Proverbs 18:1

"Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom."

Through desire a man, - We must be careful of what we desire! I say this because we love what we desire and what we love will, in time, come to us. If you desire evil things, then you will get it. If you desire God, then He shall come. Be careful though because people may appear walking on the right path, but if they are desiring evil in their head evil will come and they will leave the path to pursue more evil.

having separated himself, - Who is the 'he'?, Why is he separating? and from whom is he separating himself from?

   1.) He is the fool

   2.) He is separating himself because he [a fool] desires evil and evil has come to him.

   3.) He is separating himself from the truth [God].

He desires evil and evil has now come to him. He loves it and is leaving the path he is on to pursue more evil.

seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom - (Proverbs 14:10; the heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy) Like it sayes in this verse, "our hearts knows its own bitterness." We all have a foolish nature and that is the 'old man'. Once we have chosen to follow Jesus we choose to put to death the 'old man' [foolish nature] and put on a new man. A fool puts on a fake 'new man', but keeps the heart of the 'old man'. He can only do this for so long before God makes the fools ways known. A fool does not like to hear the truth [wisdom], but those who have wisdom try to speak to the fool. The foolish man also has his prideful nature and so he trys to intermeddle [quarrel/interfere] with wisdom. He quarrels with wisdom and seeks to always win.

The warning God gave to me as I meditated on this verse was: We must be careful of what we desire! What you love [desire] will, in time, come to you!

God Bless

Psalms 81:8-9

Psalms 81:8-9

"Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; There shall no strange god be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange god."

There will always be a bondage that leads to a certain freedom. When the 'new man' is freed; then the 'old man' is put into bondage. If the 'old man' is freed, then the 'new man' is put into bondage! When I read these two verses it sounds like this: "Hear, O my people, if you will listen to me; there will not be a strange god in you."

If we listen to God, He will guide us, provide for us through all our trials and rejoicings. The 'strange god' here is what the old man feeds upon. He feeds on the god of self-pride, ignorance, worldliness, etc. The 'old man' does not like to surrender/submit to anyone. The 'new man' knows that there is more and longs for it. He has a willingness to listen and submit even when he is in a time where he does not understand.  

In this verse we see 'O Israel' meaning the children of Israel whom God gave to them a leader to free them, but they did not allow their 'new man' to stay free. They submitted to the 'old man' and they were punished because the 'old man' choose to worship idols and caused the people to believe that God freed them from Eygpt just to lead them into a wilderness to die.

We need to get to the place where the 'old man' is bound and the 'new man' is free to worship our Lord. Just like one of my favorite uplifting songs I sing:

Set free to worship,

I'm set free to praise,

I'm set free rejoice before the Lord.

I'll laugh, i'll shout, i'll dance, i'll sing,

Hallelujah, Amen

Let praises ring.

Set free to rejoice forevermore!

It is easier to give up, just like the Israelites did and let the 'old man' free, but we must strive for the strength of God to keep the 'old man' bound and the 'new man' freed, so that we may worship our God, Savior, and King (especially in the dark times)!

Amen!

God Bless You All 8*)