Proverbs 3:11-14 “My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold.”
Recently, I had heard that Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was widely considered one of the greatest American novels ever written. I picked up an audio book of six or seven Mark Twain classics to listen to while designing on the computer at work. Today, I was at a chapter in the book where Huck Finn is struggling whether to send a letter home to rescue a run-away slave that has been traveling with him down Old Man River together on a raft. Huck comes to a realization about the area of actions & behavior in his life that are outside the will of God and God‘s hand in the affairs of every individual, that many of us would be blessed at reaching such understanding of this profound truth in our daily walk with the Lord, because spiritual truth transcends centuries.
Chapter 31: Huck says to himself: That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fix exactly. The more I studied about this, the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's slave that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't agoing to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, "There was the Sunday school, you could a gone to it; and if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you, there, that people that acts as I'd been acting about that slave goes to everlasting fire." It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray; and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was, and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that slave's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie-and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie- I found that out.
Mark 7:6 “He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” In our dealings before Father God, who do we think that we are fooling, except ourselves when we are not honest and with the right heart? May we never play double and always be square before the Lord. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) hid a gem for us to find in his writing, and may this truth be known by all. You can't pray a lie.
Recently, I had heard that Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was widely considered one of the greatest American novels ever written. I picked up an audio book of six or seven Mark Twain classics to listen to while designing on the computer at work. Today, I was at a chapter in the book where Huck Finn is struggling whether to send a letter home to rescue a run-away slave that has been traveling with him down Old Man River together on a raft. Huck comes to a realization about the area of actions & behavior in his life that are outside the will of God and God‘s hand in the affairs of every individual, that many of us would be blessed at reaching such understanding of this profound truth in our daily walk with the Lord, because spiritual truth transcends centuries.
Chapter 31: Huck says to himself: That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fix exactly. The more I studied about this, the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's slave that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't agoing to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, "There was the Sunday school, you could a gone to it; and if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you, there, that people that acts as I'd been acting about that slave goes to everlasting fire." It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray; and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was, and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that slave's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie-and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie- I found that out.
Mark 7:6 “He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” In our dealings before Father God, who do we think that we are fooling, except ourselves when we are not honest and with the right heart? May we never play double and always be square before the Lord. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) hid a gem for us to find in his writing, and may this truth be known by all. You can't pray a lie.
Proverbs 12:18-22 “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment. There is deceit in the hearts of those who plot evil, but joy for those who promote peace. No harm befalls the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble. The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.”
In Christ, Brian
1 comment:
I know it must be nerve wracking as you start to discover that the Lord was telling you something...but it's neat when He uses ordinary things...like that novel! He's amazing...Thanks be to God for the changes the Holy Spirit does into our lives [painful as it may be] to make us be more like Jesus. God bless you.
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