you’d venture,
Lest you get into a misadventure.
A child of God must always discern,
So that righteousness is of utmost concern.
Many have departed from the Holy path,
Choosing lust and so earning God’s wrath.
Others have ran after ungodly treasure,
And then lost their faith’s measure.
Those who don’t pay attention to grow,
May not realize into what they sow.
So be wised, attentive and clear,
And to holiness and prudence adhere.
The undiscerned life one must avoid
The undiscerned life one must avoid,
For it may be of wisdom devoid.
People who wander through choices,
Better be vary of deceitful voices.
Examine your life in full or in parts,
Till all foolishness and timidity departs.
Ask of the Lord and Him by prayer approach,
For he gives wisdom generously without reproach.
For why must you keep blindly shopping,
From tricksters and then keep dropping?
Why must you go for a risky drive,
Only to crash by a reckless dive?
Value your life and its action,
Always choose a sensible reaction.
Be of a good strong spine,
Then your decisions will be fine.
Your precious life, is to you God’s gift,
So by your conduct, to Him your praises lift.
Breathe each breath with a holy mission,
So that you live with Divine provision.
A quick tip on discerning good or bad preachers
“So many people concentrate on knowing who a good preacher or a bad preacher is and so many people concentrate on knowing what the word of God is! The former is good but the latter is noble. The latter is the best answer to the former. The real duty of man is never to know man but to know God through Christ Jesus! Knowing the word of God is the true way to knowing God!” – Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
Don’t be deceived by looks
Many a times people fall in love with the wrong person. They end up voting for the wrong leader. Why does this happen? Well, some times this happens because people get deceived by looks.
That doesn’t mean you consider everyone who looks nice as a potential evil doer. What you need to do is to never make looks the criteria to consider anyone good for you. You need to exercise right judgement such as checking for facts, understanding the mentality of the person and his/her reasoning. Obviously, unlike looks the things for right judgement may need more patience. By someone’s look you may get into the error of thinking they are very pleasant people to deal with. However, when you ask them to help you, then you will come to know their true nature. No wonder, you need to never depend on looks alone.
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. (John 7:24)
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16: 6-7) (this happened when Samuel was searching for someone to anoint Saul’s replacement as the King of Israel)
Related articles
- Character more important than appearances (helpfulinspirationalblog.wordpress.com)
- Stop Mourning for Saul (himiepickett.com)
Value wisdom like your family
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”and call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.(Proverbs 7:4-5)
Value wisdom like your family. Treat wisdom like your own sister. For good reason too. Because a good sister keeps her brother from all obscene women. Her dauntless desire to be bold in the truth is a big deterrent to any adulteress. She will openly mock the Jezebel woman or the shameless woman who tries to induce her brother to sin. Though a seducer speaks to beguile a man into sexual immorality, the man will be very fearful of acting loose in front of his sister who will retaliate strongly. This can apply even if you think of wisdom as a brother who will not let his sister fall prey to the licentious man who only wants to use the girl. A good brother will protect his sister from all perverted men no matter what they promise.
Walking with wisdom, is not like you get a wise brother or sister walking alongside with you in the flesh. Here Proverbs 7:4-5 is about realizing the presence of wisdom around you. God tells you some warning about stealing and you believe him and avoid stealing. That is walking with wisdom. Not following God’s advice is like trying to get away from your great sister wisdom.
Some man decides he can do without sister wisdom, so he listens to the seductive voice of evil spirits and then goes into the occult. He without wisdom accepts his damnation very easily from the lying spirits. Had he walked with sister wisdom he would have given respect to her and shooed away all profane thoughts that whisper to him. O if he just would respect sister wisdom and leave the occult.
A young lady tries to roam around without brother wisdom. Voices of the world tell her ‘You will look very beautiful if you starve a little, it won’t harm you. Just think of how many men will admire you when you are a bit more thinner’. In absence of brother wisdom, she bites into the lie.So then she eats little, very little and gets a bit of praise about her looks and decides to starve a little more. This damages her health.
One fine day her old blind grandma who cannot see at all, calls her out at her place. The grandma lives with brother wisdom and the brother is quite amused to see the anorexic girl walking towards grandma. Brother wisdom gets a plan and whispers into the old lady’s mind. So then grandma says ‘O child I can’t see you at this age when I’m blind but your act of visiting me in my weakness shows me how beautiful you are’. The girl accepts her grandmother’s wisdom and wonders why she felt only being thin is beauty. As she walks out the house, brother wisdom starts walking with this girl again. The girl now leads a healthy lifestyle.
You might feel you lost out on life because you despised wisdom at some time in your life. The good news is that God can give you wisdom again. James 1:5 says that; If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
I encourage you to be with God’s wisdom by your side. The Gospel is the greatest wisdom of God that a man can ever receive. Though it is so great, yet it is easy to grasp if a person is willing to just pay attention. Plus you have the Holy Spirit to guide you and lead you into all truth. So take time and cherish the Word of God in your life.
Disciples of hope 