Here Come da Judge

(Proverbs 7:19 KJV)  For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

I was tempted to slide over this section.  After all, I am not guilty of adultery.  What could the opening line of this verse have to do with me?  I am the “man” (376).  In my case it is the wife that is out of town for a few weeks.  Then I looked at the pile of boxes in the middle of the room and asked myself, “Would I have left those boxes there if my wife was home?”  I think you know the answer.

What kind of person am I when “the man is not at home?”  Someone once said that personality is what others see, character is what you are when no one is watching.  Jesus is not interested in cosmetic changes but in cosmic changes.  He wants to change what we are, not what we want to look like.

My wife is slowly changing me.  I think I have made the bed every day she has been gone.  I have not let dishes pile up in the sink.  But I am still putting off getting a haircut.  I will go into overdrive just before she gets back.

Jesus is also changing me.  The difference is He is with me all the time.  It is just that there are so many areas that need to be sanded and molded.  The point of Proverbs is not to make us feel like we are better than others are but to make us better than we were.

So?  Rejoice in the process.  When He points out something you had not noticed before, you know the routine:  Repent, obey, rejoice, grow.  He will not be leaving town.  Trust me.