Life's Inanities and Ironies

  "Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety." — Proverbs 11:14 The lone-ranger Christian is not a picture of faith. He is often a picture of pride. God has set believers in local churches under qualified pastors and among mature saints. The man who will not be advised is already announcing that he trusts his own heart, and Jeremiah 17:9 has answered that confidence. “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise” (Proverbs 12:15). “Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established” (Proverbs 15:22). God frequently guides through people who know the Word and know you. That is not a downgrade from “hearing God.” It is one of the ordinary ways He has chosen to be heard. Choose counselors carefully. The world will counsel you toward comfort. A carnal friend will baptize your flesh in spiritual language. Rehoboam forsook the old men who had s...

This is written with a heavy and grieving heart for one who has been like a daughter or granddaughter to me. I am deeply troubled and at a loss to understand how someone I know loves both God and her family so dearly could allow herself to be influenced into turning her back on the very people who raised her in the faith and taught her to walk with the Lord. It is my earnest hope that these words, rooted in the unchanging truth of Scripture, will reach her. If she reads them, may the Holy Spirit bring gentle conviction, repentance, and the sweet restoration only God can give. If she does not see this, then I ask those of you who do to join me in prayer for her and her family—that our merciful Heavenly Father would intervene in His perfect timing, soften hearts, break the power of wrong influence, and bring healing and reconciliation according to His Word. If you are the young woman described in this scenario—a girl who has walked faithfully with the Lord, only to turn sharply against y...