Pondering Proverbs – Witness (3)

 

 

“He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.” Proverbs 10:5.

 

Someone may ask, “When is summer? When is harvest time?”

 

In our previous post we saw that Jesus says that the fields are ripe for harvest right now. But let’s take this a step further by looking at 2 Timothy 4:1 – 2:

 

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

 

Can we see that we are to be engaged in Gospel ministry “in season and out of season”?

 

Peter writes that we should always be “ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15).

 

It ought to be normal to witness to others of our Lord Jesus Christ, this ought to be our way of life. But is it? Is the exception when we don’t witness? Or, is witnessing to others the exception in our lives and in our congregations? I think it is, sadly I think it is. How have we come to accept, and even defend, this mindset?

 

Is it possible to make progress if we defend not sharing Christ with others? Is this not disobedience to Jesus’ Great Commission, which is a commandment, that we are to go into all the world and make disciples of all peoples? Is it not a sin to live lives in which our lives, in word and deed, are not a witness to Jesus Christ? Is it not a sin for our congregations not to be a people of witness in word and deed?

 

The recognition of sin and disobedience is important, for once we bring our sin into the open it is exposed for what it is – not an excuse but a sin, and once we confess our sin we are in a place where we can receive God’s grace and mercy and power. We can trust God to answer us when we cry out to Him to make us faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ. And let us remember, dear friends, that Jesus sends the Promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, that we might be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (Lk. 24:44 – 49; Acts 1:1 – 8).

 

Witnessing is to be the rule of our lives, not the exception. The exception should be when we cannot witness – but even then, we can always pray and intercede.

 

Let’s notice a shared element regarding gentleness and patience in the above passages from 2 Timothy and 1 Peter. Paul tells Timothy that Gospel ministry ought to be “with great patience and instruction” and Peter writes that we should witness with “with gentleness and reverence.” Earlier in 2 Timothy (2:24 – 25) Paul writes, “The Lord’s bond - servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.”

 

Dear friends, it is possible to win an argument but lose a soul. We can be firm but not argumentative. Gospel witnessing should be an expression of truth and love – we are to speak the truth in love and we are to love in truth. Jesus witnessed to the Father’s love in truth on the Cross, in His crucifixion – how do we witness?

 

It is far better to witness in our weakness and in love, than in apparent strength and arrogance – for Christ’s strength is perfected in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).

 

I am reminded of the owner of a jewelry store in Richmond, VA who came to know Christ through the tears of one of his employees. One day the employee started crying and could not stop, when the owner asked why she was crying she said she was crying because he didn’t know Jesus. When the owner then asked what he could do, she asked him if he would come to church with her. When the owner came to church the next Sunday he met Jesus Christ. I had heard this story over the years when I lived in Richmond, and when I first used it in a Sunday morning message I called the owner, Graham Rees, to hear the account directly from him – and it was as I had always heard it.

 

Have my tears ever brought anyone to Jesus? Has my heart been broken that others might know Jesus?

 

O dear friends, sharing Christ is not so much about knowing information, it is about introducing others to our Friend, our Lord, our Savior, our Beloved – knowing Him is the knowledge we are called to share – it is the man of John 9:25 saying, “…one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

Pondering Proverbs – Witness (2)

 

“He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.” Proverbs 10:5.

 

Are we wise or shameful children?

 

Are our churches wise or shameful?

 

If we aren’t honest about this it is doubtful if we can grow and mature in our pilgrimage in Christ and with one another, and it is also doubtful if the world will hear and see Jesus Christ in us.

 

There are three core elements to our calling in Christ, three legs of a stool; worship and love God (John 4:23 – 24; Mark 12:29 -30), buildup one another in Christ (Eph. 4:11 – 16), and make disciples of all people groups, teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us (Matthew 28:18 – 20).

 

Consider Jesus’ words in John 4:34 – 35, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.”

 

We like to put witnessing off, to delay it, to say, “It isn’t harvest time, the moment isn’t right, the circumstances need to improve.”

 

Yet Jesus says, “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.” (John 4:36 – 38).

 

In other words, we have a part to play in a chain of witnessing to the people around us. Sometimes we may have a sense of where we are in that chain, perhaps most times we don’t – but the point is that we are to be faithful witnesses to others and to trust God to work through us in the process.

 

Paul expresses this idea in 1 Corinthians 3:6 – 8: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.”

 

Notice the idea of “each will receive his own reward according to his labor.” This brings us back to Proverbs 10:5 in that the wise son gathers in harvest and the shameful son sleeps. This also may remind us of the Parable of the Money is Matthew 25:14 – 30, each servant was given a certain amount of money to steward while their master was away on a trip, one was given five measures of money, one two measures of money, and another one measure of money. The one who had received one measure of money did nothing with it and was held accountable for his inaction. Inaction is not a viable option – it is disobedience.

 

There is a promise in the Great Commission in which we can have confidence, “…I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20b). That is, Jesus is with us in the midst of our “going” – when Jesus says “Go” in Matthew 28:19, He is also saying “I am with you” in Matthew 28:20. Wherever we are, Jesus Christ is with us, the one who has “all authority.” When we are at work or at school or in a social gathering, Jesus is with us. When we are shopping or at a sporting or entertainment event, Jesus is with us. Since Jesus is with us wherever we are, we can trust in Him as we witness about Him to others. Since Jesus is with us, we can gather in the summer as wise sons and daughters.

 

In Matthew 9:37 – 38 Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” How can we pray such a thing if we are not willing to be the answer to the prayer?

 

Shall we not only pray for our Lord to send out workers, but also pray that He will make us the answer to our prayer?

 

Shall we not pray that our Father will make us wise sons and daughters who gather in the harvest and who do not sleep?

Pondering Proverbs – Witness (1)

 

 

For the past few weeks, we’ve been pondering what Proverbs has to teach us concerning God’s loving discipline in our lives, as well as his righteous judgment on those who reject Him and embrace evil and wickedness. Taking a hiatus from pondering discipline (which we will return to since Proverbs has much more to teach us about this way of life), we are going to ponder what the father of Proverbs has to say to his son regarding living a life of witness to God.

 

As with all of my life, sometimes I’ve gotten witnessing right and sometimes I’ve gotten it wrong. Sometimes I’ve been more intelligent than at other times. Sometimes I’ve been stupid and other times I’ve gotten out of the way and been amazed at how Jesus has worked. One of the many things I love about baseball is that the best batters still make more outs than they get on base – and yet they not only still keep playing but the very best are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

 

One thing I am convinced of is that if I don’t get up to the plate and swing the bat nothing will happen. I cannot say to Jesus, “Please let me stay on the bench. Please don’t send me out of the dugout and up to the plate.”

 

I am also convinced that being a witness for Jesus is a way of life, it is who we are before it is what we do. Jesus says that if we see Him we see the Father (John 14:9), well then, since Jesus sends us as the Father sends Him (John 17:18; 20:21) when people see us they ought to see the Father and Jesus. After all, Jesus says that we are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14), and since He is the Light of world (John 8:12) then we know that our light is His Light – not our own, not of ourselves – therefore the light in us is Light with an uppercase “L” (see also John 15:1 – 11, we can produce no light of ourselves).

 

Are we faithful stewards of Christ’s Light in us?

 

Yet there is also the dynamic in life that not only do we learn to witness as we realize who we are in Christ but we also learn who we are in Christ as we learn to witness, to share the Gospel and point people to Jesus Christ. We become as we “do”, and we also “do” as we become.

 

Also, I am convinced that living a life of witness, and that giving specific words of witness, is totally dependent on the Holy Spirit from first to last. This means that God uses my shortcomings, my fears, my insecurities, and my weaknesses to His glory; God redeems my imperfect words and actions – God calls me to obedience and faithfulness – the results of the seed I sow are in His hands, not mine. I am not (nor are you) called to manipulate situations or force results – I am called to love God and others.

 

Then there is the element of sacrifice in the life of witness, we are called to follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Revelation 14:4; Mark 8:34 – 38). Jesus Christ gave His life for us and we are to give our lives to Him and for others (1 John 3:16). Living a life of witness means going against the grain of the world around us, it means that we tell the truth, that we do not slander, that we love in the midst of rejection and hate, that we speak words of peace, that we touch the untouchable, loving the people of the world as Jesus loves the people of the world – it means that we bear the reproach of Jesus both inside and outside the professing church.

 

The first verse in Proverbs that I’d like us to ponder regarding witness is 10:5, “He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.”

 

What do you see in this verse?

 

What does your local church look like with respect to this verse?

 

I wonder what my own life looks like.

 

What about your life?

 

We’ll return to Proverbs 10:5 in the next post in this series.

Pondering Proverbs - Discipline (17)

 

“A rebuke goes deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.” Proverbs 17:10.

 

What has been your experience with the truth of this verse? Can you relate to it? Do you have your own story to tell about one part of this verse? About both parts? Have you played the role of “one who has understanding”? Have you played the part of the fool?

 

I confess that I have played both parts, I know what it is to be the fool who receives a hundred blows and who yet still does not “get it.” By God’s grace, I have also come to know the deep but redeeming pain that pierces into the depths of my being. While I hope that I shall never play the fool again, I can’t be sure; I can trust God, I can pray for mercy, I can hope in Him, but I can’t be sure.

 

Frankly I think not being sure, in this case, is a good thing for me. I am reminded of Paul’s words, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). The context of this verse is temptation, and while there is the assurance that God will provide “a way of escape” (1 Cor. 10:13), I need God’s mercies to protect me from my arrogance, to help me see and sense danger, and to keep me clinging to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.

 

You see, I know that in playing the fool I have been oblivious to “a hundred blows.” In retrospect this seems incredible, for the stupidity and evil and toxicity of my sin and wickedness are so very apparent to me today – they make me sick deep within myself – but at the time I was so entrenched in my sin and foolishness (and I use the terms “fool” and “foolishness” in the Biblical sense – which is of a person enmeshed in sin and evil and the way of death) that I refused to see, I rejected, the discipline of God and what was just plain common Biblical sense. Thankfully, as the prodigal son in Luke 15, even though I was eating pig’s food, the call of my Father brought me back home.

 

Dear friends, I know what pig’s food tastes like and I’d rather not eat it again. How stupid we are to hire ourselves out to serve the unclean!

 

I am reminded of dear Peter, who said to Jesus, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” (Luke 22:33). Yet Peter vehemently denied Jesus three times...but what then?

 

“The Lord turned and looked at Peter…and he [Peter] went out and wept bitterly.” (Luke 22:54 – 62).

 

Might it not be that as we transition from being oblivious to our Lord’s warnings and corrections, to living as we were meant to live, in intimacy with Him, that times come when simply the look of our dear Lord Jesus is enough to convict us of our sin and foolishness?

 

Notice that I wrote “times,” because it may not be that a “time” comes when a look is all it will take, it may be that we forget that look and must need be reminded of it many times – what do you think?

 

In Galatians Chapter 2 we see that our Lord rebuked Peter through Paul in front of the entire church; and to God’s glory and Peter’s credit, Peter accepted Paul’s rebuke – otherwise there would have been a split in the church and, I think, the history of the Church would have been sadly different. My own sense is that this was not easy for either Paul or Peter, but Paul loved our Lord and his brethren enough to do something, to rebuke Peter in front of the church, and Peter loved our Lord and his brethren enough to accept the rebuke. How much do we truly love our Lord Jesus and one another?

 

As I write this I am thinking of a dear dear grandmother, a saint in our Lord, who once shared with me how, as she looked back over her life, that she saw how she could have treated others better than she did – the Lord was convicting her and purifying her.

 

In my own life the discipline of the Lord, the conviction of my sin and foolishness and narcissism, cuts deeper than it ever has – and the scapple is razor sharp (Heb. 4:12). I see things today that I had not seen before, and I see things that were once blurry with refined vision – a vision both clear and painful – a vision that drives me to the Christ of the Cross. It often only takes the look of our dear Lord Jesus to shame me and put me on my face before Him. And, I suppose unlike times past, I cannot run from Him, for once the conviction of the Holy Spirit beings its work I am caught in a net, in a trap, and struggle as I might, until I surrender to Him I will have no release, no freedom.

 

There are moments when the Bible is to me as the prophet Nathan was to David, “You are the man!” What to do? Why we run to Jesus, we run to His Cross, we run to Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 and Romans 4:1 – 5:11, we run to 2 Corinthians 5 – and we grab hold of Jesus and we sense the arms of Jesus surrounding us – and we know that we are forgiven and safe in His arms.

 

And may I say, and may you believe, that there is no safer and warmer place than being in the arms of Jesus Christ.

 

Pondering Proverbs – Discipline (16)

 

 

“Understanding is a foundation of life to one who has it, but the discipline of fools is folly.” Proverbs 16:22.

 

The world says, “Knowledge is power,” but the godly in Christ Jesus seek understanding and knowledge for their goodness, truth, and beauty in Him. Those in Christ Jesus know that all power resides in Almighty God, and that those who set themselves up as gods will lose their souls.

 

What does the image of a “fountain of life” convey to you?

 

When we think of Ponce de Leon’s quest for the Fountain of Youth we may wonder at the futility and foolishness of his quest, after all, shouldn’t he have known that there was no such thing? And yet, what is it that so many in this world are seeking? Power? Youth? Their best life now? Are they not seeking “life” in its various forms and ways – ways that appeal to them, that speak to them, that promise them something that meets a need or hunger or desire within them? Shouldn’t we all know better than to seek the false promises and allurements of the world? Can’t we look around us and see the bottom – line futility of seeking and grasping at things and positions and the opinions of others that are here today and gone, sooner or later, tomorrow?

 

And even when we ponder nobler ideals among us, altruistic ideals and ways of living, can we not see that these higher ways of living and thinking have their origins elsewhere than within ourselves? The very concept of them being “higher” contains this truth, for where would such a concept come from, a concept that others outside of our individual selves acknowledge? Where does this awareness of the “outside of ourselves” come from? The tragedy here is that we usually refuse to acknowledge that these ideals must flow from headwaters beyond ourselves, and so we suppress the knowledge of God – denying Him, and in denying Him denying ourselves, and in denying ourselves shutting ourselves off from salvation and healing and wholeness in Jesus Christ.  

 

We are thirsting for that satisfying and thirst – quenching drink. We look for it in cars and houses and bank accounts and investments and in careers and the accolades of others, in low golf scores or high batting averages or record touchdowns or in the way we look, or in political or social or military power. There is a deceiving drink for all of us, if we try one drink and it doesn’t satisfy us there are plenty more to choose from.

 

Sadly, much of the professing church has become a purveyor of the world’s soda fountain, or even a tiki bar. We are like one of those drink machines that allow you to choose between dozens of drinks, just put some ice in your cup and press a few times on the smart screen and you will get what you want. The problem with getting what you want is that you will be thirsty again, and again, and again.

 

But O dear friends, Ponce de Leon wasn’t entirely crazy, he just didn’t know where to look, because as Proverbs 16:22 tells us, there is indeed a “fountain of life.” There is an “understanding” which clarifies our vision and finetunes our hearing and leads us to drink from the True and Everlasting fountain of life.

 

We are all like the woman at the well in John Chapter 4, all of us have wells that we have been taught to draw from; it may be money or power or position, or education or fame or recognition, or the pleasures of food and drink and houses and cars…there are so many many wells around us – and it seems people are always inventing new ones for us to sample, or repackaging old wells in new ways.

 

Yet Jesus says, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

 

Jesus continues, “…whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up [like a fountain!] to eternal life.”

 

Later in John’s Gospel (6:35) Jesus says, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”

 

The understanding that is a fountain of life is the understanding that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. It is the understanding that leads us to follow Jesus Christ as our Lord, turning from ourselves and our ways to Him as our Way and Truth and Life.

 

Our desire to be more than we are, our appetite to fill the holes in our souls, our hunger, our thirst, all of these things speak to us of the One True Fountain of Life, that One Fountain which alone can satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst. Let us not be satisfied with food and drink, in whatever form, which cannot give us lasting satisfaction; let us not be content with illusory narratives about who we are, nor let us be seduced into thinking that we are accidents looking for a place to happen so we might as well live in the moment.

 

As those created in the image of God, let us find the redemption and restoration of that image in Jesus Christ and learn to drink of that Fountain that will abundantly fill us to overflowing from now into eternity – for we were indeed created for the eternals.

 

What fountain are we drinking from today?

 

Pondering Proverbs – Discipline (15)

 

Continuing with Proverbs 15:31 – 33…

 

“The fear of Yahweh is the instruction for wisdom, and before honor comes humility.” Proverbs 15:33.

 

We have pondered five verses regarding discipline in Proverbs Chapter 15 (5, 10, 12, 31, 32), this concluding verse in the chapter informs them all – as it does the entire chapter – for to live in the fear and reverence of God is to live with an awareness that how we live matters, how we treat others matters, whether we are foolish or wise matters.

 

In his introduction to Proverbs (1:7), Solomon writes, “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction,” setting the stage for all that follows.

 

 If we choose to live as a law unto ourselves, rejecting the discipline and teaching of God, we will die (15:10).  On the other hand, if we recognize that our lives are not our own to do with as we please, if we realize that we have a Creator, who is our Father, and to whom we are accountable, then we will pay attention to His Word and to the lessons He is teaching us, then we will acknowledge His wisdom and our ignorance – we live in a hostile world, we need the instruction and discipline of our heavenly Father.

 

Consider Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:9 – 11:

 

“Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.”

 

Is our ambition to be pleasing to God? If it is, then we will honor His discipline and instruction - no matter how painful it may be in the moment. We see in Proverbs 15:33 that “before honor comes humility,” the way of instruction and discipline is the way of humility – if we will honor our Father and His discipline then He will honor us.

 

Are we living in the awareness that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed”? Are we living as those who know that they will be held accountable for their lives? Many of us know the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14 – 30 (the talents are money, not gifts and abilities, but we can transfer the idea of money to our gifts and abilities and opportunities). In addition to other things God has given us to use in this life, whether money or gifts and abilities or positions of influence; God has also given each of us what should be the most obvious thing – our lives. We each have a life to live, what shall we do with the life that God has given us?

 

I am not thinking right now of vocation, I am thinking of the basic fundamental life that each one of us have been given – how shall we live it? Paul teaches that each of us will be held accountable for what we have done, “whether good or bad.”

 

Paul writes these things “knowing the fear of the Lord.”

 

Paul begins his letter to the Corinthians (which we call 2 Corinthians) by sharing about an excruciating time in his life and in that of his companions (2 Cor. 1:1 – 11). He talks about a time when they “despaired even of life.” He writes that “we had the sentence of death within ourselves.” Yet Paul also writes about the lessons they learned during this time, such as learning not to trust in themselves but in God who raises the dead. Indeed, one of the themes of 2 Corinthians is transformation in Christ through suffering – Paul and his fellow workers submitted to the instruction and discipline of God, and by doing so were able not only to grow in Christ, from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18), but they were also able to serve the People of God (2 Cor. 4:12).

 

This is the context of, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God…”

 

O dear friends, we are a society out of control, bent on our mutual destruction. We are fools to think that our lives are our own to do with as we please, and “Christians” who believe and propagate this are doubly foolish.

 

Those of us in Christ are not our own, we have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19 – 20); why then, O why, do we live as we please? A fundamental truth of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ is Lord, and if He is Lord then we are under His lordship. Let us have none of the nonsense that Jesus is our Savior but He isn’t our Lord yet – that is crazy, that is simply not Biblical. When we come to Jesus Christ, we come to Him declaring Him to be our Lord, declaring our resolve (by His grace) to follow Him (Mark 8:34ff). The very word “repent” has within it the turning away of our own direction and a turning toward Jesus Christ, to follow Him as our Lord. To be a Biblical Christian is to be under New Ownership, the Ownership of Jesus Christ.

 

Am I living my life as a man owned by Another, whose life does not belong to himself?

 

What about you?

Pondering Proverbs – Discipline (14)

 

Continuing with Proverbs 15:31 – 33…

 

“He who neglects discipline despises himself, but he who listens to reproof acquires understanding.” Proverbs 15:32

 

The LXX renders “despises himself” as “hates his soul,” and then “acquires understanding” as “loves his soul.” The NASB has a marginal reading of “heart” for “understanding.”

 

Now of course “self” and “himself” are a reasonable translations for “soul” for the soul is the self – yes, yes, our “innards” are complex and I think precise definitions rightly allude us; I write “rightly” because only God knows who we really how and how He really made us. But I do think there are contexts in which “soul” packs a punch that “self” or “life” lack – for example, Mark 8:35 (NASB), “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

 

I much prefer, “For whoever wishes to save his soul will lose it…”

(Note in the NASB that in Mark 8:36 & 37 that the translators use “soul” and not “life” – why the inconsistency? If this is to align with sensitivity to English readers and our dislike of repetition – is that really justification for mitigating the repetition that Jesus used?

 

Having written the above, I see that I must confess that I vary my own quotation of Mark 8:35 – 37 depending on my audience…perhaps next time I quote it in conversation or teaching I will unpack the interplay of “soul” and “life”.)

 

Regarding Proverbs 15:32, my sense is that there is a lot going on with our inner selves in this verse – we are growing healthy and mature if we pursue and accept discipline, and we are killing ourselves if we don’t. Keil & Delitzsch try to capture this with their observation:

 

“The despising of the soul is then the neglecting, endangering, exposing of the life; in a word, it is suicide.”

 

Do we think of the rejection of discipline as suicide? Do we see that we are killing ourselves by not seeking discipline and learning, and that we are also killing ourselves when we reject instruction and disciple?

 

I also think there is something in the NASB marginal reading of “heart” in that the person who listens to reproof will find himself, his soul, his heart, growing and deepening in a gravitas rooted in God and His Word – he (or she) will grow into a person of substance.

 

We live in a world so stupid that many of us actually think that “perception is reality.” Companies and organizations and lives are built on this foolishness. Some perception is based on the fleeting and temporal, and other perception is enduring with its roots in eternity. The early morning mist is reality, but when I see it I know that it will soon vanish. In the perspective of eternity perception that is fashioned on lies and short-term thinking and self-gratification has a shorter life span than the morning mist and dew.

 

We seldom value substance in people, we are dazzled by surface display, by outside appearance; we hide our hearts from one another – we extol personality and not character. We are foolish when we do this – this is self-hatred – it is the hatred of our collective souls…and we seem hellbent on our own destruction.

 

What is particularly tragic is that we are offering our children, from infancy, on these altars of destruction; we say we love our children, but we will not teach them character, we will not teach them discipline, we will not teach them to deny themselves…but we will teach them to hate their own souls by teaching them to despise reproof, discipline, and instruction. Has there ever been a society as crazed as we are? Has there ever been such collective suicide?

 

I will never read Proverbs 15:32 quite the same.

 

How is God speaking to you through this verse?

Pondering Proverbs – Discipline (13)

 

Continuing with Proverbs 15:31 – 33…

 

“He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.” Proverbs 15:31.

 

Where do we live? Among whom do we dwell?

 

The psalmist laments, “Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.” (Psalm 120:6 – 7). If we “fit in” with the world around us then there is something wrong, for God’s People are called to be in the world but not of the world – we are not called to be chameleons, we are called to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, a city on a hill (John 17:14 – 16; Matthew 5:13 – 16; Phil. 2:14 – 16). We are not called to leave the world physically, nor are we called to disassociate from the people of the world (John 17:15; 1 Cor. 5:9 – 10) – for how could we be a blessing to others if we have no contact with them?

 

Yet, our hearts and minds and souls are called to live elsewhere, in the light of Christ, in the holiness of our Father, in the life of the Holy Spirit. Our pilgrimage on this earth, in the Trinity and with one another, includes both affirmation and life-giving reproof – reproof which will keep us safe, reproof which will nurture our growth, reproof which will encourage, reproof which is a constant reminder of our God’s love and care for us.

 

When we listen to God’s life-giving reproof, and to listen in this context includes responding in obedience, we will live among the wise – that is, we will share life with others who are also listening to God’s life-giving reproof, some of whom are well – advanced in pilgrimage, some of whom are our peers, and some of whom may just be venturing out on this great adventure in Christ. In the “communion of saints” this includes those who have gone well before us in time and space; Abraham, Noah, David, Peter, Paul, Ruth, Huldah, Deborah; as well as Augustine, Athanasius, Pusey, Fenelon, Murray, Edwards, Vos…and so many others, so many many others.

 

The wise are not interested in entertaining us, or in emotionally manipulating us, or in getting us to enroll in Christian playschool, or even in inducing us to buy into the latest and greatest understanding or revelation that will make us feel that we have special knowledge and insight – the wise are seeking Jesus Christ, to know Him with all that they are and to know Him in koinonia with their brothers and sisters. The wise are seeking to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to love their neighbor as themselves (Mark 12:28 – 31).

 

The wise know the life – giving reproof as a way of life…and they rejoice in it, even when it hurts, even when it is painfully convicting – which it often is. The wise do not offer us cotton candy to induce us to join them, the wise offer the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. The wise have a passion for Jesus that burns the chaff away, that purges the dross, that melts the bonds of this world – that makes sin look foolish and stupid as well as dark and dangerous.

 

And when we dwell among the wise we will never live alone, for that great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) ever surrounds us, led and guided by “the great Shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13:20).

 

O Lord Jesus, may my ear hear and respond to Your life-giving reproof today; may I grow in You and with my brothers and sisters. Teach us, dear Lord Jesus, to dwell among those who are wise in You.

Pondering Proverbs – Discipline (12)

 

“He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. He who neglects discipline despises himself, but he who listens to reproof acquires understanding. The fear of Yahweh is the instruction for wisdom, and before honor comes humility.” Proverbs 15:31 – 33.

 

As we turn the kaleidoscope of discipline yet again, what facets do you see? How are the patterns defusing the light?

 

Our passage begins, “He whose ear…”

 

We all have ears, but what kind of ears do we have?

 

Some of us decorate our ears with earrings and studs, others have hearing aids; sometimes we wear protection for our ears – such as when operating loud equipment. Some men and women have jobs that require them to wear hearing-enhancing devices, such as sonar operators on submarines. When our ears are functioning well, we may pay little attention to them, but when they are infected they demand our immediate attention for earaches can be excruciating. What else can you think about regarding ears?

 

In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, Jesus speaks to seven churches regarding their condition, both correcting and encouraging; at the conclusion of each message He says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” What does Jesus mean, “He who has an ear”? Since we can assume that the people who heard Revelation read aloud to them had ears, why would Jesus say, “He who has an ear”?

 

In Matthew 13:10 – 17 Jesus talks to His disciples about those who have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear. What does He mean by this? Then consider John 9:39, “And Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into the world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” What is Jesus saying?

 

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the verse that precedes our passage in Proverbs speaks of the eyes, “Bright eyes gladden the heart; good news puts fat on the bones.” The eyes and ears are often connected in the Bible, and the heart (the inner person) is often connected to the ears and eyes – for the Bible treats us holistically. What we see and hear informs our heart, and our heart informs our speech.

 

Jesus says, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, therefore be zealous and repent…He who has an ear” (see Rev. 3:19 – 22).

 

Do we have ears that “listen to life-giving reproof”?

 

My father-in-law drove race cars and was constantly working on them for much of his life; this exposure to loud engine noise damaged his hearing. Perhaps you have known musicians who played such loud amplified music that they became hearing – impaired and could no longer hear the nuances of the music they played.

 

The noise of the world can damage our ability to hear “what the Spirit is saying.” Furthermore, when the noise of the world is imported into the professing church and packaged in a “Christian” context, it can become especially difficult to have an ear to hear, to discern between the words of the world and the Word of God.

 

And here, I think, is where we must keep coming back to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ – for without the Cross as our tuning fork, without the Cross as our lens through which to “see,” we will lose our seeing and our hearing, we will lose our way.

 

Consider what Paul says and why he says it in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” If you ponder the context (1:17 – 2:16) I think you will see that it includes that Christ crucified is a stumbling block to some and foolishness to others – the temptation is to adjust our hearing to the world’s hearing and our seeing to the world’s seeing – and so we must ever glory in Christ Jesus, ever seek Him, ever see Him, ever listen to Him, ever have our hearts and minds captured by Him.

 

What kind of ears do we have?

 

We’ll return to Proverbs 15 in the next post in this series.

Pondering Proverbs – Discipline (11)

 

“Grievous punishment is for him who forsakes the way; He who hates reproof will die.” Proverbs 15:10.

 

“A scoffer does not love one who reproves him, he will not go to the wise.” Proverbs 15:12.

 

Between these two verses we have, “Sheol [nether world] and Abaddon [place of destruction] lie open before Yahweh, how much more the hearts of men!” Proverbs 15:11.

 

What do you see in these verses? What are they saying to us?

 

Note that we again encounter the “scoffer.” We can’t seem to get away from the scoffer in Proverbs anymore than we can get away from scoffers in life – they come at us from the airwaves, from print, from fiber optics, and from conversations. Let us not be so foolish as to drink from their cup, to eat their bread, lest we become scoffers ourselves. And, if we discover that we ourselves are scoffers, if we look in the mirror or listen to ourselves, if we realize that we are listening to scoffers – then let us run to Jesus and repent and ask for help – for He will surely give it. I was once a scoffer, Jesus saved me from continued destruction.

 

The Scriptures speak to us of ways and paths, and that there are essentially but two ways and two paths, the Way of the Lord and the way of the enemy; the Way of the Lord has its Alpha and Omega in Jesus Christ, hence Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).

 

In Proverbs 15:24 we see, “The path of life leads upward for the wise that he may keep away from Sheol below.” He who forsakes this path for the “way of the wicked” (15:9), who hates reproof, will die (15:10), he will continue his downward spiral into Sheol and Abaddon.

 

Why is it that most of us will pay attention to warning signs on the highway but not pay attention to the warnings that God gives us? Would it be irresponsible for our highway departments to fail to post warning signs? Do we not want to be alerted to a sharp curve ahead, a curve that we cannot see, so that we can slow down and take the curve safely? Do we get upset when we see warning signs posted on our roadways? Do we take offense at roadcrews for installing warning signs?

 

Then why, O why, do we take offense at God and His Word and His servants for warning us of the eternal danger of forsaking His Way, of rejecting His correction? Does this make sense to you? And how foolish for ministers and churches to cater to the ways and whims of the culture when those whims and ways are not the Way of Christ. How irresponsible for churches and ministers not to tell the Biblical truth about the many roads before us, about those roads that lead us farther and farther away from God’s Way. When the professing church becomes the broad way perhaps there is a problem (Matthew 7:13 – 14).

 

“He who hates reproof will die” (15:10). Do we understand the truth of this statement? We cannot come to know Jesus Christ without accepting the reproof of God. Yes, God’s reproof is loving and merciful and compassion and abounding with grace – but nevertheless…and because of the foregoing…it is deep convicting reproof. Why? Because God’s reproof calls us to repentance and confession and to the Cross of Christ. There must be reproof, conviction of sin and of being a sinner, in our coming to follow and know Jesus Christ – this is a necessary element of repentance and confession. How can we confess our sins unless we are convicted of them? How can we repent, change our direction in life, turning from self and sin and toward Jesus Christ, unless we are reproved and convicted of sin and self?

 

“Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 2:27 – 38; see also Luke 24:46 – 47).

 

How can we be disciples and make disciples (Matt. 28:19) without discipline, and discipline includes reproof?

 

How have we come to so reject reproof that our schools no longer reprove children and our churches avoid it at pretty much all cost? When have we seen leadership in any sphere of life accept reproof from others, including from the facts and truth of a matter? It is a rare thing indeed to hear someone say, “I was wrong.”

 

How have we gotten so far away from a fundamental principle of a healthy life and society and church – the principle of giving and receiving instructive discipline and reproof, the principle of seeking wisdom and learning and growing in character? One reason discipline is so difficult to talk about and practice is that what should be a way of life has become alien to us, what should be natural has become unnatural.

 

Why will some of us train our bodies, but not train our souls? Why do we (hopefully) desire to eat what is healthy for our bodies, but do not care about eating healthy for our souls? Why do we put such emphasis on the way our bodies look, but care little for how our hearts, minds, and souls look? Let’s remember 15:11, God knows our hearts.

 

Why does Solomon emphasize the importance of discipline and instruction – again and again? What is the message he is giving to his son? What is the message the Father is giving to His sons and daughters?

 

Do I understand the life and death importance of this message?

 

Do you?