Proverbs 15:4

Healing words give life.

Do your words give life to those with whom you speak?

Do your words encourage?

Proverbs 15:22

Plans fail without good advice, but they succeed with the advice of many others.

It’s amazing(ly sad) how many try to succeed on their own great ideas without seeking the wisdom of others. I’ve seen many fail year after year because they do not learn from their own mistake of going at things alone. They do not learn from others because of pride.

Knowing it all, succeeding in nothing.

Wisdom is characterized largely by looking at one’s mistakes and making the necessary corrections. Humility involves being open to listening to correction. Doing this improves one’s ability to properly navigate reality and therefore leads to glory.

Proverbs 15:26

The Lord is pleased with kind words.

Proverbs 15:33

The fear of Yahweh is wise discipline, and humility comes before glory.

Talking with a wise friend yesterday, he painted a great picture of the pile-up at the gate of heaven due to the humility of everyone there saying, “You first. No, you, please. You. No, really, go ahead.”

John 9:39-41

“If you were blind,” replied Jesus, “you wouldn’t be guilty of sin. But now, because you say, ‘We can see,’ your sin remains.”

Jesus seemed to be most condemning of those who thought they knew it all and looked down on others.

These references to “blindness” are interesting. What I take from this is that it is important to come to God empty. It is when we empty ourselves of our own thoughts and false narratives from our family, culture, and religion that we are most open to God and the truth He would like to fill us with.

It is those who come to Him blind that He gives the ability to see. When I come to Him professing to know nothing is when I receive the most from Him.

That which can be most filled is that which is most empty.

This is tough though. We have so much in our heads, so much history. So much potential blockage. It’s like YHWH wants to provide the most perfect of food for our body from His own garden that He created especially for us. But we just stuffed ourselves with so much McDonalds that we can’t even take a bite. We’ve gotta stop eating that pseudo, non-fulfilling food, crap it out, throw it up, maybe get our stomach pumped for some of us, and make room for that which gives true life and health.

The best meal is the one you eat when you’re famished. My best time with Jesus is when I come to Him starving for Him. Like an old friend use to say to me when I wanted a Mountain Dew, or “poison” as he called it, “If water doesn’t sound good to you, then you’re not really thirsty.”

Proverbs 14:13

Even in laughter the heart is sad, and the end of joy is grief.

Some of us use humor to mask what is going on inside, to keep people at arm’s length from our heart for it is too painful or embarrassing to let people in.

Look past people’s defenses to see if there is more going on; they may actually be crying out for help, just beneath the surface.

This of course can be taken too far. Sometimes I say ridiculous things simply to make people laugh in pants-wettingly shockitude. I am not ALWAYS hiding something. As we get to know people, we will grow in our discernment.

John 8:58

“Before Abraham existed, I AM.” -claim of Jesus the Nazarene

Jesus was more than a great teacher or good example.

He was the incarnational Word of YHWH…listen to Him.

Jesus is the forever present LOGOS.

He is the love of YHWH embodied.

Proverbs 13:3

Those who are careful about what they say protect their lives, but whoever speaks without thinking will be ruined.

Just shut up and try to listen once in a while. You’ll be peasantry shocked at how peaceful it is.

[New Roop Version or NRV>>Tagline: “Oh the NeRVe of this translation!”]

John 7:16-18

“My teaching isn’t my own,” replied Jesus, “it comes from the one who sent me! If anyone wants to do what God wants, they will know whether this teaching is from God, or whether I’m just speaking on my own account. Anyone who speaks on his own behalf is trying to establish his own reputation. But if what he’s interested in is the reputation of the one who sent him, then he is true, and there is no injustice in him.”

John 7:38

“Anyone who believes in me will have rivers of living water flowing out of their hearts, just like the Bible says!”

Remember, we pursue God Himself, and not the Bible. As great as it is, it merely points us to YHWH.

The same goes for a good teacher, pastor, or leader. They will only point us to God and the pursuit of Him directly, never to themselves or their own teachings.

What matters most is that you love God from the inner most private places of your heart. Perhaps we can be a catalyst for each other to that end, like the Bible is, but that’s all we are–> Empowered Powerless Pointers to the Power.”

Or EPPTTPs as we like to call them here at The Ripple Effect.

Proverbs 12:1

Anyone who loves learning accepts correction, but whoever hates correction is stupid.

Oh this one never gets old to me.

John 6:26

This was Jesus’s reply. “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “You aren’t looking for me because you saw the signs, but because you ate as much bread as you could.”

Why are you seeking Jesus?

For what you can get from Him?

To make your life a little better?

Or to follow Him, out of love and trust, through whatever He takes you?

Proverbs 11:2

Pride leads only to shame; it is wise to be humble.

Proverbs 10:4

Lazy people are soon poor; hard workers get rich.

The lazy person sits around wishing he was rich.

No one ever sat around on the couch watching TV for a year and suddenly became a great violin player.

I’m just sayin’…doesn’t happen.

This applies to our spirit as well.  It takes intentional focus to feed your spirit and mature it. Becoming spiritually strong, like becoming a great violin player, does not just happen by itself. You don’t hear testimony that “God just zapped me in an instant one day making me a spiritually mature disciple! I had no training or experience to go through at all!” Hmmm, this is sounding similar to a diet pill infomercial…

We may be instantly zapped with desire  for God, but not maturity.

You’re not a good husband or wife just because you said “I do” one day. Do couples know each other better on their wedding day or on their 30th anniversary?

Do not confuse calling, gifting, or anointing with maturity.

John 4:42

“We believe too,” they said to the woman, “but it’s no longer because of what you told us. We’ve heard Him ourselves! We know that He really is the One! He’s the Savior of the world!”

There’s belief. And then there’s knowing.

You may believe via hearing from a person, reading the Bible, listening to a sermon, or even witnessing a transformed life.

But belief crosses over into knowing when you hear directly from God Himself.

When you experience firsthand the presence of God, from seeking Him alone directly or from a near death experience or simply from God’s relentless pursuit of you, you obtain a new level of awareness and knowledge of the Holy One that is unshakeable.

Check yourself to make sure you are seeking God Himself and not people, mere information, or life enhancement. All that is not God will eventually fail you.

I have no good besides You. Psalm 16

Proverbs 9:4-6

“Whoever is simpleminded-turn aside here,” she says to those who lack heart. “Come, eat my food and drink the wine I mixed. Abandon simplemindedness and live. March on the path of understanding.”

Woman Wisdom here calls out to the “simpleminded.” These are neither the wise nor the foolish who Proverbs speaks so much to and about. These are the naive and immature. They are not committed to either side.

She invites them to her home to share a meal. In the ancient Near East this had erotic overtones. Woman Wisdom wants an intimate relationship with the man. Not just to be an acquaintance and know one another on the surface, but to deeply know one another and affect the heart.

Is this not what Jesus invites us to? To share life and heart? To deeply know Him and soak in being known by Him. Dare we even say to be in one another, as this language of intimacy suggests?

Jesus calls to those who are not living a life of depth. He invites all to a life of intimacy, meaning, and purpose. To spend time with Him.

Broad Ripple Park is right behind our house. There is much to enjoy there. But only if we actually go inside and partake.

John 3:30

He must increase, but I must decrease.

I am not the answer for anybody.

God through me may be the answer for somebody, if I allow Him to shine through me, so others see more of Him and less of me.

Proverbs 8:4

I call to you, all of you! I raise my voice to all people!”

Jesus is calling out to all people.

Perhaps you or I will have the honor to help someone recognize His voice today.

If we will listen to Him and be attuned to Him all day today…

Listening.

So foundational. So needed. What if we began everyday determined to listen to God all day? To do our best to stay attuned to His voice throughout the day (perhaps with the help of post-it notes or phone chimes?). Not beating ourselves up when we fail, but simply getting right back to it as soon as we realize we have strayed.

I think this would take us from self absorption and loathing to thankfulness and freedom.

It would take us from “I’m so pathetic and needy” (newsflash: we all are), to “I’m so thankful for Jesus’ abiding presence, peacefulness, guidance, comfort, and gentleness that is always there for me to keep coming back to.”

One of those mindsets I believe Satan would love to keep us in, and the other I believe Jesus would love to keep us in.

John 2:14-16

“You mustn’t turn my father’s house into a market!”

The Temple, that great symbol, had become terribly distorted, and worthy of destruction, for a Temple replacement had arrived.

And now, since Jesus, we are all Temples, dwelling places of  the Ruach Elohim (Holy Spirit).  May our dwelling places not suffer the same distortion as did the first century Temple. May they be houses of prayer to our Father.

John 1:1-18

LOGOS

The Word is the person of the Godhead through whom the world was created, who took on human nature in history and who is the source of light and life for humanity…that prophetic word which goes forth from God’s mouth to accomplish creation, judgement, redemption and renewal. John uses logos because it is the natural word for expressing the meaning of the Hebrew word dabar when that word was used in the context of God’s revelation. Beginning with its first sentences the Gospel asserts that Jesus is God’s final Revelator (cf. Heb. 1:1-2).

The purpose for developing an intimate relationship with Woman Wisdom is to block out an illicit relationship with the “strange/foreign” woman. This language refers not to an ethnically or politically foreign woman but to one who is outside social custom and law….

It is telling that the father mentions flattery as the first characteristic of the woman that might attract the son to an illegitimate relationship. It is not her beauty but her appeal to the man’s vanity that is so dangerous.

-Tremper Longman III

Proverbs 6:21-23

We remind each other of what is Truth because it gives us life, because we care for each other.