He’s still a tenderfoot and he’ll be one even if he stays out here the rest of his life.”
                    –John Benteen  (Fargo)

       “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
                    –Revelation 20:15(NKJV)
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Where is your focus?  Where is your attention?  How do you live each day?  Answer these questions then read the following verses from Proverbs 8 and reevaluate your answers.

          32 — Now therefore, listen to me, my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways.
          33 — Hear instruction and be wise, and do not disdain it.
          34 — Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
          35 — For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the LORD;
          36 — But he who sins against me, wrongs his own soul; all those who hate me love death.  (NKJV)

     It is a daily waiting, watching, and walking life.  Bob Beasley writes, “We are to live moment by moment, from faith to faith, step-by-step, on a daily basis.”  Our concentration is to be upon the Lord every moment of every day.  Paul tells us, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.'” (Romans 1:17, NKJV)  We never know what might lie ahead, so we should consciously try to be the best we can in all circumstances.
     J.L. Flores says, “Not to listen is to refuse.  Not to wait on God is to sin against Him–is to despise the provisions of His mercy.”  It is foolish, downright stupid, for people to ignore the wonderful grace and mercy that is before them.  We have this simple, yet profound statement, if you have Christ you have life.  Then the contrast, if you hate Christ, you love death.  To refuse Christ then is a self-destroyer, a sort of spiritual suicide.  “He who refuses to drink of the Fountain of Life, must, of necessity, be left to soul-death.” (Flores)
     We see the wonderful blessings that are promised to those who will listen to the instruction of God’s wisdom and keep God’s ways.  Life and favor (grace) are His and He gives them freely to all who accept the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Why then is man so foolish?  Christian, I would also advise you to check your time; prioritize it to meet with the Lord, to find Him, and to walk with Him.  Perhaps this person was right when he said, “We live in a world full of stupidity.  Stupid acts done by stupid people with stupid motives.”  I remember the words of that bard, Don Edwards, “You can fix ignorance, but stupidity is fatal.”  To go against God and His ways is indeed, fatal.  
     I hear, I read, and I wonder.  How in the world some folks out there actually believe what they say and do.  Samuel Miller hit it right on the head when he said, “Doing without is a stupid misery; but hating wisdom is an insane marvel.”
     Listen to what you are taught!  “Wisdom’s gracious invitation is more desirable than anything and an invitation to a blessed life.” (NKJV Study Bible)

I love the quiet of riding in the dark and the peace of stars twinkling overhead.”

He was learning that to speak of love is not easy when the feeling is deep and strong.”
                    –Louis L’Amour  (The Burning Hills)

       “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.  God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
                    –1 John 4:16 (NKJV)
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The Supreme Court confirmed it, “love is love”, so says the governor of Colorado.  Not so!  The Colorado governor is mistaken.  Love is love cannot be right for there are many ways the term is used and there is also false love, emotional love, pseudo-love, and deceptive love.  This term is misused and misunderstood by most everyone.  I may say, “I love apple pie,” and then turn to my wife and say, “I love you, honey.”  They do not equate.  
     The Greeks understood this to an extent.  They used “phileo” to mean “tender affection,” a brotherly type of love or deep friendship.  “Storge,” which is familial love and “eros,” which is romantic, passionate love.  We see “agape” and “phileo” in the New Testament.  Greek thought that “agape” or “agapao” love was impossible for man to show as it was a god-type love and was seen only in their literature.  How can man love like the gods, they thought?
     So when the governor of Colorado is speaking of love he cannot be thinking of “agape.”  For “agape” is pure love; it is God love.  It is the love that says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NASB)  It is the love that Jesus spoke of when He said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, NASB)  I would ask my apologetics class, “Do you love me?”  Most would answer in the positive, while the intelligent ones would not reply.  One student, in the front row was emphatic in her declaration.  I proceeded, “I am old, lived most of my life, and you are just getting started in yours, so am I to believe that you would willingly die for me?”  Well, that caught her, and she crawfished.  She was beginning to understand a little about “love.”  I will say, later in the year she came to me and confirmed her earlier statement by informing me, “Mr. Adkisson, I would die for you.”
     There was one time, while walking down the halls at school, a parent walked by me and said, “Love you, brother,” and continued on.  “Love me,” he doesn’t even know my name.  Then there are those individuals, the worst being youth evangelists who spout out, “I love you all.”  Hmmm?  This brings me to my point.  “Love,” what the Greeks thought only the gods could have, is a mystical, supernatural love.  It comes from God.  For us to love like Him, we need to have the Holy Spirit in our lives.  When Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13, we need to remember that he is writing to believers, not those in the world.
     I have always been careful in expressing my feelings using the term, “love.”  It can be so flippant, so easily spouted out of the mouth with honestly no real meaning.  So can a person say, “I love you” without knowing you?  Only through the love of God.  Can an evangelist honestly say that he loves everyone in front of his voice?  Perhaps, but only through the love of God.  That love which is so powerful, so giving, so sacrificing has to come from God.  This love is not an impulse that spurts out from emotions.  Love is thoughtful.  I cannot love a piece of apple pie with “agape”; if that could happen then that piece of pie, which I would soon consume, would become an idol.  See, “apage” is an attribute of God that shows His essential nature.  With the Holy Spirit living within us, we can truly (at times) say, “I agape you.”
     We are moving closer to Christmas so let me say that this time of the year we can show “agape” as the Holy Spirit leads us.  It was the Incarnation that showed one of the greatest aspects of “agape.”  God sent His Son–a gift–a gift because He loved man so much to want to redeem him.  The Father sent “Agape” because He “agaped” mankind.  O the great, wonderful, magnificent, deep love of God.
 
          O, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
          Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
          Rolling as a mighty ocean
          In its fullness over me!
          Underneath me, all around me,
          Is the current of Thy love
          Leading onward, leading homeward
          To Thy glorious rest above!
               –Samuel Trevor Francis

There was no telling what one man might accomplish. It was as if doubt and fear had never tortured him.”