The book of Proverbs was written to a son. The Proverbs are geared toward the instruction of men, young men in particular.
This week’s video looks at three things we as young men need to do regarding wisdom.
Know – Perceive – Receive.
My prayer is that you found this helpful. I want to challenge you to recognize, perceive and receive wisdom this week. I pray that the Lord open your eyes to it and make it readily apparent to you as you live each day.
If this helped you, please like and share this post.
When I think of Pride, one of the first things I think of is “Pride goes before a fall”. It’s a phrase I’ve heard most of my life. This phrase is actually a shortening of a scripture found in Proverbs.
Pro 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (MKJV)
I’ve started a video series that I’m calling Proverbs for Men. I’ve also made a weird contraction out of it, and refer to it as ProForM. All of the videos will be short. If a topic needs a longer run time, I will break it into smaller short videos. I want each one to be less than 5 minutes.
I will continue to write posts but also wanted to add these as supplemental content.
Everybody can benefit from the book of Proverbs. It’s the book of wisdom, written by the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon. While everyone can benefit from Proverbs, it’s first use was specifically to instruct sons. It deals with some substantial topics. Topics like, what to do about the strange woman, or the forward woman, and how to think properly about relationships.
I am looking forward to digging in to it all with you. So, without further ado – here’s the first of many.
I hope this video has helped you. If so, please consider sharing.
For many years I struggled with knowing what to do. I usually ended up drifting. I would make the best choice of the opportunities that would float by me, but I had no idea what the future held. I just hoped that it would be good and sometimes worried that it wouldn’t be. Yes, I said worried.
Today I don’t believe in worry. Worry is a form of fear, and fear is the opposite of faith. We know by scripture that faith comes from hearing God’s Word continually. I now know that when I’m tempted to worry now, I need more exposure to God’s promises.
I took some time off from Blogging this last month to spend some extra time praying and getting clarity regarding direction in 2017. I put some of the things I’ve been thinking about in this video. I pray you find it helpful.
So – Are you with me? I would really like to hear from you. What are you focusing on for the coming year?
This last week, as I was doing my daily Bible reading, I came across Proverbs 22:4. As I began to study it a little bit, I noticed that verses 1-7 all seemed to be related. Verse 4 says “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honor, and life. Now Proverbs says a lot about being diligent and not being slothful, but I noticed that neither of those traits were listed here when talking about obtaining riches, honor or life.
Verse 1 of chapter 22 also says “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold. To top it all off, in verses 6 & 7 it tells us “If a child is trained up in the right way, even when he is old he will not be turned away from it. 7 The man of wealth has rule over the poor, and he who gets into debt is a servant to his creditor.” (Bible in Basic English – BBE).
This week I posted a video where I talk at length about this.
Scriptures referenced in the video are Proverbs 22:1-7, Proverbs 10:22, Matt 6:33 & 1 Tim 6:10.
If this video helps you and you think it can help someone else, please share and subscribe.
Have you ever had a situation spin out of control and the next thing you knew, you were being verbally attacked by an aggressive person? Maybe you locked horns with someone at work and it escalated into a heated argument. When it was all over and the dust was settling, did you begin to roll it over and over in your mind? This is usually when all the logic rolls in. You are suddenly awash with razor wit and remarkable cleverness. It always seems that in the aftermath of these arguments, we have 10,000 come-backs.
The truth is, we are probably better off that we can’t access this cleverness in the heat of the argument. Who knows what damage we could actually do.
This week I shot a video about this. Jesus said offences would come. That’s one of His promises that no one wants to receive. What is the right way to deal with offence? How should we handle ourselves when we’re in the thick of it?
I think we’ve all been in situations like this, and we have all walked away wondering if we handled it well. I know that sometimes I have walked away certain that I didn’t. This video gives us some guidelines for some appropriate ways to respond.
Remember –
Forgive! This has to be first. This opens the door for God to move in our situation.
Push the offense to the sidelines and ignore it. There are people who bash me about being a Christian. Guess what? I’m not going to stop! I have to push their opinions of me to the margins and ignore them. I can’t let them hinder me from moving forward.
Put your eyes back on the mission. It was the joy that was set before Jesus that pulled Him through the cross & the shame and now He’s set at the right hand of God. Your mission will pull you forward too! But you have to keep your eyes on it and not on the weights and sin that can slow you down and stop you.
What tips can you share that you have used to successfully deal with the meanness of others? Please join the conversation.
Also – If you know anyone who would benefit from hearing this, please share.
Think back in your memory. I want you to remember a time in your life where everything changed. Something happened. It may have been good or it may have been painful but it was the catalyst that pushed you forward toward a decision that fundamentally changed you. I can think of several. I call these defining moments. Moments that altered the way I think and see myself. These defining moments still shape the decisions that I make. They are moments when I discovered important things about myself and they are also times when I made concrete decisions about how I would think, say & do from now on. Defining moments shape us.
Often, at least for me, my defining moments put me on a path to a whole different set of choices and decisions, some of which were in themselves defining. For example, October 1985 I committed my life to Christ. I made Him my Lord and it immediately began to effect my choices and actions. It later played a huge role in who I chose to date and later marry. I would have never went to Bible school had I not made that decision back in 1985.
What defining moments have you had that have shaped you? I encourage you to join the conversation & leave a comment.
This last week my lovely wife Ann and I celebrated 25 years of marriage together. It’s hard to believe that it’s been one quarter of a century. Neither of us look like we could be more than just a couple of years out of high school. Well…at least that is true for her. I have a little too much gray in my beard. Anyway, We now have two adult daughters, 25 years full of memories and in some cases, hard learned lessons to show for it.
Please join the discussion by leaving a comment. Also, please share if you think this can help anyone else. I appreciate you!
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