TODAY IS…

not a good day to stand in the hot coals!

“Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?”  Proverbs 6:28 KJV

Do you obey God’s commandments?

“Thou shalt not kill.” (Exodus 20:13 KJV).

This is one of God’s commandments that the vast majority of us obey. But what is the motivation for that obedience? Are we afraid of God? Or are we afraid of the laws of man?

Perhaps we are just decent people who cannot conceive of taking another person’s life.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14 KJV). As we all know, this is another of God’s commandments. Unfortunately this one is broken far too frequently. Why is that? Are we not afraid of God? Are we not decent people? Can we only be trusted to do the right thing when humans make a law?

A considerably higher percentage of people wear seat belts because it is man’s law than the percentage who honor the sanctity of their marriage in spite of the fact that it is God’s law.

Aesop said, many years ago, “Familiarity Breeds Contempt.”

It would take contempt for someone to violate the trust and fidelity that should exist in a marriage. It is true that the more familiar we are with someone, the more apt we are to see those aspects of their personality, character, and plain old humanness, that are negative or unpleasant. So many of us today, men and women alike, have succumbed to that other old adage, “The Grass is Always Greener On the Other Side of the Fence.”

More than likely this appears to be true, but if it is looked at closely, we can see that it is that way only because it is not our grass.

Marital infidelity and sexual sin are such a part of our lives and our society today that we hardly give any of it a second thought. Every popular television show must contain some sort of sexual impropriety or it would undoubtedly fail. The only time the flames of passion are fanned are when the fire is consuming an adventurous or otherwise inappropriate relationship.

We have been warned by God that if we play with fire we will get burned.

“So it is with the man who sleeps with another man’s wife. He who embraces her will not go unpunished.” (Proverbs 6:29 NLT).

The same goes for a woman who sleeps with another woman’s husband. Yet we ignore God’s warning, God’s law, and God’s promise of punishment.

We ask a lot of God, but what about what God asks of us? And does it really make sense to fasten your seat belt, but ignore God?

Probably about as much sense as it makes to take your shoes off and stand in the hot coals.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson