Tag Archives: Sex

I die devotionals, Nathan Dooley

None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life | P2-V19

Leave a comment

The Pursuit of Wisdom Brings Security

Proverbs 2; I die daily devotional.

19 None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life.

I didn’t realize just how important this verse was when I was engaging in sexual activity before and outside of my marriage (not to mention the sexual abuse I experienced as a child); let me explain the latter (outside of marriage).

Even though I was a believer when I married my wife, my marriage bed was still defiled (spiritually unclean).

Heb 13:4 — Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

I hope you’re wondering how because it will be hard to understand unless you’re willing to receive the truth of my testimony and how the work of God is alive in us who believe.

As I mentioned before, I had engaged in sexual activity before my marriage, with a # of different women. As God as my witness, He knows the number as well as my wife, but it’s not relevant to the purpose of this information. The point is that just because I became married to Laura, our marriage bed became defiled by what was going on in my heart and mind.

I had heard and read these proverbs in my youth, but I wasn’t ready to understand because I struggled against insecurities. I was terrified of marriage although desired to be “right” with God.

My shame … is a very real experience … and the experience is not to be taken lightly … because in it … is where I discovered the fear of the Lord.

So even though I was married, I still thought of previous sexual activity with women that were not my wife. I would still watch pornography. If I didn’t have pornography, I would create to fantasize and imagine it while intimate with my wife.

Proverbs 2:16 To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words; 17 That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God; 18 For her house sinks down to death And her tracks  lead to the dead; 19 None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life.

It’s crucial that you recognize where Satan is in my testimony. Do you see how I used my marriage as a cover to continue in my sexual sin, that is how clever Satan is in our lives.

God designed marriage between a man and woman for a reason … we might get to that … we’ll see. Also, God designed the roles of men and women in the service of God to be holy. So if you’re a single male or female struggling against lust, please understand that it doesn’t change when you’re married.

1Co 7:29 — But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; 30 and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; 31 and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.

It is to the glory of God through Jesus my Savior that I can report to you in this devotional how Satan does not hold my soul captive to sin. I’m actively in repentance of these sins you’ve become a witness of and many more of my personal sins.

Jas 5:20 — let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Let me make it clear, though, that I’m far from perfect … although that is my aim, my direction!

Mat 5:48 — “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Going to Church has killed my life, you might need to read that again; I wasn’t joking. Going to Church has killed my life, but by God’s grace and mercy, I’ve been born again. And my devotion is to my King, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

I have been delivered from the strange woman, and you can be delivered as well. It is possible through much discipline. I have had the Holy Spirit alive in me working nonstop, the Holy Spirit is our Helper!

Jhn 14:16 — “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;

The love of my wife has helped change me from a man of sin, to a man chasing after God!

1Pe 3:1— In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,

RESOURCE

[BP]

Proverbs 2 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org
1 My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, 2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; 3 For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; 4 If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; 5 Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come  knowledge and understanding. 7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8 Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones. 9 Then you will discern righteousness and justice And equity and every good course. 10 For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 11 Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you, 12 To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things; 13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness; 14 Who delight in doing evil And rejoice in the perversity of evil; 15 Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their ways; 16 To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words; 17 That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God; 18 For her house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead; 19 None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life. 20 So you will walk in the way of good men And keep to the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will live in the land And the blameless will remain in it; 22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land And the treacherous will be uprooted from it.

COMMENTARY

Matthew Henry (P2-V19) Commentary
[2.] How fatal it will prove to those that fall in league with her, v. 18, 19. Let the sufferings of others be our warnings. Take heed of the sin of whoredom; for,

  • First, The ruin of those who are guilty of it is certain and unavoidable, if they do not repent. It is a sin that has a direct tendency to the killing of the soul, the extinguishing of all good affections and dispositions in it, and the exposing of it to the wrath and curse of God and the sword of his justice. Those that live in forbidden pleasures are dead while they live. Let discretion preserve every man, not only from the evil woman, but from the evil house, for the house inclines to death; it is in the road that leads directly to eternal death; and her paths unto Rephaim, to the giants (so some read it), the sinners of the old world, who, living in luxury and excess of riot, were cut down out of time, and their foundation was overthrown with a flood. Our Lord Jesus deters us from sinful pleasures with the consideration of everlasting torments which follow them. Where the worm dies not, nor is the fire quenched. See Mt. 5:28, 29.
  • Secondly, Their repentance and recovery are extremely hazardous: None, or next to none, that go unto her, return again. It is very rare that any who are caught in this snare of the devil recover themselves, so much is the heart hardened, and the mind blinded, by the deceitfulness of this sin. Having once lost their hold of the paths of life, they know not how to take hold of them again, but are perfectly besotted and bewitched with those base lusts. Many learned interpreters think that this caution against the strange woman, besides the literal sense, is to be understood figuratively, as a caution,
    • 1. Against idolatry, which is spiritual whoredom. Wisdom will keep thee from all familiarity with the worshippers of images, and all inclination to join with them, which had for many ages been of such pernicious consequence to Israel and proved so to Solomon himself.
    • 2. Against the debauching of the intellectual powers and faculties of the soul by the lusts and appetites of the body. Wisdom will keep thee from being captivated by the carnal mind, and from subjecting the spirit to the dominion of the flesh, that notorious adulteress which forsakes its guide, violates the covenant of our God, which inclines to death, and which, when it has got an undisturbed dominion, makes the case of the soul desperate.
I die devotionals, Nathan Dooley

They ambush their own lives | P1-V18

Leave a comment

The Enticement of Sinners

Proverbs 1; I die daily devotional.

18 But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives.

We’ve seen this verse before, hadn’t we? No. And actually. The script is flipped now.

It was back at verse 11 we read—if they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause—that the child of Wisdom is warned not to consent to the enticement of sinners.

THEIR OWN BLOOD

Their goal of gain in this life is at the cost of innocence. Their choice is made, they’ve chosen to love their own soul above their God who gave it to them, and ultimately, entices the innocent by that behavior, influencing a lie—a pleasure—about the way of their demise—justifying and blaming the world around them—rather than repenting of their selfish endeavors for the sake of God. But they won’t, they don’t repent; the sinner will seek to devour the innocent without a thought of losing their own soul for the sake of preserving the innocent—for the sake of Christ. The sinner says, “You need sex with multiple partners. You need pornography. You need to make more money. You need a vacation, cut loose, and just enjoy life.” But their gain is the ambush of their own lives, and once the innocent is converted… will he or she repent?

  • Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
  • Do you have faith that Jesus is resurrected?
  • Have you accepted responsibility for your sin?
  • Are you actively repenting of your sin?
  • Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
  • Do you have faith that Jesus is resurrected?
  • Have you accepted responsibility for your sin?
  • Are you actively repenting of your sin?
  • Have you sought to make your belief known?
  • Find a body of believers.
  • Tell them the meaning of salvation.
  • Seek to be baptized.
  • Study the Word of God.
  • Become equipped in your hope.
  • Practice your defense with believers.
  • Preach the Word of God to this world.
  • Be faithful to Christ.
  • Be faithful to your church body.
  • Understand how death is defeated.
  • Love God; Love neighbor.
  • Pray, Jesus come. Amen.

RESOURCE

Proverbs 1 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, 3 To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; 4 To give prudence to the naïve, To the youth knowledge and discretion, 5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, 6 To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles. 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.  8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching; 9 Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck. 10 My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause; 12 Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit; 13 We will find all kinds of precious wealth, We will fill our houses with spoil; 14 Throw in your lot with us, We shall all have one purse,” 15 My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, 16 For their feet run to evil And they hasten to shed blood. 17 Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net In the sight of any bird; 18 But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives. 19 So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the life of its possessors. Wisdom Warns 20 Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square; 21 At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings: 22 “How long, O naïve ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge? 23  “Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. 24 “Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; 25 And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof; 26 I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, 27 When your dread comes like a storm And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. 28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD. 30 “They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. 31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices. 32 “For the waywardness of the naïve will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. 33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

COMMENTARY

Matthew Henry (P1-V18) Commentary
Herein,

  • (1.) They are like the silly bird, that sees the net spread to take her, and yet it is in vain; she is decoyed into it by the bait, and will not take the warning which her own eyes gave her, v. 17. But we think ourselves of more value than many sparrows, and therefore should have more wit, and act with more caution. God has made us wiser than the fowls of heaven (Job 35:11), and shall we then be as stupid as they?
  • (2.) They are worse than the birds, and have not the sense which we sometimes perceive them to have; for the fowler knows it is in vain to lay his snare in the sight of the bird, and therefore he has arts to conceal it. But the sinner sees ruin at the end of his way; the murderer, the thief, see the jail and the gallows before them, nay, they may see hell before them; their watchmen tell them they shall surely die, but it is to no purpose; they rush into sin, and rush on in it, like the horse into the battle. For really the stone they roll will turn upon themselves, v. 18, 19. They lay wait, and lurk privily, for the blood and lives of others, but it will prove, contrary to their intention, to be for their own blood, their own lives; they will come, at length, to a shameful end; and, if they escape the sword of the magistrate, yet there is a divine Nemesis that pursues them. Vengeance suffers them not to live. Their greediness of gain hurries them upon those practices which will not suffer them to live out half their days, but will cut off the number of their months in the midst. They have little reason to be proud of their property in that which takes away the life of the owners and then passes to other masters; and what is a man profited, though he gain the world, if he lose his life? For then he can enjoy the world no longer; much less if he lose his soul, and that be drowned in destruction and perdition, as multitudes are by the love of money.

I die devotionals, Nathan Dooley

My son, keep my words

2 Comments

*Be careful people! Pornography has a twin, same personality, but different name as you’ll see in the featured image; this is also why I really like comments, accountability and interaction are very much appreciated.* (Thank you Tanner)

“Ummmm… don’t leave your wife at home?”

Well… not exactly.

That thought is funny to me because my wife made a similarly playful comment to that effect when on our little sunrise morning date with Jesus and coffee.

I mean; that is a fair thought when reading today’s chapter of proverbs—18 “Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning; Let us delight ourselves with caresses.19 “For my husband is not at home, He has gone on a long journey; 20 He has taken a bag of money with him, At the full moon he will come home.” I mean, dude shoulda never left without tending to his wife, but that’s not the issue being communicated by this information.

The nature of the human condition is influenced to such a degree that without proper discipline acquired from a spirit of instruction, we’re forsaken to untrained senses, gullible to cave at the call of a harlot that symbolizes a consequence of sin that we experience in this world.

When I ask the question, “Who are the parents teaching this son such words?” I reflect on the ministry of Jesus Christ; Jesus is called “The Word of God”(Rev 19:13) for a reason, and now here we are; the Parent’s of us are speaking:

1 My son, keep my words
And treasure my commandments within you.
2 Keep my commandments and live,
And my teaching as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind them on your fingers;
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your intimate friend;
5 That they may keep you from an adulteress,
From the foreigner who flatters with her words.

We are to “Keep”, “Bind”, and “Write” to memory, the wisdom that works in a way of which gives understanding to an experience needed NOT to endure for the sake of learning.

Don’t cave into the call of “her words”.

“Who is she?”

Her name is Pornography.

If you’re reading this, it’s likely you’ve been introduced to her already. And what’s worse is you might still be in bed with her? Thinking to yourself that it’s just the nature of the human condition, but you’d be wrong; it’s a choice of influence that resides in the souls of sinners (people spiritually separated from God).

If you are a husband or wife wilfully in bed with Pornography, then you are wilfully committing adultery; your marriage bed is defiled, but hear these words my son; it’s not just against your spouse in this world, but against the Husband of your soul that reconciles you to God; or have you forgotten His Name?

20 Jesus has taken a bag of money with him, At the full moon he will come home.”

Who took a bag of money (our debt of sin Hosea 1:2, 3:2) and purchased our love unto eternal life?

Or have you forgotten the sound of His voice?

When you think of your male or female neighbor, consider this; remember to “say to wisdom, you are my sister“; think of them as your brother or sister in faith and be married to the only ONE qualified to be a Spouse, that is Jesus Christ.

There is a nature of the soul. There is a nature of the spirit.

The spirit is given as an anointing to the soul desperate for a drink.
1 John 2:20,27

Are you thirsty?

…Keep my words.