Welcome to Wisdom Today with Bill Kelley. Today we will be going over Proverb 5. I will then key in on verses 3 & 4: For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. Friends, if we allow ourselves to, we can easily be tempted and enticed by people of the opposite sex. Something about the "grass on the other side of the fence" can be appealing. However, these two verses tell us that in the end those feelings will come to an end - and the realization will hit us that it's not all about us - we have other people in our lives that we need to consider before we are drawn into a sexual union (of any type) outside the traditional covenant relationship of marriage. I will then continue my study on the book of James - Chapter 4. I will read verses 7 through 12 today in their entirety. Upon completion of these verses, I will go over three things that we should contemplate pertaining to these verses:1. Humility cures worldliness - I will look at 1 John 2: verses 15 & 16 and tell us that we are not to love the things of this world. If we submit ourselves to God we can resist the devil (and any temptation that he may place in our paths). The key is to first submit ourselves to God. 2. We need to purify our hearts. We can do that by looking at people of the opposite sex the way we should look at them (or the way that God would look at them). Paul tells us how we should look at people in his letter in 1 Timothy 5: verses 1 & 2. If we look at people this way temptation can, and will be overcome. 3. There is only one judge & it's not me. In Luke 6: 37 he states that if we judge not, then we will not be judged; if we condemn not, then we won't be condemned; and if we forgive, we will be forgiven. I know that I don't want to be judged, I don't want to be condemned, and I would like to be forgiven if I wrong someone in any way, shape, or form. I will then go back to our proverb of the day and review verses 3 & 4. I will ask people to consider carefully the people that may be hurt if they are ever tempted to enter into a sexual relationship or "interlude" outside of the covenant of marriage.
