"No Oxen, No Problem"

Proverbs 14:4 “where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.”
This has been a verse that has intrigued me for a long time. It is hard to grasp the meaning at first especially in our industrialized culture where machines do all the work for us. The statement basically says no oxen, no mess. No oxen, no problems. However in that culture it meant far more. No oxen, no food. No oxen, no income. Oxen were used to till the land and prepare crops to eat as well as to sell. Yes, you have a very clean barn but you look like you haven’t eaten in a while. I think this verse is forcing us to ask ourselves a question. What is more important - a clean barn or abundant crops? We have to make a choice because we can’t have both. Maybe another way of saying it might be...

Would you rather have a

Problem free life or a productive life
Easy life or effective life
Safe life or a surrendered life
Fun life or a fulfilled life
Self serving life or serving others life
Loving self life or loving others life

Yes we can live our lives with clean mangers and no oxen. It is a nice, safe, easy, self-serving kind of life with few problems, but it is also a barren life. Something is missing. That something is loving others. Loving others means getting involved, serving others, using the gifts God has given us to touch the lives of other people. Yes, getting involved with people can get messy. It would be far easier just to back off and admire the clean mangers, (avoid all the problems) but that is not the life God calls his people to live. To serve, to roll up our sleeves and get involved in witnessing, helping, using our gifts is going to cost us something. It is going to mean we have to clean out the stalls when we’re done. It means we are going to get hurt sometimes and be frustrated, but it also means we are going to have the joy of seeing abundant crops as God works through us to touch others. When our lives become more and more self-centered, the goal becomes simply to avoid problems and therefore avoid people. “Don’t get involved”, “let someone else do it” is the motto most in our society adhere to but sadly it is even being embraced in churches across North America. Many people take their talent or gift and bury it and then bring it to the Savior to show him how clean it is and wonder why he is not impressed. They were not willing to work, to take risks, to care, they just wanted life to be easy, fun and above all to be safe. How about you? Have you let the oxen go and made your life’s work to just keep the manger clean. I”m not getting involved anymore. When it is all said and done a clean manger means an empty life. So buy some oxen, role up your sleeves and say “Lord, what do you want to do with me?” Abundant crops come by way of the ox. When we learn this we will stop complaining about the mess they make, and start being thankful for opportunities God gives us to show His love to others. So what is more important to you - a clean barn or abundant crops? A problem free life or a productive life? We have to make a choice because we can’t have both.
“And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done WITH them,…” Acts 14:27
God what do You want to do WITH me?

Giving Thanks

The Bible tells us that “in everything we are to give thanks”. This means In every place, in every situation, in every circumstance you find a Christian you should find someone who is thankful. Notice, he does not say for everything but in everything give thanks. The reality is that on a superficial level there is a whole lot more to gripe about than to give thanks about. However, based on the conversations one hears every day, I think it is safe to say that the superficial level is very well represented in every arena of life. In the workplace, in homes, and sadly even in churches, the gripers and complainers will always outnumber those who are thankful. The truth is, being thankful or unthankful reflects what is going on in a persons’ heart not in their circumstances. Being thankful is choosing to think a certain way. It is choosing to examine, to consider, to look for things the non-thinking person will never see or consider. Romans 5:21" For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." Being thankful means choosing to respond biblically to the circumstances of life not just react to them. So as we celebrate thanksgiving may I leave us with a few thoughts to chew on along with the turkey this year. Psalm 118:1 "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” Here we have a statement about God’s character. This is describing not what God does - but who God is. Not his actions but his being. Here we have a statement about God’s unchanging character. God is good and his love endures forever - that never changes. Our Faith will be tested at this point possibly more than any other. Here we have a statement about our refuge in God’s unchanging character. Our refuge is not found in understanding why God brings the things into our lives that he does. Our refuge goes deeper than trying to understand his actions. HE is our refuge - His character.. Therefore in everything we can give thanks and in doing so we will shine as light in the midst of a dark, dark world. And in so doing give testimony to the world that we serve a God who can be trusted because HE is good and His steadfast love endures forever.

"I think I Fainted"

"If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter." (Proverbs 24:10-11 ESV
If I faint in the day of trouble or the day of testing, my strength is small. It is a little harder to read it that way isn’t it. If you faint in the day of adversity you are weak, but if i faint in the day of adversity it is because I didn’t see it coming, it was a really hard day at work, the dog ate my Bible, and so on. It is very hard to admit we are sometimes very weak. In the day of testing I blew it big time and the reason was I WAS WEAK. It is easy to convince ourselves we are strong when we need no strength, when there are no tests. We play around in our spiritual disciplines. We go to church staring at the ceiling the whole time, but we were there. We read our bibles but five minutes after we are done can’t remember what we read. We believe we are strong because we are around strong people. We think we are strong because we go to a good church, we believe the right things. It is true those things can help us be spiritually strong but they do not guarantee spiritual strength. Spiritual strength comes from the heart being built up by the Word of God, Strengthened by the Spirit of God and encouraged by the People of God. Spiritual strength comes from spiritual disciples being carried out with passion, purpose and pursuit of the Knowledge of God. He is my strength, He is my rock, He is my fortress, He is my redeemer, He is my Joy and delight. The joy of the LORD is my strength. Adversity is what drives me to my strength. If our strength is small it means we are trusting in ourselves and not God. We are trying to get through this in our own strength and wisdom, and that’s not going to work.
But Solomon adds in vs 11 another point. It is one thing to faint in the day of adversity if you are in church and around other people who can help you and admonish you and pick you up and get you back on your feet again. But it is quite another thing to faint in the day of adversity and be all by yourself. That is dangerous. Yet many, many believers have cut themselves off from fellowship. They only attend church sporadically if at all, and when their adversity comes and they faint there is no one there to pick them up. All they have is Oprah and Dr Phil and that’s not going to get them back on their feet spiritually. So Solomon’s advise to us is to look around. ARe there peopel who have been missing from church for a while, are there people who seem to be really struggling in the day of adversity. We need to go to them, rescue them, hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. Yes we could say they should be here, but they aren’t so go to them. God came down to us and rescued us when we could not rescue ourselves. We need to do likewise.
We need to be strong in the power of His might. We need to be growing in the Lord and waiting on the Lord to renew our strength. That strength does not make us aloof and proud. His strength will make us compassionate and sympathetic to those who are struggling in the day of adversity and his strength will enable us to go to them and lead them back to the one who loved them and gave his life for them.
Lord help me to be strong in the day of adversity. Help me to love you, love your word, and love your people. May I not just go through the motions of devotions. May my devotion be driven by a passion to know you and a desire to please you in all I do.

Say What?

Proverbs 18:8
 "The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body."
A gossip is a rumormonger. To gossip means to complain, grumble, i.e., to express discontent in low tones, be grumbling or murmuring. I'm sure you've read about people who do such things.
Gossip - is there anything God’s people try to dress up and make look spiritual more than whispering or gossip. We have all heard the prayer concern, or request that was really just veiled whispering. But in whatever form it appears there is no shortage of people who will listen to it. Enquiring minds really do want to know. Why? Proverbs lays it open for us - because these tidbits of juicy information are delicious. Proverbs says that what is in our hearts will become evidenced by what we say, and it is also true that what is in our hearts will be evidenced by what our ears are tuned to. We live in a society where people want to make everyone's business their business. However, we do so at a very high price. We live in a world where the ears of the public are tuned to gossip. Look at the shows on TV, the magazines that are the top sellers, they are all about gossip. They are all about the juicy, delicious morsels of “dirt” people have on other people. We just can’t seem to get enough of it, so much so that the magazines are put out every week and the TV shows are on every night.
Not sure if you have ever noticed but gossip is hardly ever about good things. We don’t want to know the good things that happen to people or the good things that people do, we want to know about the skeletons in the closet, we want to know the problems, mistakes, and the secrets that people are trying to hide.
I was reading the paper today and skimming through the boring articles and pictures and turned the page and there was an article about a famous TV evangelist caught in a compromising situation, so guess what, I stopped skimming and started reading, I needed (wanted) to know this. This looked absolutely delicious and it was.
I think we would all agree that we should not gossip with our lips, but I wonder how much time we give to thinking about the damage gossip does to us when we listen to it. Proverbs says gossip goes down into the inner parts of the body. Gossip does not just bounce around on the surface it worms its way into our hearts, minds.
I have been given information about someone’s sin or problem and there business has now become my business. I have to deal with this information but what do it do with it. It’s none of my business. God does not give us grace and strength to deal with things that are none of our business. So I fuss and fume, I form opinions, I am disgusted or saddened by what I have just heard. But what do I do with it? Where do I go with it? I have not been informed by this information I have been infected by it. Infected with a virus I do not know how to get rid of. I do not know what to do with it is because it's none of my business. The reality is i shouldn't even know about it. All I can do is think about it and form opinions about it. Suddenly this once delicious meal has taken on a very bad after taste.
Gossip is sweet to the taste but rottenness to the heart and mind. I wonder home many homes, families, churches have people in them who have been infected by gossip. Who treat people with contempt because of gossip they have heard about them. Gossip poisons relationships. Gossip causes us to judge things we should (and actually still) know nothing about. Gossip makes it very hard for the person who has sinned or faltered in some way to find forgiveness and fellowship. So next time you are tempted to gossip or listen to it do that person and yourself a huge favor. . Act in love toward the person they want to “inform” you about. And act in a way that shows you are guarding you heart, turn and walk away. I am not interested in being infected with your poison, no matter how delicious it may appear to be. I have enough trouble dealing with things that are my business without being weighed down by things that do not concern me.
REMEMBER - Love covers a multitude of sins done against us - gossip broadcasts a multitude of sins done against us and everyone else.
REMEMBER - GOSSIP DOES NOT INFORM US IT INFECTS US.

"I don't like to brag, But . . . "

Tooting your own horn, bragging, call it what you will, no one likes to be around someone who is doing it. We've all heard them, they are the ones at parties that spend 30 minutes talking about themselves and all they have done and then in a moment of embarrassment stop and say I can't believe i've been talking about myself all this time, I need to stop and let you talk about me for a while. Proverbs 27:2 can’t be more direct. “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” Not much hard to understand about that verse. We all give ourselves far to much credit sometimes for what we think we have accomplished. Proverbs simply says if you want to hear praise regarding yourself listen for it on the lips of others. It means what ever you have done has impacted their life in some way. They have seen in you something worthy of praise. The things we accomplish and work at do not always bring immediate results or recognition because the impact may not be seen right away. I guess the bottom line is that when it gets right down to it we should not be doing things for the praise of men. The reason we sing our own praises is so that we can get others to jump in and join us on the chorus. But we are called to humility, we are called to serve with our eyes on God and not the praises of men. It is so easy to love the praise of men that it can enslave us if we are not careful. We can become addicted to it. It becomes like a drug. We preach a sermon and stand at the door and everyone compliments us on the nice music, like the new tie, but say nothing about the sermon. Maybe they were in the nursery, no I saw them, they were in the front pew the whole service. Priming the pump sounds like this - “did you enjoy the sermon”, “did you get the card I sent, the mail can be so slow” not very subtle but trust me it works. They will probably say yes to be polite but it is a hollow victory. We need to be careful we do not get to the point where we “NEED” the praise of men and when we don’t get it we go fishing for it or get discouraged and want to quit. Proverbs is not saying the praise of men is wrong, it is saying don’t go priming the pump to get the praise of men by leading the cheer. The praise of men is nice and appreciated when it is given, but only when it is not sought after. There is really only one person you need to be working to hear say “well done” and that is our Savior Jesus Christ. Have your eyes on him, what ever we do we need to do for the glory of God not the praise of men. Bragging, seeking the praise of men is not the mark of a wise person, it is not found on the path of wisdom. If we are going to boast we need to boast in the cross alone. To God be the glory for what he has done in and and through us. Charles Spurgeon put if very well “Grace puts its hand on the boasting mouth, and shuts it once for all.”
 

"Got Questions?"

Proverbs 15:28 The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.
We have all heard it said there is no such thing as a stupid question. I believe that is true. A question simply implies a lack of information or a lack of understanding that needs to be clarified. So asking a question is simply a way of soliciting needed answers to a problem or issue. Having said that let me add this. While there are no stupid questions, there are a seemingly endless supply of stupid answers. These stupid answers tend to happen for the following reasons.
Lack of knowledge of the subject being addressed.
Failing to understand the question.
A lack of courage to give the right answer.
The fear of saying “I don’t know”. Because of this fear, you attempt to answer a question about a subject you know nothing about. Always a bad idea.
All these can contribute to the problem of stupid answers. But I think it would be safe to say that at the top of the list of reasons for stupid answers is simply this. People fail to take the time to think about the question that was asked. “the heart of the righteous ponders how to answer”. The word “ponders” means to weigh or study. It means that between the question and the answer there is a pause, there is time for consideration, time to think, time to mull over the question and the answer. It may be a short pause if the person knows the answer, or it may be a longer period of time if the answer is not readily apparent or more information or study is needed. The righteous person is not simply looking to give “an answer”. They want to give the right answer, an answer that will help, educate, and encourage. They desire to give an answer that is based on truth but also provide an answer that the hearer can understand. How you answer a child’s question will often take more thought than how you may answer the same question asked by an adult. I think far to often we throw out “pat answers” to difficult questions and simply frustrate people. There are some tough questions that are not easily answered. Marriage issues, parenting issues, suffering, evil, etc. These are things that sometimes cause us to ask difficult questions,. Yes, there are always the cliches we can toss out as answers. However these are often just a smoke screen hiding the fact we do not know the real answer. Sometimes these "pat answers" simply reveal we do not care enough about you to really give your question any kind of deep thought or consideration. Parents some times just “brush off” the questions of their children because they are to busy to answer them or don’t know the answers themselves. This just frustrates children , they know what we’re really doing. We have all asked questions and when the answer was given we were left either totally confused, or wondering if they even heard the question. When this happens in the home, it is not to long before the children start taking their questions to the street. Please remember this - There is no shortage of people in this world who would love to answer all our children’s questions about life, God, morality etc. Is that what we want?
The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer. It is not wrong or a sign of weakness or ignorance to say “I don’t know”. It is not wrong to say, “that is a great question, can I get back to you on that? Do you mind if I take some time to think before I answer that question." Who in their right mind is going to say “no, I want you to answer my question without thinking about it”? There is nothing wrong with silence. Silence can in fact be golden. Pondering a question put to us is a way of demonstrating love to the one who asked the question. You are valuable to me and therefore I am not going to take your question lightly. I want to really help you find an answer. So we pray, ponder, and prepare in our hearts how to answer. We do not want to be like the wicked who just pour out evil things, blah, blah, blah. Got questions? they've got answers. There is no shortage of talk in this world, but there is a glaring shortage of truth. The wicked speak now and think later. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” “Where there are many words sin is not lacking.” The wicked love to talk, love to answer questions about things they know nothing about. To them an opinion (their opinion) is as good as the truth. Remember, just because someone is talking does not necessarily mean they know something.
Questions can be intimidating, but usually that intimidation comes for thinking we need answers immediately. It can be very humbling to say “I don’t know” , but humility is a good thing. So don’t be afraid of questions. “the heart of the righteous ponders how to answer.” It may be a friend, or one of your children asking you a question, love them enough to ponder the answer before you give it. Speak from a heart of love. A heart that loves that person enough to give them a thoughtful, truthful and timely answer.
May these words of Solomon guide us as we ponder in our hearts how to answer ...
Ecc 12:9-10 “Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.”

"A Fountain of Life"

Probably one of the most famous fountains in the world is one that doesn’t actually exist. It is called the fountain of youth. A mystical, magical fountain filled with water that will restore the youth of anyone who drinks it. Proverbs talks about another kind of a fountain, not the fountain of youth but the fountain of life.
Proverbs 13:14 “the teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.”
The water flowing out of this fountain is the “teaching of the wise”. The content of this teaching turns the hearers away from the snares of death. Hence the name, Fountain of life.” There area great many teachers today whose words are not a fountain of life. They say we can’t be to negative, we have to be positive, we have to entertain. Consequently you could call their teaching the “fountain of laughter.” People leave their meetings with a chuckle in their head, but clueless in their heart as to the dangers in this world. Dangers that can ensnare and destroy them. They are entertained but empty. They are silly, senseless, sinners headed for destruction and have heard nothing that would cause them to consider their ways. The great need in our society is not the need to learn how to laugh. People need to learn how to live. The teaching of the wise will help people do that. Unfortunately not everyone wants to drink from that fountain. Fools despise teaching and instruction, fools want you to make them laugh and then leave them alone.
Life is filled with snares, things can can make a 25 year old look like they are 95. Sin has destroyed their bodies, their relationships, their minds. Sin is a hard taskmaster. People need to be warned about sin, but simply warning people about sin is not the fountain of life. The fountain of life is the wisdom, salvation and the transforming power of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He who drinks from this fountain will never thirst again. John 4. The teaching of the wise introduces people to Jesus who said “come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Math 11:29-10 That is the fountain people need to drink from. It will not recover your youth, it will do something better, it will restore your relationship with God. At this fountain you will find forgiveness and new life. It will give you a new heart, a new mind, and one day a new body. It will put a new song in your mouth even praise to your God. You will have a new master, one who loves you and gave his life for you on the cross, his name is Jesus.
This verse presents us with two questions we need to ask ourselves.
Do I drink from this fountain, the fountain of wisdom, the fountain of those who are seeking to help me live a godly life? Word of God, other believers, etc.
In my teaching and conversations with others is what they hear a fountain of life, in that it turns people away from the snares of death?
May I be a wise teacher not only by the words I say but even more importantly by way I live. If I am warning people about the snares of death with my lips but leading them to those snares with my life, there will be no life in my teaching only death. We teach with our lips as well as our lives. May we prayerfully and powerfully be this kind of teacher, One whose teaching “is a fountain of life to turn away from the snares of death and leading people to Jesus, the way the truth and the life”