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A Father’s Instruction

Proverbs 13-15

Every time I come across a proverb about a child obeying or following a parent’s instructions I read it out loud to my daughter.  For example:

Proverbs 13:1

“A wise son hears his father’s instruction,
but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.”

My daughter is a very intelligent little girl.  She is smart and she knows it.  Unfortunately she thinks she is so smart her parents can’t possibly teach her anything.  She is at that age right now where her mother and I get the cold shoulder or rolling eyes when we attempt to instruct her.  It surly tests ones patience to be faced with such an attitude.  The thing is, whenever I try to instruct my daughter or correct her behavior I am reminded of how God does the same with me.  Does God get the same cold shoulder or rolling eyes when He attempts to instruct me through His Word or in prayer?  Perhaps not blatantly, but when I know what God expects of me and I don’t do it I am behaving no better than my daughter.

What patience God has!  I am His child and He is constantly attempting to teach me and guide me but I constantly act like I don’t hear Him.  I read His Holy Word and yet the words at time seem to just bounce right off of me making no difference in my life whatsoever.  Now some would see this comparison between themselves and their child and decide they should back off since they themselves don’t always respond well to God’s instruction.  This is the wrong choice.  Whether you are responding to God’s instruction or not has no bearing on your responsibility to train up your child in the ways of God.  The proper response is to do your job as a father while doing your job as a child of God.

We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  We must continue to pick ourselves up when we fall, dust ourselves off, and return to right relationship with God.  When we fail in one area of our life we must correct that failure.  We must obey God’s instruction for our life and teach them to our children.  Get to work!

Have a blessed day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

True Prosperity

Proverbs 10-12

I despise the “Prosperity Gospel”.  Wikipedia offers the following definition of this doctrine.

“Prosperity theology (also known as prosperity doctrine, the health and wealth gospel, or the prosperity gospel) is a Christian religious belief whose proponents claim has tens of millions of adherents, primarily in the United States, centered on the notion that God provides material prosperity for those he favors. It has been defined by the belief that “Jesus blesses believers with riches” or more specifically as the teaching that “believers have a right to the blessings of health and wealth and that they can obtain these blessings through positive confessions of faith and the ‘sowing of seeds’ through the faithful payments of tithes and offerings.”

I believe this doctrine is a perversion of what Jesus teaches in Scripture.  Time and again man thinks of wealth in worldly terms rather than spiritual terms.  If God blessed all his children in Christ materially then wouldn’t all true Christians be billionaires if not trillionaires?  If God gives His children the blessing of physical health then anyone who ever gets sick must not be a true follower of Jesus Christ.  Or is God stingy with His children?  Is He capricious with His blessings?  Does He only give these blessings to His children as the mood strikes Him?  Does one need to recite some specific confession of faith a certain number of times to receive wealth?  If one is a penny short of the exact tithe will their physical health suffer?  Perhaps there is some secret knowledge not clearly taught in Scripture that is required to gain these fantastic blessings of wealth and health.  If so we are not talking about Christianity but Gnosticism.

Friends, we live in a fallen, perverted world.  An evil man and a godly man can both have wealth and health.  An evil man and a godly man can both be poor and sickly.  God may choose to bless a follower of Christ with wealth or health or both for a specific time but it will have to do with His plan for that individual and the building of His kingdom rather than as a result of some effective prayer for blessing.  This bogus prosperity gospel has caused many to view God as some great vending machine in the sky.  All they must do to be wealthy and healthy is to pop the right number of prayers, statements of faith, or coins in God’s heavenly machine.  God’s blessing are so much greater than worldly wealth and health.  God is all about the hereafter.  He is about your eternity.  Your now is simply part of the journey to forever.

With all of that said, obedience to God’s commands, humble submission to Christ, does lead to a kind of health and wealth enjoyed in the here and now.  God does promise to bless His children but He will bless in such a way as to prepare them for eternity.  Still, God’s Word is full of wisdom that, when followed, leads to a much better life today.  For example:

Proverbs 10:4

“A slack hand causes poverty,
but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”

Working hard and diligently will lead to a more prosperous worldly life.  There is no secret to this.  Even the lost know this lesson.  It is not a blessing reserved for the children of God.

Here is another concept of a prosperous life from God’s point of view.

Proverbs 11:24-25

“One gives freely, yet grows all the richer;
another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,
and one who waters will himself be watered.”

All that we have and all that we are belong to God.  When we view what we have as our own we are misappropriating what is God’s.  What God has given has been given for His purpose and glory.  When you use it for your own selfish purposes you are at odds with God’s intentions.  The proverb above concerns the attitude of one’s heart and is the difference between a clenched fist and an open hand.  When we cling to what we have our life is closed off and miserable.  When we open our hand in a gesture of giving our life is open and joyful.  Let me share an example of this from my own life.

When my wife and I married she owned a condo and I moved in to her place.  I often looked at this condo and the neighborhood and desired better.  This caused a certain amount of discontent in my life.  I had started tithing before marriage and continued thereafter.  I eventually started teaching an adult Sunday School Class, leading a men’s ministry, and working with a Christian youth organization called RAs (Royal Ambassadors).  I was engaged in Kingdom building.  As I used all that God had given me to His purposes, something happened.  Joy steadily grew in my life.  One day, full of a sense of contentment, I pulled up to our condo and grinned from ear to ear.  I had a great satisfaction with God’s provision.  I was pleased with our condo and felt as if I could happily live there forever.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt better or richer in my entire life.  Did God give me more stuff to make me feel this way?  No.  I became obedient and my heart steadily moved to this wonderful place of spiritual richness.  This is what God promises to His children.  This richness doesn’t come from what God gives me but from being obedient and faithful in using His gifts to His purpose.  You want to be “God rich”?  Tithe not only your money but your time.  Use what He has given you for His purpose and reap the spiritual riches that are your spiritual inheritance!

Have a blessed day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

The Words Of Wisdom

Proverbs 7-9

J. Vernon McGee said in his commentary “Thru the Bible” that the book of Proverbs is written as if to a young man starting out in life.  I do see that analogy as I read these Proverbs.  For example:

Proverbs 7:1-3

“My son, keep my words
and treasure up my commandments with you;
keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.”

The words “My son” give us this sense of someone instructing a young man.  In this case, however, the writer is using a literary devise which projects Wisdom as the speaker.  Now we know that Wisdom is not a person who can actually speak.  Solomon had to sit down and write these words for the anthropomorphized creature called Wisdom.  There my friends is a challenge for Christian men today.  Who will provide the words for Wisdom?

There are two kinds of men reading this blog today, those that need to be mentored and those that need to do the mentoring.  The problem is we never stop needing a mentor and so many of us who could mentor others are busy looking for someone to mentor us.  I would like to suggest that at some point in your spiritual growth you will hit a wall that can only be surmounted by mentoring someone less spiritually mature than yourself.  I remember an instructor once telling me that once I learned my lessons I need to go and teach them to someone else.  Doing so, he said, would help me truly own those lessons.

Some of you need to find a spiritual mentor that can speak wisdom to you.  Others of you need to find someone to mentor so you can continue to grow spiritually.  Christian men are suffering today for lack of mentoring relationships.  If we are to stand together as a light in this very dark world then we must start seeking out these relationships.  We must be willing to mentor others even when we feel we still need mentoring ourselves.  If we don’t, the words of Wisdom will go silent.

Have a blessed day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Proverbs 4-6

I love the Proverbs and there is much one can discuss about them.  One of the lines I like is from the fourth proverb.

Proverbs 4:18

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”

When one walks toward the light things get brighter and brighter.  When one walks toward the darkness things become darker; the light dwindles.  To submit one’s life to Christ is to make a choice to walk toward the light.  Every day, as we become more like Christ, more and more light enters our life.  When we stumble and sin we look backwards toward the dark.  Sin and darkness go hand in hand, for a man does not like to commit his sin where all can see.

We are saved in an instant but life submitted to Christ is a walk on the path of righteousness toward the brightness of full day.  Why is it that some get weary and stop on that path halfway between the light and the dark?  You are saved, but God continues to grow you and stretch you so that you will become the man He intends you to be; a man like Christ.  Don’t give up when the going gets rough.  God will not give you more than you can handle.  He has told you this and you must embrace the strength that comes from this truth so as not to give up the fight.

Walk on the path of righteousness brothers.  Do not get weary.  Do not stop.  Keep going.  Keep growing.  There is indeed light at the end of the tunnel!

Have a blessed day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

Wisdom

Proverbs 1-3

The book of Proverbs pops up at this point in our chronological reading plan because we have advanced in time to Solomon’s reign and he is the author of this book.  That is why, in addition to reading 2 Chronicles and 1 Kings which cover Solomon’s reign, we have also read a few Psalms, the Song of Solomon, and will read Proverbs and Ecclesiastes which were written by Solomon.  He had asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him in spades.

Solomon wrote about various aspects of life.  In Song of Solomon he wrote about marital love.  In Ecclesiastes he wrote about folly.  In Proverbs he wrote about wisdom.  I’ve heard it suggested that Proverbs provides a picture of a young man starting out in life.  The wisdom being shared is intended to guide his feet upon the wisest course.  Whether you are just starting out in life, however, or well along in years, Proverbs provides wisdom for all of us.  I remember hearing Dave Ramsey, the Financial Peace guy, say that he reads a proverb every day.  There are 31 of them so it almost breaks down to reading the book every month.

Guys, the entire Bible is about wisdom.  I think it makes good sense to read the Proverbs on a regular basis and I’ve just started reading a Proverb a day with my daughter as part of my attempt to train her up in the way she should go.  That said, let us not forget the wisdom of the rest of the Bible.  Just reading a Psalm or Proverb every day is not enough; it is only part of a well-balanced spiritual diet.  We must read all of the Bible for it gives us that well rounded wisdom that leads to eternal, joyful life.

Have a blessed day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

A Wise Fool

Proverbs 31 – Ecclesiastes 2

Well, we finished Proverbs today and started Ecclesiastes.  I really enjoyed Proverbs and intend to spend some more time in them on my own.  I think I could take one verse a day and find great profit in pondering the truth there-in.  I think it is fascinating that Proverbs ends with a discussion on the makings of an excellent wife.  I know many of us have an excellent wife while others are still searching.  I also know there are some who read this description and think their wife doesn’t measure up.  If you are thinking along that line I’d like to turn the question around on you.  When your wife reads in the scriptures what makes an excellent husband would she feel you measure up?

Fellas, we can’t control how others act or think or speak; we can only control ourselves.  The problem with griping that our wife doesn’t measure up to the biblical standard is that the same can be said of us.  Instead of focusing on the speck in our wife’s eye maybe we should be looking at the plank in our own.  As the spiritual head of our home it is incumbent on us to live a godly life.  It is by our faithful example that our family will be led.

I remember a story of a brother in Christ who was married to an unbeliever.  I’m not sure if he married her after he was already a believer or not but regardless his wife was antagonistic toward his faith.  She ridiculed him, berated him, and put him down.  The demands of his employment and marital situation left him little time to read his Bible.  His response was to make time.  He got up every morning at 3am to read his Bible.  I’m saying every morning!  He was faithful.

His wife noticed.  One morning, while he sat reading his Bible she came down stairs and spoke to him.  She told him that she couldn’t understand how he could be so consistent in his faith in the face of all that she threw at him.  He never rose to the bait she kept throwing out.  He never failed to get up to read his Bible.  His behavior led her to believe that maybe, just maybe, there was something to his faith after all.  She asked him to tell her about it.

Now I know most of us are married to Christian women; what a blessing!  I’m also sure that if we focused on how they are supposed to be we would find fault.  As I’ve said, however, if they look at you they will find fault as well.  You can do nothing directly about their faults but you can do everything about your own.  By doing so you may just provide the leadership they need to address theirs.

Now, about Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote this book along with Proverbs and the Song of Solomon.  As J. Vernon McGee says, Proverbs is the wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiastes is the foolishness of Solomon.  He says that Ecclesiastes is “the dramatic autobiography of his life when he was away from God.”  Remember that Solomon was eventually led away from God by his intermarriage with foreign women and the influence of their foreign gods.

I’m going to provide the outline of this book followed by Dr. McGee’s commentary on the book.  Ecclesiastes is a very different kind of book from the others in the Bible and I think it important for us to understand that before we get too far into it.

McGee, J. V. (1997). Thru the Bible commentary (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Outline

I. Problem Stated: “All is Vanity,” Chapter 1:1–3

II.  Experiment Made, Chapters 1:4–12:12
(Seeking Satisfaction in the following:)

A.  Science, Chapter 1:4–11

B.  Wisdom and Philosophy, Chapter 1:12–18

C.  Pleasure, Chapter 2:1–11

D.  Materialism (Living for the “Now”), Chapter \2:12–26

E.   Fatalism, Chapter 3:1–15

F.   Egotism, Chapters 3:16–4:16

G.  Religion, Chapter 5:1–8

H.  Wealth, Chapters 5:9–6:12

I.    Morality, Chapters 7:1–12:12

III.  Result of Experiment, Chapter 12:13–14

“To correctly understand any book of the Bible, it is important to know the purpose for which it was written. We need to back off and get a perspective of the book. We need to put down the telescope on the Word of God before we pick up the microscope. The necessity for this is more evident here than in many of the other books of the Bible.

This is human philosophy apart from God, which must always reach the conclusions that this book reaches. We need to understand this about Ecclesiastes, because there are many statements which contradict certain other statements of Scripture.

Actually, it almost frightens us to know that this book has been the favorite of atheists, and they have quoted from it profusely. Voltaire is an example. Today we find the cynic and the critic are apt to quote from this book. And it is quite interesting to note the number of cults that use passages from this book out of context and give them an entirely wrong meaning.

Man has tried to be happy without God; it is being tried every day by millions of people. This book shows the absurdity of the attempt. Solomon was the wisest of men, and he had a wisdom that was God-given. He tried every field of endeavor and pleasure that was known to man, and his conclusion was that all is vanity. The word vanity means “empty, purposeless.” Satisfaction in life can never be attained in this manner.

God showed Job, a righteous man, that he was a sinner in God’s sight. In Ecclesiastes God showed Solomon, the wisest man, that he was a fool in God’s sight. This is a book from which a great many professors, Ph.D.s and Th. D. s, and preachers could learn a great lesson. In spite of all their wisdom, in spite of all attempts at being intellectual, unregenerate men in the sight of God are fools. That, my friend, is something that is hard to swallow for those who put an emphasis upon their I. Q. and the amount of knowledge and information that they have accumulated.

In Ecclesiastes we learn that without Christ we cannot be satisfied—even if we possess the whole world and all the things that men consider necessary to make their hearts content. The world cannot satisfy the heart, because the heart is too large for the object. In the Song of Solomon we will learn that if we turn from the world and set our affections on Christ, we cannot fathom the infinite preciousness of His love; the Object is too large for the heart.

The key word is “vanity,” which occurs thirty-seven times. The key phrase is “under the sun,” which occurs twenty-nine times. Another phrase which recurs is “I said in mine heart.” In other words, this book contains the cogitations of man’s heart. These are conclusions which men have reached through their own intelligence, their own experiments. Although Solomon’s conclusions are not inspired, the Scripture that tells us about them is inspired. This is the reason for the explanatory: “I said in mine heart,” “under the sun,” and “vanity.”

…This is not a book without rhyme or reason—not just a bunch of verses stuck together. It begins with the problem stated: All is vanity in this world. Then we will find that experiments are made. Solomon will seek satisfaction through many different avenues, in many different fields. He will try science, the laws of nature, wisdom and philosophy, pleasure and materialism, as well as living for the “now.” He will explore fatalism, egotism, religion, wealth, and morality. Then in the final verses of the book he will give us the result of his experiments.

Keep in mind that the conclusions in each experiment are human, not God’s truth. This is man under the sun.

Do not misunderstand what is meant by “inspiration” when we say that the Bible is inspired by God. Inspiration guarantees the accuracy of the words of Scripture, not always the thought that is expressed. The context should be considered, and attention paid to the person who made the statement and under what circumstances the statement was made. For example, in the betrayal of Christ by Judas, the record of the event is inspired, but the act of Judas was not God-inspired; it was satanic. Also the statements that Solomon makes, while he is searching for satisfaction apart from God, are not always in accord with God’s thoughts. Inspiration guarantees that what Solomon said has been accurately recorded in Scripture.”

Let us not be fools my friends.  Let us learn wisdom from Solomon’s foolishness!

Have a faithful day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!