Are You Going To Get Burned?

Monday's Devotion (5-1-06)

"Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips." Proverbs 24:28 (KJV)

In other words, don't be a drama queen or king! Don't make up stuff just to cause trouble, actually don't make up stuff at all! If you have something to say about your neighbor, or about anyone - Let it be true! Why start a fire and throw gas on it for no reason? If you do start a fire, you're going to get burned in the end! Not your neighbor. Our neighbors around us aren't exactly the most friendly, but they really haven't done anything wrong to us. So, we don't start trouble with them, because we don't want trouble. Some people just seem to want trouble, and I'll never understand it. Why not get along with people when it's possible? You can meet some really great people. I was just telling my wife today, "You know, I wouldn't give up my friends. They're some real characters, they're awesome people!" When you can say that about other people, it's just amazing. It's a good feeling to care about people. It's not a good feeling to start trouble with people for no reason! Why make up lies when you can have an awesome friend as close as your next door neighbor? You know I have some friends online alone, people that have never seen me that would do more for me than even my own brother. To think that some of you would rather make up lies about your neighbors, when your neighbors could actually turn out to be great friends.

As you know "neighbor," isn't just referring to your neighbors around you, it's referring to everyone! Everyone is your neighbor! When you go to the grocery store, when you go out of town, you are surrounded by your neighbors! We need to get along with each other. Why do you think we had terrorists attacks in America? Because our neighbors don't like us! I'm not saying that's our fault, but I'm saying because we have problems with our neighbors we have suffered. It can all root from one misunderstanding too. Maybe they think that because we don't practice their religion we're against them. That's called, "assuming." When you assume something you can cause a lot of trouble for nothing. I don't even want to say the phrase that my Grandma used for assuming. It's an old phrase, but she liked to use it. It was true, but it's not appropriate to post. My point is that so many people are just making trouble when they could have peace. I'd rather be comfortable in my house than to be outside warring with my neighbors. I would rather feel comfortable leaving my home than worrying about what my neighbors are going to do to my home, my family, and my pets. My mother told me a story that she had a dog, and one day she left home. She came back home, and the neighbor had hung her dog to death on the clothesline. That's horrible, but this kind of stuff happens - When you have problems with your neighbors! You think you're "getting over" on your neighbor when you make up lies? Well, I hate to tell you, but God doesn't support liars! Not only that, but people have this thing that they like to use, it's called, "revenge." Revenge isn't right, but when you do wrong to people what can you really expect in return? A gift? Flowers? We as Christians know that we don't reward evil with evil, but the people in the world don't live by our rules. If you start a fire, you're going to get burned! If we start trouble for no reason, I can't honestly say that we don't deserve what we get in return.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins, and we forgive all those who've wronged us. Help us not to be drama makers, let us be peace makers. In Jesus name. A-men!

God bless!

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