BBD 01.30.04 Lock The Door!
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
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The Burning Bush Devotional
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01.30.04
Lock The Door!
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let
your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you.
Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not
turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil. - Proverbs
4:23-27.
At the Varner prison, which is located about 70 miles southeast of Little
Rock, Arkansas the death row cell doors were accidentally left unlocked. It
was the second time since December that the doors were left unlocked.
Thankfully, as Dina Tyler a spokesperson for the Arkansas prison system
says, “They (the prisoners) sat there. They didn’t move.” However, in
December when an electrical fault opened the doors there was a different
result. The doors opened then were to a cellblock holding violent murderers
and rapists. Many of the inmates left their cells and another inmate killed
one of them. Of course, the inmate who murdered the other inmate will be
charged with the murder but what are they going to do to him? Put him on
death row? He is already on death row and he doesn’t care.
While I was in the first part of my training as a parole officer, we were
housed inside of a minimum-security prison. In that low level of security,
inmates were able to roam around very freely. We were warned to always lock
our portion of the facility - to always be secure. We were warned to do this
even if we were only leaving for a few moments. All of us took this very
seriously and by doing so, we protected each other.
Another translation of Proverbs 4:23 puts it this way, “Above all else,
guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” We do have an enemy who
is constantly seeking a way to gain entry into our lives. 1 Peter 5:8 says,
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a
roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” The devil is constantly seeking a
way into your life and you must constantly be on guard to prevent his entry.
We must also be on guard against “worldly lusts (Titus 2:12),” and the lure
of the “flesh (Romans 8:5).”
Whenever we give in to the “worldly lusts” or the “flesh” we provide an
opening for the devil to attack us. It is just as if we have left the door
unlocked to our heart and invited him in. A very dangerous thing to do
because the heart is the “wellspring of life” and out of the heart come all
the “issues of life.” If the door is left unlocked that old murderer, the
devil will not set around until someone locks it up again. No, he will
immediately take advantage of the opportunity at your expense and do as much
damage as he can. The devil is not a gentleman or a civilized person - he is
just like the murderers and rapists on death row. He does not care whether
he is found out because he is already under a death sentence and he just
enjoys causing as much pain as he can while he can.
Guard your heart well because there is reason to do so. Nothing is more
important than your heart. Every time you make the right choice to live
righteously and not sin, you have turned the key in the lock of your heart.
Every time you resist the “worldly lusts” and the lures of the “flesh”, you
have locked the door to your heart against the attacks of the devil. Guard
your heart! Lock the door!
Copyright © 2004. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited.
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