[Biblemat] A) GOING BACKWARD -- A PROVOKED SPIRIT

[J5827Sasser at wmconnect.com]

Brethren and Friends, Jim Sasser here.  A very good Friday morn-
ing to each and everyone.  May God bless you and yours.  Here
are a couple of items from my ancient files:

GOING BACKWARD  --- A PROVOKED SPIRIT

GOING BACKWARD: -- When people do not obey the Lord, 
they are going in the wrong direction.  "But this is what I com-
manded them, saying, 'Obey  My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall 
be My people.  And walk in all the ways 
that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.'  Yet
they did nto obey or incline their ear, but followed the couns-
els and dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and
not forward" (Jer. 7:23,24).

     When people go backward to the allurements of the world,
they are on a course clearly condemned in the Word of God.
Jesus said, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Lk. 9:62).

     The promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey,
lay ahead, but the children of Israel, having forgotten their
misery as slaves in the dreadful bondage in Egypt, looked
backward to the flesh pots of that heathen land (Exo. 16:3).
As a result, without ever reaching the promised land, they fell
in the wilderness.

     There is a vast difference in obeying and disobeying the
Word of God.  One means forward to the bliss of heaven, the
other backward to failure and eternal punishment.

A PROVOKED SPIRIT: -- When Paul came to Athens and saw
the city given over to idolatry, his spirit was provoked ("stirred" KJV) 
within him. (Acts 17:16).  He immediately did
something about it by reasoning "in the synagogues and with
the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened 
to be there" (Acts 17:17).  Paul's aggres-
siveness stirred up the people and gave him the opportunity
to introduce to them, God, the true God.

     There is evil all around us in the world today.  More murde-
rs, more robberies, more drug abuse, more child abuse, more
unwed mothers, more children without moral and spiritual
training, more danger on the streets, more immorality in every conceivable 
way.  Are we apathetic?  Do we take it for
granted?  Do we have the idea that there is nothing we can
do about it?  Or like Paul, with provoked spirit, do we do something about 
it?  What did he do?  He did what all Christ-
ians can and must do.  He taught publicly, he taught private-
ly, the gospel of Christ.

     That which caused Paul's spirit to be provoked was his
concern for souls his love for truth, without which lost souls
grope about in spiritual darkness, eternally condemned (Jno.
8:32).  A great need of our day is stirred spirits!  ---- Billy Norris, in 
Gospel Guide, Vol. 27, No. 9, Sept. 1995.   </HTML>
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