PastorBillLiniewicz

5 jr

Psalm 34: 14. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
Make a distance between yourself and temptation. And do good. Be practical, active, energetic, persevering in good. Positive virtue promotes negative virtue; he who does good is sure to avoid evil. Seek peace. Not merely prefer it, but with zeal and care endeavour to promote it. Peace with God, with thine own heart, with thy fellow man, search after this as the merchantman after a precious pearl. Nothing can more effectually promote our own happiness than peace; strife awakens passions which eat into the heart with corroding power. Anger is murder to one's own self, as well as to its objects. And pursue it. Hunt after it, chase it with eager desire. It may soon be lost, indeed, nothing is harder to retain, but do your best, and if enmity should arise let it be no fault of yours. Follow after peace when it shuns you; be resolved not to be of a contentious spirit. The peace which you thus promote will be returned into your own bosom, and be a perennial spring of comfort to you

5 jr

Psalm 34: 13. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
Guard with careful diligence that dangerous bodily member, the tongue, lest it utter evil, for that evil will recoil upon you, and mar the enjoyment of your life. Clean and honest conversation, by keeping the conscience at ease, promotes happiness, but lying and wicked talk stuffs our pillow with thorns, and makes life a constant whirlwind of fear and shame.

5 jr

Psalm 34: 12. What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?
Life spent in happiness is the desire of all, and the person who can give the young a receipt for leading a happy life deserves to be popular among them. Mere existence is not life; the art of living, truly, really, and joyfully living, it is not given to all people to know. To teach how to live and how to die, is the aim of all Biblical instruction. The rewards of virtue are the inticements with which the young are to be drawn to morality. While we teach devotion to God we should also dwell much upon morality towards man according to God's Word.

5 jr

Psalm 34: 11. Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Children are the most hopeful persons to teach -- wise men who wish to make followers of their faith take care to win the ear of the young. So far as they can be taught by word of mouth, or learned by the hearing of the ear, we are to communicate the faith and fear of God, planting seeds upon the rising generation the principles and practices of respect of God. We should be winning and attractive to the youngsters, inviting them "come," and not repelling them with harsh demands. We must get them away, apart from earthly attractions and sports, and try to occupy their minds with better pursuits; for we cannot very well teach them while their minds are being fed worldly garbage. We must keep our and their focus always, and keep the love and respect of the Lord uppermost in our teachings and by example in our life, and in so doing we may discreetly project our own personality into the scale by narrating our own beliefs, experiences and convictions.

5 jr

Psalm 34: 10. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
Lions are fierce, cunning, strong, in all the vigour of youth, and yet they sometimes howl in their ravenous hunger, and in comparison crafty, designing, and oppressing men, with all their good judgement and unscrupulousness, often come to want; yet simple minded believers, who dare not act as the greedy lions of earth, are fed with food convenient for them. To trust God is better policy than the craftiest politicians can teach or practice. But they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. No really good thing shall be denied to those whose first and main end in life is to seek the Lord. Men may call them fools, but the Lord will prove them wise. They shall win where the world's smart asses lose their all, and God shall have the glory of it.