Spitzer should have read the Gideon Bible in his hotel room!

A very good article by Cal Thomas:

Had New York Governor Eliot Spitzer reached out for the Gideon Bible in his fancy Washington, D.C., hotel room instead of, allegedly, a high-priced prostitute, he might have been forewarned of the dangers in such liaisons.

Such as: “A prostitute is a deep pit; an adulterous woman is treacherous. She hides and waits like a robber, looking for another victim who will be unfaithful to his wife.” (Proverbs 23:27-28) And: “For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell.” (Proverbs 5:3-5)

But who speaks of such things today, a day in which, as C.S. Lewis wrote, “We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”

Today’s “morality” knows none of this. It is best summed up in what Spitzer’s brother, Daniel Spitzer, a neurosurgeon, told The Wall Street Journal: “If men never succumbed to the attractions of women, then the human species would have died out a long time ago.” Even the most ardent secularist would likely not defend prostitution as the best method of perpetuating the human race, when marriage and fidelity seem to have done a pretty fair job of achieving that objective over several millennia.

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Happy Surprises

One of the most influencial books in my life is Knowing God, by J. I. Packer.

This week, he wrote a delightful article about the greatest moments in life being surprises:

It

has been a full quarter-century since the long-haired clergyman with the ukulele drilled the church’s children in singing, “God is a surprise, right before your eyes, God is a surprise.” But the words stayed with me because, now as then, they match my own vivid experience.

The high spots of my life present themselves in retrospect as a series of surprises —happy surprises, from the hand of a very gracious God. Is that unusual? I doubt it. But I also doubt that we dwell on the happy surprises as often and as thoughtfully as we should. There is great wisdom in the elderly children’s chorus, “Count your blessings—name them one by one—and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

Recently, at only a few minutes’ notice, I realized that I was expected to reply to some kind things being said about me by saying something personal and also devotional. Off the cuff I listed some of the happiest of the happy surprises that have come my way, and the story came out more or less as follows.

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