The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/proverbs/17.htm

There isn’t much I can add to Proverbs 17, 18, or 19 that won’t be word salad and simply take up digital space, so I will have the wisdom to keep my mouth shut and let the reader peruse them on their own. That doesn’t mean the proverbs are not worthy of discussion, each one are, excuse the pun, words of wisdom.

But in Proverbs 20, there is a verse that I feel needs to be expounded on. (Is “expounded” the right word?)

“Who can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin”?”

We are all sinners, and anyone who says they are not, is a sinner because they are lying. It is our nature to sin. Adam and Eve, aside from Jesus, were the only ones created without sin, and they blew that. I don’t care who you are, everyone sins.

I may have said this before, but a man argued on a Christian Facebook Page that there is no sin because Jesus died on the cross for our sins and therefore, we are sin free. I assume that all the murders, and rapes, and child traffiking, the prostitution arrests, the corruption, and others are no longer sin? I simply responded to him with, “Whatever pastor told you that, run from him now!”

And there may be people in the world who do not physically sin. But Jesus said (and I’m paraphrasing), “If you think about sin, you’ve sinned”. I believe he was referring murder, to be exact, “if you’re angry with your brother and think of murder, you’ve committed murder”.

We cannot control our minds. There is a lot of stuff buried in there, especially mine. In fact, I lost my Christianity just the other night and had to pray for forgiveness. It was late, and a vehicle pulled into my driveway. It was too late for a delivery, so I assumed it was someone to come to visit. But no one came to the door. The male ward that lives with me went out to check (he likes to talk to people, a lot, and if a visitor comes, he enjoys the conversation. And I usually let him because it is a deterrent to visitors. Just kidding.)

He came back in the house and told me it was someone out by the gate to the pasture, where we keep our horse. So I went out onto the front stoop and yelled, “May I help you?” No answer. I yelled again, “May I help you?” Still no answer. Then, from the pasture, I heard a man scream. It wasn’t an “I’m in pain” scream, it was more of a maniacal scream. So, I immediately called 9-11 to report a trespasser.

I believe I can safely say that I’m not afraid for my own life. I’ve lived a good life and if the Lord is ready for me to sleep, I’m ready too. But I’m responsible for three special needs adults, two of while are women who have the mentality of a child. And I will protect them to the death. I am well armed if needed, but then again, I really don’t want to kill anyone. So you can see how my senses were heightened. I held off going for a weapon though because I didn’t perceive an immediate threat; I simply remained on the phone with 9-1-1, waiting for the police.

Then the trespasser yelled something at me that I could not understand. So I asked them to repeat. They yelled again, still in a manner that I couldn’t understand. So I yelled, “Who are you?” Again, they yelled something that sounded like gibberish to me. Suddenly, the figure appeared out of the dark.

It was a very distant family friend. He was an alcoholic, recovering alcoholic, alcoholic again person who, though he claimed he was not drunk, seemed very drunk. And that angered me. If you’re going to come and visit me, come and knock on the door, do go exploring my property in the middle of the night, especially when I have no idea who you are.

I told him that I had no idea it was him and asked what he was doing, to which he had no real answer. When I told him I had called the police because of his behavior, he became irate, cursing and yelling at me. And Satan swooped down on me and I started cursing and yelling back at him, in fact, curse words came out of my mouth that I hadn’t uttered in quite some time. That was not wise. I didn’t keep my cool. I didn’t squash a disagreement before it became it became a quarrel.

Long story short, he went to his truck where he started beating his head on his steering wheel, then he would get out and curse me some more, then got back in his truck, and repeated the process until the police arrived. And there’s more to the story, but that’s not important. What is important is that I am a sinner, and despite how hard I try to be sinfree, I am still a sinner.

Now I’ve been talking about the mind, and this verse talks about the heart. I believe I have a good heart, it is my mind that causes me grief. I think what Solomon is talking about are those that profess to be good Christians, but in their heart, they are not. They are set on evil, they consciously sin. But scripture also says, “God knows the heart”. You cannot hide your sin from God, no matter how much you try.

And if your heart or mind is not clean, you are a sinner.

Take counsel though, that “God knows the heart” works both ways. God knows we are sinners, that we are incapable of being righteous. But if we have a good heart, God can forgive us of our sins because He knows we are trying.

And God can even forgive the worst of sinners; all you have to do is turn to Him. And it is never too late. He forgave the thief on the cross.

God, in the words of my earthly father, “forgive us of our sins and shortcomings”. We all fall short of your Glory. Amen.