As I read these chapters, I was reminded once again how easily a man's heart is turned by the appeal of a woman. Solomon set out to do right, but in the end, his heart was turned from following the Lord because of all the women he had loved. God warned him not to go astray, and that there would be consequences (and there were pretty serious consequences) yet Solomon still turned to follow after the gods of his wives, who turned his heart.
A man's heart is so easily turned by how a woman dresses or even in the manner in which she presents herself.
Today's society is hungry for more and more vile things like pornography. Just today I received an e-mail denouncing pornography, and I'll give you some of the statistics in that e-mail:
According to research: Every second $3,075.64 is spent on porn.
Every second 28,258 people view porn.
In the U.S. alone there are 4.2 million Porn websites with a new porn video being created every 39 minutes.
the Department of Justice has not indicted a single porn distributor in the past two years.
Why could this industry, vile and disgusting as it is, be so profitable. It's simply this. Man is driven by what he sees, and Solomon was no different. His heart was turned away by the beauty of women, and if we are going to lift up our brethren spiritually, we must be careful of how we present ourselves. We are called to live Holy lives to be discreet in our apparel, and in today's world where even in the church, we have women wearing skin tight clothes or low cut necklines, we need to be careful of protecting our brothers' eyes. We have a responsibility to help uplift and edify our brethren, let's be careful to not cause them to be tempted by any of us.
Also, let us remember the great sway with have with our husbands simply by living a Godly life in front of them. It is not necessary to try to force our way our insist on things being done in some specific manner. God is capable of leading a man in the right way, and our job is simply to be a helper, not a dictator. We can be a great influence for good, or we can be the force that drives our spouses away from God.
As you all know, I have been gone for the past month to visit my daughter in AZ. Because of the time difference and the many things we had planned on doing, I was not sure that I would have access to a computer at the time I needed it and so I asked my son, Bill, if he would do my blog for me. He so graciously consented and so for the past month you have been reading his words. I will be starting back next Sunday but I wanted to take this time to thank him for doing such an outstanding job and for always being there when I need him. Thank you Bill.
ReplyDeleteSo true, so true!!! Women have a great deal of influence on men whether they want to admit it or not. We can make or break the men in our life. I would like to think that all of us as Godly women are feverently praying and lifting our husbands, Dads, brothers, etc. up in Jesus' name. Oh, how I want to always be a ray of sunshine and source of strength for my husband!!! Let my words and actions always be uplifting and positive for the good. Satan does everything in his power to get in between us and our husbands. As I read todays blog it reminded me of the movie "Fireproof" and all the life lessons which can be learned. Is God our #1 priority and does He have our whole heart?
ReplyDeleteVery good post. We certainly have a responsibility to help keep our men from temptation. It also struck me that far reaching consequences of Solomon's sin. It affected Israel- and still affects israel today. Wow.
ReplyDeleteThank you SO MUCH Bill for taking the time to do that for our special blog! You have done a FANTASTIC job!!! We hope that maybe you will continue to follow the blog even when Ms. Boots gets back! What great insight from you Bill into how a man's mind works. I have been married for 17 years and know from my husband that men are very sight driven and we as women do nothing but tempt them and cause sin when we provoke their eyes and minds by dressing in provocative ways. The influence that a woman has over a man can be VERY powerful and if not used in a Godly way, can cause great harm. I am here at this time to be as good of a wife to my husband as I can possibly be and to be the "good woman" behind my man. Oh...and by the way...men are also HUGE on getting your respect as well!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Bible also says that men will become lovers of self. Men are becoming enticed with not only other women but, other men even young ones. how sad is that, to see and hear of men of God going after other men even though they, some of them, have wives.
ReplyDeleteII Chron. 7:14