Do you ever read a verse and wonder, what does that exactly mean? If we approach the word of God with wonder, seeking to know more, not thinking we know so much, we will find treasures that are not on the surface.

In the game Super Mario Bros, there are pipes you stand on and if you push down, some of them drop you into an unseen world of coins in which you just jump and grab coin after coin after coin. Not everyone knew those coins were in those pipes, but if you had a spirit of adventure, you pushed down and sometimes you dropped down into a place of delight.

This is what reading the Bible is like. If you push into verses just a little bit, they yield coins, gold coins of truth that bring great delight. Seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you. Oh that we would be seekers, for in our seeking we are finding.

This morning I pushed on Proverbs 17:13 which says, “Evil will never leave the house of one who pays back evil for good.” I pushed on this verse by doing some rabbinical research to understand what exactly is this proverb teaching us. Oh friends, the push produced gold coins.

Evil in this verse is betrayal of covenant loyalty. It is moral treachery. It teaches that loyalty is optional, gratitude is weakness and trust is foolish. All of this was fascinating as I would not have thought of these things when I heard the word evil. But what blew me away is this verse is revealing a lack of gratitude for the good one has received.

Gratitude is a spiritual gatekeeper. Once it is violated, evil no longer meets resistance. Our gratitude is our gatekeeper that resists evil. Oh friends, may we never lose gratitude for where we live, who is in our lives, where we go to church, how much God has done for us. Gratitude is our gatekeeper that resists evil. Coins, gold coins! Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org