Thursday, September 23, 2021

Join us as we study the Proverbs

 

We have moved into the middle third of our journey through the Proverbs.  We have finished the first twelve chapters and are about to begin chapter 13.  The plan is that you read the designated chapter every day of the week.  It becomes the topic for Sunday morning and Wednesday evenings and for unspecified meetings, opportunities, and postings.

It, more than the baseball season or the cotton crop or the weather, should lead your conversations.

You can join in now and catch up later.  Read the first 12 chapters.  This Sunday begin reading chapter 13 every day of the week.  The links below will help you catch up.  Wisdom is worth it.

 

Proverbs 1

God’s way and everything else

Listen to mom and dad

Proverbs 2

If Statements

Best of Both Worlds

Proverbs 3

Those he loves

Trust is Wisdom

Proverbs 4

Get Wisdom

Body Alignment

Proverbs 5

How I Hated Discipline

In Full View of the Lord

Proverbs 6

To the ant, work is wisdom

7 things in the Everything Else Category

Proverbs 7

Easy Targets

Deer in the headlights

Proverbs 8

More Precious than Rubies

Quite a Package

Wisdom as the Ultimate Plank Holder

Proverbs 9

Leave Your Simple Ways

Stolen Water is Sweet

Proverbs 10

Blessings for now and for eternity

Breaking up is hard to do

Proverbs 11

Wealth is Worthless on the Day of Wrath

The Hope of the Unjust

Proverbs 12

The Prudent Overlook an Insult

Don’t be Stupid!

Proverbs 13

 

Proverbs 14

 

Proverbs 15

 

Proverbs 16

 

Proverbs 17

 

Proverbs 18

 

Proverbs 19

 

Proverbs 20

 

Proverbs 21

 

Proverbs 22

 

Proverbs 23

 

Proverbs 24

 

Proverbs 25

 

Proverbs 26

 

Proverbs 27

 

Proverbs 28

 

Proverbs 29

 

Proverbs 30

 

Proverbs 31

 

 

Thursday, September 9, 2021

F4 Intro and Catch Up for

 Read Proverbs 1-9

Why study the Proverbs?

The first few verses answer that question.

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

for gaining wisdom and instruction;

    for understanding words of insight;

for receiving instruction in prudent behavior,

    doing what is right and just and fair;

for giving prudence to those who are simple,

    knowledge and discretion to the young—

let the wise listen and add to their learning,

    and let the discerning get guidance—

for understanding proverbs and parables,

    the sayings and riddles of the wise.

 

Why?  To gain:

·       Wisdom

·       Instruction

·       Understanding insight

·       Instruction on prudent behavior

·       Instruction on doing what is right and just and fair

·       Prudence—not just instruction but prudence herself

·       Knowledge and discretion

·       More wisdom and learning

·       God’s guidance

·       Understanding wisdom literature

This brings us to what I will call a golden nugget.  It’s Proverbs 1:7.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,

    but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

We must understand that there is a right way to live!  The world will tell you that everyone sorts out what is right and wrong for themselves.  The world in wrong.  Woke America is wrong.

God decides what is right and wrong and he has given us wisdom to understand his ways. We must desire God’s ways.  The Proverbs help us do that.

To understand this proverb, we must understand the parallelism of much of Hebrew literature.  The two phrases describe God’s wisdom in terms of those seeking God and those denying God.  Thus, God’s people fear the Lord, desire knowledge, wisdom, instruction, and in some translations, discipline.

Those who reject God do not fear him and do not seek his knowledge, wisdom, instruction, or discipline.

From the beginning, Solomon tells us there is God’s way and there is everything else. Blessings lie in God’s way and destruction in the everything else.

There is God’s way and there is everything else!

I’m not going to cram 9 weeks of reading and study into a few minutes, so we will jump to the next golden nugget.  It’s Proverbs 3:5-6. Many know this by heart.  Trust in the Lord…

There is a lot packed into this verse.  It uses the parallelism that you will come to know well.

First trust in the Lord with everything that you have and you are.  It’s an all in sort of deal. That’s what we are charged to do.  It stands in opposition to what we are told not to do—lean on our own understanding.  That’s our human nature—to trust our thinking over God’s wisdom.

It’s a wrestling match for most people. God says one thing but I’m thinking something else makes more sense.  How do I choose God’s way?

Acknowledge him every step of the way.  God, I do not understand it but I will obey you. 

When you hit that first big obstacle in doing something God’s way, you don’t think or say, Told you so, God.  We should have done this my way. On the contrary, you say, Hallelujah, Amen, Praise the Lord. 

You are no sunshine soldier.  You acknowledge that you will stay the course even during hardship.

God’s promise is to keep you on the very path that he designed for you.

There is God’s way and there is everything else!

We only go a little farther into this same chapter to gain wisdom on the Lord’s disciple. Hear Proverbs 3:11-12.

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,

    and do not resent his rebuke,

because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

    as a father the son he delights in.

Direction, correction, rebuke, admonishment, sanctions, and other actions taken because you veered from the path set for you by the Lord fall under the umbrella that we call discipline.  Discipline is more than this, but for now, we consider the corrective part of discipline.

It’s not punishment.  Punishment has to do with God’s wrath and if you have truly professed Jesus is Lord, you will not know that wrath.  It’s more than saying some words.  It’s professing as truth that you believe completely that Jesus is Lord of all, but especially in your life.  It’s also believing that Jesus is who he says he is.

We might think of the way, the truth, and the life.

What you need to understand is that God does not punish those who seek him.  He disciplines them.  Sometimes it might be hard to tell the two apart, but they are different and distinct.  How?

God disciples those whom he loves.  God’s love is for everyone, but not everyone will recognize God’s discipline as his love.

Some will—wisely—receive his discipline.  Others will—foolishly--reject it and harden their hearts against him.

Understand that God desires none to perish.  He loves you.  If you will trust in him and seek him, he will use the circumstances of your life to bring you to loving relationship with him.

One day, you will become a parent and will get a taste of this.  Whether your child brings home a perfect report card or spent all day in the principal’s office, you will still love them.

You might give them 20 hugs and a day of being grounded at the same time, but both are rooted in love.

God loves you and he will do what he thinks is best to keep you on track.

Our response to God’s discipline should be Thank You, Amen, Hallelujah, and Praise the Lord!  It’s for our own good and comes out of God’s love.

That’s as far as we will go for now.  You are challenged to read the Proverbs.  Read one chapter every day until you catch up with us and then read the same chapter every day.  It is a worthwhile investment.

Wisdom is worth it!

These links may help you catch up.

 

Proverbs 1

God’s way and everything else

Listen to mom and dad

Proverbs 2

If Statements

Best of Both Worlds

Proverbs 3

Those he loves

Trust is Wisdom

Proverbs 4

Get Wisdom

Body Alignment

Proverbs 5

How I Hated Discipline

In Full View of the Lord

Proverbs 6

To the ant, work is wisdom

7 things in the Everything Else Category

Proverbs 7

Easy Targets

Deer in the headlights

Proverbs 8

More Precious than Rubies

Quite a Package

Wisdom as the Ultimate Plank Holder

Proverbs 9

Leave Your Simple Ways

Stolen Water is Sweet

 

 

Breaking up is hard to do

 Read Proverbs 10

Let’s talk about breaking up.  Well, maybe later we will get to that.

Here’s a new one for you.  There is God’s way and there is everything else.  Ok, maybe you have heard that one once or twice before. 

Consider the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.  Is it great or is it terrible?  The answer is yes.  It all depends on your relationship with God.

Knowing God, seeking God, desiring his wisdom more than gold or silver gives us hope for today and for the future and for eternity. We know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of many good things.

The fear of the Lord adds length to life,

    but the years of the wicked are cut short.

The prospect of the righteous is joy,

    but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.

The way of the Lord is a refuge for the blameless,

    but it is the ruin of those who do evil.

The proverb helps us understand a very familiar verse from Jeremiah.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

We should understand that the way of the Lord is a double-edged sword.  It cuts both ways.  For the blameless—the righteous—the way of the Lord is a refuge.

For those living in the everything else, the way of the Lord brings men to ruin.  Rejecting the Lord, rebelling against the Lord, mocking God puts us on the path marked by destruction.

Yes, the Day of the Lord will be great and it will be terrible.  We want to enjoy the former and only know of the latter.

Understand that we will sin.  It happens and we give thanks for God’s pardon.  He is faithful and just to forgive, but we must never take his mercy and grace for granted.

We sin and know that we are forgiven but we must not deceive ourselves into thinking that God accepts our sin.  He forgives us, but our sin is still our sin. Our sin rebels against God.

Our hearts must long to live in the way of the Lord.  We don’t long for him to accept our sinful ways.  Or do we?

Life, joy, and refuge come in living in the way of the Lord. Shortened life, shriveled up hopes, and ruin are waiting on us if we desire God to embrace our sin.

We can’t have it both ways.  What do I mean?

We will sin, but don’t ever become comfortable with your sin.  Never let guilt keep you from confession, but don’t become comfortable with your sin. 

God wants you to come boldly before his throne of grace, but you must humble yourself knowing full well that you have fallen short.  We all have fallen short.

We don’t ask God to accept our shortcomings—our sin.  We ask him to accept us and forgive us and give us another chance to run our race of faith and bring glory to his name.

Don’t ever think that our sin is acceptable to God.  We are acceptable to him because of what he has done for us, but we must end the relationship with sin. 

God hates divorce, but he expects us to divorce ourselves from that unsavory partner known as sin.

God loves us.  He detests our sin.  Don’t be deceived into believing that God considers your sin acceptable.  Bring it to him in confession and don’t makeup with it later.

Blessings lie in living God’s way not in insisting upon our own way and living in the everything else. We do not petition God to accept our sin and then when we have stopped listening to his Spirit, to embrace our sin.  Our hearts must detest sin to embrace God.

God is love.

God loves you.

God loves you with an everlasting love.

His mercy has forgiven you of your sin.

But sin is still detestable to God and we must end our relationship with it.  It is time to break up with sin once and for all.

Amen.

Blessings for now and for eternity

 Read Proverbs 10

Today we are approaching the one-third mark on our journey through the Proverbs.  Officially we will hit that point sometime next Sunday, but we have been moving along faithfully in the Proverbs with a break for Gideon testimonies and some review of where we have been in the Proverbs.

So, let’s get back to God’s wisdom as it came mostly through Solomon.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction or wisdom and discipline.  If fools despise it, then the odds are in favor of God’s people seeking it.

If you revere God so highly that the fear of anything in the world pales in comparison, you have begun a journey that leads to knowledge that leads to wisdom that embraces the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

 We continued with another favorite.  Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

Trust in the Lord is wisdom and wisdom points us to trust in the Lord.

Seek Lady Wisdom and watch out for the adulterous woman, prostitutes, and the woman known as Folly.  These three each have unsavory plans for you that lead to destruction.

Stay out of the traps set by these women but if you find yourself in an unsavory relationship of any kind, your first priority just became to get out of it.  Better yet, don’t get trapped.

There is God’s way and there is everything else and all the traps are set in the everything else. You may have conflict and you may have trouble in the world as you seek God and follow Jesus, but the traps are set along the paths that don’t follow Jesus.

Solomon not only tells us what we need to know but he counsels us to pay attention.  This isn’t the stop sign in the middle of nowhere.  We come to the busiest of intersections every day.

Pay attention.

Listen well.

Do not forget.

Accept my words.

Store up my commands.

Pay attention.

Most of us realize that our thoughts tend to drift.  We have to refocus time and again.  We have to remind ourselves to stay on task, to pay attention.

We are charged to know the value of wisdom.

Choose my instruction instead of silver,

    knowledge rather than choice gold,

for wisdom is more precious than rubies,

    and nothing you desire can compare with her.

In the last chapter we came across something very similar to where we began.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

    and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

We can begin to understand some of God’s ways—those ways that are higher than our ways.  Somehow, God’s ways start to make sense to us, even in our depraved condition.  We know that we must belong to Christ to be saved, but we still wrestle with our human condition. We begin to see the sanity of God’s course set for us even in the midst of our wrestling match with our nature.

Is everyone back in wisdom mode?  Are we ready for chapter 10? Here are some quickies.

A wise child not only brings blessings upon himself but is the joy of his parents.  Those who have gone down the road of foolishness bring anguish to mom and dad.

Ill-gotten gain never pays real dividends.  The woman folly will try to convince you that stolen water is sweet, but wisdom tells us that sweetness is short-lived.

The Lord does take care of his own and lets the wicked get their just due.  We don’t need to second guess how God will deal with the wicked.  Just rejoice that he takes care of the righteous.

Here’s another quip on industry and laziness.  Laziness brings you to poverty.  Industry creates wealth. Consider the value of work as demonstrated in an earlier proverb by the example of the ant.

Righteousness leads to blessings.  Wickedness leads to violence and destruction.

The wise value instruction and discipline but fools come to ruin.  We might list this as a recurring theme.  God’s people love wisdom, instruction, and disciple.

With integrity comes security.  Deceit is always found out.

God hates disension but embraces love.  There is God’s way and there is everything else.  Love is smack dab in the middle of God’s way.  Dissension runs amuck in the everything else.

You can count on the wealth in this world that has come through righteousness.  God will bless you with material things in your wisdom. It’s ok to have money and stuff and poverty is often a sign of laziness. 

In Woke America, there will be some up in arms about this, but remember that we are all given the same amount of time each day and God will reward us for our work.  Where you start out matters if you are running a race against others, but has little bearing on improving yourself and your condition and making a better life.

It is ok to be blessed with money and things because you pursue God and his kingdom and his righteousness.  When we start to compare what we have with what others have, we have lost sight of God’s kingdom. We are focused on building our own kingdoms.

Don’t you wish that God would have told us not to covet what others have?

When we see our blessings as a chance to bless others, we are beginning to understand the ways of the God whom we seek.

It’s ok to be blessed with money and things for your hard work but remember that knowledge, wisdom, discipline, and instruction from the Lord are much more valuable.  Such things often lead to material blessings, but these blessings are secondary to seeking the Lord and abiding in his ways and his wisdom.

God understands win-win.

God did not set the world in opposition to his will.  It got there by ignoring his will and his wisdom.

Not only does the fear of the Lord lead to knowledge and wisdom and prepares us to embrace the discipline and instruction of the Lord, it offers long life.

Let’s put a theme to some of these.  Seeking and abiding in God’s wisdom manifests blessings in this life.  It’s not all about the life to come.  Wisdom offers blessings in the here and now as well as in the eternal.

Seeking the everything else shuns the blessings of the Lord.  There are consequences for rebelling against God.  There are consequences for mocking God.  The blessings of the wicked are cut short.

There is God’s way and there is everything else.  Live God’s way.  It is the only wise thing to do.

Amen.

Wednesday, September 1, 2021

Proverbs 1-9 Thoughts and Review

 We have just begun our journey through the Proverbs.  We have finished the first nine chapters and are about to begin chapter 10.  The plan is that you read the designated chapter every day of the week.  It becomes the topic for Sunday morning and Wednesday evenings and for unspecified meetings, opportunities, and postings.

It, more than the baseball season or the cotton crop or the weather, should lead your conversations.

You can join in now and catch up later.  Read the first 9 chapters.  This Sunday is a review of them. Then join in chapter 10.  It is a journey with Lady Wisdom and she is good company. You can catch up on what you missed along the way by following the links below.

 

Proverbs 1

God’s way and everything else

Listen to mom and dad

Proverbs 2

If Statements

Best of Both Worlds

Proverbs 3

Those he loves

Trust is Wisdom

Proverbs 4

Get Wisdom

Body Alignment

Proverbs 5

How I Hated Discipline

In Full View of the Lord

Proverbs 6

To the ant, work is wisdom

7 things in the Everything Else Category

Proverbs 7

Easy Targets

Deer in the headlights

Proverbs 8

More Precious than Rubies

Quite a Package

Wisdom as the Ultimate Plank Holder

Proverbs 9

Leave Your Simple Ways

Stolen Water is Sweet

Proverbs 10

 

Proverbs 11

 

Proverbs 12

 

Proverbs 13

 

Proverbs 14

 

Proverbs 15

 

Proverbs 16

 

Proverbs 17

 

Proverbs 18

 

Proverbs 19

 

Proverbs 20

 

Proverbs 21

 

Proverbs 22

 

Proverbs 23

 

Proverbs 24

 

Proverbs 25

 

Proverbs 26

 

Proverbs 27

 

Proverbs 28

 

Proverbs 29

 

Proverbs 30

 

Proverbs 31