“Confidence, the feeling you have just before you understand the situation”.
That ever happen to you? You bought something, maybe a bicycle that came in a carton labeled “some assembly required”. Well, for you that was a challenge, so, after you messed the thing up, you finally read the directions!
That’s often just our problem. We trust ourselves, and think we need nothing else. The congregation at Corinth faced this too, and St. Paul reminded them of how their ancestors had ‘messed things up’ whenever they forgot to ask God’s direction. He described all that they had going for them, and how they mistook these benefits for a license to do things their own way. St. Paul’s conclusion, “Let Him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall”. 1 Cor. 10,12.
The other morning I took one of these little packets that have honey in them to put a little on my morning toast. When I looked closely, I read “10% honey guaranteed”, the rest, I assumed, was corn syrup of some other concoction. I felt cheated.
Then I read about the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872. Seems a man left Kentucky at age 19 to go to the California gold fields. Philip Arnold, at age 40, was working as a bookkeeper for a manufacturer of drills. In this, they used diamonds as cutting tools for their drills. Arnold, and cousin, John Slack, deposited a small bag in a bank, and allowed the banker to pry out of them that it contained diamonds they had found.
That news, of course, seeped out, and soon the city came, asking to buy shares in their find. Arnold soon sold shares worth 40,000, took some of the money, went to London and bought rough jewels, and took them to a field they had listed as their mine. He seeded an acre with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and soon had sold nearly half a million in shares. But one government agent noticed the jewels were found only where the soil had been disturbed, and only an inch or so deep, so the hoax was uncovered. Arnold and Slack never were tried because the people who fell for their scheme were afraid to admit they had been fooled.
Read that last sentence again. The people fooled were afraid others would find out they had been fooled.
See Satan at work there? Don’t admit it. Hide it. So others won’t see how you have fallen. David tried that, and said that he slept badly, he wept bitter tears, until finally he came to a merciful God, admitted his sin, and was fully forgiven.(Ps.32)
That is the blessing we enjoy too. When we fail in life, and we often do, admit it, and have His forgiveness won by the blood of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.
“It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man”. Psalm 118,8.
GPD 7/20/10
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