Tag: Proverbs

Woman looking thoughtfully at a trophy labeled achievement beside an open book

Winning in Life: The Power of Listening to Wisdom

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“Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching, for they will be a garland of favor on your head and pendants around your neck.” (Proverbs 1:8-9 CSB – Read the chapter)

It’s fun to win. Winners get trophies and medals and certificates and awards. You can display those where people can see them and know that you won, that you were awesome. They are tangible proof that you accomplished something good or even great. Yes, in a culture that gives participation trophies, winning becomes diluted to the point that no one cares quite as much about it as they once did, but by that kind of progressive, make-everyone-feel-good thinking can’t erase our desire to win entirely. We want to win. Well, Solomon here tells us a way we can win in life. Let’s check out what it is.

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Open book on wooden surface with sunrise over river and mountains

Unlocking Wisdom: A Journey Through Proverbs

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“The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: For learning wisdom and discipline; for understanding insightful sayings; for receiving prudent instruction in righteousness, justice, and integrity; for teaching shrewdness to the inexperienced, knowledge and discretion to a young man—let a wise person listen and increase learning, and let a discerning person obtain guidance—for understanding a proverb or a parable, the words of the wise, and their riddles.” ( Proverbs 1:1-6 CSB – Read the chapter)

Wisdom is not something our culture thinks much about. Knowledge, yes. Experience, perhaps. But wisdom, not so much. That’s too bad because we could use some wisdom nowadays. The choices we face as a people, as a nation, as a world are stark and filled with potential for great good or great harm. The answers to our biggest questions won’t be easy to come by—they rarely are—but the path to the best end will always be one lighted by wisdom. Today we begin a new journey. This is one I have wanted to take for some time, but have always put it off because it has seemed rather daunting. Yet daunting or not, we are going to begin tackling the best source of wisdom we have in the Scriptures. It won’t be a short journey, but, Lord willing, it will be a fruitful one. Let’s begin a trip through the Proverbs.

Let me add one more thing before we dive in. I’m trying something a little different today. You may have noticed this post doesn’t have what has been one of my standard post titles for nine years. Those two titles told you about how long a particular post was going to be, and they told you what Scripture we were going to be exploring together, but they weren’t particularly engaging. While the reach of this blog is global in a way I never could have imagined it would be (it has been viewed in something like 190 countries over its lifetime), it’s also not very big. I would love to see it grow from where it is, and if a search-engine-optimized title will help accomplish that, I guess I can change some. So, titles will look a bit different going forward, but hopefully they’ll be a bit catchier. In any event, on to the focus of the day.

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Digging in Deeper: Proverbs 17:17

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“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a difficult time.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When the apostle Paul was describing how the church works best, he chose more than once to use the illustration of a human body. A human body is healthiest when all the parts properly play their part. No two parts are the same, and all of them are necessary for the fullest and best functioning. This is the case with the body, it is the case in the church, and, as we are going to see, it is the case in a movie. The best movies feature a team of different actors all playing unique parts. If everyone plays their part well, the movie works. I was reminded of this fact this week as I finally got to watch Deadpool & Wolverine when it made its streaming debut on Disney+. Let’s talk about what worked, what didn’t, and how even in an excessively gory, foul-mouthed, irreverent, and sacrilegious movie, the Gospel is still present.

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Digging in Deeper: Proverbs 11:4-6

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“Wealth is not profitable on a day of wrath, but righteousness rescues from death. The righteousness of the blameless clears his path, but the wicked person will fall because of his wickedness. The righteousness of the upright rescues them, but the treacherous are trapped by their own desires.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What benefit is there in being right with God? If you’re a follower of Jesus, before you jump all over yourself offering a litany of answers to that question, pause for just a minute and think on it. What benefit is there in being right with God? Let me ask that another way. What benefit is there in righteousness? It’s amazing how changing just a couple of words there puts a whole different spin on that question. Righteousness is a theological word. Being right with God and being righteous are generally two different concepts in our minds. Let me add one more element to this: What benefit is there in being right with people? Now, that’s a totally different question. Except it isn’t. I have been journeying through the book of Proverbs with my deacons for the past few weeks. This morning I want to reflect with you for just a minute on something that caught my attention in our passage for this week. Let’s talk about the benefits godly living.

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Morning Musing: Proverbs 14:25

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“A truthful witness rescues lives, but one who utters lies is deceitful.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What value is there in truth? Do lies really hurt? We live today in a culture in which truth is a bit of a fluid concept. We speak of having “my truth” as if that can be different from your truth or even the truth. Indeed, if there is such a thing as your truth and my truth, can there even be something that is the truth? Perhaps more importantly, does it really even matter? What’s wrong with these fluid concepts of truth? I’ve been watching a show lately that puts on display just why living in the truth matters so much. Let’s talk this morning about the HBO miniseries, Chernobyl.

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