Coming to the Still Waters

Today's verses are Proverbs 23:29-35, which read, Who has woe?  Who has sorrow?  Who has contentions?  Who has complaining?  Who has wounds without cause?  Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your mind will utter perverse things. And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. "They struck me, but I did not become ill; they beat me, but I did not know it.  When shall I awake?  I will seek another drink." This is a long proverb about one thing:  drunkenness.   I still remember my father pointing out to us a man who was drunk along side of the road stuck in the ditch in his car in the winter.  He was revving the car but the tires

Today's verses are Proverbs 23:26-28, which read, Give me your heart, my son, and let your eyes delight in my ways.  For a harlot is a deep pit and an adulterous woman is a narrow well.  Surely she lurks as a robber, and increases the faithless among men. Solomon introduces us to some more proverbs that deal with sexual sins.  To stay away from sexual sins is to give your heart to God's wisdom and to let your eyes delight in God's righteous living.  When our heart and eyes are away from God's wisdom then we are not prepared to flee like Joseph did from Potiphar's wife in the book of Genesis.   The deep pit and the narrow well are both pictures of being in a place where you are stuck and it doesn't look like you are going to get out.  You may be calling out for help but your voice isn't heard unless someone happens to come by that way.  You have probably seen those stories about people or animals being rescued from a well or cave in that bring ch

She is great at asking great questions but also putting one and one together to come to the logical conclusion about what is. Adam

Today's verses are Proverbs 23:22-25, which read, v.22, 23 - Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.  Buy truth, and do not sell it, get wisdom and instruction and understanding. Solomon brings up again about how we are to respond to the wisdom of our parents.  We are to listen and not despise.  It is probably one of the greatest complaints we might have of our children that they are not listening and that our teens are despising us because we are old school or not with the times.  Listen to some of these previous reminders of this. Proverbs 1:8 -  Hear, my son, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching;... Proverbs 2:1 -  My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you,... Proverbs 3:1 -  My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;... Proverbs 4:1 -  Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that yo

Today's verses are Proverbs 23:17-21, which read, Do not let your heart envy sinners, but live in the fear of the LORD always.  Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.  Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.  Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaters of meat; for the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe one with rags. This is a longer proverb given to us today.  We are re-introduced to the fear of the Lord that we came across the first time in chapter 1 and verse 7:   "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."   Sinners go after sin while the wise go after God.  Sinners have an awe or respect of sin and follow after it while the wise have an awe or respect of God and follow after Him.  The proverb starts by instructing us to not let our heart, our inward emotions, get attached to what sinners are going afte

Today's verses are Proverbs 23:13-16, which read, v.13, 14 - Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.  You shall strike him with the rod and rescue his soul from Sheol. First off, a hot topic in some circles.  How do we discipline our children?  Take note here that discipline with the rod is not the only type of discipline but it is mentioned in the Bible as a type used to direct the child back to the right direction.  Personally, there were very few times when we had to spank our children.  It was the discipline of last resort for us.  Sometimes it was necessary and even though it was very hard for us it was done in a way that the child was not going to die for using it.  Many principles and procedures should be put in place for the parent that guide and direct any type of discipline for our children and thinking of them should never leave our minds. The point here is that discipline, whatever type, is needed a

Today's verses are Proverbs 23:9-12, which read, v.9 - Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. We start this morning with another proverb that we have probably seen in real life.  We have someone before us who is critical or dismissing everything of common sense and wisdom that we are saying.  They actually take what is being said and twist or turn it or maybe speak it to others but not in its complete form.  What is shared by the fool has to be cleaned up by us after it has done some damage along the way.  Maybe another way to say this proverb is,  "When you make conversation with a fool, watch very closely what you say."  A danger point in our world is the posts that we put on Facebook.  Many view these words and what is written can be taken out of context so fast or communicated with a bent that you can't defend immediately.  Even the face to face conversation needs to be guarded with wisdom of what we share

Today's verses are Proverbs 23:4-8, which read, v.4, 5 - Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it.  When you set your eyes on it, it is gone.  For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. Our present world mirrors the time of the writing of this proverb.  We are in hot pursuit of wealth.  It is advertised.  It is infomerical-ized.  It is self-help video-ized.  It is even prosperity gospel-ized in some churches.  But the proverb says to not focus on this or as it says,  "set your eyes on" .  You are to not give consideration of it.  You are not to get tired or weary trying to gain it.  Wealth is relative and so when you get wealthy, a new level of wealthy will be a little out of your reach and it will make itself wings to keep you spending your time trying to get it. Solomon is showing us that this pursuit, like others, is in vain.  The pursuit of the book of Proverbs is the wisdom of God

Today's verses are Proverbs 23:1-3, which read, When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are a man of great appetite.  Do not desire his delicacies, for it is deceptive food. Solomon is giving us a proverb that paints a picture for us to ponder.  You are before someone who is tempting you with something that makes that sin look good.  Maybe this is a sin that you are very weak to resist.  It would be better to take a knife to your throat to threaten your own injury or death than to participate in the sin.  There is more going on than just the meal that is before you.  Deception to something away from the will and wisdom of God is presented as something good to you with self-satisfying food. This is a picture of Daniel and the 3 Hebrew boys.  They were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar and selected for training to be in his court.  They were taken from their home land.  Their names were chang

Today's devotional is an in between chapters devotional that I shared recently with our overseers.  It is an article titled "4 Practical Threats to the Church Today" by Jared Longshore.  Here is the link to the actual article:  http://founders.org/ 2017/05/30/4-practical- threats-to-the-church-today/ Here are the points and some thoughts on these threats. 1.  We face a threat of not meeting regularly enough as a church. Of course the signature verses used was Hebrews 10:24 and 25 which read,  "And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching."   We live in a sped up world.  There are so many other things that are happening that we need to keep attending a time of worship as a priority.  A quote from the article was,  "Our failure to assemble is not mainly one of discipline, but

Today's verses are Proverbs 22:26-29, which read, v.26, 27 - Do not be among those who give pledges, among those who become guarantors for debts.  If you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take your bed from under you? Here is another proverb about our finances and dealing with stewardship of what we have from the Lord.  To give a pledge and to become guarantors for debts means to co-sign for someone else's debt.  You put your name on the line under theirs and you agree if they can not make the payments then you will assume the responsibility and pay the debt.  The Bible says to stay away from this practice.   Why?  Because many who put themselves into this situation take advantage of the co-signer.  It is a great temptation to not pay because it is going to be paid anyways.  Maybe the thought is that they would just pay back the co-signer eventually.  Really they would.  The proverb says in effect,  "Why would you put yourself in that situation whe