Happy hump day as Wednesday is the middle work day.
Did you know that all of these things have been banned in our past? Swimwear, Chess, Football, Soccer, Bowling, and yes even Coffee Shops.
Well the coffee shop ban was passed in 1675 by King Charles II.
It was rumored that his primary reason for banning the coffee shops was because he thought people were meeting there to plan a rebellion against him.
He said that publicly drinking coffee caused people to be lazy, and disturbed public peace. This law survived only 2 days, it was abolished almost before it began.
Our meditation today comes from Prov. 21:10 “Evil people desire evil; their neighbors get no mercy from them.”
This verse emphasizes 2 things about those determined to do evil.
1) They are driven to commit evil
The evil person so enjoys his
destructive ways, that he
goes out of his way to harm
others. Even to the point that
he will hurt himself in order
to carry out his evil schemes.
2) Even their neighbors are not
free from their evil practices
There is a common
knowledge among thieves
“Never rob your neighbor.”
Even todays robber goes
outside of his neighbors to
rob, or commit violence.
In doing this it assures
protection from them (out
of fear) if no other reason.
However, the totally evil person is so driven by his desire to commit evil that he disregards this time worn truth.
In my time of working for Construction Industry Crime Prevention, doing investigation of theft on construction sites. I found that to the extent that this rule was followed by the thief he was protected. It was difficult to trace theft when they followed this rule.
However, I found that when the reward became too great, the thief would jump over this rule & he became many times easier to track down. In my experience, he was found out & caught fairly quickly.
Solomon here warns that to commit evil on your neighbor will result in loss.
He also in many other verses encourages us to care for, protect, look out for, assist our neighbor.
In Lev. 19:18 (the Jewish holiness code) this command was given “love your neighbor as yourself”
When Jesus was asked by a religious teacher how he would define a neighbor.
He told him the story of the Jewish traveler who was robbed, beaten and left unconscious. Two people passed by the man and ignored him; the priest and the Levite (temple assistant).
Finally a Samaritan (gentile dog) came, picked him up, took him to a local inn & cared for him. The next day made arrangements to have him cared for until healed & he promised to pay for his care when returning.
This story teaches us just how to treat all people in our lives. Imagine how different our world would be should we all follow this neighborly principle?
So Go With God He teaches us how He looks upon us & cares for us in our daily journey. He looks upon us with compassion, He gives us caring attention, He then lifts us up, carry’s us to a place of protection & care, then He sees to it that we are cared for & provided for. So we see just how honored is the term “neighbor” is given by our Wonderful Father. Imagine just how much greater is His care for us is because we are called His “one and only child”.