Coming to the Still Waters

Today's verses are Proverbs 11:9-11, which read, v.9 - With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered. We are back to the mouth and the tongue of the fool, the wicked, and in this verse the godless man.  This is another way to describe who the fool is following afterwards and it is not God.  His mouth is evidence of this and his actions play it out by not loving his neighbor but rather destroying him.   "I'm not hurting anyone else"  is the cry of those who want to participate in sin but think it doesn't have an effect others but the Scripture says it does.   The opposite is also true.  When the righteous lives after God and His knowledge and wisdom, it will also have an effect on others.  Not only will it deliver the righteous from destruction but it will also have an impact on whole cities as we will learn in the next couple of verses.  The wise will be delivered from the ...

Today's verses are Proverbs 11:5-8, which read, v.5 - The righteousness of the blameless will smooth his way, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness. The smoothness of the path that the righteous are on is not that there are no difficulties along the way, bumps in the road, or hard climbs.  The smoothness comes into place among the difficulty of the trail because of your decision on what to do and say is given to you ahead of time from God, the One you hold in awe and respect.  You have determined to follow God no matter what and therefore whatever He instructs smooths the trail for what you are going to do.  It may be difficult to follow but the smoothness is in your devotion to follow after Him. The wicked are on a very smooth wide path with no obstacles to climb over or go around but they will still stumble and fall by their own wickedness.  They will stub their toes on what seems to be nothing on a smooth trail because their wisdom trips them...

Today's verses are Proverbs 11:1-4, which read,   v.1 - A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is His delight. A new chapter today to gain some more wisdom from God's Word given to us by Solomon to his sons.  We get the picture in this verse of a scale.  Remember those scales that you had to add weight to on the side to figure out the poundage or a scale that was like a teeter totter that you tried to even out?  There were probably numerous ways to manipulate the weights to make it seem like you were getting more than you really were.  The picture of the dishonest butcher at the meat market putting his thumb on the scale to drive up the weight so what you really receive less that what it says is also another picture to describe what is going on here.  A dishonestly at the scale or a dishonestly with the standards is an abomination to the Lord but a holding to the standard or respecting what is just is a delight to the Lord...

Today's devotional is a between chapter talk and we will hit chapter 11 of Proverbs on Monday. As a pastor of a church it is very hard not to be discouraged by the lack of numbers to church events.  In our society, we base the success of the program by the numbers that are recorded.  I ask our  “counter”  each week about the attendance and I either winch or I walk away with a lift in my step.  This comes into play not just at the  “big”  meeting but also with the smaller ones.  The focus on the numbers becomes that, a focus on a number rather than the individuals that make up the number.  I know that intellectually and usually can recall all who were there to make up that number but that imaginary  “good”  number for any event sometimes tempts us to change it up to see us meet or exceed that goal. To be  c ute, I want to give you three temptations that come into play when trying to hit that number be it morning worshi...

Today's verses are Proverbs 10:29-32, which read, v.29 - The way of the LORD is a stronghold to the upright, but ruin to the workers of iniquity. Solomon gives us word pictures to help us understand the depth of God's wisdom to be followed through these proverbs.  The way of the Lord, meaning those who are wise are walking in His footprints, manner, journey, road, or distance is a stronghold, a fort, a place or means of protection, safety, or refuge to the people who are described as upright, people of integrity, people who are maturing in the Lord.   The workers of iniquity also show actions as they are also moving but down a different road.  Trouble, wickedness, and sorrow are on their way and the way of the Lord brings ruin or destruction to them as it captures them up to the final judgment of God.  Is the way of the Lord a stronghold to you because you are walking in step with God or is it a ruin to you because you are not? v.30 - The righteous w...

Today's verses are Proverbs 10:25-28, which read, v.25 - When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more but the righteous has an everlasting foundation. When the storms of life have passed what is left?  The wicked has nothing but the righteous is standing on a solid foundation.  The fool has been washed away but the wise have held unto something larger and more solid that can stand through the storms of life.  Maybe this is also a picture of the flood and what happened to those outside of the ark and those inside the ark.  The storm came upon all but some where washed away and some were saved; some neglected God's instruction and some acted upon His wisdom; and some found nothing to stand upon and some were safe within the provisions of God.  When the storm comes, what do you have?  Does it blow you away or are you clinging to the rock that God has provided? v.26 - Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy one to those ...

Today's verses are Proverbs 10:21-24, which read, v.21 - The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of understanding. This proverb gives us again one of the main differences between the wise and the fool.  The wise are thinking about others.  The wise are focused on others.  The wise are loving to others with the wisdom that is coming from them that they have received from the Lord.  Therefore the wise are feeding others with what they say.  The fool is thinking about himself.  The fool is focused on himself.  The fool is consumed with loving himself and therefore is starving because he doesn't feed himself with the wisdom from God.   The wise is about feeding others as they are being fed by God.  The fool is about feeding himself only but they are starving themselves to death as they refuse to be fed by God.  The concept of  "more for me"  is counter active here because the fool doesn't realize th...

How does a church grow Biblically? I remember going to Church Growth conferences held in Anderson, Indiana by John Maxwell in the late 80’s.   A lot of focus was on programs and procedures to shut the back door of the church to first time visitors by making sure they got the 7 touches.   Out of that movement came the seeker sensitive churches that looked at the atmosphere both physically and audibly that the “seeker” was experiencing within the four walls of the church.   Emphasis was put on how it looked and sounded to keep people coming back to the church to hear more about Jesus and maybe make the jump to be a follower of Him.   Jesus was kind of introduced through the back door to not scare them off and once they got warmed up to us then we would bring out Jesus slowly to them and pray they wouldn’t bolt. Do these models match up with the Scriptures?   The answer is “no.”   Paul, the expert of all experts on church planting, gives a much diffe...