Jeremiah 9 & 10 Sounds Like America

How this speaks to our nation today!

 

“Lies, not truth, have grown strong in the land.  They go from one evil thing to another.  They do not know who I am…. They’ve taught their tongues t lie.  They’ve become tired from sinning … It is because Judah quit following My teachings … they have not obeyed Me or done what I told them to do… “

 

God tells Jeremiah what He desires, and Jeremiah praises Him in the middle of his grieving for his people: 

 

“If someone wants to brag, let him brag that he understands and knows Me.  Let him brag that I am the Lord, and that I am kind and fair, and that I do things that are right on earth.”

 

Jeremiah said, “Lord, there is no one like You.  You are great, and Your name is great and powerful.  Everyone should respect You, King of the nations; You deserve respect… The Lord is the only true God.  He is the only living God, the King forever …”

 

He prays, “Lord, I know that a person’s life doesn’t really belong to him.  No one can control his own life.  Lord, correct me, but be fair.  Don’t punish me in Your anger, or You will destroy me.  Pour out Your anger on other nations that do not know You and do not pray to You.”

 

My commentary said that Jeremiah had to deal with the pride of his people as he pointed out to them three obvious truths:

 

n  Being God’s covenant people is no excuse to sin.

n  Being God’s covenant people offers no escape from judgment.

n  Being God’s covenant people is no assurance of spiritual understanding.

 

It also cut right to the chase:  “Any theology that minimizes personal holiness and excuses sinfulness in not biblical theology.”

 

Father, as Jeremiah prayed for mercy for his nation, I pray for ours.  Remember that our nation is made up of weak humans who don’t know how to run their own lives.  If You gave us what we deserved, we’d be destroyed.  And Father, those attacking us, whether by terror or through our own government, deserve punishment for seeking to minimize You in our daily lives.  Please deliver us, Father.

 

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jeremiah 8 -- Wishing You Were Dead?

I can’t imagine that anyone would want to hear this word from God:  “Those of this evil family who are not dead will wish they were!”

 

God tells Jeremiah that it makes no sense that the people won’t turn back to Him.  We have the good sense to get up if we fall down, or to retrace our steps if we discover that we’ve taken an incorrect turn, but these people sure won’t do that with their relationship with God!  “Those who think they are wise, but don’t listen to the Word of the Lord are not really wise at all.”

 

The people are acting this way because they are deceived.  The leaders weren’t correcting them but simply telling them what they wanted to here – they weren’t being real leaders at all.  The Lord had decided that the time was right for judgment.  They’d fled, wondering what had happened to God and why He wasn’t saving them.  But their disobedience and unfaithfulness was the root cause.  My commentary said, “They had missed their God-given opportunity and it would never come again.”

 

This caused Jeremiah to grieve, as it should each of us.  He said, “God, You are my comfort when I am very sad and when I am afraid … Because my people are crushed, I am crushed … Isn’t there balm in the land of Gilead?  Isn’t there a doctor there?”

 

I think God was probably crying about His people, too – as He cries for our nation today.

 

Father, turn us around.  You founded this great nation and we’ve allowed ourselves to become deceived.  We desperately need to turn back and take the right path.  Help us to do so now, a week from today.  Be sovereign over these elections, Father.  Show us that You can even control the minds of unbelievers and have them vote Your way rather than their own way.    Don’t let us miss a God-given opportunity that may never come again.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jeremiah 7 -- WHY It All Was Happening

God cut to the chase.  He placed Jeremiah at one of the gates to the Temple courtyard in order that he could deliver a shocking message to the Jews coming in to worship not just Jehovah, but also Canaanite idols.  The message rings true for America today as well:

 

“Change your hearts and lives and do what is right.  Then I will let you live in this place … Don’t follow other gods, or they will ruin your lives … But look, you are trusting in LIES … If you [fail to obey Me], do you think you can come before Me and stand in this place where I’ve chosen to be worshiped?  Do you think you can say, ‘We are safe!’ when you do all these hateful things?  This place where I have chosen to be worshiped is nothing more to you than a hide-out for robbers.  I have been watching you, says the Lord … But I am not the one the people of Judah are really hurting.  They are only hurting themselves and brining shame upon themselves.”

 

God went on to remind them that He’d not just given Moses instructions about sacrifices.  He also said, “Obey Me, and I will be your God and you will be My people.”  That’s what they’d failed to do.  “They went backward, not forward,” God said here.  He’d given them everything, yet they had abandoned Him.

 

Father God, how like them we are today.  Our nation has moved so far away from You.  In the name of political correctness, we have tolerated idol worship.  We’ve embraced social justice to care for the poor, yet we have watched as our government has worked full force to prevent Your name from being worshiped or even mentioned!  This change must come about first in the hearts and lives of believers.  It has to start at home.  Lead me to fully obey You – to remove all sin from my life.  Then soften the hearts of my sons to allow me to show them how better to obey You.  Do this all over America, Father.  And do it quickly!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jeremiah 6 -- The End Is Near

God reveals His plan to rid Jerusalem of all the evil and idolatry that have overtaken His people.  Like Sodom and Gomorrah, Jerusalem had become completely evil, but rather than being destroyed, it would be overrun by the invading army:  “This city must be punished.  Inside it is nothing but slavery [to sin]. … The people of Israel have closed ears, so they cannot hear My warnings.  They don’t like the word of the Lord; they don’t want to listen to it! … I will raise My hand and punish the people of Judah … They should be ashamed of the terrible way they act, but they are not ashamed at all.  They don’t even know how to BLUSH about their sins … Ask where the old way is, where the good way is, and walk on it.  If you do, you will find rest for yourselves … I am going to bring disaster to the people of Judah because of the evil they plan.  They have not listened to My messages and have rejected My teachings … I will put problems in front of Judah.  Fathers and sons will stumble over them together.  Neighbors and friends will die … All My people have turned against Me and are stubborn … They are like bronze and iron that become covered with rust … the fire is fanned to make it hotter, but the lead does not melt.  The pure metal does not come out; the evil is not removed from My people … the Lord has rejected them.”

 

My commentary says, “He wasn’t purifying them; He was punishing them.  They weren’t being refined; they were being rejected.  They were too cheap to preserve.”

 

Most tellingly, there was another quote in my commentary:

 

“Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

How much worse have we become since then?

 

Father, I pray for our nation as this election nears.  Please steer us away from the abyss.  I fear that this may be the deciding point just like it was for Jerusalem.  Don’t give up on us.  Purify us.  Purify me.  Save us from our sin nature.  Help me to completely walk in Your ways.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jeremiah 4 & 5 -- Hope Turns

Chapter 4 begins with hope:  “If you will return …”  Chapter 5 end is despair:  “But what will you do when the end comes?”

 

And in between, God decides that the people simply don’t care about Him anymore and they certainly aren’t worried about punishment.

 

God said, “If you will throw away your idols that I hate, then don’t wander away from Me.”  In other words, throw away that which separates you from Me, then remain close to Me.”  Despite our sin, He wants us back!  He wants us to get rid of that which causes the distance between us and Him to grow.

 

Jeremiah can see that God is becoming more certain of what He must do, and in desperation he cries out to the people:  “How terrible it will be for us!  We are ruined!  Clean the evil from your hearts so that you can be saved.  Don’t continue making evil plans … The way you have lived and acted has brought this trouble to you.  This is your punishment.  How terrible it is!  The pain stabs your heart!  Oh, how I hurt!  How I hurt!”

 

What God hates the most is that His people don’t know Him.  He formed them out of nothing and grew them from one family into a powerful nation, but now they’ve forgotten Him.

 

The people have gone too far.  They’ve dared God and crossed that final line, and God says, “All the land will be ruined.  I have spoken and will not change My mind.  I have made a decision, and I will not change it.”  Even God sounds incredulous at how they have completely ignored every warning:  “WHAT are you DOING??”  He continued to show Jeremiah what He saw about them:  “They refused to learn what is right.  They became more stubborn than a rock;  they refused to turn back to God … even the leaders had all joined together to break away from the Lord!”

 

This wasn’t the result of just one episode of sinning either:  “They have wandered away from the Lord many times.”  At some point, they’d stopped coming back to Him.  God knows this about them:  “They have eyes, but they don’t really SEE.  They have ears, but they don’t really LISTEN …”  They lost all sense of who God is:  “You should shake with fear in My presence … They do not say to themselves, ‘We should FEAR the Lord our God …’ “

 

So God has made up His mind.  He’s got a question to ask the unrepentant unbelievers:  “But what will you do when the end comes?”

 

Father, I know there was once a time when I’d become that spiritually blinded.  I couldn’t even hear Your voice and I dared You to speak to me.  I was so incredibly foolish and thought I knew it all.  Instead, I was incredibly stupid:  the creature daring to shake his fist at the Creator.  Thank You for not giving up on me.  Thank You for coming after me and loving me when I didn’t love You.  Thank You for lifting the veil and allowing me to see what, like these people, I’d almost missed.  How tragic for them!  And how amazingly merciful for me!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jeremiah 3 -- Sick And Doesn't Know It

God gave Jeremiah images to use describing how the people of Judah had acted toward God.  One was a wife acting worse than a prostitute.  The other was an unhealthy patient.

 

Like a husband scorned, the Lord could have totally rejected His people.  But that’s not our God.  Instead He called out to them to return and be restored.  Yet their sinfulness was so great that they refused to even be ashamed of what they’d done – flaunting it in front of the whole world and in front of God.  I think that follows what God says elsewhere in the Bible about giving them over to a depraved mind, deceived in their thinking.

 

God’s love and grace for them and for us amazes me.  “Come back … I will stop being angry at you, because I am full of mercy … I will not be angry with you forever.  All you have to do is ADMIT your sin – that you turned against the Lord your God … and didn’t obey Me.”

 

God spoke of restoring them – and us:  “They will not follow their stubborn, evil hearts anymore.”

 

He cries out again, “Come back to Me, you unfaithful children, and I will forgive you for being unfaithful.”

 

My commentary talks about how sin is like a sickness:  “Like an infection entering the bloodstream, sin secretly gets into the system of the ‘inner man’ and goes to work weakening and destroying.  It gradually infects the whole system, producing spiritual lassitude and loss of spiritual appetite; and if not cared for, the sin sickness can lead to dire consequences.”

 

How incredible [unbelievable] that we willingly infect ourselves with something that we know can destroy us!  Yet we somehow buy the lie that we can handle it.  Pride does go before a fall.

 

Father, I can’t handle it.  If I cave and sin, I can promise with all my heart that I won’t let it happen again, but Satan just laughs and say, “Just watch!”  I need Your strength to stay pure.  I’m not strong enough to do it on my own.  Drill that fact into my brain.  Write it on my heart.  Remind me daily that Satan is a liar who only wants my destruction, and that nothing he promises ever pans out.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Jeremiah 2 -- Trading Springs For Cisterns

God uses the most precious natural resource any nation in the Middle East had at that time (pure flowing water) to describe how Judah had come to rely on themselves and not on Him:

 

“My people have done two evils:  They have turned away from Me, the spring of living water.  And they have dug their own cisterns, which are broken wells that cannot hold water.”

 

They were trying to supplement a natural water supply – a fresh flowing spring – with a cracked, muddy cistern, which was trying to capture vainly what the world has.  I’d taken notes from somewhere and written here that, “We’ve knelt at the cisterns of skill, self, etc, rather than at the spring of Jesus Christ.”  As a result, they’d once again allowed themselves to become enslaved.  “Haven’t you brought this on yourselves by turning away from the Lord your God when He was leading you in the right way?”

 

My commentary said, “The greatest judgment God can send to disobedient people is to let them have their own way and reap the sad, painful consequences of their sin… They had sinful hearts because they had stubborn hearts – hearts that refused to listen to God’s servant and obey God’s Word.”

 

Saying “we are free to wander,” they thought they’d found liberty, even from God, yet in doing so they’d enslaved themselves to the point of their own destruction.

 

Father, Satan whispers to all of us, trying to get us to buy the lie that we do not have liberty under Your reign in our lives.  He tries to make us feel cheated by You – the One who gives us every blessing if we only obey.  Help me not to listen to the lies.  Expose him for the cheat that he is.  Don’t let me settle for anything less than Your best for me.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jeremiah 1 -- It's Gonna Be Rough, But ....

God called Jeremiah to what the world would call a thankless job.  He was to declare to Judah that their unholiness had led them to ruin.  He said to Jeremiah, “Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I chose you.  Before you were born I set you apart for a special work.  I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  Jeremiah could have been on the original episode of Dirty Jobs and God had not just cast him for the part – He’d made him into exactly what He wanted him to be.

 

Jeremiah’s answer?  Well…. It wasn’t “No”, but it wasn’t brimming with enthusiasm either.  “But Lord God, I don’t know how to speak.  I am only a boy.”  God’s answer?  “Don’t say, ‘I am only a boy.’ [In other words, no excuses]  You must go everywhere I send you, and you must say everything I tell you to say.  Don’t be afraid of anyone [notice those 3 commands] because I am with you to protect you [notice this is conditional on the three command being kept by Jeremiah, my commentary said].

 

It continued:  “When God calls us, He isn’t making a mistake, and for us to hesitate or refuse to obey is to act on the basis of unbelief and not faith.  It’s one thing for us to know our own weaknesses, but it’s quite something else for us to say that our weaknesses prevent God from getting anything done.”

 

It also said, “The Lord knew what He was doing.  What we are is God’s gift to us; what we do with it is our gift to Him.”

 

Also, “Jeremiah heard God’s Word, took it to heart, and then proclaimed it fearlessly to the people.  God did the rest.”

 

And finally, “In spite of the demands of the task and the difficulties of the times, Jeremiah accepted God’s call.  He knew his own deficiencies, but he also knew that God was greater and would enable him to do the job.”

 

Father, I’m facing several tough and trying weeks at work.  Please help me to remember that You have gifted me with what I need to accomplish the task.  Now enable me to do Your will and to be Your servant.  Let others see You at work in my life.  Let me not disappoint You or misrepresent You by getting frustrated or angry.  Show You love through me.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Proverbs 28-31 What A Way To End It!

A recipe for the whole family in these chapters today:

 

“If you refuse to obey what you have been taught, your prayers will not be heard…

If you hide your sins, you will not succeed.  If you confess and reject the, you will receive mercy….

The one who trusts the Lord will succeed.  Those who trust in themselves are foolish …

Whoever is stubborn after being corrected many times will suddenly be hurt beyond cure …

Wise people calm anger down …

Foolish people lose their tempers, but wise people control theirs …

Correction and punishment make children wise, but those left along will disgrace their mother…

Correct your children, and you will be proud; they will give you much satisfaction …

Pride will ruin people, but those who are humble will be honored…

Every word of God is true …

Some people think they are pure, but they are not really free from evil …

Stirring up anger causes trouble …

You are the son I prayed for …

A good wife is worth more than rubies.  Her husband trusts her completely.  With her, he has everything he needs.

She is strong and respected by the people.  She looks forward to the future with joy…

Teaches others to be kind …

Watches over her family…

Her husband praises her…

A woman who respects the Lord should be praised.  Give her the reward she has earned; she should be praised in public for what she has done.”

 

Father, in the previous chapters, I’ve read so much about correcting my children.  But I saw something here that is important and that I needed to hear:

 

“Correct your children, and you will be proud; they will give you satisfaction,” along with the last verses about a wife, applied to children, too:  “Give her the reward she has earned; … praised in public for what she has done.”  Too often a lack of trust develops to the point that the relationship is harmed by the constant suspicion.  I think of how You forgive and forget our sins.  I’m beginning to see that having the relationship fully restored is quite important for our kids as well when trust has been an issue.  Otherwise, they’ll get frustrated and give up trying.  Father, honestly I was looking forward to moving on to another book in Your Word, but I’m so glad I didn’t give up.  You saved the best for last, and I pray that You will use it to bond my family closer as a result.  I also thank You for the memorable phrase from the sidebar in my Bible today: 

 

“Don’t let any part of your life be questionable.”

 

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Proverbs 24-27 Family

This kind of wisdom, when understood, helps to prepare our kids for the real world, and in fact in 24:3 I read, “It takes wisdom to have a good family, and it takes understanding to make it strong.  It takes knowledge to fill a house with rare and beautiful treasures (That’s what my boys are to me).”

 

Some important things I read today:  “Making foolish plans is sinful … A gentle word can get through to the hard-headed … If your enemy is hungry, feed him.  If he is thirsty, give him a drink (works well when your child has chose to act like your enemy)…. A quarrelsome person keeps an argument going (in other words, they act as fuel for the argument)… It is better to correct someone openly than to have love and not show it (in other words, correcting shows love) … The slap of a friend can be trusted to help you.”

 

Father, give me wisdom each day in this job of being a father.  Children see love expressed in the boundaries we set for them.  They know it instinctively, whether their minds admit it or not.  Help me not to shy away from correction, but also remind me that a gentle word can get through to the hard-headed.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Proverbs 20-23 Us, God, and Life

This morning’s readings seem to best be summed up as “Who we are, who God is, and what He can do with us.”

 

“No one can say, ‘I am innocent; I have never done anything wrong.’ …  The Lord looks deep inside people and searches through their thoughts … You may believe you are doing right, but the Lord judges your reasons… The Lord decides what a person will do; no one understands what his life is all about … The Lord can control a king’s mind [or my mind (GF)] as He controls a river; He can direct it as He pleases … God, who is always right, watches the house of the wicked and brings ruin on every evil person …  There is no wisdom, understanding, or advice that can succeed against the Lord … You can get the horses ready for battle, but it is the Lord who gives the victory … Be wise enough to control yourself … Don’t envy sinners, but always respect the Lord.  Then you will have hope for the future… Keep your mind on what is right … Learn the truth and never reject it.  Get wisdom, self-control, and understanding.”

 

It all seems to boil down to this:  We are all sinners before a sovereign God.  We can’t win against Him.  He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He judges even our motives.  If we stay focused on Him, exercise self-control where we can, and ask Him to direct our minds where we can’t, we will respect Him and live a life that honors Him.

 

Father, write these truths on my heart and direct my paths.  Let me never doubt them.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Proverbs 18-19 Fools Talk

I was having trouble getting into these chapters this morning, until I picked up on a pattern in the verses that echoed something that happened just before I began reading.  I’d gotten on Facebook, checking for birthdays of kids in our youth group, and read a full frontal assault from someone telling the world of Facebook about their financial difficulties and another person who allegedly caused them.  I couldn’t imagine anyone posting all of that to the world!  Then as I read these verses, God seemed to be waving a flag, saying, “SEE how relevant My Word STILL IS today!!”

 

“Fools do not want to understand anything.  They only want to tell others what they think … The words of fools will ruin them; their own words will trap them … Anyone who answers without listening is foolish and confused … The person who tells one side of a story seems right, until someone else comes and asks questions…. Those who speak with care will be rewarded … It is better to be poor and honest than to be foolish and tell lies … People’s own foolishness ruins their lives, but in their minds they blame the Lord.”

 

Father, as Your Word says today, help me to guard my words.  Don’t let me insult others in my anger.  Help me to remember that my reaction will say more to them and will mean more later to others.  Help me to always take the high road.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Proverbs 16-17 -- Our Plans Versus God's Sovereignty

A lot of what I read this morning seemed to deal with our perceptions and plans and motives versus God’s sovereignty.

 

“People make plans in their minds, but only the Lord can make them come true.  You may believe you are right, but the Lord will judge your reasons.  Depend on the Lord in whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.  The Lord makes everything go as He pleases … People may make plans in their minds, but the Lord decides what they will do … Some people think they are doing right, but in the end it leads to death … People throw lots to make a decision but the answer comes from the Lord … the Lord tests hearts …”

 

This seems to be saying that sin alters our perceptions about what’s going on around us and even what’s going on inside us.  God lays open our hearts and reveals our motives – why we are doing what we’re doing.  If our motives aren’t pure, He can use His sovereignty to keep us from gain.

 

Ideally, when we come up with an idea, we should ask the Lord if it fits into His will and expectantly await an answer.  Only a fool would rashly make plans that go against God.

 

Strangely, being in His will doesn’t necessarily mean that our plans will succeed, for God may have planned, as He did for Job, to show us more about Himself through testing.  How important it is, therefore, that we not equate success with always being in God’s will.  Instead, even in times of loss we should look for God’s sovereignty and see He may have chosen to grow us spiritually through those tough times.

 

Father, help me to see events through Your eyes.  Lead me to better understand Your will and Your way.  Guide me to consult You before making plans.  Help me to be in the center of your will for my life.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Proverbs 15 -- Nine Relationship Proverbs from God

The sidebar in my Bible mentioned nine proverbs in this chapter that deal directly with our personal relationship with God.  I searched them out.

 

Verse 3 says, “The Lord’s eyes see everything; He watches both evil and good people.”

 

Verse 8:  “The Lord hates the sacrifices that the wicked offer, but He likes the prayers of honest people.”

 

Verse 9:  “The Lord hates what evil people do, but He loves those who do what is right.”

 

Verse 11:  “The Lord knows what is happening in the world of the dead, so He surely knows the thoughts of the living.”

 

Verse 16:  “It is better to be poor and respect the Lord than to be wealthy and have much trouble.”

 

Verse 25:  “The Lord will tear down the proud person’s house, but He will protect the widow’s property.”

 

Verse 26:  “The Lord hates evil thoughts but is pleased with kind words.”

 

Verse 29:  “The Lord does not listen to the wicked, but He hears the prayers of those who do right.”

 

Verse 33:  “Respect for the Lord will teach you wisdom.  If you want to be honored, you must be humble.”

 

That same sidebar encouraged us to improve our relationship with God by taking those proverbs to heart.

 

Father, I know that You see everything that I do, both in obeying You and when I disobey.  If I come to You unrepentant, I can’t expect You to honor my requests.  Obedience is what You require, both in my actions and even in my thoughts.  If I fail to respect You and obey You, I do so at my own peril, for You desire the best for me.  Help me to be humble before You and quickly confess to You when I fail, for I do not want my relationship with you to suffer.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Proverbs 12-14 We THINK We Know

“The one who chases empty dreams is not wise … There is another way that leads to death … Fools don’t care if they sin … Some people think they are doing right, but in the end it leads to death … Respect for the Lord gives life.  It is like a fountain that can save people from death … Doing what is right makes a nation great, but sin will bring disgrace to any people.”

 

God is wise and He knows what is best for both an individual and a nation.  He doesn’t withhold that knowledge, but freely shares it through His Word, and at our peril we choose to ignore it.  We chase empty dreams in the vain hope that their fulfillment will somehow satisfy us.  In our human pride, we think what we know as a nation will make us great, but if it goes against God’s will, we are doomed to fail; and anytime our nation fails to respect the Lord we are not becoming more enlightened – we are walking in deeper darkness.

 

Father, help us to judge our actions and our laws by one standard only – whether they respect You and Your Word or not, for anything we do outside of Your will only takes us farther away from You.

 

Your Brother In

Proverbs 9-11 What Solomon Was Getting Wrong?

These words of Solomon have bothered me in the past, for many of them speak of the theology that the Jewish people believed before Christ showed us the true theology – that good actions resulted in blessings always and evil actions always ended in punishment or ruin.  This really stood out after having just finished reading Job.  At least in this world, that theology is not always the case, as Job proved.  For instance, “A hard worker will become rich.”  Possibly.  But often not.  Rich maybe in character, but often not in money.

 

So I wondered why God would have wanted some of these pithy little worldly thoughts left in the Bible.  Today God seems to be telling me that while knowledge and wisdom are good, they are certainly not the end-all, be-all of existence, and Solomon got so puffed up with his knowledge and wisdom that he ended up walking away from God near the end of his life!

 

God seemed to reinforce that by again saying in chapter 9:  “Wisdom begins with respect for the Lord, and understanding begins with knowing the Holy One.”  However, the wise person must never take his sights off of these goals, or else he will end up like Solomon.

 

In the sidebars for these chapters, I read some important stuff:  “Where we perceive ourselves to be the strongest is where we’re least likely to be prepared for a battle that isn’t psychological or emotional.  It’s spiritual!  Let no person ever say, ‘I can’t be taken.’  Or as Paul wrote, ‘So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.’”

 

From chapter 10:  “He who dares to call himself God’s ambassador is not afforded the luxury of idle words … We have an added responsibility to guard our tongues.”

 

And from chapter 11:  “What others say cannot be the measure of what is ethical, moral, or right, even if it is legal.  The view of the majority is not necessarily the view of God.”  Verse 14 of that chapter says, “Without leadership a nation fails.”

 

Father, all the wisdom of every human who ever lived and who are now living pale in comparison to Your wisdom.  We desperately need it right now.  Please be God for our nation despite our government, and I pray that You have set us on a path that will lead us back to You and that will help the world to know You as God.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Proverbs 8 -- Remember Those Tourist Trap Signs?

It’s not like wisdom hides itself from us.  “On the hilltops along the road and at the crossroads” reminds me of all the signs we used to see for at least a couple of miles before the tourist traps while on vacation.  If our parents weren’t reading them, the kids sure were!  Rather than touting tourist junk for sale, though, wisdom is shouting out, “Be smarter.  Get understanding.  Choose my teachings and knowledge.  Do what is right.  Follow the path of justice.  Listen to my teaching.  Don’t ignore it.”

 

There was one sentence, though, that really caught my eye in this chapter:  “If you respect the Lord, you will also hate evil.”

 

It should be like a coin toss – it either lands heads or tails.  You’ll never get a combination of the two.  Instead, I think all too often we feel that it’s okay every now and then to mix them.  “Sure, I respect God!  But I want to do this.”  We see no problem with both sides living in our souls.  But there is a problem.  God wants complete control.  (So does Satan, but he’ll settle for a little control and gladly work his way up.  After all, he’s all for anything that will spoil what God is doing.)

 

There’s an implication in that sentence, too.  If you don’t hate evil, then you aren’t respecting the Lord.  That tells us an awful lot.

 

Father, help me to resist any efforts to compromise, thinking that it is okay to allow evil in my life and still think I’m respecting You.  Just like those old signposts and billboards, keep shouting out Your wisdom to me all along the way.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Proverbs 7 -- Tempting Ourselves And Tempting God

Solomon reveals to his son the methods used to ensnare young men in sexual sin.  Unfortunately, we often ensnare ourselves by tempting OURSELVES.  The young man he describes was convinced that he could play with sin and get away with it.  “He tempts himself by being out at night” (in a time when there were no street lights or electricity).  He was also “deliberately walking near the place of temptation and danger,” my commentary noted.  “God’s word wasn’t controlling his feet.  He hadn’t made a covenant with his eyes, like Job, nor had he fled temptation like Joseph, my commentary added.  “We can’t help being tempted, but we can certainly help tempting OURSELVES.”

 

It was also very interesting that my commentary said he was tempting GOD.  “We tempt God when we deliberately disobey Him and put ourselves into situations so difficult that only God can deliver us.  It’s as though we dare Him to do something … By going to her house, her table, and her bed, the young man willfully disobeyed God’s law, but the Lord didn’t intervene.  He allowed the youth to indulge in his sensual appetites and suffer the consequences.  God could have stopped him, but He didn’t, because the Word says, ‘You shall not tempt [put to the test] the Lord your God.’”  Too often, we fail to realize that “keeping God’s commandments is a matter of life or death.”

 

Father, we all too often seem to want to see just how close to the edge of the cliff we can get and not fall off.  I never thought of it as tempting You.  Thank You for helping me see that anytime I willfully and intentionally walk closely to temptation, I’m endangering myself because I’m tempting You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford