Proverbs 5:8

Proverbs 4:18

The road the righteous travel is like the sunrise, getting brighter and brighter until daylight has come.

The more right decisions you make, the easier it becomes to make the next one.

The more temptation you say no to, the easier it becomes to turn down the next enticing, self-pleasing, life-stealing offer.

Mark 7:1-23

Jesus could not be any clearer on what it is that makes us unclean.

It is obviously not the failure to keep traditions.

“You put aside God’s command and obey human teachings.”

So why do we still judge and condemn those who fall short of what we have culturally deemed important?  Even in our “Christian” cultures…?

The only thing that really makes us unclean is our hearts.  Only God can judge the heart, for only He can truly know it.  Stop judging others, if for no other reason, than the fact that it is utterly impossible to do so anyway.

Our message therefore should be simple and repetitive: Cultivate your heart to love Jesus, to pursue Him with your whole being.  Sell everything you have to buy that field with the treasure in it!

ONLY THEN will even the beginnings of evil intentions start to dissipate from your inner thoughts>>>>

Lying to someone will become unthinkable because of your love for Christ.

Using someone will become repulsive because of your love of Christ.

Anger at drivers will disappear because of your love of Christ and them.

Love of money will be stupid because of your love for Christ.

Sex with someone you are not in covenant with, even the thought of it, will lose its appeal because of your love for Christ.

Envy and jealousy will be so dumb because you see you have all you need or could ever want in Christ.

This is not to say that the world, the flesh, and the devil will not tempt us the rest of our lives. But it is to say that the desires of our heart do (supernaturally) change as we turn more and more toward the love of Christ. For as we more deeply experience the love of God, all other things we have found to be pleasing or useful are seen in the new light of the risen Christ, and are rendered silly at best, life-threatening at worst.

Proverbs 3:16-18

Wisdom offers you long life, riches, honor, and peace.

SOLD!

As a tree produces fruit, wisdom gives life to those who use it, and everyone who uses it will be happy.

Everyone who uses it.

Not everyone who thinks about it.

Or reads about it.

Everyone who USES it.

USE it.

Mark 6:6

Their unbelief dumbfounded Him.

It’s ridiculously amazing that we can believe in a God who created the universe and humans, yet at the same time in a God who cannot, or will not, help me personally day to day.

Proverbs 2:5

Only the Lord gives wisdom.

All true wisdom is from God, no matter who delivers it.

Why not just go directly to the Source…?

Mark 5:36

Don’t be afraid, just believe!

So let us draw near then, my beloved, to faith, since its powers are so many.  For faith raised up Enoch to the heavens and conquered the deluge.  Faith causes the barren to sprout forth.  It delivers from the sword.  It raises up from the pit.  It enriches the poor.  It releases the captives.  It delivers the persecuted.  It brings down the fire.  It divides the sea.  It cleaves the rock, and gives to the thirsty water to drink.  It satisfies the hungry.  It raises the dead, and brings them up from Sheol.  It stills the billows.  It heals the sick.  It conquers hosts.  It overthrows walls.  It stops the mouths of lions, and quenches the flames of fire.  It humiliates the proud, and brings the humble to honor.  All these mighty works are wrought by faith.  Now this is faith; when one believes in God the Lord of all, Who made the heavens and the earth and the seas and all that is in them.  He made Adam in His image.  He gave the law to Moses.  He sent His Spirit upon the prophets.  Moreover He sent His Christ into the world, that we should believe in the resurrection of the dead; and should also trust in the efficacy of our baptism.  This is the faith of the church of God.

-St. Aphrahat the Persian (270-345)

Proverbs 1:3

Freedom is not the absence of rules, but the presence of discipline.

I discipline my body to remain healthy so that I may enjoy the freedom of playing with my daughters and not be confined to the couch in a sickly, immobile fat suit.

Mark 4:22

There is nothing hidden that won’t be brought out into the light.\

It’s funny how you can grow up with certain verses & misunderstanding them for years.  I always took this to mean that all the secret sins I have committed will be viewed on a grand projector in the afterlife before going on to eternity.  How painful this would be! Yet I could never reconcile it with other scriptures telling of God’s complete forgiveness & how He casts our sin into the sea never to think of them again.  He throws it as far as east is from west. So what gives? How contradictory.

Then it was so clear to me as I read from the obvious context that Jesus is referring to the mysteries of God [v.11].  They will be revealed in their right time to us. Much of God is hidden now, but won’t be forever.  How did I miss such an obvious truth? Religious and cultural false narratives perhaps.  

The Kingdom New Testament words verse 22 this way:

No: nothing is secret except what’s meant to be revealed, and nothing is covered up except what’s meant to be uncovered.

I think I will sleep a little better tonite, assured that the “Projector of Secret Sins” does not exist except in my misperceived imagination.

Proverbs 31:6-7

Strong drink is meant to cheer and revive the spirits, and make glad the heart (as it does where there is need of it), NOT to burden and oppress the spirits, as it does where there is no real need of it. -Matthew Henry

Proverbs 30:10

Mark 1:14-15

Matthew 28:11-15

It’s amazing how religion can harden your heart so intensely.

Some get to the point that they will not even believe and follow God Himself no matter what signs and evidences they see.

Jesus Himself could come down and say, “I want you to quit going to church every Sunday and instead start hanging out with me during that time.”  And some would respond with, “I can’t do that!  I have responsibilities at the church!  I’m suppose to and expected to be there every Sunday, man!”

These religious leaders were told this amazing eye-witness story by these guards–an earthquake, angel throwing the stone away, face like lightning–and their hard-hearted reaction was, “We gotta come up with a false story to tell everyone so people don’t believe this and  so that we don’t get in some sort of trouble.”

Seek the living, active God first and foremost everyday.

Do not let religion, tradition, or dogma blind you to seeing Jesus working in your life.

Look for Him and Him alone.

Proverbs 28:14

Blessed are those who are continually fearful, but may those whose hearts are hard fall into harm.

There is a healthy fear that leads to right action.  For example, fear of not paying the bills motivates the action to get your butt out of bed and get to work.

A healthy fear of YHWH hopefully motivates us to seek Him and then experience His greatness and love.  But the hard hearts in this verse seem related to complacency–a horrible, and dare we say, dangerous place to be.  For some, the only motivator out of sleep will be some sort of harm befalling them.

How many times do we hear from someone who had tragedy of some kind strike say, “It was the best thing to ever happen to me.”  Why? Because it woke them up out of the slumber of their complacency to the depth of life that has been there all along awaiting them to open up to and live in.

So may we keep before us always what is real, what is at stake in many ways, what really matters, and what price we pay for complacency–not least of which is not being fully alive to God and the deep, abundant life of shalom He has for us that transcends lightyears beyond Netflix, football, performance, and results-based people-pleasing.

Proverbs 27:20

People will never stop wanting more than they have.

It is never enough.

Desires are never fully satisfied.

This is why gratitude and contentment with what you have is key to happiness.  And how this is possible is to find your satisfaction in God, in abiding in Him, in filling yourself more and more with Him and then experiencing the dullness of what were once shiny things.  And seeing the beauty and depth of what was once overlooked.

Perhaps what you need today is the relentless pursuit of less.

Matthew 27:39-44

The mocking of Jesus while He is painfully dying on the cross, on His way to fulfilling His mission.

The cosmic level of abandonment He must have endured at this time is incomprehensible to me.  Tho I do not understand the mystery of the cross, I do, somehow, feel a sense of the ultimate price being paid for me.  Someone supernaturally taking punishment for me, in my place, so I don’t have to, so that I can be free to live in appreciation and good standing.  Someone voluntarily experiencing all of the evil humankind can devise and inflict-all the murder, all the rape, all the hatred, all the betrayal-to be able to stand in solidarity with anyone in any age in any possible situation. And as a result, for no other reason than what we call grace, I am now worthy of God’s favor and have no need to worry about ever being separated from Him.

So how will you live?

Two words that keep surfacing for me lately are “Listen” and “Abide.”