Proverbs 11:24

"There is one who scatters, yet
increases more;
And there is one who witholds
more than is right,
But it leads to poverty." (Proverbs 11:24 NKJV)

It doesn't seem to make sense. Are we to believe that the person who gives will yield increase whilst the one who hoards will actually lose, eventually coming to poverty? In short, yes. This sort of wisdom seems foolish according to the world's economic standards, but we're talking God's economy here. And scripture is hardly silent on this topic. There are many references such as Malachi 3:10 and 2 Corinthians 9:6 which seem to reinforce the same point made in the above verse from Proverbs.

I must say, in giving unto the Lord, whether to the local church, an individual or organization in His name and for His purposes to be fulfilled, I have never regretted it. Yes, I've had instances where I was decieved by people whom I thought I was helping, yet had bad intentions. But even in those cases, the Lord always provided for me. And the provision wasn't just in the physical sense, but in lessons learned in being more discrete.

When I look at Proverbs 11:24 some lyrics from an old song come to mind:

Live for yourself and you will live in vain,
Live for others and you will live again

("Pass It On", Bob Marley and The Wailers)

Regardless of what Bob Marley and the crew may have believed at that particular point in time, these words seem to hold some truth. I don't know whether they were suggesting living for and therefore giving to others will earn you eternal life. Obviously, I don't believe that. But I do believe living for Lord and esteeming others higher than ourselves are essentials in this journey if we are to live His way. When we live and give to and for Him, we are promised great reward, particularly on the other side of eternity. When we live selfishly and are determined to keep what we feel is rightfully ours (even though it really isn't), we will end up losing everything, including our very souls. This is the most desperate poverty there is.

I also believe this scripture can and does apply in the earthly sense too. When we are good caretakers of what God provides, then He can entrust us with being responsible for more. When we are involved in planting and sowing into the lives of others on His behalf, I believe it is something dear to His heart. By His nature, God is a giver and it so happens He has chosen to entrust us with being agents of giving and scattering. In His economy, the more we give the more we get.

Proverbs 10

Last Thursday on my radio show I mentioned that our computer at home was out of commission, comparing the situation to not having a refrigerator. I'm not sure it was the greatest comparison, but the ol' PC has certainly become a vital tool and resource within our home for a myriad of reasons. Needless to say, I'm back. I've been catching up on some of the thoughts of other "Proverbers" (or is it Proverbists?) in our group such as Frank, Steve and Rose. I decided to pick up with my comments starting with chapter 10 rather than backtracking, though I have been reading. Not surprisingly, I've found it a challenge to be consistent with this but today is a new day and here I am!

Proverbs 10
⁴ He who has a slack hand becomes poor,
But the hand of the diligent makes rich.
⁵ He who gathers in summer is a wise son;
He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.

As I read these, a few thoughts came to mind. For me, it is possible to be very busy and get little or nothing done. I am good at coming up with ideas and perhaps even fair at recieving them from the Holy Spirit. When they're coming from Him we sometimes refer to them as promptings. At any rate, I would venture to say that anything that is truly good, ideas or otherwise, can be traced back to God Himself. In other words, He ought to get the credit for the inspiration or the ability to be imaginative and creative.

Does it seem funny for me to say I can be busy and still get little or nothing done? I have a feeling many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. I believe the hand of the diligent (v.4) speaks to one who works intentionally and efficiently. We know that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Heb. 11:6). The problem is that far too often my seeking is not very diligent. My willingness and power to seek Him have a tendency to be sapped of energy as my attention is drawn to other things. As a result my seeking, well-meaning as it may be, is rather divided and distracted. I would certainly apply this to my daily devotional time with the Lord.
Deep down I desire to focus my energies and affection on the Lord, to make Him my utmost priority every day. When I don't, I falter big time. My attitude deteriorates, my words can begin to be unpleasant and my productivity for Him all but dries up. Certainly I want to be rich, bearing fruit and storing up great treasure in heaven. Shouldn't we all desire such?

I realize a busy hand can still be a slack hand if it is not being used properly or efficiently. My desire is to use my time better, doing the things I'm supposed to be doing. Quite frankly, I can spend a lot of time surfing the web, reading articles on practically everything under the sun from sports to politics to nature and spiritual topics. Even when I sit in a chair (not the computer one) to open my bible I have a tendency to get distracted and end up reaching for a magazine, newspaper, CD or whatever. Maybe I need to set up a room with nothing but a chair in it!

I want to be wise, busy gathering when it's time to gather, when the fields are beginning to yield a harvest. Jesus told His disciples the fields were already white, or ripe, for harvest. He tells us we are to be laborers and beyond that, to pray for more laborers for the harvest is great and the laborers are few.

I'll sum up with a verse from Psalm 90 that I think ties things up quite nicely:

¹² So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

It's all about redeeming our allotted time. It's about using it wisely. This is my meditation for today.

Proverbs 2

My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, [And] apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, [And] lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as [for] hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:1-5, NKJV)

It may have been said that "if" is the grammatical giant of two letter-words. And if it hasn't been said, I'm saying it now. It's kind of like a pebble-sized boulder. When we see the word "if" we can pretty well ascertain that there are conditions being stipulated (i.e. If my people, who are called by name will humble themselves...II Chronicles 7:14). You get the picture; there is God's end of the bargain and then there is ours.

The above passage from Proverbs 2 contains some strong ifs.

"...if you receive my words..." (v.1)

"...if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding,..." (v.3)

"If you seek her as silver..." (v.4)

After these ifs (our end of the bargain) we naturally would like to know, "Alright, Lord. If I do these things then what do I receive in return?" Well there's tons we receive! We become recipients of the understanding of the fear of the Lord (remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7)) and, therefore, we find the knowledge of God. Wow! Can you imagine getting to know the secrets of the most brilliant scientist or physicist- if we could even understand what in the world they were talking about! We might well be blown away by their genius. Well, the Creator of the universe offers to share His knowledge with us. As a result of Him knocking our socks off, we cultivate a reverance for Him, for His Majesty, for His Holiness, for His Otherness, for who He is.

This speaks to me because there is a tendency to reduce YHWH down to a sort of friend Whom we can chat with anytime about anything. While this is true, I don't want to lose sight of His utter awesomeness and supremacy over all beings and things. May it be our passion to receive His words, cry out for discernment, to lift up our voices for understanding and to seek it as it were precious silver, and discovering veins of silver was what put bread and butter on our tables. Solomon writes here that if we do these things, then we will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Those are two pretty incredible possessions to have if you ask me.

Thoughts on Proverbs 1

Hello! A couple of friends (Frank and Steve) and myself have embarked on a journey through the book of Proverbs; a chapter a day for 31 days. Each day I'll try and record my thoughts as to what speaks to me in particular. Because the Proverbs are so rich in nuggets of wisdom and not neccesarily in lengthy passages, there seems to be lots of stuff that you can grasp on to. However, for the purpose of this journey, I'll try and discern those things the Lord is emphasizing to me most and highlight those here.

Let's get started with Proverbs 1.

Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. (Proverbs 1:23)

By nature, I don't particularly enjoy being wrong. If there's one thing I like even less than being wrong it's being told I'm wrong. I've come to realize at heart this is really a pride issue. Being wrong means you don't have it right. And in our carnality, being wrong is a sign of inferiority. It's funny because I can remember back in school there were classmates who made a big stink about getting a 96 on an exam when I was happy to just get a decent passing grade. But let's stay on track here. Being wrong may mean you lack knowledge and it may also mean you've made a bad (or incorrect) choice.

As usual, Almighty God sees things a bit differently. To shrug off His rebuke or correction doesn't preserve my dignity, it makes me foolish. It becomes an obstruction to His making His words known to me. It also puts a lid on His desire to pour out His Spirit upon me. Let's remember one of the blessings of having the Holy Spirit in our lives is that He convicts us. In almost every case, we don't need someone to point out when we're wrong because He's already revealed it. But if someone does call us out on something, hopefully speaking the truth in love, we ought to regard it as a blessing rather than an injury to our pride or ego. My desire is for a more correctable spirit and the eyes to see the blessing in the One who chastens whom He loves.

"...it's the beat, the beat, the beat!"

When I was a teenager I remember hearing what may have been an excerpt from an interview, during which the male speaker, perhaps a very concerned father, is expressing his disdain for the music of Elvis Presley and its effect on the youth. He seems to reach the conclusion that the thing that hooks the youth into Presley's music is the beat. The man's emotionally charged allegations were mocked by those who dispelled his concerns as being loony, but from my experience and observations I'd have to say he was probably onto something.

I know this is kind of a touchy issue, so I'll try and tread lightly while keeping it brief. I know there have been studies done showing that listening to types certain music (particularly "dance" music) apparently triggers a release of endorphines into the bloodstream. Some critics from a Christian perspective claim this produces a sort of high or rush within the listener. My take is a simpler one. When you're listening to a certain type of music, even an individual song, where does it take you? Is it pulling you away from the Lord- despite what may be good lyrics? (By the way, I'm not suggesting we never listen to "secular" music.) Let's be honest here. You may be listening to someone quoting bible verses, but if the backdrop is more like the kind of thing you danced to in the clubs back in the day then it's likely not encouraging you toward Christ. In fact, the message is probably getting lost in the beat.

I'll tell you a little story. Several years ago I was riding in the car of a new friend/aquaintance who also said he was a follower of Christ. He also happened to be a musician. He said he wanted me to hear a certain recording he had in his car's CD player. It turned out to be some pretty vulgar stuff, and I was just unable to listen to it. When I questioned my friend as to why he would listen to such music he said he really didn't pay attention to the lyrics (!) and was only listening for the music and production values. I was flabbergasted!

To sum up, I believe everything we take in affects us. Scripture says we're to guard our hearts. So let's give thanks for and enjoy the freedom we have in Christ, but let's also use it with wisdom and discretion and not make provision for the flesh.

Digging Deep

"Whosever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock." (Luke 6:47-48 KJV)

We seem to understand what Jesus is saying here in this parable about the importance of building on "a rock" rather than "the earth" (as he says in verse 49). Rock is more solid and stable than earth. We get it. But do we really give thought to what it means to "dig deep" in order to get to the rock? It seems the process of hearing and doing what Jesus says is part of the excavating and foundation-laying work, or maybe it's the other way around. Either way, when we hear what Jesus has to say and find ourselves in agreement, yet fail to act on it we're laying a weak foundation which will suffer catastrophic failure when the swelling streams begin to pound against it. We say we want to "do" what we "hear" Jesus say yet seem to be unable to. If this is the case, perhaps we're relying too much upon our own ability and have reduced the bible to a simple guidebook. We need to remember to rely and draw upon the Holy Spirit and to pray for the courage and willingness to follow through. No doubt, there will be struggles as we strive to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. The apostle Paul articulated this struggle well in a stunning display of disarming humility in Romans 7:13-25. And I love how he sums up his thoughts by giving "thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord", reaching the conclusion that with the mind he served the law of God but with the flesh the the law of sin. Mind (of Christ) over matter.

But let's get back to the point at hand. I'm pretty certain that during the time of Jesus' ministry there were caterpillars, but no Caterpillars. No earth-moving equipment like backhoes, cranes or bulldozers. Digging, especially through manual labor, was and is among the toughest work around. It's backbreaking work that requires lots of sweat and endurance. Digging deep in the spiritual sense, I believe, has to do with digging into the word- reading it (and rereading it), meditating on it and absorbing it. It also has to do with persisting in prayer. I'm not suggesting it's drudgery; far from it. But it is hard work, though richly rewarding hard work. Jesus is the rock, but we need to be willing to roll up our sleeves, grab the shovel and get to work. Let's remember "we are laborers together with God" (I Cor. 3:9). In the construction business, doing the work of a laborer isn't a glamorous job. It's usually the most physical and financially, the least rewarding. Jesus is The Rock and and in order to have a deep, strong, storm-resisting spiritual house we're going to need to do more than just throw a few shovels of topsoil. Let's dig in!

Still Here

Wow, where did three months go? That's about how long it's been since I last posted something.

I suppose there are a couple of reasons; for one I tend to not be terribly consistent with diaries/journals/blogs and such, and secondly, I've yet to have any interraction here. I've yet to see any comments from visitors. And I don't even know if I've had any visitors. (Okay, you can bring out the violins now...woe is me.) I know this blog is searchable and I thought at least the DylanDevotional would have picked up my Dylan post via RSS feed, but it just hasn't happened. Then again, I don't think I started this blog with any grand ideas about getting visitors. My perspective was that I was doing this more for myself than anyone else. Perhaps I need to think bigger. I was posting fairly regularly for a while and I know regularity is one of the keys to keeping people interested and coming back. Well, those are my thoughts for the moment. You may gently put away your violins now. Thanks.