The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/proverbs/21.htm

Before I start, I feel compelled to review my methods of studying God’s Word. And let me preface this with saying…I believe in the Bible. I believe the Bible is God’s inspired Word. I believe the Bible is a guide to how we should live our lives, but more importantly, it is also a guide as to how we should not live. And finally, in no way am I asserting that you should ignore the Bible, to distrust the Bible, or to disbelieve what it contains. However…

The Bibles we currently read are usually a varied translation of the King James Version, the version accepted by Christians for the last several centuries. The King James Bible was compile from a variety of different sources, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Ethiopian Bible which is claimed to be the first Bible, and other writings. Then, all of those sources were compiled and translated by man. And I don’t trust man. Man today, twists God’s Word every way they can to make it fit their lives. Our God is a loving and merciful God, but man has made Him out to be an angry tyrant, who has set rules, and if you don’t follow those rules, your fate is destined for eternal life in a burning pit of fire. Man has taught things simply for the purpose of filling the pews rather than sharing the truth. Is it any wonder people worship God out of fear rather than love?

What I am saying is this. Before you study the Bible, pray. Pray. Then pray some more. Ask God to fill you with His Spirit and to teach you Himself, to show you the truth. Pray that God guides you through man’s translations to show you what His character is truly like. That is the wisdom I have to offer. Now onto Solomon’s wisdom.

Verse 2, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
But the Lord weighs the hearts.” Most people don’t read the Bible. They may attend Bible Studies with others, they may follow an organized reading plan where a moderator tells you what the Bible says, and most of the faithful live by what they’ve been taught by the church rather than by what we know about the character of God. And they believe they are right. Staunchly believe. But regardless of what man believes, God knows what’s in the heart, so keep your heart close to God.

There are several verses in these three chapters about disciplining children. Let me say, I’m against child abuse. And I believe child abuse is getting worse as time goes on; mankind has become selfish, you can see by the rate of abortion that many children are an “inconvenience”. There is more and more alcoholism and drug abuse, more mental health issues, and as such, more and more children are being abused, some even to the point of death. I am the guardian of a special needs woman who is suspected of being the victim of “shaken baby syndrome”.

But I also believe in discipline, physical discipline if necessary. I can’t count the number of times I received the switch across the back of the legs. Yes, may parents were old school. My father wore overalls, hence no belt. They didn’t use their hands, they used good old fashioned switches. They kept a stack in the corner of the living room behind an old platform rocker we moved from house to house. And those switches would raise a welt. Fortunately, they didn’t have to use them often. Just seeing them in the corner was a gentle reminder to behave. And if I even slightly got off track, my father would simply put me in his car, we would drive to the local park, and he made me sit in the car and watch him cut and clean new switches of a tree. New ones were the worst. They were still green, still had some “pop” to them.

I recommend using whatever works. I have another special needs daughter that has the mental development of a two year old, so she is in her “terrible two’s” and will be for the rest of her life. All I have to do to correct her is to send her to the hallway. We have a hallway that leads to the bedrooms, and she despises going there. It works, so that is all I have to use. My other daughter disciplines herself…when she is angry and throws what we call a “hissy fit”, she usually gets made and storms off to one of the bedrooms, throwing herself on the floor, and pouting and crying until she calms down.

I do have to admit, their behaviors are pretty bad. So they are on behavior medicine to keep the worst at bay, otherwise, it might have to be physical. But if something like standing in the corner or “timeout” doesn’t work, you may have to try something a bit stronger. The best solution is God, bring them up right from the start, and you may not have to discipline them other than a verbal redirection. Show them love, real love, and they will obey because they love you in return rather than fear you.

And now that I have said that, isn’t it strange how this parallels our relationship with God? God often rebukes us. In a previous life, I completely ignored God, so I didn’t hear His voice. Now that I have sought Him, He often speaks to me. I’ll start to sin, and there is a voice in my head that says, “Don’t do that!” And I know that is God, correcting me. And while God Himself doesn’t punish, in my opinion, I believe He does remove His “hedge of protection” from us when we ignore Him. He gives us the freedom of choice, but if we choose wrong, He allows Satan to do with us what he may.

To summarize, I think the violence, lawlessness, hate and discontent, is a direct result of not only a failure to discipline, but just a general break down of the family. I remember a co-worker once who came to work, and while he and his four year old daughter were having a moment of contention, she called him a “son-of-a-b*tch”. As he told the story, he said, “I wanted to get mad, but it was so funny, all I could do was smile.” And I thought, “it won’t be so funny when she is 17 and cursing at you like that. Enough said. Discipline your children, but please do not abuse them!

Finally, Verses 29 through 35 in Proverbs 23 are 100% accurate! As a former drinker, I can attest to that. And I drank heavily. I quit when I married at the age of 25, but I used to tell everyone that God gave me 50 good years of drinking and I used them all up in the first 7 years that I was legally old enough to drink.

When you’re drunk, drunks are fun to be around. When you’re sober, not so much.

When you’re drunk, you have woes, sorrow, you get in arguments and sometimes, physical altercations, you complain about everything (they used to say a bartender was just another form of social worker), you go from beer to hard liquor, and it is addictive. I drank to socialize, in itself, I didn’t like it, so I was never an alcoholic. But I can see where some people become alcoholics, because when you’re drunk, you don’t think about the pressures of life, you’re just having a good time.

And I’ve know some of the nicest people in the world, until they drink, then, they aren’t so nice.

I had an aunt, by marriage, that started out having a class of wine each night before bed, just to relax, for health reasons. When she died, she was drinking straight vodka. And if you don’t know, vodka is a clear liquid, like water. My wife’s mother had to warn the children when they came to visit, “If you see a glass of water, do not pick it up and take a drink of it. Get your own glass.”

I also had a friend, an ex-police officer, who had a seargant who drank so much, that when he was sober and hadn’t drank in a couple of day, still had alcohol in his system. How he survived without succombing to alcohol poisoning, I don’t know. How he survived as a cop? Well, this was back in the 60’s when policing was different.

I had another co-worker, whose life was spiraling downward fast, two divorces and no new prospects of marriage, drank heavily, we later found after his arrest for rape, he was likely an alcoholic. We didn’t think it strange at all for him to “go to the parking lot to get something out of his car”, but later we realized he was likely going to his car to get a nip out of the bottle; while on duty, protecting the public.

So alcohol is a big problem, and it ruins lives.

There is a lot of wisdom in what Solomon says about alcohol.

There is a lot fo wisdom in everything Solomon says.

God be with you.