The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Through pride the wicked refuse to seek after God, with the result that He is left outside the whole range of their thoughts. To have no place in the thoughts means to have no abiding place in the heart, for those who live for themselves instead of for God have shut Him out. Such persons are reckoned as unbelievers even when they are not openly immoral or irreligious.
The description reaches those who call themselves Christians yet have no experience in practical religion, remaining with the same faults, tastes, and self-indulgences as before. It includes canvassers of this kind, whose work has no real merit because God is absent from thought and heart. Their condition is shown in a life governed by self-indulgence and earthly aims, seeking their own pleasures rather than choosing what is good.
When God is forgotten in thought, words and conduct give unmistakable evidence of it. Littleness, earthliness, and debasement in character and deportment testify that they walk in the way of their own hearts and in the sight of their own eyes. Their speech is not the language of heaven but is uncongenial, without inward praise or melody to God.
There is no practice of self-denial but a determination to enjoy life, with no attraction to heavenly treasure and with tastes that run downward rather than upward. There is no mind to despise evil and choose good. Refusal to obey God's commandments shows they would not serve Him in the life to come, that they are unfit for heaven, and that they would find any place preferable to living in God's presence.
The same godless mindset is seen in absorption in pleasure and social gatherings where Christ is neither welcomed nor desired. This includes pleasure parties and exciting sports such as bicycle races, pursued in a wild chase for display, exhibition, and excitement. Those who profess faith should not feel at home in such scenes, since life apart from God's Word, truth, and favor cannot satisfy the soul, and companions who are not influenced for good may influence them for evil.
In that pursuit time and physical strength are not honored as gifts from God to be preserved for His service. Danger and death are forgotten while accident and death are risked. There is no prayer for and seeking of the presence of Jesus and the protection of ministering angels, and God is not glorified. For those souls Satan is playing the game of life.
The once earnest Christian who enters these sports goes downward on the downgrade, out of the vital atmosphere of heaven into mist and fog. Even a humble believer drawn in cannot in heart take part while connection with Christ is maintained. Such gatherings by professed followers are a profanation of religion and the name of God.
Through pride the wicked refuse to seek after God, with the result that He is left outside the whole range of their thoughts. To have no place in the thoughts means to have no abiding place in the heart, for those who live for themselves instead of for God have shut Him out. Such persons are reckoned as unbelievers even when they are not openly immoral or irreligious.
The description reaches those who call themselves Christians yet have no experience in practical religion, remaining with the same faults, tastes, and self-indulgences as before. It includes canvassers of this kind, whose work has no real merit because God is absent from thought and heart. Their condition is shown in a life governed by self-indulgence and earthly aims, seeking their own pleasures rather than choosing what is good.
When God is forgotten in thought, words and conduct give unmistakable evidence of it. Littleness, earthliness, and debasement in character and deportment testify that they walk in the way of their own hearts and in the sight of their own eyes. Their speech is not the language of heaven but is uncongenial, without inward praise or melody to God.
There is no practice of self-denial but a determination to enjoy life, with no attraction to heavenly treasure and with tastes that run downward rather than upward. There is no mind to despise evil and choose good. Refusal to obey God's commandments shows they would not serve Him in the life to come, that they are unfit for heaven, and that they would find any place preferable to living in God's presence.
The same godless mindset is seen in absorption in pleasure and social gatherings where Christ is neither welcomed nor desired. This includes pleasure parties and exciting sports such as bicycle races, pursued in a wild chase for display, exhibition, and excitement. Those who profess faith should not feel at home in such scenes, since life apart from God's Word, truth, and favor cannot satisfy the soul, and companions who are not influenced for good may influence them for evil.
In that pursuit time and physical strength are not honored as gifts from God to be preserved for His service. Danger and death are forgotten while accident and death are risked. There is no prayer for and seeking of the presence of Jesus and the protection of ministering angels, and God is not glorified. For those souls Satan is playing the game of life.
The once earnest Christian who enters these sports goes downward on the downgrade, out of the vital atmosphere of heaven into mist and fog. Even a humble believer drawn in cannot in heart take part while connection with Christ is maintained. Such gatherings by professed followers are a profanation of religion and the name of God.