Coming to the Still Waters

Today's verses are Proverbs 8:32-36, which read, v.32-34 - "Now therefore, O sons, listen to me, for blessed are they who keep my ways.  Heed instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.  Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts." Solomon is instructing his sons on wisdom, wisdom that is old, older than even creation.  Solomon is drawing upon something is beyond himself and from God Himself.  This instruction of God is something that we are to take upon ourselves to reap the benefits of its sowing into our lives. In these verses we are told to listen, keep, heed, be, do not neglect, watch daily, and wait.  We listen to others who are speaking God's wisdom to us.  We keep to the instruction given to us by God.  We heed, or take action upon, the counsel of God.  We be, take upon ourselves, the instruction of God that now defines us.  We do not neglect or set it aside.  We watch daily at His gates or we put

Our tribe is growing and this precious one has been given to our son and daughter-in-law to care for.   May she know of their love, our love, and the love of her Creator.   Welcome to this world little Adeline.  We love you.

Today's verses are Proverbs 8:22-31, which read, v.22, 23 - "The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old.  From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth." Solomon is teaching his sons about wisdom and that wisdom has been around for a long time.  Wisdom was established by God in the beginning and used by Him in the process of creation,  "His works of old."   The earth is brought into the conversation about how old wisdom is.  This is not some new information that Solomon is coming up with. v.24-29 - "When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.  Before the mountains were settled, before the hills I was brought forth; while He had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world.  When He established the heavens, I was there, when He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, when He made firm th

Today's verses are Proverbs 8:12-21, which read, v.12-14 - "I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.  The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way, and the perverted mouth, I hate.  Counsel is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, power is mine." Solomon gives wisdom a personal pronoun.  It is as if wisdom is talking to us.  Maybe the idea is to equate wisdom with God just as we do when we say  "God is love."   The definition of love is set by who God is and everything about Him and therefore lets look at wisdom in that same light.  Wisdom doesn't just come from God but is God.  Or maybe Solomon is taking upon the wisdom of God in his position and making it the definition of who he is.   God is prudent.  God acts with purpose and direction.  He has a position about evil, pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverted mouth.  He hates them.  He is going to have an action against th

Today's verses are Proverbs 8:1-11, which read, v.1-3 - Does not wisdom call, and understanding lift up her voice?  On top of the heights beside the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates, at the opening of the city, at the entrance of the doors, she cries out:... Look at the difference between wisdom and foolishness.  Wisdom is out in the day and foolishness lurks in the night.  Wisdom shouts from the public square while foolishness whispers in your ear down a back alley.  Wisdom is in the public spaces and foolishness is in the private spaces.  Wisdom greets people as they come into the city with nothing to hide but foolishness waits for night to come out and ambush people from around dark corners.  Wisdom has nothing to hide while foolishness is seeking a place to hide until it can move about nabbing people who have entered her domain. v.4, 5 - ..."To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.  O naive ones, understand pru

Today's devotional is a between the chapters session. Have you seen this short 56 second video from the Olympics?  Sam Kendrick's pole vault run   If you are not able to view the video let me explain it to you.  Sam Kendricks is a 2nd lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve and also a pole vaulter on the 2016 United States Olympic Team in Rio.  He received a bronze medal. Sam is running down the track with his pole in hand when he hears the national anthem being playing, "The Star Spangled Banner."  He stops in mid run and puts down his pole to stand at attention.  He is looking for an American flag to face and not finding any turns to the direction that the music is coming from.  He stands at attention as any soldier would do until the anthem is completed.  He then picks up his pole and heads back to starting line.  He forfeited his pole vault attempt to honor his country's anthem.  It looks like his actions were pure instinct to all t

Today's verses are Proverbs 7:24-27, which read,   v.24 - Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words of my mouth. Solomon is giving instruction of wisdom to his sons and using many different teaching techniques for them to understand and retrain.  The last one was a detailed story of an onlooker watching what happens to those who are foolish when it comes to the dangers of sexual sins.  The actions and the schemes of the adulteress are told in graphic detail. Solomon uses the word "therefore" which is a word that is created by combining words.  One part of the word indicates truth.  A truth has been experienced or known and you add to that a word that is a connector to another word.  The last word is that of activity, something needed to be done.  "A truth is known that leads to an activity to be followed" could be a longer definition of "therefore."   The truth is about the actions learned of the adulteress

Today's verses are Proverbs 7:6-23, which read,   v.6-9 - For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw among the naive, and discerned among the youths a young man lacking sense, passing through the street near her corner; and he takes the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. Solomon uses this illustration to bring out a couple points.  He is looking out his window down on the street.  There are youth there but there are also some youth who are foolish.  Those foolish youth are going near known danger. They are trying to hide their actions by the time of day it is and the cover of night but they are unsuccessful for someone sees what they are doing.  Sin is observable and sin is discernible.  We think that we are being discreet and that no one will know but that is not true.  God sees our actions.  He sees our agenda.  He sees our attention or lack of attention to the wisd

Today's verses are Proverbs 7:1-5, which read,   v.1, 2 - My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments with you.  Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching as the apple of your eye. Solomon gives his sons some "keeps" here at the start of chapter 7.  To "keep" is to guard, observe, and give heed.  It is an active measure to make sure that God's word not only has a place in your life but is acted upon to protect it, elevate it, and bow in submission to it.   To "treasure" is to hide and store up.  The commandments of God I am stacking up in my life because I keeping His Word that contains them.  They do not diminish my life but actually add to it.  They may look like restrictions but those restrictions have protective qualities to living the life that is honoring of God.  To truly live is to follow our Creator's wisdom, commandments, and instructions. We protect our eyes.  We treasure them for they give us sight

Today's devotional is a between chapters break to look at something or things I have been reading.  This one comes from Thom Rainer called "What Healthy Churches Will Look Like In 10 Years."   It is Sunday so lets look at these 10 points and think about our church.  Here is the link to the podcast if you would like to listen to it yourself:  http://thomrainer.com/2016/08/ healthy-churches-will-look- like-10-years-rainer- leadership-252/   Thom Rainer is the author of the book we read about 18 months ago called "I Am A Church Member."   He consults churches to assess where they are and develop a plan to get moving again with the gospel message.  Here are his 10 characteristics of what a healthy church has been doing over the decade and some of my thoughts thrown in. 1.  They have the same pastor they did 10 years ago. Just a note here that on October 1st, Stephanie and I will have been here 2 years already.  If you were to ask one of these pastors

Today's verses are Proverbs 6:27-35, which read,   v.27-29 - Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?  Or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?  So is the one who goes in to his neighbor's wife; whoever touches her will not go unpunished. Solomon is spending a lot of time and words on addressing sexual sin.  He is going to make a comparison today to another sin and show the difference between the consequences of different types of sin.  It doesn't make one better or worse than the other in the eyes of God, sin is sin, but the outcomes to us have different affects on us.  Sexual sin has huge consequences that the committer of the sin will experience. These verses are probably where we get our common phrase, "You are playing with fire."   Those who practice sexual sin and it is sin because it goes contrary to God's one holy sexual relationship, will get burned.  We see this in these verses because th

Today's verses are Proverbs 6:20-26, which read,   v.20, 21 - My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck. Solomon not only emphasizes the need for observing and not forsaking the commandments and teachings of our parents but also the need for us parents to be commanding and teaching our children.  There is a responsibility to the parents to be the dispenser of God's wisdom and instruction to the next generation of their home.  There is more to being a parent than just giving food, clothing, and shelter. These commandments and teachings are to be on our hearts and around our necks.  They are to be woven into the fabric of our lives and visible to our world as we live them out.  Children can't do this unless they have parents who are committed to the process of giving and living the wisdom they are dispensing and they are truly dispensing it.

Today's verses are Proverbs 6:16-19, which read,   v.16 - There are six things which the LORD hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Solomon has been giving instruction to his sons about those who we can get wrapped up with and pulled into their consequences.  He has been slowing turning this conversation to go from focus on them and their foolish ways to looking at ourselves and the adaptation of some of their ways.  He is going to give his sons a very important list. These seven things the Lord hates and are an abomination to Him.  The Lord hates them because they are in opposition to Him.  They are enemies to what God wants us to be.  They are an abomination to Him because they produce disgusting and wicked results.  What are these seven things?   v.17-19 - Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife

Today's verses are Proverbs 6:12-15, which read,   v.12-14 - A worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a perverse mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers; who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil, who spreads strife. Solomon is giving instruction and wisdom to his sons about some people not to get tied up with.  The first are those who want you to sign your name to their responsibility but they are not too concerned about fulfilling their responsibility and you are left hanging onto their bag.  The second is the sluggard who does not prepare for the future and sleeps rather than attends to the important things of life.  Now Solomon gives us a list of characteristics of another who uses flattery to cover up an ungodly agenda.  They use their language to say things that are perverse, distorted or crooked.  They use their body to give off false impressions.  A wink gives you the imp

Today's verses are Proverbs 6:6-11, which read,   v.6-8 - Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest. I wonder if they got the inspiration for the children's movie Antz from these verses.  In the last section we were to importune our neighbor who is not paying his debts.  We were to rehab him to do what he does not want to do.  He has become a sluggard, a lazy person who lacks self-control.  The analogy of the ant is just the opposite.  The ant prepares ahead of time for the coming season and doesn't have to have someone to importune or push him to do this. We need to observe those who display self-discipline in the everyday activities of life.  It is the Lord's Day so I can't help but think of us and our weekly activity of joining up with God's people.  Do you like the ant plan ahead for this meeting?  Do you prepa

Today's verses are Proverbs 6:1-5, which read,   v.1-3 - My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given a pledge for a stranger, if you have been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth, do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor. Solomon is continuing to give some practical wisdom to his sons and this deals with finances.  It seems that the practice being talked about here is the giving of money to another in a loan type of situation or co-signing for a loan but the loanee is not qualified to pay it back because of their present situation and work ethic or it is someone who you don't know enough about to know if they can pay it back.  You have wrapped up the resources given by God to be used for Him in a situation that could end up being completely lost.  It would have been better to just give to th