A man was in his mansion looking at his large family, when suddenly he smelled smoke. Peering out of his window he noticed that it was coming from the west wing, so he ran there hurriedly to help his kinsfolk to evacuate. Anxiously he opened the door where they were and hollered, “let’s get out of here!” Yet to his astonishment, no one budged. Thinking that they didn’t hear him he again hollered, “let’s get out of here!” This time a young girl asked, “why are you so excited, it’s just a little fire.” Holding back tears, the man said, “you’re going to burn up.” An old lady replied, “I want to wait to be sure it‘s a fire.” In a pleading voice the man said, “you need to get started now before it’s too late, please!” Naively, a small boy added, “I have some friends who were in a fire, and they didn’t burn up.” Then a young man jumped in saying, “yeah, you’re just trying to scare us. Besides, the firemen…” Before he could finish his sentence the walls started to burn and cave in. The young man looked at the man and said, “they’ll be here IF we need them.”
As a young boy I was fascinated by fire, so much so that I took to playing with a broom to fan the flame on the stove. As I put the broom on the pilot real fast, I noticed it didn’t burn; however, I started taking more chances leaving the broom on the flame longer and longer. Of course the broom became ablaze, and my mom took to wearing my tail out. No doubt many of you reading this Vol. are thinking you’re too smart to see yourself in either story above However, unless you are diligently applying the righteous wisdom that the Lord expressed in Luk. 6:46-49 you are playing with fire!
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not practice the things that I say?”
Peter, the Apostle who asks us to be holy in I Pet 1:16, states in II Pet. 2:20-22, “for if after escaping the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, their latter state has become worse for them than the former. For it were better for them not to have known the way of justice, than having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. For what that true proverb says has happened to them, a dog returns to his vomit, and, a sow even after washing wallows in the mire.” It is with much love that I remind you of the words of the Lord’s brother James in Jam. 4:4, “do you not know that the friendship of this world is enmity with God? THEREFORE. whoever wishes to be a friend of this world becomes an enemy of God. Why chance eternal joy for temporal gain?
