Proverbs 15:5-8 says,...

Today's verses are Proverbs 15:5-8, which read,

v.5 - A fool rejects his father's discipline, but he who regards reproof is sensible.

Another common theme and subject of the book of Proverbs is the topic of discipline.  It ranks right up there with the use of the tongue.  Discipline is directly related to wisdom and the following of it.  If you are seeking wisdom then you are going to need to deal with discipline and reproof.

The fool disregards reproof and rejects discipline.  The discipline is coming from his father, his very personal relationship with kin connection.  It is from someone who loves him and has a responsibility to protect and provide for him.  The discipline is not coming from a unfeeling, distant, not connected person.  

How do you respond to discipline and reproof from those who love you?   Do you reject it and disregard it or do you see who is giving the corrective instruction and take it in for serious consideration?

v.6 - Great wealth is in the house of the righteous, but trouble is in the income of the wicked.

The wicked have an income from their labors and it includes trouble.  The righteous have an inheritance from their connection to their father and it includes great wealth.  One just has an income but the other has a house.  One just has something from what they have labored for but the other has a dwelling place provided by another.  Each receives more than what they thought they would get.  The wicked wanted great wealth but gets trouble.  The righteous may see trouble because of following after God in a world that hates Him but they get great wealth.  The irony of Proverbs continues.

v.7 - The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but the hearts of the fools are not so.

We are back to the tongue.  This is a good time to look at our conversations.  What do those conversations spread?  Are they filled with non-essential details that change with the weather or are they filled with eternal details that are constant because God is constant?  The wise are out and about spreading while the fool is harboring selfishly things within his or her heart.  What comes out of our mouths?  What do we allow to pour out of our mouths that has come from our hearts?  

v.8 - The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

If we are seeking after the wisdom of the Lord then we are also going to worship Him.  We are not going to be able to not lift up the name of the One who lived, died, and rose again for us.  We will put ourselves in places to individually praise Him and corporately praise Him.  It will be a high priority to humbly come before the One who redeemed us.  This type of worship is a sacrifice of self but it is delight to the Lord.

There are many who do religious activities but they are not for the purpose of worshipping God.  They follow through with traditional actions but the agenda is me focused rather than God focused.  It looks like a sacrifice but it really has selfish strings attached to draw attention to oneself.  God calls that kind of worship an abomination because it is to the person rather than to Himself.  

How do you worship?  What is your focal point when you sit down with the Scriptures or you enter the sanctuary?  Is it on what I am going to get or what I am going to give?  It is a struggle and battle because we live in a world that seeks to be seen rather than seeking to bow.  Our worship is a delight to God when we come before Him to be with Him.  Our worship is an abomination to God when we come to elevate ourselves in the presence of others by using culturally holy actions as proof to them that we are therefore holy.  Let's pray.

"Lord the focus today was on discipline and reproof; what comes out of our mouths and what we harbor in our hearts; and how we worship of You and pray to You.  May we see that Your discipline is coming from You, our loving heavenly Father.  May we see that what comes from our mouths is evident of what is in our hearts.  May we see that our worship needs to be examined that it is not of ourselves but truly of You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlier in  Ga
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course everything was quite a bit dirtier when
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following the Sunday morning worshi
Read more