THE WANDERER

In the song titled THE WANDERER by Johnny Cash and back up with U2 we see a man reflecting on a journey...the journey of life. Listen to the youtube link and note the lyrics
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A common theme in all our lives expressed here is the will to control our own lives and destiny.
" I went out in search of experience to Taste and to Touch and Feel as much as a man can before he repents "
I like to think of this as a search for truth and understanding of life as we move from a Theoretical to an Experiential Knowledge of Good and Evil or conscience as explained by Scofield.

We first see this in the Bible in Genesis 3:7..".Man sinned By entering the door of moral experience by the wrong door..So Man became as God through a personal experience of the difference between good and evil..(CONSCIENCE )..but unlike God in gaining this experience by choosing the wrong instead of the right. Thus he was placed under moral responsibility whereby he was accountable to do good and abstain from evil. " Scofield Study Bible

Man has since been undergoing trials and testing and ultimatley failing in this responsibilty to abstain from evil. This testing is from God to reveal our "fallen condition" in contrast with his perfection.
The terms Test, Trials and Tempt are often confused and used interchangably but should be understood as to their purpose and origin.
This brings us to James 1:2 "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience "
Contrast with James 1:13 " let no one say when he is tempted , " I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by Evil, nor does He Himself tempt any one. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own evil desires and enticed "
So the Tempter (Satan ) a created being who succumbed to his own pride knows the heart of man is deceitful Jer 17:9 and cannot be trusted and has been using the phrase "follow your heart " to trick man since the original sin in the Garden of Eden that he can "be as God" and figure out life without God.
Satan even uses "Religion" to decieve us into the fatal ease that we and God are both in control.

"If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his own tongue but deceives his own heart (there's that deceitful heart again) this ones religion is useless"
(That is one who is outwardly religious) Think song "Losing My religion" (system)

Pure and undefiled religion is this : to visit orphans and widows in their distress (fruits of faith)and to keep oneself unspotted( or polluted) from the world.
These are some of the talking points for this blog series of self discovery as seen in the "mirror of oneself ' from a sudy of the Bible James 1:22-24 " be doers of the word , and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (there it is again deceit)23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immiediately forgets what kind of man he was.'(more on this "Just Do It" next post)

All of the characters and truth in the Bible are a mirror or snapshot of each of our own lives ..strength and weaknesses in common experience of life.

The challenge beforeeach of us is to enjoin ouselves to the truth and forsake the solicitation to evil.
We cannot be a friend of God and of the World 1 John 2;15 "Do not love the world or the things of the world (more on this Vanity Fair) if any one loves the world , the love of the Father is not in him "...James 4:4 "..friendship with the world is enmity with God "

In his 1667 allegory Pilgrims Progress John Bunyan describes this attitude in the charachter Mr Wordly Wiseman ' Religion is fine , as long as you keep it in its place. going to church is good as long as you maintain balance with the rest of your life and only if you avoid going to extremes ."

Mr Wordly Wiseman views religion as a once-a-week happening-a social statement of morality,
He is the respected influential citizen of the community opposed to any kind of religious activity which might interfere with his pusuit of worldly pleasures or monotary gain.

Rather than viewing sin with the hopeless despair and anguish of the soul produced by a sensitive conscience, he carries no weight of guilt or fear of judgment. Further his treachery is found in the counsel he gives that one can serve both God and Satan ( Money or..?) at the same time.
Modern psychology therapist and the educated elite have offered this humanistic view that only the weak minded read the Bible and we must lay hold of the problem and solve it ourselves.
"How's that working for you ?"
" For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God' 1 corinthians 1:18
" O Timothy guard what was committed to your trust, avoid the profane and idle bablings and contradictions of what is falsly called knowledge-21 by professing it some have strayed from the faith' 1Timothy 6;20-21 *
* Truth cannot contradict the Bible , since God , who knows all things, kept the writers of the Bible from error. If theories that rest upon mere speculation or insufficient evidence are presented as fact in any area of knowledge, e.g. in religion ,philosophy, science, etc., they deserve the description the apostle Paul gives here "what is falsly called knowledge,' which we are to avoid . reference *Scofield
Note the lyrics to The Wanderer " They say they want the Kingdom but they don't want God in it"
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm looking For" U2 song describes the hopeless condition of self reliant Man.
U2 and Johnny Cash , I guess that pretty well sums it up for now.