We have many warning signs in life, stop signs, yield signs, danger signs, road work ahead sighs etc. For most, we heed the warnings to avoid accidents or a friendly visit with the Highway Patrol or Police. …and then there are other signs we should heed as well.
It is no surprise to many that Texas has had its share of rain over the last week. In my area we have had about 13 inches of rain. Yesterday as I drove past some houses on my road, I noticed a tractor bogged down in the mud, a warning to not use a tractor until it dries some, and then carry on with work.
My friend became bogged down in his front yard. while trying to remove a tree from his fence. When I went to check on him yesterday, I saw a huge gaping hole in his yard, and now he will have to fill in the vacant spot and replant St. Augustine grass.
As I was about to leave, he told me he was going across Highway 31 to check on his fences. I told him he may need to rethink what he was about to do, for it is the lower part of his ranch, and gets under water when we have a great amount of rain. I would also be unable to check on him. He told me he would not attempt it, but my friends, he didn’t listen.
When I returned from work, I called to see about him. His first greeting, “Guess what?” There’s that “guess what?” again. Against my advice, he went to check on fences, and while checking, he bogged down into the mud. He had to get on his knees, in the creek, to try and get the wheel from his mule dislodged from the mud, but no success. I asked what he thought about while attempting that maneuver. The first thought he had, “Eileen told me not to….. but I didn’t listen.” ..and before I go further, I have done the same, only to regret what I did. We all have been guilty.
He had to walk a good distance to his house, and just shy of 88 years of age, is quite a fete. When he topped the hill to the concrete troughs, he lay down in one to rest. I now have a new place to look for him. Though humorous now, it could have been much more serious.
The same applies to our spiritual lives. We should heed warning signs. If we come in contact with people of a bad influence, we should avoid them.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” I Corinthians 15:33
If one offers an invitation to participate in drinking or drugs. Anything destroying our influence for good, is wrong, and not only hurts us physically, but spiritually as well.
“They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.” Proverbs 23:30-35
“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17
As Christians, we know the warning signs, and sins we should never be involved in. Heed the warning signs and pay attention to them, or they could cost you your soul.
“Be not deceived. . . . .”
“One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.” James Russell Lowell
Eileen Light