"To Him be glory forever": Proverbs

Showing posts with label Proverbs. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

The Flock

Modern technology can be both a blessing and a curse. If you are reading this article you are probably already very familiar with the many of the benefits and disadvantages that come with technology.

One thing I have come to appreciate is the usefulness of having a Bible app on my phone. Sometimes I do my daily reading from the app and what I have learned to like about it is that it slows down my reading. Instead of having a printed Bible open and perhaps 60 verses before my eyes the app shows me five to six verses at a time.

As I read I've noticed that with the app I ponder the verses, the phrases, the words, more than when I read from print. Things seem to catch my attention that I might have easily overlooked reading in a different manner. That happened this morning as I read from Proverbs 27.

Proverbs 27:23 says,

"Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds"

I spent some time thinking about that verse while I was reading and I've come back to it several times today. The idea of being a pastor is one of caring for a flock. I am charged with keeping watch over a congregation. It is my responsibility to guide them safely, keeping an eye out for any who may wander off, leading them back before they get into danger.

Complicating the job, at least in relation to the idea of being a shepherd, is that I don't have all the sheep nearby all the time. I see many, but never all, of my flock on Sunday morning and only a few of them during the week, and those at mostly random and unpredictable intervals. I can give attention to them only when I see them, and only when they are open about what they are dealing with in their lives. And so I care for the flock as best I can on Sunday morning, and seek to be aware of the opportunities God might present me with during the remainder of the week.

While I've considered these words from my role was a pastor I think they have a wider application, particularly as mature Christians relate to Christians who have newer faith. Which brings me back to modern technology.

There is so much Christian material available online that it boggles the imagination. Books, videos, podcasts, you name it, and often free. Search, click and dive in.

Much of it is good, but so much of it is bad. The bad ranges from just being weak and barely appealing, like cold coffee, to things that are toxic for one's faith. As the shepherd grows in skill and the mature Christian grows in faith it is their responsibility to keep an eye on the flock, on the new Christian, and lead them to good water when you see them drinking from something that looks safe but is really poison.

If you are a new Christian reading this find yourself a friend of Christian maturity, who can help you along the way.

And if you are a more mature Christian, or someone in the role of a shepherd, keep an eye on the flock, but also keep a measure of humility over your own life, knowing that there will be days when you yourself will need a shepherd. Watch over others but also seek to have someone who is keeping an eye on you.

And in all things may all Christians seek to live closely to the Lord Jesus, whom the author of Hebrews reminds us is "the great shepherd of the sheep." Amen.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

If Only

About five miles east of here, on the highway that heads towards Chama, NM and Pagosa Springs, CO, there is a speed limit sign saying "55 MPH." The sign comes as one leaves Lumberton, where the limit dropped to "45" and lets a driver know that now it is safe and legal to drive a bit faster.

If only it were that simple. You see, the road is in very good shape, it has a wide shoulder, and it doesn't get much traffic. The temptation is to drive over the limit, and I've seen people go a ways over, maybe to 75, or a bit beyond. And I know the temptation well, for once, while my mom was in the car, no less, I climbed the hill to find a state trooper just over the crest. He informed me I was going 70 in a 55, and he wrote me a ticket.

Before church this morning I read the opening chapter of Proverbs, which says this in verse 10:

"My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent."

If only it were that simple.

The Christian lives in a world surrounded by temptation, and they know it. Some days it can seem as if everywhere they look there is something calling out to them. Something calling them to follow a path separate from the one that leads towards God. We can begin to see something that God has spoken of as right or wrong being more like a suggestion, rather than a rule for our own good. Sort of like my episode on the highway.

One aspect of the good news of Jesus is that today we can see something clearly that the author of Proverbs only pointed towards. And that is that our ability to resist the enticement of sin is something that we don’t do on our own. It is something that we can't do on our own. It is something we can only do when we rely on Jesus.

Jesus is the one who lived a human life that did not consent to sin, or to sinners, from his first breath to his last. And when we have faith in Him then we know that we can turn towards Him and rely on His strength during those times of our own temptation.

When it comes to sin, "the struggle is real," as they say. I can’t promise that you will never give in, for every Christian knows that they yield in different ways every day. But I know that God is faithful and that if you turn towards Christ Jesus, you will find Him.

If only? The truth of God's word is that it truly is that simple.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Center Of Gravity

I like to run. I have run for quite a few years, accumulating quite a few miles on my feet and participating in quite a few events over those years and miles. Of all the various events I have run I would say that the marathon is my favorite one. The marathon is 26.2 miles long. Some days those miles just fly by and some days it seems as if the next mile marker will never come. As of last Sunday, when I ran my most recent one, I have completed 45 marathons, along with six races of still longer distances.

The marathon wasn't always my favorite event. It was hard! I ran ten of them before I came to believe I "had it figured out." Then I ran ten that stand out in my memory as nearly being works of art. Then there were seven that were somewhat mixed as far as my performance goes. And then due to a variety of circumstances I didn’t run any for ten years. I still ran, but I passed on the marathon. And ten years ago I started running them again, not as fast as before, but in some ways they have been every bit as much fun as "the works of art."

My least favorite running activity has been trail running. I have never felt comfortable when off the road and on the trail. When I ran with friends back in Minnesota and we went onto a trail I dropped to the back of the group, so that my heightened caution did not become a hazard for anyone else. All six of the longer-than-marathon races I've done have been on trails. Four of those were run in the mountains and one thing those four have in common is that somewhere along the way I fell.

Last week a friend on mine from Minnesota came to visit and we took part in an event that involved running four marathons in four days at the Four Corners monument. Unbeknownst to us at the time we registered a significant part of the course on three of those days would be on rocky trails.

Our adventure began on Thursday. About 12 miles of the course was a rocky trail, 12 miles were dirt trail, and the remainder was paved. We were pleased with our efforts and looked forward to seeing what would happen on Friday. Neither one of us had ever run marathons back-to-back and we were entering brand new territory, so to speak.

Friday was flat and paved. It went well and we figured that barring any catastrophe four marathons in four days was an achievable feat.

Saturday turned out to be an altogether different kind of animal. The course was about 21 miles of rocky trails, ending with five flat, paved miles. The trail segment was a loop course that we ran a total of 8 times. The scenery was beautiful, or so I was told. For me, running a trail means always looking down to see where your feet are headed next.

When I least expected it, it happened. I fell. I was at mile 18, a brief flat spot on top of a hill, when I lost my balance and fell forward onto my hands. I scraped both palms but was otherwise uninjured. I got started running again, being more cautious than before.

Very shortly after my fall I had a new insight into trail running. Trail running isn’t necessarily about being nimble or light or any other characteristic that might seem to offer an advantage on irregular terrain. The essence of trail running is being able to control your center of gravity. If a person can simply keep their body upright while going up or down hill everything else about trail running is gravy.

This concept of the control of one's center of gravity is also important to the Christian life, although with a significant difference. As a trail runner I need to control my center of gravity, while as a Christian I need to yield the control of my life's center of gravity to Christ. He guides me one way and yet so often I think I know a shortcut or a better route. And pushing off for the way I think best, when it differs from His way, always ends in scrapes, bruises, or worse.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths."

In all things in life our best choice is to always let God have His firm and loving hand on our center of gravity. Any attempt by me to do better is just a foolish risk, for His hand will never stray from the right path. Amen.

Two tired runners, still smiling after four days.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

A Thirsty Soul

I like to run and in just over one week I'm going to run another marathon. Training this spring has been good and I'm looking forward to the race. The race is in Kayenta, AZ and I ran there last year. In not sure how to describe that section of northeast Arizona. Barren? Rugged? Arid? There is a kind of beauty there that is perhaps better seen than described.

One thing I recall from last year was how it was starting to get noticeably warm towards the end of the race. The day began cool but there was a delay to the start and as I was heading back to town and the finish line I was beginning to feel the heat. I wanted to finish, not only because 26 miles is a long ways to run, but also because historically I don't do very well running in warm temperatures.

When I crossed the finish line one of the first things I did was drink water. And drink more water. And drink still more water. Water at that time felt so good. I drank for two reasons. One, that it felt good, and two, because I know that left to my own sense of thirst I usually don’t drink enough of it when I run. I knew my body needed more water than I would be inclined to give it.

Those images came to mind when I read Proverbs 25:25 the other day, in this week immediately after Easter. It says,

"Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."

Here we are, just a few days after Easter, where Christians mark the defining event of all human history, the death-and resurrection of Jesus. And in a sense, Easter, more than anything else, is very much "good news from a far country."

In Easter we have the culmination of the earthly life of Jesus. God incarnate, laying aside His deity, coming from a place of glory that our imaginations can’t do justice to, living among us and ultimately laying down His life, so that one day we can live in His very presence.

More than mere "good news" this is the best of news. And in a manner similar to my drinking water after the race, taking more than I need to satisfy my thirst, this news of Jesus for my salvation, is something I shouldn’t be easily satisfied with, but something I should seek again and again.

The world is full of thirsty souls. May they find and know true satisfaction, which only comes through Jesus.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Proverbs, Good Friday and Easter

The book of Proverbs, that nearly never-ending collection of wisdom sayings. It's in the Bible, so my brain tells me I should read it. And it would be hard to say that what is written there is not wise, but frankly sometimes the proverbs seem so isolated. They seem like one wise saying after another, with little connection to either the one before or after, and with little connection to God. But every once in a while God shows Himself clearly, and He knocks my socks off. Such was my reading of Proverbs 16:6 yesterday.

"By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil."

This proverb was written long before the coming of Jesus into the world, but it is a word from God that looks forward and finds it's fulfillment in Jesus.

A number of things are present in the work of Chris on the cross, one of them being the atonement for sin, or what the author of Proverbs calls "iniquity." Any sin, and all sin, the things we would all call serious sins and the things we try to minimize as being "not that bad," are grievous offenses against a holy God. Their presence demands payment, or "atonement," by anyone who would desire to come into the presence of God. Not being holy ourselves there is no way that we can wash the stain of sin away. There are no good deeds that we can do to balance the scales in our favor. We are left in a mess that has no possible solution, except for the one the proverb points to. Iniquity is atoned for "by steadfast love and faithfulness."

Try as we might, we cannot live lives of steadfast love and faithfulness. The only one who did that is Jesus. As God the Son, He lived a life of steadfast love and faithfulness towards God the Father, a life that was free from the stain of sin and filled with love for both His Father and for those He came to save. As we think of Good Friday we think of the atonement He made with His life, a life laid down for the sin of all who would have faith in Him. A life laid down for my sin. Laid down for yours.

He lay his life down, and two days later He took it back up again. This is the Easter moment, and this is where the second half of the proverb speaks just as powerfully as the first. I can live in "the fear of the Lord," understanding "fear" to be "great reverence," because I know that Jesus gave His life for me. For my salvation. I can live a life of great reverence for Him, having an understanding of those things that please God and those that don't, leaning on Him as I turn from evil and towards Him.

Proverbs, Good Friday and Easter come together. Iniquity is atoned for by the steadfast love and faithfulness of Jesus, so that I can live for His glory, today and every day.

God spoke to me through this proverb. As we move through Good Friday and to Easter may He also speak to you. Amen.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Pondering Proverbs

I have been doing some reading in Proverbs. While filled with wisdom, it is not an easy book of the Bible to read. Some parts of it are easy to grasp but many parts take much more than a quick reading to begin to appreciate. They need to be read, and pondered, before the (proverbial!) light switch goes off. And I'll admit that it is easy to reach a point where one just decides to move on and hope that God shines His light the next time through.

That said, I want to share what happened when reading earlier this week. I read Proverbs 6:16-19, which says:

"There are six things that the Lord hates,
    seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
    and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
    feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,
    and one who sows discord among brothers."

When I read the first verse I thought, "Does God hate six things or seven? What's up with that?" But then I grasped the other aspect of the verse, that there are things "the Lord hates" that are an "abomination."

Hate is a pretty strong word, and abomination is even more intense. There are some things that God, who is infinitely patient, has no time for. Then the list:

1. Haughty eyes

2. A lying tongue

3. Hands that shed innocent blood

4. A heart that devises wicked plans

5. Feet that make haste to run to evil

6. A false witness who breathes out lies

7. One who sows discord among brothers

Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that not a one of those things is any good. Humanly speaking, if any of those are our habits we will have a hard time getting along with anyone. And on top of that the Bible has taught us that God hates them.

But if these are things God hates, then perhaps the opposite things are ones he finds favorable. Examples of these would be:

1. A humble heart

2. A truthful tongue

3. Hands that bring healing

4. A heart that devises Godly plans

5. Feet that make haste to run from evil

6. A person who lives and breathes the truth

7. One who heals relationships

Again, from a human perspective this is a list that makes sense. These are the kinds of things that strengthen relationships and that most people would say are good qualities for one to cultivate in their character. But, as the TV ads so often said, that's not all.

In the person of Jesus Christ we see each item on the second list lived to perfection. While we might want to do each of the things on the second list each day, every day, we can't. In spite of our best efforts we fall short. But when we look to Christ we see someone who understood perfectly what God hates, and what God loves.

We want to follow God's path but we so easily wander off in this direction, or that. But in Christ we see a life lived with unfailing obedience, not even leaning towards one side or the other of the Father's path.

Yesterday I preached a funeral sermon from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, which says this in the closing verse:

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

My reading from Proverbs made it easy to see what God hates. A little pondering pointed to what God loves. And then God turned on the light to point from Proverbs to Christ. And it is only in Christ, whose life was one of perfect obedience, that anyone can possibly find righteousness before God. This is true wisdom, and by faith in Christ may it be yours.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

When should we doubt the Bible?

I am spending a few weeks preaching on the Bible, asking questions about it so we might better understand how God speaks through it and that we would grow in our love of Him. The first week we asked questions of "What?" Two weeks ago it was "Who? This morning we asked "When?" Specifically, the questions addressed were:

· When was the Bible written?

· When should we read the Bible?

· When should we question the Bible?

· When should we doubt the Bible?

· When will the promises of the Bible be fulfilled?

The Bible is an old book, written by many different authors, in languages that no one speaks any more. Those authors all had their own particular point-of view, and maybe their own axe to grind. And the circumstances of our day are so different, in so many ways. Given all that it's only natural for us to question what the Bible has to say in our day, isn’t it? When should we doubt the Bible?

While it may be a natural tendency to want to doubt what the Bible has to say about any particular issue that is a place we should only venture towards with the greatest of caution. It should feel a bit like getting close to the edge of the Grand Canyon and wanting to lean out to get a better look. What seems to be a potential gain is not worth the risk.

When we call into doubt what God teaches in the Bible we blur the distinction between God and the people he created. We make more of ourselves and less of God. We make more of our ability to decide right and wrong, and disregard the boundaries God has put in place, boundaries that exist for our protection.

Sometimes we doubt what the Bible has to say about an issue because we are misunderstanding what God is saying through it. It deals with matters of biology and geography but it is not a science textbook. It addresses issues of marriage and relationships but it is not a handbook for counseling or self-improvement.

And perhaps the greater reason we doubt the Bible is that we disagree with what it has to say about a particular topic, one that may be dear to our heart. In our day marriage is one of those topics that easily comes to mind. It is so easy to say that our culture is so different from the culture the Bible was written in that much of what it says about marriage is no longer relevant.

And that approach would be one of placing ourselves in grave danger. To doubt the Bible and openly dispose of what it has to say is doubt God, who stands behind each word of the book.

Some things the Bible teaches are hard to understand. There are things that will challenge us, things that we would really rather not consider to be true.

But a better approach than doubt is trust, and that when faced with a hard teaching we continue to trust the Author of the teaching. We trust that what He said is true, and we wait, on Him, to make it clearer for us, on His timing, and not according to our own demands.

Or, as Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us,

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

Saturday, March 28, 2015

More Than Meets the Eye

The other day I was reading in my Bible from the book of Proverbs. According to my dictionary a proverb is, "A short popular saying, usually of unknown and ancient origin, that expresses effectively some common truth or useful thought." We probably all know a few of these kind of sayings and hardly give them a second thought. Things like, "A stitch in time saves nine," "Measure twice cut once," and "It's not over 'til it's over."

So I was reading Proverbs 10:12 and saw this:

"Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses."

That seems pretty straight-forward and easy to understand. When we have anger or hard feelings towards someone there can be all kinds of trouble, but if we love them then trouble can be avoided. It is the kind of saying that just makes sense. It could very easily be a saying found inside a fortune cookie. But I didn't find this proverb in a fortune cookie. I found it in my Bible, a setting that virtually demands I take a closer look at it. And as I did so I found that it holds more, much more, than first meets the eye.

Where do we first see hatred in the Bible? We see it in Genesis 3, as the serpent says to Eve, "Did God actually say…?" Now that question may not look like hatred, but it is driven by Satan's hatred of God and it underlies every attempt on his part to lead people in ways that are disobedient to God.

And the other half of the proverb, "but love covers all offenses," ultimately, where does that point us? That points us towards our Savior and Lord, Jesus. He is the one whose love is perfect. He is the one who offers his love freely to all who would have faith in him and the work he finished on the cross. That, and that alone, is the only love that can truly cover all offenses.

Easter is on the horizon, a day when, perhaps, we remember just a bit more clearly the powerful work that Jesus did in going to the cross. It was an act of love of the most precious type, for it is an act of love that when applied to those who believe in Jesus has the effect of covering all of their offenses before God.

This Easter may it be your joy to give praise to Jesus as your Savior and Lord, the one whose love truly does cover all your offenses, and in doing so, restores you with God.