State of the Blog: Finished Proverbs, On to Acts

We are continuing on our journey of daily Bible reading. We learned a lot from the book of Proverbs; now we are moving on to the book of Acts.

The book of Acts starts with Jesus ascending back into heaven, and gives the history of the early church in Jerusalem. It shows how the early church spread throughout the Roman empire, and tells us much about the men who spread it.

It is an exciting book, full of adventure and full of truths about God and man.

Also, it has 28 chapters, which is the same as the amount of days that are in February.

While you are here, you may as well check out this awesome video:

Proverbs 31: The Godly Woman

I want you to take a moment and think about the woman described in this passage.

Women, does this in any way, shape, or form describe you?  If it doesn’t, this should be a model to you. Stop emulating the people that might be cool, stylish, or attractive. Instead emulate this woman who is a hardworking woman, who made a great wife for this man. She is of extreme value to him and to the kingdom of God

Men, does this describe the girl you're looking for in the future when the time comes?  If not, then you need to reevaluate what you are looking for. You might be looking for a girl that is stylish or pretty, but if she is not morally upright and hard working, is that the type of girl you want to spend your life with? Or are you looking to just have fun at the expense of a broken heart? Test yourselves men, and save yourself for a woman like the one described in this passage.

Proverbs 30: Prayer

Do we pray like the author of this chapter?

In verses 7-9 he prays: “Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”

This man asks to be neither rich nor poor. For if he is rich, he may think he doesn’t need God, and if he is poor, he may be tempted to steal. He asks all of this for the sake of the name of God--not his own greediness, but for the glory of God and how people will respond to God.

Do we pray in this manner or do we pray selfishly?

Provers 29: Justice

Though the government is ordained by God, and we are supposed to obey it, we should not look to it for perfect or complete justice. Even the greatest kings or politicians are far from being perfect in their judgements. We should not be dreamers who think the next big political thing is going to solve our problems; only God can do that.

Verse 26 states, “Many seek the face of a ruler, but it is from the LORD that a man gets justice.”

Ultimately, justice will come from God. When Jesus returns to this earth he will judge justly as only God can.

Proverbs 28: Confess Your Sin

Verse 13 says something that we do not like to hear. “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”

We like to hide our sins; we even try to hide them from God. This verse is saying instead of hiding our sins, we need to confess them, say that they are wrong, and not do them any more. 

This is a harder way to live, since in and of ourselves we would like to assign blame and make excuses. However, this verse says we will be shown mercy if we confess and forsake our sins, but bad things will happen if we dont.

Proverbs 27: Getting Sharper

Verse 17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." 

What this means is that those we are with will affect us. We will be sharpened by those who are doing what's right and weakened by being with those who do wrong. Iron sharpens iron, and Christian sharpen other Christians.

Do you find yourself continually hanging out with people who bring you down spiritually? Then stop it, and instead hang with those who will sharpen you and push you to do better.  Spend time with those who push you closer to Jesus, rather than those who push you farther away.

Proverbs 26: Eating Vomit?

There is a verse in this chapter that is gross.

Verse 11 says, “Like a dog who returns to is vomit, is a fool who returns to his folly.”

Ever done something foolish? And then done it again? And again? The Bible says that doing this is like a dog that goes back and eats his own vomit.

This is a habit that we have to break. We will find ourselves slipping up and falling back into the same pits over and over again. You would think we would learn, but we don’t always. We need to break this habit, and realize the foolish things we do are like vomit.

Proverbs 25: Repay Meanness with niceness

Our immediate response to someone who is mean to us is to be mean back. This often causes the conflict to escalate and get much worse than it would have been had we responded in a different manner.

Verses 21-22 of this chapter are very interesting: "If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you."

The idea is be nice to your enemies. If you are nice to your enemies you may bring them to change their attitude because of what you did and how you responded. You, as a Christian, could help bring them to God by your actions of kindness in the face of their unkindness.

Proverbs 24: Authority

Do you have trouble respecting authority?

American teenagers are sometimes (sadly) known for disrespecting authority. Are you disrespectful of your parents, police officers, or teachers?

There may be peer pressure to be disrespectful because some people think it's cool to be disrespectful. Well, one thing we see in the book of Proverbs is an encouragement to respect God’s authority and the authority of the King. We must remember that God is sovereign ,and for this reason we must respect the laws of the land and do as they say.

Verses 21-22 say, "My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?"

Judgement awaits us if we do not listen to the authorities God has placed over our lives.  Let us remember that.

Proverbs 23: Don't Envy Evil

Do you ever find yourself envying how others live?

Maybe they go to a lot of parties, and it looks like they are having a lot of fun.  Maybe they get whatever they want because they steal, or because the only thing they care about is money.  Maybe he has a lot of friends because he tells dirty jokes.  Maybe she gets lots of dates because she dresses immodestly.

Verse 17 says, "Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all day."

This is a warning that we should not envy the lives of sinners, but instead fear and respect God. We live our lives knowing that Jesus has given us life and given it more abundantly, so we do not need to be envious of the lifestyles of others.

Proverbs 22: Excuses, Excuses

Have you ever made up excuses for why you didn't do something?

"The water makes my hands dry out, so I didn't do the dishes."
"There is a loud, angry dog outside, so I cant mow the lawn."
"My parents gave me too many chores, so I didn't have time to do my homework."
"I just didn’t have time."
"There is a lion in the street, I cant go to work."

Oh wait... that last one is in this chapter (verse 13).

You know the sluggard (or lazy person) will make up any excuse just to get out of doing what they are supposed to do. Do you find yourself  not doing things often and then making excuses?

Let me tell you that it won’t be the lion that kills you, but your laziness will, in a sense, kill you.

Repent of this sin, and do all your work unto the God.

Proverbs 21: Honesty

Verse 6 says, "The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death."

It may seem like a good idea at the time to be dishonest just to get ahead. You might even get ahead for a while, but it will be short-lived. There is no satisfaction in winning by cheating, or by earning your way through life dishonestly.

Also, it will not last. Eventually you will get caught and punished.

There is no lasting value in living in a dishonest manner. Many people try to get by with a dishonest life, and it ends in ruin, perhaps with them ending up friendless and in jail. On the other hand, honest gain is lasting gain.

Proverbs 20: Hypocrisy

Are you saying one thing and doing another?

This might work for a while, but verse 11 says, “Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.”

People watch what you do and eventually will figure it out if your behavior is wrong. On the other hand, if you are doing what is right you don’t need to walk around saying "Look at me I’m doing right."  Your behavior will make that evident to others.

Proverbs 19: Slothful

Are you lazy? The Bible uses a word in many translations: slothful. This is used to describe a lazy person.

One verse in this chapter has this to say: “Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.”

Lazy people will end up sleeping so much that they don't get anything done; you can't be productive when you are sleeping. An idle person won't be able to make money so he will be hungry.

As younger individuals we set the pace of our lives. The habits that we form now will be with us for the rest of our lives. Are you lazy now? There is still time to change, so stop being lazy and work hard so that you will no longer be slothful.

Proverbs 18: Watch Yo Mouth

When I was younger I would often say things to specifically make people mad. I did this most often to my older brothers, because of this I often got well deserved beatings. But if you think about it I was pretty much asking for it, by purposely insulting or annoying them. Have you ever been in a situation where you used your mouth to get into trouble like I did? And you knew you were doing it? Ever said something intentionally to make someone mad? Well essentially this chapter says you're a fool.

Verse 6 says, “A fool's lips walk into a fight and his mouth invites a beating.”

I was a fool when I purposely provoked my brothers. When we talk in such a way as to provoke people, we are acting like a fool. Instead of using our mouth to get into trouble we should hold our tongue and be careful in what we speak. So Watch Yo Mouth!

Proverbs 17: Silence

My mom used to tell me, “If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all.” This is a sound piece of advice, and to some extent is a modern day proverb. There is a proverb similar to that in this chapter.

Verse 28 says, “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.”

Sometimes we do not have anything to say, but we like to hear our own voice and want to impress people, but we do not know what we are talking about so we fail miserably. But if we just keep our mouth shut we wouldn’t look so foolish, and may have learned from what others were saying.

Proverbs 16: Pride

Pride is something we are all guilty of it at one time or another.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our accomplishments or achievements that we fail to realize all the things we have done wrong or are incapable of doing.

Verse 18 of this chapter says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Destruction follows our pride. If we think more highly of ourselves than we should, we will fall, and it will be revealed that we are not as good as we appear.

Let's instead look at ourselves in a true light, recognizing our sin and weaknesses rather that being puffed up in our own mind.

Saturday Video: Do You Want God? Sermon Jam

Proverbs 15: God is Watching

God knows everything. Every thought, every action, everything that we have ever done. He knows the good stuff that we have done when no one else does. He also know every dark and deep secret that we keep hidden from everyone else.

Verse 3 says, “The Eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”

We must realize that when we do things in secret, God knows anyway. Let us confess our secret sins to Him and beg Him for forgiveness. We will be forgiven if we do this.

Also, we should look at this verse as a blessing too. God knows the needs we have, and He can be trusted to take care of us!

Proverbs 14: Doing What Feels Right

I hear this phrase all the time: “I am just going to do what feels right.” This is a statement that sounds good, until you look at it closer. Is how you feel the best indicator of whether something is right or wrong?

Often our feelings are very wrong.

Verse 12 says: “There is a way that seems right unto a man, but its end is the way of death.”

Our feelings are not a good indicator of what is right or wrong. The Bible is the indicator of what is right and wrong.

We need to recognize that if our feelings and the Bible contradict, we need to follow the Bible.

So next time you think to yourself, "I am going to do what feels right," make sure, instead, that you are doing what is right according to God's Word.

Proverbs 13: Parental Discipline

Some of you think your parents hate you when they punish you. You may feel like they are being hard or mean.

But they do not hate you. They are trying to raise you rightly, and they discipline you because they love you.

Listen to verse 24: “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”

Discipline causes you to become a different person. It helps you mature, and to learn from your past mistakes so you live life better.

Thank your parents for the discipline they have given you, and try to learn from each instance what you did wrong so that you can do better in the future.

Proverbs 12: Being Stupid

Do you remember getting into arguments when you were a kid? Maybe you argued about which Pokemon was betters (the answer is Zapdos), or which member of a boy band was the cutest, or maybe which Star Trek series was the best (okay, that last one was just me).

After you had been arguing for a while, it would turn ugly and you would start calling each other names. Finally someone would proclaim, “Well, you're just stupid.” (People in the background would be like “Oohhh, no, he didn’t!”)

The only response to “Well, you're just stupid” was to call the other person stupid as well. Bonus points if it could be done in a clever manner: “I'm rubber you’re glue....”

The point is, calling someone stupid is no joke. It is a serious matter. It hurts to be called stupid, and if the Bible calls us stupid we should probably change our ways.

Verse 1 says, “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.”

If you respond to correction well, you love knowledge. But, if you hate it when someone corrects you when you do something wrong, then you are stupid, according to the Bible.

Proverbs 11: You Can't Take it With You

You may have seen the bumper sticker that says "he who dies with the most toys wins." This statement is supposed to make us realize that life is not about stuff.

But so many of us live with this mindset. We want things. Fast cars, lots of money, and giant houses, among other things. But you know what happens to people who live their life for stuff? They die, just like everyone else, and they do not get to take their stuff with them. (Maybe you've seen the other bumper sticker that is more accurate: "he who dies with the most toys still dies.")

Verse 7 says, “When the wicked dies, his hope will perish, and the expectation of wealth perishes too.”

The wicked man's hope is on things on this earth. His hope is in his wealth or in his ability or in his station in life. So when he dies, his hope dies.

Let us, instead, cling to an eternal hope, found in God and in our resurrected Savior.

Proverbs 10: Living in God's Land

I believe we all want to live in the land of God. I don’t think you would be reading this if you did not want to live in God’s land.

So what does it take?

Verse 30 says, “The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land.”

In the context of the Old Testament as a whole, this is directly referring to the land of Israel that God had promised to Abraham. But the application, or the principle, is much broader. To go to the land that God has promised us takes being righteous. We of course know from Romans 3:10-11 that we are not righteous for it says: “as it is written, ‘none is righteous, no, not one; no one understand, no seeks after God.”

So how can we enter into the land God has for us? The answer is found in the book of Genesis.
Genesis 15:6 says, “And he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

Believing in God is what was counted as righteousness for Abraham, and it is what will count as righteousness for us.  We cannot be righteous outside of this.

Proverbs 9: How Do You Respond to Correction?

We all mess up a lot. People tend to see this, and our friends or our parents will correct us and help us. We have two ways we can respond to this correction. We can get angry, or we can understand that it was done in love, and choose to change our ways.


Verse 8 says, "Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you."


If we are scoffers and fools, we will respond angrily to correction. If we are wise, we will respond with love to that person. We need to strive to accept correction in love and to act wisely in this manner. 

Often when someone points out something that we have done wrong they are doing this because they love us, so let us respond by changing our lives, not fighting them.

Saturday Video: Gospel Graffiti

Proverbs 8: Wisdom Can Be Found

Let me assure you that wisdom exists, and it can be found in the pages of the Bible. Let me tell you that it is not too late. You may not have lived your life listening to God and to His Word up to this point, but you can start now. Wisdom is said to be crying aloud for all to hear, if we are just willing to listen.

Verses 35-36 say, "For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”

If we find wisdom we get favor from God, and if we don’t find wisdom we hurt ourselves. To sum up: wisdom can be found, and if we don’t find it, we are in trouble.

Proverbs 7: Looking for Sin

We often put ourselves in a position that will cause temptation and lead to sin. We allow ourselves to be put in situations with people of the opposite gender where we are going to be tempted to sin sexually. In some ways it is like we are looking for sin, or at least trying to see how close we can come and still avoid sin. This chapter is written so that we would avoid sexual sin. It is written so that we would avoid even being tempted by such sin and instead would flee it. It might appear to be fun at the time, and sin can be seductive, but we need to run away from it.

Verses 8-9 say, "and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house."

The man is heading to the prostitute's house.  He is seeing how close he can get to sin, and in the end he falls into it. Let us not be like him, but instead flee from sin.

Proverbs 6: Laziness

Laziness is a sin that many people struggle with. We tend to avoid hard work and instead expect things to be done for us. Maybe we complain when we are supposed to do chores or our homework. But life takes hard work, and the Christian life takes even more hard work.

In this chapter Solomon uses the illustration of an ant, here is what he says in vereses 7-8: "Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest."

The ant doesn’t need anyone to watch over it making sure that it does what it needs to do. And neither should you. You should fulfill your obligations for school and in your home without your parents riding you the whole time.

Proverbs 5: Regret

What do you think your going to regret at the end of your life?

Do you think you will regret doing whats right?

Do you think you will regret listening to those with more wisdom than you?

Or will you regret ignoring those who are wiser and older than you?

Or will you regret your sin, and foolish behavior?

Verses 12-14 say, “and you say, 'How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.'”

Here is a man who ignored instruction, and followed his own way, on the edge of destruction. He regrets not listening to people when he was younger. He regrets hating discipline and instruction.

You will regret going to parties, and doing other bad things, but you will not regret living for and loving God.

Proverbs 4: Which Path?

There are two paths that we can take in this life. We can take the path of the wicked, which leads to death and destruction. Or we can take the path of righteousness, which leads to life.

Verses 14-15 say, “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.”

We are supposed to stay away from the path of the wicked and not even touch it. This is a path that leads to bad things. Small sins lead to more sin as we walk down this path of destruction. Sometimes we walk down this path because of friends or for other reasons, but we should walk down the path of righteousness instead.

Verses 26-27 say, "Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil."

We need to examine the path that we are on. Are we on the path of righteousness, leading to God? Or are we on the path leading to destruction? Are there things, or even people, that we need to cut out of our life so that we go down the right path?

Proverbs 3: Trusting God

The book of Proverbs may be talking about wisdom and knowledge, but its not your wisdom or knowledge, its about God’s.

Verse 5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

By our nature we are fools.  We need the wisdom of God.

We shouldn’t follow our own ideas and our own path, but instead we should follow the wisdom of God.

Verse 6 continues this idea: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

In everything that we do we should honor God.

If we do this, the Bible says that our paths will be made straight.

Proverbs 2: What Do You Expect?

Do you expect wisdom to come up to you and introduce itself?  Do you expect to wake up one morning and suddenly be wise?

or

Do you expect to have to work for wisdom?  Do you expect to have to search for wisdom?

Verses 4-5 say: "If you seek it like silver, and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand how to fear the Lord, and you will discover knowledge about God." (NET)

We have to look for wisdom. It will not come to us; we have to find it. We have to search for it like it is something of worth before we can gain it. If we do not think of wisdom as having value, then we will not find wisdom.

So then, let us search for widsom, and let us search for the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 1: Is this for You?

Proverbs 1

Is this for you?

Is the book of proverbs a book for you? This question is answered in verse 4.

The author of Proverbs (a king named Solomon) says, “to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth—” (ESV)

Now I’m not saying you are "simple," but you are a youth. Discretion and knowledge are important things. They help us know right from wrong and good from bad.

This book was written so that you, a youth, might know how to live your life.

So how do we gain wisdom or discretion? King Solomon also answers that question:
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (ESV)

So, fear (or reverent respect) is the beginning of this knowledge of good and evil. Our options are simple: we can know God, and respect Him and begin a journey towards wisdom, or we can despise wisdom and instruction and be labeled a fool.

So I hope you join us as we go through the book of Proverbs, and gain wisdom that can only come from God and His Word. Every day in January we will read a chapter of Proverbs, and their will be a short devotional thought on this blog.

I hope you will join us on this journey into wisdom!