House Guest

Climbing over the fence, they entered the man’s yard.

Even in the pitch-dark night they could make out the form of a second fence right next to the pool-which they immediately climbed over.

Inside the pool area they couldn’t see a thing.

Charley was feeling his way along, looking for a place to put his towel, when Matt bumped into the diving board.

He immediately started climbing to the top of the ladder. "Last one in is a rotten egg!" he called to Charley, laughing.

"Be quiet!" Charley said as he felt his way to the edge of the pool.

He wanted to check the temperature of the water. He sat down on the edge and tried to lower his foot in the water when he heard Matt spring off the board.

And just about the time Charley made his discovery, he heard a thud and a bloodcurdling scream.

What Charley discovered was that there was no water in the pool.

The old man had drained it. Matt hit the bottom of the pool feet first and suffered a broken back and other serious injuries which left him paralyzed the rest of his life.

Charley and Matt chose to ignore the fences that the owner had put up to protect people from the danger on the other side.

God puts up a different kind of fence to protect us from getting hurt, physically or spiritually.

When we choose to ignore God’s fences-whether it’s in the area of sex, drugs, drinking, honesty, etc.-we will experience consequences that could seriously hurt us

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When we are careless with God’s direction in our life, and want to try to do things our own way, or maybe think “God’s out of town for the weekend”, it often results in pain

Saul chose to do things on his own even though God had given him instructions in his life--this was the effect of Saul rejecting God, and an evidence of his being rejected by God.

Now God took his mercy from Saul (2 Samuel 7:15)

When men grieve and quench the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), by willful sin, he departs, and will not always strive all good goes.

To grieve the Spirit is similar to the way we grieve or perhaps quench the zeal in our spouse or children

We begin to DEMAND that they perform or do tasks according to our conditions

And eventually, it builds up after time which seems to create a suppression of tyranny over the household as you want it.

ILLUSTRATION: THE LIST

Once upon a time a woman was married to a perfectionist husband. No matter what his wife did for him, it was never enough.

At the beginning of each day, he would make out his list of chores for her to do, and at the end of each day, he would scrutinize it to make sure she had done all that she was supposed to do.

The best compliment she ever received was a disinterested grunt if she finished everything. She grew to hate her husband.

When he died unexpectedly, she was embarrassed to admit to herself that she was relieved.

Within a year of her husband’s death, she met a warm and loving man who was everything her former husband was not.

They fell deeply in love with each other and were married.

Every day they spent together seemed better than the day before.