Birds Of A Feather

From My Perspective - - - -

Most have heard the phrase: “Birds of a feather flock together.” As we have been faithfully nurtured by parents and grandparents, they warned us about the company one chooses to keep. It’s based on the idea of birds of a feather flocking together. Another phrase that flows from these expressions is that one can fall under the banner of “guilt by association”! All of these are cautionary phrases so ones value system directs one to make the right choices for life and to associate with the right people and in the right places.

There was a Sunday School Teacher who very faithfully had his class of teenaged boys memorize certain portions of God’s Word. One passage that was reviewed frequently was Psalm 1. His Class was made to memorize it from the King James Version and he emphasized:

WALK NOT in the counsels of the ungodly…

STAND NOT in the pathway of sinners…

SIT NOT in the seat of the scorners…

The more recent rendering of this Psalm in The Message reads this way:

How well God must like you - you don't hang out at Sin Saloon, you don't slink along Dead-End Road, you don't go to Smart-Mouth College. Instead you thrill to God's Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You're a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom. You're not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust - Without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people. God charts the road you take. The road they take is Skid Row.

There is considerable variant behavior within society today. As one reads the following Scripture verses, it gives one the sense that Paul is writing his letter today rather than in the first century. Note what he states about the variant behaviors that are so prominent in our culture and society - I Timothy 1:8-11 mentions a list of improper behaviors and negative influences one must avoid: “…the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.” A reason why one should give heed to these things is shared in Revelation 21:8 - But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

In Rudyard Kipling's famous Poem – “IF” – some focus points shared are:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
…you'll be a Man, my son!

Consider these things with me and choose carefully the Birds You Flock Together With - and - purpose to have a life that is lived to its full positive potential as we purpose to walk humbly with our God - - - -