I have a good word for you today….Don’t be discourage when you have setbacks in this life. Let it be a lesson for you and realize that this is common to all men. This year I had to rebuke (tell them to shut up, stand up and HELP them grow up) a friend who kept crying about his disappointment with family members whom he thought walked in a higher integrity level but did not.
He learned that some of his gangster ghetto mentality folks were fake and what hurt the most was many spoke in King James English from time to time. I explained to him a verse that he had neglected to read, study, meditate and continue to meditate on scripture due to his laziness and excuses for not reading the Holy Writ but just listening to the presentation of the pastor before his eyelids got heavy and he fell asleep.
I reminded him from the scriptures that others and God himself had ‘gangsters’ family members but they learned how to commit themselves to the practice of scripture and not just hearing only…
Who were these people?
I am glad you asked.
Have you read about the lives of these people?
- –Japheth—the son of a prostitute was disowned by his kin folks until they needed his help. The nerve!
- –Moses—his big sister complained about his beautiful wife not being of the same ethnic as Moses and God had to deal with her long tongue and prejudice
- –Jonah—God’s man of faith and power hated a group of people so much that he told God NO when he was told to go warn them then he lied and told some men on the yacht he was riding that he served God. Really??
- –Jacob—The papa who played favorites with his children and later had to apology for HIS sin of doing this which caused hatred and division among them
- –Oh and I will call up my boy David who had to kill his own son Adonijah or get killed by him
Reminds me of the verse that tells me….For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.
Or
For whatever things were written of old were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.