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Tuesday... This is imperative for us to understand.


Tuesday... This is imperative for us to understand. It really is.

We each one were created as free-moral-agents. In other words we are free to choose what we want to do. But this is imperative for us to understand. We are not free from the consequences of our choices.

Proverbs 20:17 (AMP) says this, "Food gained by deceit is sweet to man, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel [just as sin may be sweet at first, but later its consequences bring despair]."


I also read this morning in Luke 4 of Jesus' time with the devil. Verses 1-2 says, "Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River, He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became hungry." And that is where the devil started. 

Verse 3 says, "Then the devil said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.'" Yes, Jesus was the Son of God and he had the freedom to choose and he was hungry but he also knew the consequences of his giving into the temptation of the devil. And verse 4 says, "But Jesus told him, 'No! The Scriptures say, '"People do not live by bread alone."'" Yes, he was hungry, yes he was the Son of God but he knew the consequences so he said, "No!"

The devil came at him two more times tempting him in his humanity but Jesus knew what he was doing and he quoted scripture each time and said no. Jesus knew he was free to choose but he also knew the consequences. The Spirit led him into the wilderness to show us how to handle the temptations that will come our way. 

Back to Proverbs 20. Verse 4 (MSG) says, "A farmer too lazy to plant in the spring has nothing to harvest in the fall."

Verse 25 (NLT), "Don't trap yourself by making a rash promise to God and only later counting the cost." In other words, knowing the consequences.

There are also positive consequences.

Back to verse 7 (MSG). This is a good one, "God-loyal people, living honest lives, make it much easier for their children."

Verse 13 says, "Don't be too fond of sleep, you'll end up in the poorhouse. Wake up and get up; then there'll be food on the table."

Yes, we are free to choose but we are not free of the consequences of our choices. 

Now the writer of Psalm 50 tells the consequences of making wrong choice but then in verses 14-15 (NLT) he says, "Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High. Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory." Now we don't really call that consequences we call them blessings. But they do come about because of right choices. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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