Foolishness is like the sun, it shines brightly everywhere.”
                    –Ralph Vaughn  (Hell Comes to Paradise)

       “…Behold the word of the LORD is a reproach to them; they have no delight in it.”
                    –Jeremiah 6:10(NKJV)
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Finally home and getting back on track.  It was a nice vacation, but now back to our study on Proverbs.  Let me remind you of some things.  Remember that Proverbs is an ethical book and is not necessarily doctrinal.  That is not to say that there are no doctrines, for in studying Proverbs we get a better understanding of God’s character and how we are to live.  Proverbs is a practical book dealing with the art of living.
     Proverbs 7:24-27, again warns about sexual impurity and immorality.  It is definitely directed to the individual, but is also a warning regarding spiritual adultery, which was the great sin of Israel.  Spiritual adultery is anything that leads away from the worship of the true God and living for Him; it is anything that is a perversion of the Gospel.

          24 — Now therefore, listen to me, my children; pay attention to the words of my mouth.
          25 — Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths;
          26 — For she has cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men.
          27 — Her house is the way to hell, descending to the chambers of death.  (NKJV)

     Bob Beasley writes this regarding spiritual prostitution, “Like prostitutes hanging from their doorways in any red light district, spiritual prostitutes visit doorsteps with their false doctrines, seeking to lead people away from the Savior.  They preach a different Christ than the One of Scripture, and lure the unwary with lies and half-truths that sound good to the spiritually gullible.  Beware of people like these.  Don’t let your heart turn to their teaching.”  Look at the world around you, glimpse at the news and you see people constantly being swayed to a lifestyle contrary to the Word of God.
     Anything that is calling you away from Christ is a spiritual prostitute, and they not only wait on street corners but they come knocking at your door.  She comes in through various means:  radio, music, television, movies, social media, etc., always wanting you to compromise.  (J. Vernon McGee)  There is the push of “internal deception” (Chalmers).  Someone said that this is the move from “loving much to loving wrong.”
     The allurement of heresy is much like the immoral woman.  It looks good, it is flattering and it feeds the desires of the flesh.  Heed the words of verses 25 and 26.  How many strong men found their demise at her door?  How many good men fell to the charms of flattering lips?  Death lies at her door.  “If you go to her house, you are on the way to the world of the dead.  It is a shortcut to death.” (Flores)  Self-seeking, self-indulging, self-interest if these are calling you–watch out!
     Think for a minute of Gideon, that mighty warrior of valor.  Gideon started well, humble, valiant, but then, something happened.  Read in Judges 8:22-27, that while he refused to become king, he still turned to spiritual adultery, made a golden idol and Israel then prostituted itself by worshipping the idol; “it became a snare to Gideon and to his house” (vs 27).  The words of Warren Wiersbe should stop us in our tracks forcing us to take a careful look at ourselves, “It isn’t enough for Christians to protest evil; we must also practice the good.”

All of life is a risk, and sometimes the smallest of risks can cause the biggest danger, like a cut that becomes infected.”
                    –C.J. Petit  (Retribution)

       “For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see The plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord, Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.”
                    –Zechariah 4:10(NKJV)
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Maybe you have heard that “practice makes perfect.”  Don’t you believe it!  The truth of the matter is that “perfect practice makes perfect.”  A person can’t go out and haphazardly practice or work.  They must be diligent in their practice.  The foundations must continually be practiced and practiced correctly.  Bad habits are easy to form, but on the opposite note, hard to break.
     I learned a long time ago to do it right the first time (“stupid!”).  Repeating a task is a waste of time and that shows poor stewardship.  You want to be greater, given greater tasks, then develop your ability in the small things that are given to you.  Develop your mind, your muscles, your stamina, so that when larger things come your way, if they ever do, then you’ll be able to handle them.  William Barclay puts it this way, “The reward of work well done was more work to do.  The greatest compliment we can pay a man is to give him ever greater and harder tasks to do.  The great reward of God to the man who has satisfied the test is more trust.”  I have seen over and over that this is true.
     You want to be strong and develop yourself, whether mentally or physically, then you must work at it.  One pushup may be all you can do today, but if you are satisfied with that then you’ll never get stronger.  And so many times I have seen individuals refuse to work on the little things that will make them better.  If you do not practice the basic fundamentals and develop the basic skills and strength you will never be given the task of going higher.  “If we discipline and train our bodies, they will grow ever fitter and stronger; if we do not, they will grow flabby and lose much of the strength we have.” (Barclay)  This is true of the mind, and I will add, of the spirit as well.
     One of the greatest compliments I received from my Dad involved a little thing.  Dad was a truckdriver, but I was given the task to back the truck up to the house when my folks were moving.  I pulled back, putting the truck right in place.  Dad smiled at me, “I couldn’t have done it better myself.”  A little thing, backing up a truck, but it held great meaning for me.  You want rewards, recognition, position, then get busy with the little things, and doing them right.
     I have heard people use the verse, “Well done, my good servant!” (Luke 19:17, NIV)  Look at that verse carefully.  We often misquote it by rendering it, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  Looking at the complete verse we see the “faithful” come into play.  “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied.  ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.'” (NIV)  The NKJV translates it this way, “And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in very little, have authority over ten cities.'”
     Let me ask, when you first received a credit card, did you have the tendency to use it on small things?  All of a sudden those incidental expenses became something extravagant.  Remember in all things we are to be good stewards; that includes doing the small, redundant, mundane things.  During the Vietnam War, many complained that the M-16 jammed too easily.  The rifle was an excellent weapon, but had no tolerance for grit or grime, those little things that might cause it to jam.  The wise soldier would make sure, doing the mundane task, of making sure he kept his rifle spotless and clean.  Hmmm, I wonder how much time we work on our spiritual weapons and lives keeping them spotless and clean?  Fenelon said, “Whoever knows how to put the small things to good use, spiritual as well as temporal, accumulates great wealth.”
     Before you can leap and bound, you must first learn to walk.  To walk, you begin with small steps.  Work with what the Lord has given you in all areas of your life.  Take hold of this great truth that Barclay expounds, “There is no such thing as standing still in the Christian life.  We either get more or we lose what we have.  We either advance to greater heights or we slip back.”  Perhaps, it would do us good to look more closely and consider the story that Jesus told of the Master and the Servants.

Life’s a bit too short to take the long way around the barn.”
                    –James Leonard  (The Neglected)

       “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
                    –1 John 5:12 (NKJV)
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Boy howdy, was there a mistake on yesterday’s Echo!  I don’t know how, or why, but I do apologize for my error.  It aggravates me to the core when I do something like that.  The quotation by Cliff Hudgins should have been:  “The real strength is in depth.”  For some reason the Bible verse I used at the beginning of the writing ended up as Hudgin’s quotation.  Now onto the thought of the day.
     Perhaps one of the saddest stories in the Bible is found in Numbers 14.  “And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, ‘If only we had died in the land of Egypt!  Or if only we had died in the wilderness!  Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims?  Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’  So they said to one another, ‘Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.'” (14:2-4, NKJV)  Be careful–the Israelites would get their wish!
     Remember that Egypt is symbolic of the world system.  John tells us “do not love the world [Egypt] or the things of the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15, NKJV)  Abraham went out looking for a city, he understood that he was but a pilgrim in this world, but in Numbers we see that the people are so attached to the world that they would rather die in it.  They savored the leeks of Egypt more than the manna from God.  Paul deals with this concept in Romans, we are free from the bondage of sin, from the power of “Egypt.”  Why then do we want to go back to that bondage?  The people of Israel shouted when they left Egypt, but now they are moaning and wanting to return.  It sounds crazy, but many believers do the same thing.  See when people who are free in God still seek the pleasures of sin, God will send them into the wilderness, and, sadly to say, many will die there.
     We are free!  No longer are we bound to the chains of sin.  No longer should we want anything to do with the lifestyle back in Egypt.  The words by Margaret J. Harris come to my mind:
               I followed close beside Him, and the land soon found
               I did not halt or tremble, for Canaan I was bound;
               My Guide I fully trusted, and He led me in,
               I shouted hallelujah, my heart is free from sin.
The place where we walk is supposed to be holy ground, not the sand of Egypt.  Listen, and I’ll tell you straight, don’t look for me way down in Egypt’s land.
               You need not look for me, down in Egypt’s sand,
               For I have pitched my tent far up in Beulah land.
It should not be our lifestyle to boast of things of the world.  We should live close to the Lord, do away with foolish and evil ways.  Egypt get behind me!  Onward and upward I will go.
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(Some of the thoughts are from my new book:  “New Trails Through the Old Hymns”)