Ouch!!

Do you learn from your mistakes? I generally do, but it normally takes me three or four times before I get the point. It’s not that I want to make the same stupid decisions over and over again, its just that the human mind rationalizes that if you do something that has failed in the past a different way, the results will be favorable. We don’t even listen to experience half the time. “Don’t touch that, it’s hot!”; “Get down before you fall!”; “Slow down! You’re going to kill us all!”. Yeh, right. I’ve got full control here, not to worry. I’m not proud to tell you for many years I pointed my finger at others knowing what was right for them, all the while I was probably in worse condition than they. The human is so self serving it is willing to do most anything to “feel good”. A news report just the other night warned of a new twist on mind altering drugs aimed at our children. Methamphetamines, if you’re not very well versed about them, in my opinion, are equivalent to drinking a glass of gasoline while smoking a cigarette. If that doesn’t bother you, dealers are now adding a strawberry flavoring to their concoction hoping to hook an even younger group, which seems to have an endless flow of cash these days. We’re not learning from our mistakes, so neither can our children. Ouch!
A woman was a half a block from her home when she was stopped by the police. After pulling to the curb she wondered why she was being stopped. The patrolman asked to see her license and proof of insurance. Striking up a conversation the woman stated, “I’m so happy to see a greater presence of police patrol in our neighborhood. I’ve been complaining about the speeders flying up and down our streets for months now.” The patrolman replied, “Oh, in that case madam I’m pleased to report to you, we’ve just caught one of them.” Ouch! Are you a perpetrator of your own complaints?
A little shoeshine boy with ragged clothes and worn out shoes was shining the shoes of a wealthy man one day. While he worked he quietly sang, “Jesus loves me, This I know…” The man stopped the boy and asked, “If Jesus loves you so much, why doesn’t He tell some people to buy you some new shoes and better clothes?” The little boy looked up at his customer with tears in his eyes and replied, “Jesus did tell them mister, but I guess they just forgot.” Ouch! I guess we’re just too busy taking care of ourselves.
[Jeremiah 8: 4-17] Can we learn from the past? Should we try to learn from the past? If you have cause to want to go to heaven, you better learn from the past. In His infinite wisdom, God has seen to the preservation of the growth of His people. We know it as the Old Testament. In his letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 10: 1-13), Paul states to the brethren that the recorded lessons of their forefathers are for their benefit, that they too may not fall into the same condition, finding themselves destroyed in the end. I find it comforting that God, like any good parent, gives us good examples of what not to do in this life, in order that He would be pleased with our service. And let’s understand one thing here. Satan is the underlying cause of all that is bad and wrong in this world. Built into obedience to Satan are automatic consequences, not as a direct punishment brought by God, but as the inherent results of sin. You cannot live wrong and die right. You cannot sow to the flesh and reap spiritual things. You cannot think wrong and live right. You cannot do the Devil’s work and draw God’s pay. Ouch!