ResponsiveReiding

Proverbs 27:5 (ESV) “Better is open rebuke than hidden love.”

Are you addicted to the kisses of sycophants? Do you need their profuse affirmations? then know that they are the enemies of your soul. People who will only tell you what you want to hear – hate you. They will destroy you.

Husbands, do you always need your wives and children to agree with you and pledge their unqualified support? Or at work, do you need peers and underlings to agree with you in order to feel secure? How about wives? Do you need your gal-friends to only sympathize or empathize with your point of view or hurt feelings? Children, must your schoolmates or friends always affirm your opinions and actions? Leaders, do you need those under you to pat you on the back at all times and sign on to all your ideas and views? If you breed those behaviors in others, if you create that culture in your home, marriage, relationships or workplace – you will do so to your own destruction.

If Jesus only preached and taught what found acceptance with all those around Him, if He catered to their opinions and viewpoints – He might have avoided the Cross. But then, you and I would have no salvation.

Lamentations 3:31–33 (ESV) “For the Lord will not cast off forever, 32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 33 for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.”

The Father would rather we not need discipline. He takes no pleasure in our afflictions. He stands ready to forgive, indeed He only afflicts that we might return and enjoy the abundance of His steadfast love. It is the “abundance” we are prevented from having while we remain in our sin. It isn’t that He does not love us, but that we cannot enjoy the freedom and depth and sweetness and the unfettered love that comes with nothing remaining between us to separate. He does not afflict willingly. He does so only out of love. Not because He has begun to love less.

Thy wounds, are good, and right O Lord

No ill attends Thy dealing

Who with each wound in life afflicts

Yet plots my sick soul’s healing

In faithfulness and charity

Thy kind hand works in blessing

Allowing, crafting, crushing more

Thine Image sorely pressing

A softer will I plead O Lord

‘Tis not Your work which harms me

The cold and hardness of my heart

Is what in pain alarms me

Break me, melt me, mold me fully

Spare not each needed turning

Apply the fire of perfect love

Thy loving, cleansing, burning

Till pliable, and yielded up

And stripped of sin’s resistance

The vessel made emerges wrought

Of Love’s divine persistence

O Faithful Lord and Master mine

Make me to show Thy glory

The work of Christ’s redeeming love

Will be my endless story

Thy wounds, are good, and right O Lord

No ill attends Thy dealing

Who with each wound in life afflicts

Yet plots my sick soul’s healing

Proverbs 19:4 (ESV) Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.

If you are one who’s relationships are built only around what you get out of it, and you put nothing into it to benefit the others – you will find yourself all alone. If you have few friends, ask yourself – do I contribute anything to others, or do I go to them only to fill up the void in myself? If this is the greater way it is with you – you are a very lonely person indeed. The others cannot pour enough into your void to fill you up. And after a while, they give up. They are drained, and have nothing to show for it. They flee in self-preservation. Verses 6-7 go on to add: “Many seek the favor of a generous man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts. All a poor man’s brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them.” Proverbs 19:6–7 (ESV) The truth is, the wealthy and generous here do not have to possess material goods at all. They need only to have a generous spirit – a delight in blessing others, especially in Christ. Know well the riches which are yours in Him, and you’ll have much to contribute to others – and you will have the joy of many friends in the process.

Proverbs 19:2 (ESV) Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.

We generally refer to such people as “driven.” They just know they have a desire – and are in constant pursuit – but of what? really, they do not know. There has been precious little reflection on it. They just know they want “something” – and are on an eternal quest to gain it. One wonders if they would even recognize it even if they did obtain it. It is like being hungry, and eating, but knowing you are not satisfied – there is some unidentifiable something you crave – but you do not know what it is. If this is the state of your soul – you will run after things which in the end “misses” the “way”. How we need to pray, and submit our souls to the Father in such circumstances, and not allow ourselves be driven like this. In His Garden are all sorts of delights. If none of them satisfies, we will most certainly end up partaking of what we should not. Fill yourself up more and more on what God HAS provided in your life – and grow to be satisfied that He knows the better provision for you, than your unidentifiable cravings do.

” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.” ’ ” And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies.” (Exodus 8:20-24, ESV)

Up until this point in the Exodus narrative, it appears the Israelites experienced the difficulties of the plagues as well as the Egyptians did. They too had suffered the loss of the Nile’s water when it was turned to blood; the frogs which invaded even their ovens and beds; the pesky gnats that covered “man and beast” like dust. It wasn’t any more pleasant for God’s people than for their Captors.

God’s judgments upon mankind, or a particular nation, affect the Christians resident there as well as those who are being judged. We need to keep this in mind, especially when we pray concerning God’s dealings with our own nation. Are WE willing to suffer some of what it will take to break the pride and self-sufficiency of America? Or have we developed a theology of “exemption”? “Lord, deal with THEM, as long as we don’t have to experience any discomfort or pain.” But this is not how God works. Christians in America are both Christians AND Americans. We have our share in what God is doing on both fronts.

Does there ever come a separation? Evidently, at least it appears so in this text. There does come a separation – wherein the distinction is made. But in the meantime Beloved, do not be surprised that you suffer some of the ill effects of God’s dealings with the lost. If we want revival in the United States, we must prepare ourselves to suffer what it takes to break a nation like ours, along with the rest of the populace. God will give us special grace – but some things – we will have to endure in common. Are we willing to do that, in order that God might move mightily in revival?

Its a good question to ask ourselves.

2 Corinthians 1:1–5 (ESV) “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”

Having been born again, and brought into Christ by the Holy Spirit – into His family – we now live as aliens in this world as He did. Knowing true holiness now, we suffer remaining in this fallen, sin-sick world, experiencing it from a completely new perspective than we once did. This is a high honor He bestows upon us, to be transferred out of the kingdom of darkness, and into His kingdom. (Colossians 1:13)

This is what is behind the “groanings” of Romans 8:22-26 and later in this letter, 2 Corinthians 5:2-4.

We do not share in His sufferings as though somehow WE pay for sin in some respect. This is His exclusive work. Ours, is to be allowed to enter into the reality of His sufferings in leaving Heaven, and becoming incarnate. It is a most intimate opening up of His heart to us. It is as though He says “come inside me, and feel what I felt” – if only in the most minute degree. It is a priceless treasure to know this world as it really is in His eyes – and to know something of how being here impacted Him. This is intimacy of the deepest kind. We need to bear this in mind when we grow weary of being here too. Growing weary of sin and its discord with our God is a gift. Don’t refuse it or throw it away. Be glad you can want to be free of sin and its effects, not because they are uncomfortable in the natural, but because they are antithetical to your new nature in Christ Jesus.

This is what He suffered so as to pity us and act toward us in mercy – and so it is it ought to produce the very same result in us. It ought to make us sympathize and empathize with our brothers and sisters in Christ – and to minister to them as He has ministered to us – indeed OUT of how He has ministered to us.

“Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”” (Proverbs 9:1-6, ESV)

7. Pillar #7 – PROMISE. Wise people live on God’s promises. In order to live life rightly, joyfully, confidently and purposefully, we must think and live as those who order their lives around obtaining the things God has promised to those who love Him. “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:19, ESV) And we do not only take these promises to ourselves – as the foundation of our lives, we extend them to others. We can sometimes forget that preaching of the Gospel must include not only God’s warnings to those who disregard it – but His promises to those who embrace it. Like Eliezer in Genesis 24, looking for a wife for Jacob. Having met Rebekah, he immediately began to show her the riches of his master. Can we do less as we seek out Christ’s Bride in evangelism? Wisdom deals with Proof, not fiction It is engaged in Preparation, making sufficient Provision, with all Propriety for its invited guests. Then it makes the appropriate Proclamation in making sure all know they may come, and it clearly Provokes others to action. Lastly, it reinforces that all that God has said – is true. And with God’s own authority, it promises eternal life to all who will believe. And what surer promise do we have than Jesus Christ’s own resurrection? How glorious!

“Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”” (Proverbs 9:1-6, ESV)

5. Pillar #6 – PROVOCATION. Proof, Preparation, Provision, Propriety & Proclamation. Now, PROVOCATION. Wisdom never proclaims truth while leaving those it calls to with the impression that whether they believe or not, respond or not, is a matter that is indifferent. It does matter! The Gospel is a matter of life and death – eternal life and eternal death. Christian ministry does not offer an alternative, it spells out the reality. “Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you:” Paul writes to Titus (Titus 2:15, ESV) No one should ever hear the Gospel from our lips and leave thinking our attitude is one of “its no skin off of my nose.” Jesus was hardly dispassionate when He wept over Jerusalem. Wisdom provokes people to think about spiritual and eternal realities. It won’t let them rest where they are. Look at the call to repentance in the last verse: “leave your simple ways, and live!” “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”” (Ezekiel 18:31-32, ESV) “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11, ESV) Those are provocative words. Wisdom, wisely provokes the souls of people to action.

“For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.” (Proverbs 26:20, ESV)

What fuels your problem? Cut off its supply, and it will die out.

The main concept here is the rejection of gossip. Gossipers encourage and further quarrels and divisions between people. We are not to gossip ourselves, nor to listen to gossip from others – imagining “we can handle it.” Gossip is poison. Not a single soul in the history of mankind has ever been helped, encouraged or edified and made more like Christ either by gossiping themselves, or listening to it from others. Period. Warren Wiersbe wrote: “An anonymous wit has defined gossip as news you have to hurry and tell somebody else before you find out it isn’t true! “I would rather play with forked lightning, or take in my hands living wires with their fiery current,” said A.B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, “than speak a reckless word against any servant of Christ, or idly repeat the slanderous darts which thousands of Christians are hurling on others, to the hurt of their own souls and bodies.” (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996, c1992). Be determined. On cover: An Old Testament study–Nehemiah. (Ne 6:5). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.)

The secondary consideration is broader – it is true regarding any problem, or sin, if we cut off what supplies it, it dies out. This is especially true when seeking to deal with sexual lust for instance. Just getting “one more look”, or seeing the other person just “one more time” only throws gasoline on the fire. The fire never burns lower after added fuel. The lust burns hotter.

In a third application – whose whispers do you entertain in your quarrels with others? When we consult others too much in our disputes, their input often only exacerbates the circumstance. Often in marital disputes a husband and wife come to a place where they might be willing to let matters rest, but one or the other gets others involved who then bring up points we didn’t think of. But do we really need them? We aren’t trying to win a war – amassing our troops – but trying to resolve conflict between two parties. Does our opponent need to carry on a battle with two or three or four hearts and minds at once, each with their own limited and biased viewpoints? When two are left to sort out their issues between themselves, the likelihood of arriving at some sort of peace is greatly enhanced when both keep the other’s confidences, and speak only from their own hearts and minds – unfueled by others.