There are three categories of wrong-doing (sin).  The apostle John wrote in 1John 2:16 that they are a result of our nature, and the world we live in.  "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world."

The first is sexual--the flesh.  There are a multitude of ways to do the wrong things sexually.   The second is a desire for things that we see with our eyes.  A new car, house, dress, shoes....stuff.  But those two sins we can address and control if we have a desire to try to be in accordance with God's will.  However the third category is more subtle.  The pride of life.

Pride sneaks in before you know it.  You get a degree in college.  You get a promotion at work.  You become the CEO of a company.  Or you get elected by your peers to an office of importance.  Or maybe you are one of those people that God blessed with an attractive countenance.  You are pretty.  You are handsome.  Things are easy for you--and you start thinking you are special.

Pride is sneaky.  We want, we like, to be better than others.  We like the "Top Dog" feeling.  And before long we start thinking we are.  We start thinking that things should go the way we want them to--because we deserve it.  We've worked hard to get where we are.

Did you ever just stop and think that you could have been born somewhere else in the world besides America?  Or if you are like me, to some family that wasn't Christian.  Or born to a family that couldn't afford to send you to school--or didn't value education.  Or born to parents who were cruel, or drug addicts, etc. etc..   There are a zillion ways that God blessed you with opportunities that you didn't earn.  And didn't deserve.

So if you've "made it," and you are up there in the stratosphere that the world puts a high value on, remember that you didn't get there because you are special.  God had a purpose.  And it wasn't so you could buy more stuff.  Don't lose sight of how to use the things he has blessed you with.  And don't forget to mentor others who have not been so fortunate.  Help somebody.  Christ did.

This last week, I helped out at Edmond Antiques a couple of times.  I had never used a cash register in my life.  I had never used one of those credit card thing-a-ma-jigs either.  But I learned.  Amazing that at my age I learned to do something new.   But Pam (the owner) trusted me to do it.  Which means that I am not over the hill yet.

I find it interesting that we all learn new things in different ways.  I don't know how you learn, but my method is never by having someone "tell" me how to do something.  I have to be shown.  And then I have to touch it.  I don't do well reading instructions either, and I certainly know how to read.  But when I don't know what I am doing, reading about "how to do it" is like reading Greek.

When I taught math, I would tell the students what we were going to do, then show them on the board  how to go about it.  I worked out examples for them.  And most of the class would set to the task. But a few students just sat there confused--because they didn't learn that way.  They didn't learn by listening.  I had to go back to their desk and give them step by step instructions while they held a pencil in their hand.  But when they got it, they got it.

As a Bible teacher, you have the same problem.  You can talk all day long about what the Bible says, what God expects, and how to do "Christianity."  But if you aren't living it out in your own life, some of those people who are listening to you won't get it either.  But you can be sure they are watching.

It isn't about what you know, it's about what you do.  I've memorized a lot of scripture.  But people don't see what is in my head, they see what is in my life.

The book of James is a great piece of writing on how to behave.  He said, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

What have you been doing lately?  There is an old saying, "If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

1146.  That's how many times I have written something to you.  I had no idea when I started writing that I would keep at it so long.  I thought I would write about the book of Genesis and be done.  But once I got into the swing of it, it became a part of my day.  More than just a habit, it became a purpose.  And now, it is a habit with a purpose.

What is it that makes us keep at something for the long haul?  For me, it is bull-headedness plus encouragement.  We all have personality traits.  One of mine is that if I say I'm going to do something, you can count on it to get done.  I'm gonna hang in there.  I will be on time.  I will show up if I commit myself.  I'll do what I say I am going to do.

But along the way, without encouragement, I sag.  I will "keep on keeping on," but my heart is not in it.  You may not know what is going on in my head, (because I stick to the task), but I need someone to tell me, "Atta-girl."  I don't know what makes me that way.  It just is what it is.

I know who some of you are.  But not all of you by a long shot.  Either way, when one of you tells me, or writes me to say, that something I wrote made you laugh, or made you think, or made you change the way you were doing something--I am totally recharged.  You lift my spirit.

As members of the human race, we affect each other.  We inspire each other.  Comfort, encourage, assist, befriend and uplift each other.  I wrote on the fruits of the Spirit yesterday.  Those fruits in the lives of others are a large part of what moves us in the right direction.  You are the light of the world.

Look at yourself with honesty.  Do you produce those kinds of fruit in your life?  Characteristics that lift the spirit of those around you.  Or do you let life get you down, cause you to be a stumbling block to others?  We are responsible for the people we touch--we are children of a King.  We represent Him.

It's not about you.  It's about others.

So God says you will be blessed if you don't get enmeshed with people who have abandoned His laws--His Word.  Psalms 1:2 tells us that this "Blessed" person looks like this: "..his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law he meditates..."  If you don't enjoy reading the Bible, you may have a case of the "Devil-may-care-attitude." (Or worse, sin-sickness?)  You need a dose of living water.

Sunday, I drew a fruit tree on the board, and a stream of water running beside it.  With apples on the tree, and apples that had fallen to the ground.  And then I read the next verse of the passage:

"And that person will be like a tree planted by the rivers of living water, that brings forth their fruit in due season; his leaf shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper."  Psalms 1:3

If God's word is the water in the stream, and you are planted in the right spot, (not walking in the counsel of the ungodly) your roots will draw water from that stream naturally.  His word will flow through you as the Holy Spirit, and produce fruit automatically.  It cures sin-sickness in a heartbeat!!

Galations 5:22 says, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance..." These characteristics are a natural result of the Spirit within you. And within each fruit, there is a seed.  A seed that can produce a new life.  You don't have to grunt and groan to produce fruit.  The water does the work.  People are drawn to love and kindness.

And you don't have to hit people over the head with a Bible.  But you do have to know how to explain God's plan, and explain how blessed you are to be a Christian.  Why you get excited about reading His Word. "Be ready always to give an answer of the hope that is within you..."

Remember, it is the Word of God that touches a person's heart.  "...His word will not return unto Him void, but will accomplish that which He intends for it to do..." Isaah 55:11. God is the one who saves people.  He does the "doing."  You are just the messenger.  The only thing you have to do is get planted in the right spot.  Next to the living water.  Get going.

We are starting a study of the Psalms.  The first Psalm was our lesson Sunday--and it is one of my favorites.  Verse 1 says:  "Happy (Blessed) is the man who does not...": 

1.  Walk in the counsel of the ungodly,

2.  Stand in the way of sinners, or

3  Sit in the seat of the scornful.

There is a progression here.  You start off by running with ungodly people, listening to them and their opinions (counsel).  Spending your spare time with them--just good old boys having a little fun.  The next step is that it becomes comfortable to you, and you stay--you "stand" in the place and with the people you have chosen to be around.  And eventually, you are stuck.  You sit down--you become a part of that crowd.  You are them.  

It's really hard to repent.  Sin is fun.  For a season.  If it wasn't, it wouldn't be any temptation at all.  And when you are "out there," doing what "they" are doing, Christianity looks boring.  Because you aren't involved in Christian activities with Christian people.  You are in a quagmire of the 1. Ungodly, 2. Sinful, and 3. Scornful people and can't seem to get back to where you should be.  And eventually, you don't want to--and begin to make fun of those dull, stuck in the mud Christian people.

You adopt an attitude that:  "Those people down at the church are a bunch of hypocrites."  Or, "All that preacher does is talk about money."  Etc. etc. etc.  Scorning. When really, they are just people who have decided that they can't do Christianity on their own and have taken the scripture to heart that says: "Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhort (encourage) one another..."  Hebrews 10: 25  This says that you become who you "assemble" with.

Tell me who you are running with and I will tell you what you are doing, and where you are headed.  If it isn't God's people, then it isn't pretty.  Don't fool yourself.  Get out of the quicksand while you can.  Before you're stuck for good. The most awful scripture in the Bible says, "God gave them up to a reprobate mind."                          

One woman said, "I worry that I'm not going to be able to take care of myself."  Another  said, "If that happens to me, would one of you please shoot me."  None of the women worried about dying, they just worried about the process.  Not being a burden to their family.  Not getting sick and needing help.  After everyone had talked for 30 minutes or so, one of them asked what bothered me the most about growing older.

"Well,"  I said, "I want to be useful.  I want to have purpose when I get up in the morning.  After 57 years of cooking, sewing, moving, working at my job teaching, raising four kids and taking care of Ken--staying really busy, I'm not much use to anyone anymore.  I wish my family would give me small things to do "with" them when they have a project going on.  Not just "for" them--although I really like to do things 'for' them."

"I would like to be included in activities--even if it means just sitting in a chair and watching--surely there is something left for me to do that is useful in the middle of what's going on.  But aging is a fact.  You can't do everything you used to do.  And you get the feeling that you are just in the way.  That you don't have anything useful to offer.  Basically that you are a lot of trouble and nobody wants to be bothered having you underfoot.  That sounds pitiful, but it is what it is."

I feel like I'm just killing time most days.  I feel like I am waiting.  On something.  On someone to need me to do something.  I've always been so busy doing things.  And now, I've become an appendage to other people's lives.   I've become more trouble than I'm worth messing with."

Pat called the other day and said, "Mom, I have a doctor's appointment and I want you to go with me. I need a Doberman in the room to help me listen and remember what he says."  That was nice.  She needed me.  She thinks I'm a guard dog.

Becky brought me a bunch of fabric for me to package for an estate sale.  That killed two days.  I had to do it by myself--which was okay; I didn't need help and I felt useful.  But I guess what I'm trying to say is that I miss doing things "with" people.  That's what has been hardest for me.

The next lady in the group said, "The thing that I find especially hard is not having anyone to talk to.  I don't know what I want to talk about, but when my husband was alive, there was someone around to answer a question--when I had one.  Someone to laugh about things with.  Nothing big, just someone to talk to--about nothing.  Someone who remembered the things that I remembered.  I don't have anyone like that anymore.  Part of the problem is that I haven't lived here for very many years and it takes time to make friends you can talk to about stupid stuff."

"Now, I go days without ever leaving the house.  And if I do go out, it's to the grocery store, or to fill the car up with gas, or go to the post-office or the bank.  But I don't really talk to anyone when I do those things."  She continued, "I've joined every activity my church offers.  I've made friends, and that helps, but it's not the same as talking with someone you really know."

"I do read more than I used to.  But I miss conversations like I used to have.  About nothing important.  With someone who likes the same things that I do.  I'm sure part of what I am feeling is grief--for something I can never get back.  But still, I wish I had someone to talk to everyday."

As I listened to her I thought about how thankful I am for Carolyn.  I talk to her on the phone almost every day.  About nothing.  She is in Pryor, I am in Edmond, but we've both been able to keep our friendship alive by talking every day.  And Sally calls me regularly.  And Becky Bacon.  I have truly been blessed by having close friends who stay in touch--although they live far away.  Life time friends.  Yes, I lost Ken, but I am not alone as long as I have my friends.  Someone close to talk to.

Carolyn told me that people in Pryor ask her what we talk about, and she said she told them, "I really don't know.  Nothing.  Everything.  I don't remember what we said today when I called her--but I'm sure it was important."  That's the kind of talk we all need.  Small talk.  About things we share.  About the things that are happening in their neck of the woods.  Talking, listening, is a comfort to us as we age.  God made us social critters.  We need people to talk to who care enough to listen.