| Reading: Proverbs 31:1-9 |
I don’t drink so-called adult beverages.
But I do drink too freely of other “substances” that alter my state of my mind, slow my spiritual reflexes, and affect my perception of reality.
When that happens, how can I possibly judge righteously?
“Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted” (5).
I can say it’s not for me because I don’t drink beer or wine or any such thing.
However, I do drink such things as suspicion, bitterness, anger, contempt, and pride.
And they cause me to forget God’s laws.
And to pervert judgment.
(It is not my intent to spiritualize this verse. I’m just telling you a little of what came to mind after reading it a bit ago.)
![[Judge righteously (Proverbs 31:9)]](/pantinghart/wp-content/judgerighteously-b.jpg "Judge righteously (Proverbs 31:9)")
from Proverbs 31:9
Dear Mark it is impossible not to spiritualize any of God’s guidelines, if we are in Christ Jesus we will respond to what ever God asks of us in the Power of the Holy Spirit both in our actions and in our thinking. This is because we cannot fulfil God’s guidelines in any other way and our feeble attempts in the flesh will fail and our thinking in the flesh will be distorted.
I find Mark you have a great insight for the real Truth of God’s word, I appreciate your honesty and willingness to share from the heart, these are the signs of the indwelling Holy Spirit and I thank the Lord for them and for your faithful willingness to sit at His feet allowing Him to lead you into all Godly understanding.
How True this Scripture is and yet so many overlook its Focus. Its easy to say… well I can’t judge anyone else God tells me this, but it is not so as these verses show, what we are not to do is Judge with our own agenda but we are to Judge according to God’s Truth, if this was not so then there would be contradictions in the Scripture and this is never the case, we may not at the time understand some Truth but there is always an explanation which will be revealed if we wait on the Lord.
We are to stand up for the God’s Truth in all areas of our lives, yes it is easy to look the other way or to spiritualize in the flesh why we shouldn’t get involved, or perhaps we Judge by our own agenda and so overlook what God tells us is the True issues. We can also claim that we have no right to involve ourselves with worldly issues but is allowing something to continue that is an abomination to God not of the flesh.
Perhaps we are just too busy to be involved or should I say it’s too much effort after all I may miss out on my favourite T.V show, ok ok yes I know people are hurting but after all who am I anyway, what can I do that will make a difference. Nothing, in the flesh we can achieve no good thing but in Christ Jesus we can have the Victory in all things.
God’s Spirit will urge us to make a stand for those who are unjustly dealt with whether this be in Government affairs or on a personal level. I have a heart for those who the world judge as foolish perhaps because I’m one of them.
Sadly the stigma in our society against those who are disabled in many different ways is very great, including in the Churches maybe even more so, perhaps this is because what is not understood is feared and the best way to feel in control is to belittle someone else even if it is only in our thinking, this perhaps is worse because then our thinking is clouded and no matter what that person says or does we feel they are a bit off and we don’t respect them and what they say we feel has no relevance, in other words we put a label on them.
Stigma is expressed in many ways perhaps the most accepted form is joking, yet in defence they will say you have to laugh at yourself, and yes you can if it is kind to us, we still need to respect ourselves, but they spend most of their time laughing at others, what is said in jest is often true, at least for those who say it.
Mark if you choose not to indulge in adult beverages because of health etc that is your choice and perhaps suited to your lifestyle . Like you I don’t drink but I know if I did it would not make any difference to my relationship with the Lord unless I was out of control or it controlled me. Jesus drank wine as we are told in Scripture more then once. All things in Christ Jesus are permissible for us but not always beneficial, so what we accept as ok needs to be with God’s leading and understanding, we need also to take into account why are we wanting to Drink, is it to feel better etc and what influence will it have on others, their needs must come first so are we kind to insist on having a drink when we know it will cause others to stumble, no what they think does not judge us as wrong but we cause them to stumble by their ill feelings towards us, yes they are wrong but so are we.
Well perhaps I will share more about our need to Judge others according to God’s Truth at another time.
Thank you again Mark, God bless you greatly in your walk with Him. Christian Love Anne.