Smart Proverbs Today

July 16, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Morning Bible Reading from Proverbs 16.

Pro. 16.1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. –This could be the reason why there are times when you end up saying things you didn’t plan to say.

Pro. 16.2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. –You thought you were right, but it’s not your opinion that should measure the rightness or wrongness of your actions. It’s the Word of God.

Pro. 16.5 Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished. –Stop worrying about arrogant people, the Lord is the one who will deal with them. On the flip side, don’t be arrogant, the Lord is a just God, he will punish arrogant people.

Pro. 16.7 When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. –Instead of trying to please people who are at odds with you, focus on pleasing God by living right. The Lord will find a way to reconcile you to them.

Pro. 16.12 It is an abomination to kings to do evil, for the throne is established by righteousness. –A leader’s position is given by God and is established by His righteousness. Leaders, use your platform to do right. God placed you in that position, umayos ka!

Pro. 16.18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. –Babagsak din ang mga mayayabang kaya tigilan mo na ang pagyayabang.

Pro. 16.22 Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instruction of fools is folly. –Don’t listen to the advise of fools. (Cebuano: Buang lang ang maminaw sa tambag sa buang!)

Pro. 16.27 A worthless man plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire. –Worthless people use inflammatory language.

Pro. 16.31 Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life. –Make sure that you age in grace, that when you’re old, you have something glorious to look back to. Most people are unhappy about their choices in the past. When they look back to their younger years, they are consumed with regret over chances and opportunities tha are forever gone.

Pro. 16.32 Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. –Levelheadedness is power.

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The Ministry of Pain

July 6, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

George H. Morrison, in his daily E-Sword devotional, wrote about pain:

Whatever other functions pain may have, one is that it serves to fix attention. If there is anything harmful working in the body, it is supremely important that it should be localized, and so comes pain and rings the alarm bell, and concentrates attention on the spot.

Pain is the bugle sounding the reveille. Pain is the watchman crying on the walls. We should sleep on while the foe took the citadel were we not roused by the trumpet blast of pain. And though it is hard thus to be roused sometimes, and we are prone to murmur at the summons, yet better, surely, to be rudely wakened, than to be beaten by an insidious foe.

We shall never grasp some of God’s dealings with us unless we class them with that call of pain. Sometimes it were cruel to let us sleep; sometimes the only kindness is to wake us. And there are sorrows and failures and bitter disappointments which we can never hope to understand, until we realize they are God’s stratagems to fix our attention on the things which matter.

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Extremely Ordinary

June 26, 2011 by · 1 Comment

His name was Ananias. He was the guy in Acts 9 that God sent to pray for blind Saul. At first he was hesitant to obey. Why would he go and see someone who was notorious for dragging Christians to prison? He was just an ordinary disciple in Damascus who happened to be there when God was looking for someone to turn the tides of world history.

He debated with God for a while but eventually gave in. He went ahead and prayed a miraculous healing for Saul. We never heard from Ananias again because he simply faded into the background. But the person he prayed for became the greatest missionary of all time, the apostle who brought the gospel to the Gentile world.

Ananias didn’t know that Saul would go on to face the greatest politicians and philosophers of his time, introduce Christianity to the world and forever alter the course of world history. He didn’t know that Paul would go on to write most of the New Testament, the very books that became the basis of Western philosophy and religion. He didn’t know much. He simply obeyed and his obedience made his extremely ordinary life yield extraordinary results.

Praise God for ordinary lives.

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