"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.