Lessons from Proverbs

Last weekend I attended a conference called Building Tomorrow's Church....or as it's regular attendees lovingly tag it "BTC."  The topic of the weekend was "Wisdom from Proverbs" and what gleaming jewels were there for the taking.  Below are my takeaways from the four topics: Purity, Speech, Work, and Money.

Session 1 - Introduction (Prov 9:10)

• Definition of a Proverb: A succinct statement designed to impart wisdom--but not an absolute promise. They are intended not to make us "do-gooders" but to reveal us as "no-gooders."  They point to the ultimate Wisdom--Christ!
• Proverbs tend to reveal the theme of the heart: pride or thanksgiving.
• Is there a pulse to your spiritual state?  What is your spiritual vitality?

Session 2 - Purity (Prov 5:1-20)

• Proverbs has two kinds of "enjoying" (a) in moderation, or (b) in excess.
• Sexuality has a spiritual dimension that sets it apart from the other areas of purity - and therefore it has a stronger, more intense focus.
• When it comes to sexuality, there is NO moderation commandment.....there are only two options: 
• (a) complete abstention where it is illegitimate, and
• (b) complete enjoyment where it is legitimate
• God creates the desire for "oneness."  The desire for marriage and sex is natural (meaning, designed by God to be an integral part of humans), but Satan twists and distorts it.
• See the holy beauty and rightness of purity the way God designed it

Session 3 - Speech

• Words are not neutral: they give life, or they bring death (Proverbs 18:21)
• The tongue reveals the heart...the things that come out of your mouth reveal what you are longing to be satisfied with.

"If I were to sit and listen to your spoken words for the past month, whose kingdom would those words serve?"
~ Nick Kennicott

• Do I put as high a premium on my words as God does?

Four Points of Speech

1. God has a holy standard for how we are to speak and listen
2. This side of heaven, we will never fully measure up to God's standard for our speech
3. Jesus fulfilled what we failed to do: He spoke perfect words.
4. Our day-by-day failure to use our words as we ought is a rejection of Jesus Christ--the Word.

"If you remember nothing else, remember this: Word problems are heart problems."
~ Nick Kennicott

Session 4 - Work (Prov 6:6-11)

• Work: Any task that accomplishes a purpose.
• Work is dignified because God created it and called it good.
• Implied necessity of work (see the 4th and 8th commandments)....there is a command to work--not just to rest....and we must work for what we have/want.
• A sluggard = a fool: one who lacks wisdom to work in the way he/she was designed.
• Laziness: Not filling the role that God created you to fill.
• Laziness is a moral and spiritual issue (a matter of the heart)

Session 5 - Money (Prov 30:8-9)

• God gives us what we have
• God knows what is best for individuals
• The was man knows the dangers of poverty and riches

I have been gifted with so much to think about.  Praise God for His severe mercy in revealing sin and providing the means of healing.

"It is Finished!"

The thing that's stood out to me to most this Easter season, is Jesus's words from John 19:30:

"It is finished."

Because "it is finished" I am made right with God.

Because "it is finished" I am no longer bound by sin.

Because "it is finished" God sees me as pure, holy, and perfect.

Because "it is finished" He sees His Son when he looks at me.

Because "it is finished" I am free to glory in Him and find joy in His presence.

Praise God "It is Finished!"

It Was Finished on the Cross

By Kristie Braselton & Regi Stone

Once we all stood as captive slaves

The bonds of sin and death our chains

But he with blood our freedom bought

It was finished on the cross

It was finished on the cross

The weight of sin, the sting of death

Were swallowed up by righteousness

Vanquished by the Son of God

It was finished on the cross

It was finished on the cross

Chorus

And we rejoice in victory

We lift our eyes to Calvary

Before the battle has begun

By Jesus’ blood it has been won

It was finished on the cross

And while our hearts have turned from sin

This flesh is waging war within

Though sin remains, our guilt is gone

It was finished on the cross

It was finished on the cross

His gift of grace our heart betrays

With urge to merit or repay

We need not live to pay the cost

For it was finished on the cross

It was finished on the cross

Believe

“You ever heard of______Church_?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“It’s a really nice church . . . I mean, really nice! If you don’t go early, you’ll be sitting outside. It’s nice.”

“What is the teaching like?”

“Well . . . I just go to hear the word—you know? . . . --- the teaching like? . . . so there’s a pastor . . . and it’s Catholic . . . and . . . I don’t really know what you mean by ‘what’s the teaching like?’.”

“When people say a church is ‘nice,’ some people are referring to the physical location/building. Others are referring to the programs the church offers . . . .”

“Oh . . . like I don’t really know. I really should go to church more. . . I mean . . . I need to go . . . but I think I need to grow up a little first . . . you know what I mean?”

“No, I don’t actually”

“I know I should go . . . but I always have excuses . . . like I do something Saturday night . . . and so I sleep in on Sunday. But I don’t really want to go just to go. I want to go because I want to hear the word . . . so it means I still have to put more effort into it. You know . . . like I need to mature a little first.”



What I wanted to say—but didn’t—was: “then you really don’t believe it.”

You live your convictions. If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.

“What is truth?”

“. . .For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”. . .

So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him.  When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”  Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head.  And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified. . .

And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him. . .

Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”. . .

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!”  Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth.  So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!”. . . And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. . .

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. . . So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”. . .

These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

-Scripture excerpts from Matthew, Luke, and John

God loved us when we were dead in sins.

There is no fact which seems to be so staggering to faith. Such action is so utterly at variance with all the feelings which we experience, or witness in others. Our love is excited by what we deem lovely; our hearts are warmed by the charms of extraordinary worth and grace; we turn with disgust from the hideous deformities of vice and iniquity; we loathe and reprobate the dark features of undisguised evil. Who ever loves that which is altogether hateful? Our love lies dead and dormant until aroused and kindled by something from without.

Such is the manner of man. How different the manner of our God! He loves us with a great love before one particle of divine grace enters our souls. . . What a wondrous thought is here! Oh, for more grace to see it distinctly, and to realize it abidingly! God has greatly loved us, when we were nothing but sin, when we did nothing but sin. Whence then sprang this love? . . . Whence then did it originate? Surely from nothing belonging to us. It sprang entirely from His own nature, which is Love. "God is Love." He loved us, because it was His will to love us. We may search and reason until all our powers fail, and we shall find no motive or cause out of God Himself. Let us then adore our God, and the freeness and the riches of His love! Who is a God like unto Him, who so greatly loved us, vile, hateful sinners! What an instance of God-like grace!

~ Meditations on Ephesians: Henry Law

Have a blessed Valentines Day as you ponder the overwhelming love of Jesus!

The Holdfast

I received a book of poetry for Christmas; a book which I have enjoyed browsing through. The poet is George Herbert (an Anglican priest). His theology is clearly - and sometimes not so clearly - revealed through his poems. This jumped out at me as I was reading the other day.

The Holdfast

I threatened to observe the strict decree
of my dear God with all my power and might.
But I was told by one, it could not be;
Yet I might trust in God to be my light.
Then will I trust, said I, in him alone.
Nay, ev'n to trust in him, was also his:
We must confess, that nothing is our own.
Then I confess that he my succor is:
But to have nought is ours, not to confess
That we have nought. I stood amaz'd at this,
Much troubled, till I heard a friend express,
That all things were more ours by being his.
What Adam had, and forfeited for all,
Christ keepeth now, who cannot fail or fall.

Love

What a perfect topic for February right? I mean, it is the month of chocolates and flowers…Valentines day is fast approaching…

Galatians 5:22 states: “The fruit of the Spirit is love.”

God has been using this, the second chapter of A Woman’s Walk with God, to peel back the layers of my heart, and reveal to me my lack of love.

The chapter is titled: "Looking to God for Love"—and really, that is the only way we can do it—grow in love I mean.

The chapter begins by showing how important love is to God. We—as believers—are called to:

- “walk in love (Eph. 5:2)”
- “love one another (John 15:12)”
- [for women] “love our husbands and our children (Titus 2:4)”
- “love our neighbor[s] (Matt. 22:39)”
- “love our enemies (Luke 6:27)”

Let us also not forget that God Himself is love (1 John 4:8).

After recognizing how important love is to God, we can look at five basic principles from scripture that illustrate and help us understand Christian love. And after that, some highlights from the rest of the chapter. (All quotes, unless otherwise noted, are by Elizabeth George.)

1. Love is an act of the will.

- “It’s hard to love under difficult circumstances, yet that’s exactly where most of life is lived, isn’t it?”

- “[Love] is…a feeling of the mind as much as of the heart; it concerns the will as much as the emotions. It describes the deliberate effort—which we can make only with the help of God…” (William Barclay).

- “Christian love, you see, is an act of the will which ‘needs to be directly cultivated.”

2. Love is action—not just words.

- “Love has work to do, and love does that work—love takes action—even when doing so requires strenuous effort. Our actions—backing up our words—are the proof [emphasis mine] of our love.”

- “Where has God placed you to show forth love by your actions?”

- “To whom can you demonstrate love ‘in the day-by-day, mundane circumstances of life’?”

3. Love reaches out to the unlovely.

It is so easy to love those who are gracious, kind, sweet…etc. I know I personally have a hard time loving those who are unappreciative, rude, and downright stinky! But I was struck by a reference Mrs. George made to Matthew 5:43-46. If even non-believers can love the lovely/lovable, what makes me any different from them? Following this command to love the unlovely requires the application of principles one and two. First I must will to love this person. But to will is not enough; I must take it one step further and manifest my will in action. It really puts thing into perspective to remember that “God’s love is never deserved—it simply is. And that’s the kind of love you and I are to extend to one another.”

- “Thank God that when the Spirit is at work in our lives, He enables us to do what Jesus commands us to do [in Luke 6:35].”

- “To recognize that there is someone I do not love is to say to God, ‘I do not love You enough to love that person.” Jerry Bridges. –ouch!

4. We need God to help us love.

- “Christ calls us to love our enemies by allowing God to love them through us when we can’t do it on our own.”

- “[Love] means that no matter what a man may do to us by way of insult or injury or humiliation we will never seek anything else but his highest good…never…seek anything but the best even for those who seek the worst for us.” William Barclay

- “Those who are hardest to love are the ones who need it most.”

5. Love expects nothing in return.

- “The love the Bible tells us to extend…is not self-seeking…It’s only intent is to love as Jesus loved while praying for others to respond to God’s message of love through us.”

- * - * -* - * - * - * -
Defining Love

- “As the five principles of biblical love clearly reveal, love is the sacrifice of self.”

- “He will help us and show us where we tend to be selfish and where He’d like us to love more sacrificially.”

Living Out Love

- “It helps me as a Christian…who loves God and yearns for a closer walk with Him to see my call to live out love as an assignment from God to love anyone and everyone He chooses to place in my path.”

- “We may not necessarily feel like loving [others], but when you and I allow God to fill us up with His life-giving love, we can then carry His love to others and pour it out into their lives. The love is not ours—it’s God’s. But when we present our empty selves to the Source of love, and are filled by Him, then we are able to share His love with thirsty people.”

- “At times, the love God fills me with in the morning seems bountiful and unlimited, and I can share His love until the sun goes down. But then come those days—those hard days!—when I seem to be beating a path back to God minute after minute. Maybe the task is harder, maybe the heart of the person I’m trying to love is harder, maybe my own heart is harder, or maybe I’m not spending enough time with Him to receive what I need to share—I don’t know. I do know, though, that only as I keep turning to God can I keep loving the people He places in my path.”

I would like to close with an assignment:

Pick the person God has placed in your life who is most difficult to love and put these principles of love into action.

When I first read this assignment, I thought “Oh no, please not that. I don’t want to love that person.” But as I have been slowly—and painfully—fighting against Self, and seeking to do what Christ has called me to, I have started to see very small changes in my own heart attitudes.

I am still far from loving as I ought. But I know this is what God has called me to—commanded actually—and I know He’ll give me grace as I seek to honor Him in obedience.

“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.” 1 John 3:16a

“And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” Eph 5:2

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Phil. 1:9