"Under the Circumstances?"

Something you will no doubt hear said this thanksgiving is "I would be thankful but under the circumstances it's too hard." It’s easy to give thanks for the fun things, the things that make our lives trouble free, the things that we enjoy. That list is a very long list. But as believers there is something far more important going on in our lives than the superficial fun stuff that the world celebrates. The Christian has learned or is learning that the most important thing going on in their life is on the inside not outside. God is working to conform me into the image of his Son Jesus Christ. Wow. When we understand this we begin to look at circumstances differently. We begin to recognize that our God is working all things for good. However, that good is not financial prosperity or good health or a life with no setbacks or problems. The good that God is working in us is Christlikeness, there is no higher good.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28-29 ESV)

When we begin to wrap our minds around this glorious principle we begin to give thanks not just for the good “stuff” but also for the things that cause us pain because we realize that they come from a loving Father’ s hand and are sent not to condemn us but to conform us into Christlikeness. Learning this lesson allows me to say with David, Paul and others...


It is good for me that I was afflicted,that I might learn your statutes. Psalm 119:71 ESV

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:10-11 ESV)

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV)

Boasting in our weakness, being able to say it is good that I was afflicted, understanding God disciplines us for our good means that on thanksgiving I can truly give thanks in everything. My life is not in the hands of random fate, chance, or some disease but rather my life is in the hands of a loving God and nothing touches me unless it passes through Him first. Anything that drives me to my knees, weakens my flesh and helps me understand God’s Word is a good thing. So give thanks with a grateful heart. Why?

“I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6 ESV)

Don't forget to say "Thank you"

Tomorrow is thanksgiving, but as I write that it makes me wonder what today was. Was not today supposed to be filled with thanksgiving as well? The obvious answer the biblical answer is yes. And it was to some degree, just as tomorrow will be to some degree. At least i recall saying thank you a couple times yesterday and even today. I think the great battle in our lives as believers is being honest enough to admit how much there is in this life we just take for granted. Things like family, friends, food to eat, nice homes to live in, children, grandchildren. We enjoy relatively good health, live in a free country, are able to read our bibles, worship, and witness without fear of imprisonment or worse. These are all good things, and there are many more to numerous to mention. James tells us “that every good thing comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is no shadow of turning.” So all these good things are from God. My taking them for granted robs God of the praise and thanksgiving He so rightly deserves. So why do we do it? Why do we take all these good things for granted, why do we fail to give God the Thanksgiving for all these things. The answer is as sad as it is simple. The answer - We think we deserve all the good things we get. We fail to see ourselves as who we truly are and in light of what we truly deserve. We don’t thank our boss for giving us our paycheck. We deserve it. He owes it to us. And If I am to be honest with myself that is the attitude I carry around with me far to often when it comes to the good things God has brought into my life. I really believe I deserve them. They are not gifts of grace they are wages I think I deserve. But how deluded we can be. If you want to test yourself to see if this is true in you - take note of how you react when things don’t go like you think they should , or one of these good things is taken out of your life. If your like me you are tempted to react like we would if our boss said he was not going to pay us this week. We would be angry and upset, WE DESERVE TO BE PAID, YOU OWE IT TO ME. The reality is, we deserve nothing from God but judgement, but instead he gave us His Son to die in our place because he loves us. Then he blesses us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, adopts us into his family, give us His Spirit to indwell us and empower us, and blesses us daily in ways to numerous to mention. And it is all because of HIS amazing grace not my merit. Thanksgiving should make us sit and reflect about all the good things in our life. They are all from God. They begin at the cross and flow outward from that. Without the cross we are lost, hell bound sinners. People who do no good, do not seek God but only the things God gives. People who are self-centered, self serving, self-legislating, self-deceived into believing we are something when in reality we are nothing. Paul said he would boast in nothing save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such a life understands what it means to give thanks. This thanksgiving don't’ just go through the motions of being thankful. May our thanksgiving flow from a heart touched by God’s love, changed by God’s grace and resting in his finished work on the cross, amazed at what God has done and continues to do in our lives. Give thanks …”for the Lord is Good, and HIs steadfast love endures forever.”

"Playing with Fire"

There is nothing like the crackle of a nice warm fire on a cold winters night. There is nothing like the hot glowing embers of charcoal as they turn red indicating they are ready to cook that nice thick T-Bone. Fire is good in the fireplace, red hot charcoal is good in the barbecue. That’s where they belong. I got out my owners manual the other day and was reading it over and I noticed a glaring omission. No where in it does it tell me that I should not take those red hot coals and put them on the ground and walk on them in my bare feet. Shouldn’t there be such a warning? The obvious answer is no. People understand that to walk on hot coals or to take a burning log out of the fireplace and embrace it is to ask for a world of hurt. It would inflict excruciating pain and scars that would last a lifetime. Some truths are indeed self-evident. When it comes to the spiritual realm we find things not quite so cut and dried or self-evident. That is by design, not God’s design but Satan’s. God’s truth is not hard to understand, so Satan has to make us believe either God really doesn’t say what he means or else he didn’t say it in the first place. Remember the Garden of Eden, Satan’s little dig to Eve “Did God really say that?” The attack continues today against the Word of God. The attacks against the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture. The twisting of scripture to make it say what we want it to. Sadly today even in the church few people seem to know what scripture says and of those that do many don’t take it seriously. It gets brushed off with the simple little phrase, “that’s your opinion!” So the Word of God is relegated to the back seat and man takes the wheel and is driving himself to Heartbreak Hotel. Nowhere is this more evident than in the whole matter of morality. Specifically extramarital and premarital sex. Proverbs says can man take fire into his bosom and not be burned, the obvious answer is no. The context is the affair, fornication. Can man violate God’s moral laws and not get burned? NO. We see this in the teen world everywhere. The slogans on and the lifestyles of teens on tv could be summed up like this “say no to drugs and yes to sex”. Satan is destroying our youth not with drugs but with sex. I believe the rampant drug and alcohol abuse we seen in so many teens today and the suicide rates give evidence that the drugs and alcohol are being used to deaden the pain of a guilty conscience. Trying to wipe away the pain of being used and tossed aside like a dirty rag. When man violates God’s laws regarding morality he sins against his own body and something happens inside a person when that happens. Read Proverbs 5-7 and you will see it clearly described. Satan is very clever and he is convincing us the problem is drugs when really drugs is a symptom of the problem. You cannot take fire into your bosom and not be burned. There are a lot of hurting kids out there who have been deceived. But Christ offers forgiveness to those who will come to him. He will wash us and make us clean he will forgive us and set us free. Christ bore our sin , our guilt and our shame on His cross and he says come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. God means what he says in His word. If we ignore it or twist it we are the ones who will pay the price. Satan always takes the wonderful gifts God has given us (sex for example) and tries to get us to believe his ways are better for us than God’s ways. But he is a liar. All those who believe his lies pay a heavy price in this life and unless they repent and turn to Christ they will pay and even greater price when they stand before God one day in judgement. The moral state of the church today not just in youth but across the board is tragic. Divorce, families breaking up, marriages struggling to survive, children confused about morality - why? We have embraced a lie. We have trusted the devil instead of God. We have become wise in or own eyes. I realize books have been written on this and this is a small little paragraph in an ocean of opinions and words. But we need to get back to God’s word and believe it, but even more so we need to obey it. If we know these things happy are we if we do them. Fire is good where it belongs and serves a wonderful purpose but if miss used can bring hurt and pain that can last a lifetime. The same is true of morality. God says sex is for those who are married and in that context it is very good. Misuse it and the hurt can last a lifetime. Examples to support this are to numerous to mention. Take the high road, God’s road, the narrow road when it comes to morality and you will be blessed by God. Yes, the world will mock but they do not know why they stumble, they are the blind leading the blind. So trust and obey and you will know God’s blessing because he always says what he means, and means what he says. This truth needs to once again become self-evident in the church of Jesus Christ.

"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”

"Give me Room lots of Room..."

If you are not sure you are claustrophobic (fearful of small or tight spaces) there is one sure way to find out. Have an MRI. When you walk into that room for the first time, you see this large machine with this tiny little round opening at the front just barely big enough for a human body. As the reality hits you that you are about to become that body, the opening seems even smaller. They make you lay down on the table, they strap you in, secure your head so you can’t move it, push the button and in you go. They tell you to lie perfectly still, like you have a choice. I’m not sure if you are allowed to blink or not while your’e in there but I think I’ll try it next time just to see what happens. As you enter this narrow little cylinder you can feel your shoulders touching both sides, your nose is almost hitting the top and all of a sudden you begin to panic. You don’t feel like the walls are closing in because they can’t possibly get any closer than they already are. You feel trapped, I think they forgot to put air in here, I can’t breath, I’ve got to get out, I don’t think I can do this. Yes, the nurse told me to relax but she’s out there, and I’m in here. You can’t relax in here. This is what it must be like to be in a coffin, but even coffins have a lid that opens up. This is worse than being in a coffin. People in coffins don’t realize how good they have it. As these thoughts swirl around in your obviously panicked and confused state of mind you are glad the MRI is just reading the brain’s tissues and not its thoughts. For the next 30 minutes or so you lie there, eyes closed trying not to think about where you are and wondering why things that are good for you never taste good and always seem so hard.
Most, if not all people do not like tight spaces. We want room, lots of room. Room to maneuver, room to turn around, room to stretch, room to grow, etc. We are not attracted to small or narrow gates and narrow ways. Proverbs tells us “that there is a way that seems right unto a man”. The way that seems right to the natural man is a wide gate and a very wide path. There is all kinds of room to form you own opinions about God and religion, there is room to maneuver, to stick handle around hard things like sin and Jesus Christ and the cross. It is a wide road that has room for everyone, yet leaves plenty of room for each individual to have it his own way, and do his own thing. Unfortunately Proverbs adds but the end is the way of death. Jesus said wide is the gate and wide is the path that leads to destruction.
Narrow is the gate and hard is the path that leads to life. Narrow means, you have to leave your opinions, your self righteousness, your good works behind. All you bring to the Narrow gate, which is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone is your sin. You enter aware of your sinfulness saying God be merciful to me a sinner and God in his grace gloriously saves because Christ bore the penalty for my sin on the cross. But not only is the gate narrow, the way is narrow as well. It is a way of liberty and freedom but that liberty is only truly found in holy living. We not only bring our sin to Jesus, we turn from sin to serve the living and the true God. Sin always enslaves, but the truth sets us free, free to serve the God we were created to worship and love forever. The world hates this message because it is to narrow. They have no problem saying Jesus is one way, but they stumble over the fact that Jesus said he is the only way to God. John 14:6 I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father but by me.

It has been said that you cannot put a square peg in a round hole. But that is really not true. You can put a square peg in a round hole if you make the round hole big enough. I’m afraid that is what we are doing in much of our evangelism today. People (the square pegs) who hate the narrow way can’t go through the narrow gate (the round hole) so we make the gate bigger. We try to make the gospel more appealing, we play down or eliminate repentance, sin, humble, broken hearts, the exclusiveness of the claims of Jesus Christ etc. Yes we get more people but they are deceived people. They are told they are on the road to heaven but the reality is they are still on the road to hell. They are still on the path that seems right to them but the end is death.
The greatest life, the abundant life is in the place you would least expect to find it by our natural reasoning. It is found in Jesus Christ. We find Him at the narrow gate, and he leads us on the narrow path. As we feed upon the Word of God and are filled with the Spirit of God we find that path filled with joy, peace, meaning, safety, forgiveness, freedom and in the end Heaven. Do you have spiritual claustrophobia? What path are you on?
Acts 4:12 "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

"Don't Shoot the Messenger?"

Proverbs 13:17 A wicked messenger falls into trouble,
   but a faithful envoy brings healing.
A wicked messenger. We know there are wicked people, see them on the news every night. Murderers, bank robbers, thieves, adulterers, and many other kinds of wickedness exists in our society. However, we do not often associate wickedness with messengers. How can you mess that up? Obviously when this was written there was no postal service or pony express to deliver letters to people. There was no radio communication between military officers to co-ordinate attacks. There were no newspapers to keep people abreast of what was going on in the world. So if a message was to be sent it would be sent by a person verbally in most cases but on occasion it would be written as well. Give so and so this message for me, they put a stamp on his forehead and off he goes. How hard is that? How can that messenger turn into a wicked messenger?
* They can refuse to go.
* They can look like they are going, but stop once they are out of sight of the one who sent them.
* They can go but not give the message.
* They can give it to the wrong person.
* They can give the wrong message.
* They can change the message slightly. They change it so it makes better sense to them.
* They can tell only part of the message. They leave out the parts they think may offend the hearer.
* They can add their own personal opinions and ideas to the message.
* They can take the information and use it for personal gain or advantage.
Obviously this would be disastrous. You think you are getting a message that is true and unaltered and you act upon that information. But your decision was a bad one because it was based on faulty information given to you by this wicked messenger. When you find out what the messenger said was wrong or altered in any way guess what’s going to happen to the messenger. He will find himself in a heap of trouble. That’s why whenever your hear “don’t shoot the messenger” you can be quite certain it is the messenger doing the talking. Maybe that should be changed “don’t shoot the messenger if he’s gets the message right.”
It is one thing to lie or mislead people about earthly things and that is a serious matter. But what about those of us who have been given a message concerning eternal matters. Heaven and Hell. The gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said Go and tell this message. Are we doing it? Have we altered it in any way? Are we trying to make it more palatable to the hearers by watering it down so as not to offend anyone. If they believe what we tell them, is it a gospel that will save them. Is there a cross, repentance, substitution, holiness, is the message “Christ died for our sins…”? Is Christ at the center of our message? Sadly today there are many who are preaching a message that is popular but not one that saves. How great is that wickedness?

a faithful envoy brings healing. Faithful to the message. Say this and we say it. It may not be popular, but if you will believe the gospel of Jesus Christ you will be saved. The number one character trait of a messenger is to be faithful to the message. He does not have to be clever, funny, or good looking he just has to tell it like it is.
As we think about this obviously the gospel is a very important illustration of this principle in Proverbs. But it applies in all areas of our lives. What kind of messenger am I in everyday life. When people see me coming what are they expecting to hear? What kind of information am I known to give most often? Do the messages of life I give to others bring healing, are they uplifting and encouraging but most importantly are they true? There may be hard things that need to be said but they are given not to hurt but to heal. Faithfulness does not mean our message never hurts but it is given to bring healing. Faithfulness means our message is given in love for the good of the hearer. When people see us coming may they run to us not away from us. They will do this if they know we are faithful messengers. They will do this if they know we love them. They will run away if they know our words cannot be trusted or are just words that wound but never heal, words that are not based on truth but opinion, bringing a message meant to tear others down not build them up. We all know people that when you see them coming you know all you’re going to hear is bad news and probably wrong news about other people. May we purpose in our hearts not to be such a person. May we be found faithful messengers that bring truth and healing to our families and our churches. Where ever we go our may our words be true, loving, kind and faithful to what God would have us say. May we boldly, truthfully and lovingly proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight O God.”

"In The Beginning"

Where do I begin? We have all uttered these words at some point in our lives. Usually a hint of frustration is implied by the question. Where do I start? What do I do next? Where do I go from here? Sounds like someone is lost, confused, and at wits end. Maybe for some it was just a few hours or maybe for others it has been a few years. Years of searching for answers to questions about life, marriage, family, children, religion, the Bible. Years of trying to make sense of the ups and downs of life, the setbacks, and the nagging disappointments. Years of trying to cope with things that seem to throw our lives into tailspins which seem endless. We want to find answers, we want to try to understand, but where do we begin? The best place to begin any journey is at the beginning. As a matter of fact the only place you can begin is at the beginning. You cannot go for a walk and start half way. You cannot build a house from the roof down because there is nothing to build on. Everything begins at the beginning. There is no half way without a beginning. There is no roof without a foundation. The truth is, we all begin our quest to gain wisdom and understanding from some starting point. We are all coming from somewhere. Worldly wisdom, cultural norms, the counsel of the ungodly are the starting point for most people and sadly even some christians. The reason our world is so confused, frustrated and angry is because they are trying to build a house with no foundation. They are building on sand.They are wrong at the beginning and consequently nothing seems to make sense. If we want answers, if we want discernment, if we want wisdom Proverbs tells us how to get there. We must begin at the beginning. So what is the beginning of discernment and wisdom? Good question. Proverbs doesn’t leave us hanging.
Proverbs 1:7 “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom...”
Solomon is telling us if we do not fear the LORD we haven’t begun to be wise. Understanding life, the Bible, Relationships, the world we live in, BEGINS with the fear of the LORD. A reverence, awe, and delight in the LORD. Understanding the LORD is holy, just, righteous, and forgiving. The LORD is the creator of this universe and he rules and reigns over it for his glory and according to his good pleasure. He is the sovereign LORD, the coming LORD, our Blessed Hope. He is the one to whom we must one day stand before and give an account of our lives. The fear of the LORD... This is the beginning of wisdom. We must bring our own understanding, plus the counsel we get, etc. and lay it at his feet. Hold it up against the word of God. Is it what God's word says, is it consistent with who God calls us to be, is it true, just, pure, etc? Phil 4:9. Is the action honoring to God? Will we be pleased to have God watch us do it? Are the motivations in our heart pure and honoring to God? Do we desire his glory above all things? Does it reflect what Christ wants to do in us and through us. When the fear of sinning against a Holy God is greater than our fear of looking foolish in the eyes of he world... This is the beginning of wisdom. “In the Beginning God...” What is your starting point? Proverbs 3:5-6