Quiet in the house right now, CeeCee is with her other grandparents and everyone else is hard at work.  It is just me, Blaze and the cats.

Gives time to reflect and study; and deal with those allergies.

Seems they are worse this past couple of years.  Right now I don’t care to drive, don’t need to be a risk on the streets hopefully that doesn’t continue for long.

Guess there will be a barbecue cook off tomorrow, a few years ago I might have tried to enter the competition, not up to it anymore.

I did compete many, many years ago, at the State Fair in the barbecue with pork competition, placed second the first time, don’t know where the second.  It was fun, first time I had ever BBQed on gas, but we did okay.

It has always been just for fun and good food but wish the competitors good luck.

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Proverbs 21:10  KJV  “The soul of the wicked desireth evil: his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes.”

We have six hummingbird feeders.  Four have four stations, two have three, that is 22 stations for hummingbirds to partake of the fluid.

Yet, one bird always tries to dominate and chase off the other birds.

Because of that we always have one that is out of sight of the others, as much as possible anyway.

Doesn’t matter whether we have 4 hummingbirds or a dozen, one is always bullying the others.

But that is nature, I can hear you say, the survival of the fittest and all those clichés.  You can’t blame an animal from following its instincts, and I don’t – just don’t like it.

Genesis 6:5 KJV  “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Genesis 6:7-8 KJV  “ And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

⁸ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

In today’s world, with many thanks to Hollywood and television, anything goes.  If your nature/instincts is opposed to what the Word of God says, you follow your instincts; THAT IS OKAY, even encouraged.

AND no one is allowed to tell you differently.

So, what is the nature of man?

I have heard it said, over and over again, man’s nature is basically good.

We point to acts of charity, acts of love and support and say that is the nature of man.

But is it?

We can say that not everyone has a foul nature, where they will do whatever it takes to satisfy themselves, but more, than we care to admit, really do.

AND,

Everyone has something, in our nature, that satan can use to turn us away from God.  It could be pride, it could be lust, it could be jealousy, it could be greed or something else that we know to be wrong; we know is a sin and separates us from God.

And even the most pious among us, if not careful, can revert back to a sinful nature in one form or another if it suits their purposes.

And the farther away from God, the more likely we find man’s sinful nature taking over.  And, surprisingly, the closer we are to God the harder satan works on us and strives to insert that ‘nature’ in our everyday actions.

We can do one of three things with those desires, follow them; do what the world says to get rid of them by either getting counseling, medication or some other form of trying to get rid of the urges without dealing with the root causes; or we can go to God through Christ, confess this is a sin, ask forgiveness and ask for guidance from His Holy Spirit. 

As we look through history – don’t even need the Bible to show us - evil lurks around the world and those that yield to it can produce heinous crimes against their fellow man.

And we sit back and ask how can this be, how can so many people who are ‘basically good’ do such terrible things or at least condone it?

All my life I have dealt with certain urges that I know are not pleasing to God, that are sinful – I strive to put them aside and have learned the only way to deal with them is to ask the Holy Spirit for His help – and yes, still, I need that relationship with Him because when I don’t have it I find myself going down those same paths; and even if I don’t act upon them, they distract me and put a barrier up between Him and me.

God said He would never again do what He did in Noah’s time – and now, through Christ, He has opened the passage that brings us closer to Him.

But, the minute we think we are above the fracas, that we have arrived at a higher plane and think that satan can no longer touch us, we are ripe for a fall – and those ‘natural desires’ we have within us are going to be used to hit us full bore.

We don’t have to be monsters to be sinful.  We don’t have to be ‘terrible’ to fall away from God, we just need to allow our true “nature” to come out and dominate our life.

No one is above sinning.

Romans 6:22-23  KJV  “ Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

²³ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Psalm 139:23-24 KJV  “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

²⁴ And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Later, Art (-: