by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
“Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken<\/em>” (Psalms 34:12-20).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I wonder how your life is going. I know that drugs stole and trampled much of the joy you once had in life, so I wonder if you still enjoy living in this wondrous world our Lord has made. So much that we get out of life reflects what we put into it. You can’t find good while doing evil, yet I’ve seen you trying to do that with your life. You can’t claim worldly people as friends and expect to be spiritual.<\/p>\n
It was disappointments and stress in your life that made you vulnerable to the temptation of drugs. Marijuana seems like such an easy way to get rid of stress. It doesn’t in reality. All it does is mask the stresses, push them off for a later time, to then overwhelm your senses when you try to stop using marijuana. What is sad is that you’ve forgotten that the Lord can soothe all the concerns from your life — and without any after-effects! But if you turn from God, not only is His aid not there, you cause Him to stand against you.<\/p>\n
I want you to have a long and joyful life on earth, with the hope of heaven ever before you. So discard the lies, end the profanity, stop the evil, and humble yourself before the Almighty. Desire life! I think about you and pray for you daily.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearching for My Friend\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Desiring Life by Jeffrey W. Hamilton “Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25976,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65845","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44201,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/wisdom-guards\/","url_meta":{"origin":65845,"position":0},"title":"Wisdom Guards","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Wisdom Guards Text: Proverbs 2:1-22 Wisdom has to be sought (Proverbs 2:1-5) You don't learn wisdom merely by being around wise people. You have to accept the teachings and treasure them. You have to apply what you learn to your life (James 1:21-25). How badly must you want wisdom? You\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65562,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/dealing-with-the-wicked\/","url_meta":{"origin":65845,"position":1},"title":"Dealing with the Wicked","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Dealing with the Wicked Text: Proverbs 28:1-13 Proverbs 28:1-13 forms a chiasm: The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By the transgression of a land many are its princes, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But by a man of understanding and knowledge, so it endures. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49815,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/impact-of-moral-choices\/","url_meta":{"origin":65845,"position":2},"title":"Impact of Moral Choices","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Impact of Moral Choices Text: Proverbs 11:1-31 Honesty and Humility (Proverbs 11:1-2) A merchant can be dishonest in two ways. He can use a scale that reads balanced when the two sides are not truly level; or he can use weights that are not accurate. High precision was not available\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70759,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-watchtower-built-on-sand\/shaky-pillar-4-false-hope-of-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":65845,"position":3},"title":"Shaky Pillar #4: False Hope of Hell","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Shaky Pillar #4 False Hope of Hell \"Hell could not be a place of torment because such an idea never came into the mind or heart of God. Additionally, to torment a person eternally because he did wrong on earth for a few years is contrary to justice\" (You Can\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51998,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/stability-of-moral-choices\/","url_meta":{"origin":65845,"position":4},"title":"Stability of Moral Choices","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Stability of Moral Choices Text: Proverbs 12:1-28 Stability (Proverbs 12:1-7) It takes discipline, both positive and especially negative, to gain knowledge. Therefore, a love of knowledge requires a love of being corrected. But people who hate being told they are wrong are ignorant or brutish. 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Any sin that they may have committed is dismissed because \u201cGod\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65845\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}