Proverbs 26:4-5

Have discernment to know when to just keep quiet with foolish, kingdom-of-this-world-talking people so as not to become part of the problem and add to the cacophony. Yet also be attuned to the Spirit to recognize the right time to speak truth and silence the foolish talk.

Matthew 26:41

Keep watch and pray so that you don’t give in to temptation.

This is the best, simplest advice ever, when you think about it.

While you are praying, you are alert.

While you are praying, you are awake to God.

While you are praying, you are aware of yourself…and temptation.

Jesus’ admonitions to Christian life can almost always find their first fulfillment in the simple loyalty of prayer. -Frederick Dale Bruner

Proverbs 25:21-22

If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat; and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink; for you will heap coals of fire on their heads, and the Lord will reward you.

Scholars believe the phrase “heap coals of fire on their heads” refers to an ancient Egyptian custom whereby a person publicly demonstrated contrition for wrongdoing by carrying on his head a pan of burning coals to represent the burning pain of his shame and guilt. The point of the illustration is that when we love our enemy, we become the burning pan of coals on his head. Our love and good works toward our enemy is a painful reminder to him of his evil deeds and (hopefully) shames him into wanting to correct his ways.

The apostle Paul quotes this Proverb in Romans 12:20 to illustrate the “Principle of Replacement.” This principle says that it’s not enough just to passively receive your enemy’s actions, or even to receive them with a view toward God’s intervention and justice. Instead, we are to do the opposite of what our enemy is doing.

God’s plan is for you to replace your enemy’s evil with good; to replace his hatred with love; to replace his unkindness with kindness. Only in doing so will we keep the total reservoir of evil in this world from getting bigger and bigger, which is what happens if we repay evil for evil. To think in accounting terms, the only way we can cancel out the evil done to us is to pay it back with good, thereby keeping the “books” balanced. To add evil to evil just puts us further and further into a deficit of good in the world. If we take vengeance into our own hands, we become the one who suffers. But when we love our enemy, we become a reminder to him of what he has done.

-from The Jeremiah Study Bible

Like Sam’s question yesterday in regards to when he’s feeling anger toward someone, “Who’s the one really losing here?”

This also reminded me of a gripping story about Martin Luther King I read this week:

Once, in Birmingham, when King was giving a speech, a two-hundred-pound white man charged the stage and began pummeling King with his fists. As King’s aides rushed to defend him, McWhorter writes:

They were astounded to watch King become his assailant’s protector. He held him solicitously and, as the audience began singing Movement songs, told him that their cause was just, that violence was self-demeaning, that “we’re going to win.” Then King introduced him to the crowd, as though he were a surprise guest. Roy James, a twenty-four year old native New Yorker who lived in an American Nazi Party dormitory in Arlington, Virginia, began to weep in King’s embrace.

Matthew 25:13

“So keep awake! You don’t know the day or the hour.”

Jesus tells us in multiple places to stay awake, keep alert, be prepared. Keep current. He IS returning. That is a reality, whether we talk about it much or not. And being prepared was a stern and clear part of His teachings.

I believe it’s the Delta Force who are required to always be within one hour of readiness to go anywhere in the world for any mission. They never have more than two alcoholic beverages in a day & always have a bag packed. Now that is prepared. They can’t be resting on training from a couple years ago, or even a couple months ago. “Well, I hope my aim is still pretty good from that college marksmanship class I took 12 years ago!” Yeah right.

Same with us, if we’re serious about being an apprentice of Jesus, then we keep current with Him. We don’t depend on a decision made years ago, or a time when we were close to Him back in the day when we had more time. The five silly girls in this parable weren’t really serious, plain and simple. Perhaps they thought they were.

When we say we don’t have time for something, what we’re really saying is that we value something else more.

A friend of mine has been thinking a lot lately about being prepared [not fearfully, mind you, but wisely] for when this country takes the serious nosedive. This is another good picture. Prepare for the inevitable. Abundance leads to complacency. Complacency leads to apathy. Apathy leads to defeat and collapse. It is a matter of time.

We cannot afford to be complacent spiritually, or even physically. This is life. This is reality.

Are you awake?

Proverbs 24:16

The difference between successful people and failures is that successful people get back up after they are knocked down, every time. Failures stay down where it is easy and requires no effort.

Matthew 24:4-5

Not everyone who uses Jesus’ name is doing as He wishes. I look for humility, love of God, love of others.

Proverbs 23:23

Get Truth and never sell it, never hold it back. Why would we not freely share God’s life giving Truth? Is it not freely available for all who seek it?

Matthew 23:8-10

The hierarchy established by Jesus: There’s God, and then everybody else. The minute we think some people are intrinsically greater than others, we are hopeless, for the same Holy Spirit is available to all of us. We have as much of God as we want to have. Some take more advantage of what He has made available to us than others.

Matthew 23:11

There’s that pesky “servant” word again. Must be something to that…

Matthew 23:23-24

In EVERYTHING, be sure to keep in mind what REALLY matters–the reason we do what we do. It is for love of God and others, to live the life that really is life. Nothing is to be done with a checklist mentality.

Proverbs 22:24-25

If it’s true that you do become the average of the three to five people you spend the most time with, make sure Jesus is one of those people!

Matthew 22:11-14

Bible commentaries indicate that the wedding host provided attire for guests so that all could be appropriately dressed for the ceremony. I wonder if perhaps this is to be a picture of the robe of righteousness provided for us thru Jesus’ sacrifice that we are to put on, and those who don’t are trying to go their own way… Kind of a slap in the face isn’t it?

“I know you went thru hell to give me this killer robe and all, but no thanks, I’ll just wear what I have on.”

Proverbs 21:5

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to want.

There is no get-rich-quick. There is no magic pill. You don’t get in great shape without hard work, without diligence. This is a law of the universe as instituted by YHWH. Get on board with this, and you can start really moving your life.

Forget waiting for a break, for something wonderful to just effortlessly happen to you. Make it happen via the abilities God has granted you. “Nothing great comes without great effort,” they say. No one ever sat on the couch for a year and became a great violin player.

Forget looking for an easy, quick path to awesomeness. Walk the longer challenging-but-worth-it path and experience life as God intended for you. I talk to people almost everyday who want something for nothing. Who want peace in their life with no cost or effort. The quicker you accept the fact that this is not how life works in God’s world, the better off you are.  At the very least, peace will come thru much ardent prayer. But even that is some effort.

But always remember, it is well worth the effort to be close to our Father. We do indeed reap what we sow. “Energy flows where direction goes.”

And yes, for the record, all is grace…yet, well, C.S. Lewis said it much better than I can:

 If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God , how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?

Matthew 21:33-46

The parable of the evil tenants and the benevolent Landowner.

The tenants “forgot” they were simply stewards of the land and had no ownership of it. We too, are merely appointed custodians of God’s vineyard. Once we start thinking it is ours, we are done. This is pride, arrogance, ownership. And it leads to not finishing well.

May we always remember who the Landowner is. May we always remember our role, our privileged role. Israel became so blinded that they killed God’s prophets and even His own Son. Never think we are above this. We’ve all done this to some degree, protecting our own traditions or pet dogma at the expense of knowing God for who He truly is, or simply from-the-heart loving God, and deeply loving others.

The end of everything is love and service to YHWH.

Forever now is Lord LOGOS.

Matthew 20:1-16

The parable of the workers in the vineyard.

First off, don’t whine about ANYTHING, EVER.

OK, there’s more here to glean than that.

The God who Jesus revealed is lavish. He is extremely generous, full of grace–rewarding those who have earned no reward–which is you and me. In the kingdom of God, or the “KOG”, we do not care that all receive the same coin for differing amounts of labor, for what is that coin but Christ Himself and the forgiveness of all sins? What more do you want? In the KOG, one who started work in the morning could actually argue that they are “paid” more simply due to the fact that they have been under a gracious Lord’s employ longer than those who started working later. Instead of feeling somehow wronged, they realize that they have simply had the privilege of enjoying the one coin–Christ Himself–which is all that is desired, for longer in this life.

It is wicked to wrong God; but still worse to think oneself wronged by God. And men think this oftener than one would suppose.  -J.A. Bengel

Matthew 20:20-28

What if we changed our language and replaced the word “leader” with “servant” or “steward?” House Church servant, small group steward, youth servant, worship servant, Bible study steward, etc.

Matthew 20:29-34

Seek to truly understand others’ needs thru asking direct questions. Leave nothing to assumption.

Proverbs 20:5

Ministry involves loving and studying others in order to see their true needs, pray for them accurately, and serve them well.

Proverbs 20:24

The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way? You can connect the dots later.

The ways, mind, and heart of God

Are certainly mysterious

“My plans are not your plans”

But remember this

That everything I do I do in love

To bring you closer to me

No matter what you’re problems or

Circumstances happen to be

–Tourniquet (one of the greatest Christian metal bands of all time)

Proverbs 19:8

People who cherish understanding will prosper.

You spend the most time on whatever you cherish. Take a good look at your daily/weekly schedule. What do you most cherish?

Proverbs 19:11

Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs.

Kingdom vision allows you to overlook anything and become “unoffendable.”

Sensible people don’t take everything personally. They see beyond it to what is really going on, to what really matters in the situation. Small vision sees only how something affects you.

Grow up.

Expand your field of view.

Pray more deeply.

Of course, if you’re not living in the delight of our Father, drinking from the Living Water, you cannot really live unoffendably, because you still need approval from things and people that are not God to feel value and worth. You need everything to go your way.

God asks us, “Am I enough?”

If it is helpful, remind yourself daily, “I am who I AM says I am.”

Proverbs 19:18

Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives.

I’ve read in several studies that if you do not have the respect and discipline of your child by between ages six to eight, that you are most likely hosed.

For those parents with children younger than this range, I hope this is inspiration to focus on them, pray for them, love them with your sacrificial presence and delight.

Matthew 19:14

If you’re not going to come to God as a humble child, don’t even bother. It is wasted energy.

I believe we lack much in humility and reverence. Have we forgotten who God is? Have we too far advanced our own position to greatness beyond what has been bestowed upon us? In other words, do we attribute everything to the self instead of to God from whom all blessings flow?

We could use a good dose of humility before our Creator these days.  The kingdom is made up of people who know they are nothing without God. The kingdom is not made up of people dependent on self.

In his elegant book Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue, Paul Woodruff writes,

Reverence begins in a deep understanding of human limitations; from this grows the capacity to be in awe of whatever we believe lies outside our control–God, truth, justice, nature, even death. The capacity for awe, as it grows, brings with it the capacity for respecting fellow human beings, flaws and all.

Simply put, reverence is the virtue that keeps human beings from trying to act like gods.

For an excellent reset of your proper place before God, I cannot recommend highly enough A.W. Tozer’s beautiful work The Knowledge of the Holy. It is one of those books I read every year because of the great reminder that it is, and which is so desperately and continuously needed.

All praise and glory be to our great God, the Almighty, the King of creation; and to His Son who rules with Him-Jesus Christ; and to His Holy Spirit who empowers us all. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.