On The Road

DEVOTION PROVERBS ON THE ROAD Prov 15:19 19 The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway. NIV Although it may be true that in this life a person who is a sluggard or lazy may find a host of excuses or reason why a task is so difficult it is not worth the effort to try and an upright or industrious person will overcome whatever to accomplish the same task, this speak volumes more about man and God. The greatest decision of worth is having faith in Christ for salvation. It may be the most difficult choice for what God refers to here as a sluggard, or a slothful person. They find any excuse they can to refrain from believing the Bible is the inherent Word of God. They make up reasons to discredit its authenticity and accuracy saying it was only written by man, yet they place faith in some other history book, written by a man who was not even there during the making of that history. They make excuses that Christianity is just one of many religions of the world and why should they pick this one, as others are just as valid so they pick nothing. They find one excuse after another, making their way to a choice blocked by a row of thick thorn bushes, unable to get through to the truth. But that is not so to the person who is upright or the opposite of lazy and thus in this case industrious. They seek after the truth and search diligently not letting anything distract them from finding the answer to the questions concerning man’s beginning, his purpose, and the results, along with a host of other facts. This upright industrious person seeks out the only truth which has the answers and once finding them considers this truth to be an enormous value, a pearl of great price. This person believes the truth and in doing so his life is as a highway, a turnpike, clear sailing straight to the paradise of God. Faith in Jesus Christ paves the way for a person to enter directly into the Kingdom of God. Why struggle in the thorns with indecision, as if snared or trapped by a skillful hunter, when it is so simple and easy to move effortlessly on the highway to God. Get on the road and stay on the road.

Good Better Best

DEVOTION PROVERBS GOOD BETTER BEST Prov 15:18 18 A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel. NIV Passion can be a good tract if it is employed in the right direction, but when it is pointed wrongly it can encourage great damage to any cause. It may appear this hot-tempered man is one of much self-elated worth, thinking far more of his self than he ought to. This over exaggerated opinion of self is usually the root cause of most extremely impatient people. Is this mostly a defense mechanism to cover up insecurity? Why is it so important to stir up dissension or strife in the first place? Is this a calculated effort or just a foolish behavior without much thought? In either case it appears it is not the thoughts or actions of a person dedicated to following Christ. Sure, this inappropriate response may be a part of all of us, even the most ardent follower of Christ, from time to time and our humanity rears its ugly head at those most unsuitable moments. But this is not the usual as it is with this individual described here. This type of person has the central theme of anger toward any disagreement with them and acts out of a selfish motive to stir up this strife, but not so the believer in Christ. God has declared that a soft answer will turn away wrath. Yes, impatience exists within each of us, but for the most part believers in Christ make every effort to control the self, and not look for occasions to lose ones temper, but rather seek to be patient, speak with care and understanding, in a soft non- damaging way so as to defuse the quarrel rather than to exasperate it with a hot tempered exchange. In the examination of both behaviors, which best depicts a person bringing glory to himself, or glory to God? Which behavior invokes the best respect of others toward the views expressed by each? Patience always triumphs over wrath. The believer endeavors to allow the Spirit to develop this fruit within. This is good, this is better, this is best.

Pass Me The Veggies Please

DEVOTION PROVERBS PASS ME THE VEGGIES PLEASE Prov 15:17 17 Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred. NIV Is this also not a continuation of the idea from having a continual feast, having little, yet having a cheerful heart? Now we have love also. What matters how little any of us have if we know the Lord? Does it really matter if we own a fattened calf? This calf is the indication of those who live in an abundant state of self-pleasure, whose desires run after the world and its ways. This is not so much about the evil despicable acts of hatred and violence prompted by a darkened heart under the full influence of Satan, but of an even more insidious behavior. The total lack of trust in and obedience to God is at stack here. Once again this speaks of the full benefit of trusting God with all aspects of live, including the amount of wealth contained within the purse of person. Here we see God considers it far better to live with a smaller portion of wealth, able only to afford vegetables or merger dinners as long as the believers are experiencing love for God, love for each other and love for the lost as he does. Does he not say that love covers a multitude of sins? There is no judgmental behavior in love and therefore perfect peace and harmony exists within. Not so with those who cannot bear trusting God and spend their efforts in what they believe to be self-preservation by storing up wealth, living in fear of losing it and thus guard against any truly close encounters that love spurs within people. This mistrust in God and in others prompts this behavior of hatred as it is opposite to the behavior of love. What offerings of this world are worth the lack of love? Is any amount of wealth worth experiencing hatred? The answers to both those questions have to be none and no. What can replace the love of God? What can replace this pure undivided love between believers? It appears the desire to own that fattened calf would replace both. Vegetables or beef, pass me the veggies please.

No Turmoil Please

DEVOTION PROVERBS NO TURMOIL PLEASE Prov 15:16 16 Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great wealth with turmoil. NIV What can be added to this? Of course it does beg for an answer as to whether a believer can have great wealth and not have turmoil. Does it imply that those who fear the Lord should have little? Or is it just saying that those who spend their entire life seeking after great wealth rather than seeking after God may well experience a whole lot of turmoil? Maybe it does not even matter how much wealth a person has, if they do not seek after God they will have turmoil. But it does appear once again the choice is clear. God is the greatest wealth anyone could ever desire. People who strife to secure their own future with the accumulation of material wealth are in deep trouble is the point here. Storing up as much money as possible, putting their trust in that pile of money for the future is a big mistake, because they really are not trusting God for their future. What will great wealth secure in the future for them? Sure, they may be able to enjoy many creature comforts during this life. But does this great wealth distract them from the joy of the Lord? Are they so involved with making sure they have enough, being more concerned about their portfolio then what God desires that they miss out on the largest blessing? Turmoil is a disease for those who chase after that wealth leaving the fear of the Lord for another time. When people fear the Lord, when they have great reverence for God, it does not matter how much or how little they have for they have acknowledged God as their Lord. What more could a person every hope to have? Is it possible that even those who have acknowledged God as Lord have been distracted by the pursuit of great wealth? What happens then? Does turmoil follow after them? It would be better not to allow anything to distract from fearing the Lord. But then each person only knows what is in their own heart and mind. No one can judge the motives of another, but God does. It would be best to be so close to God that if distracted he can steer us back on course. Complete trust is God brings peace, any trust in wealth brings turmoil. No turmoil please!

Clear Choice

DEVOTION PROVERBS Clear Choice Prov 15:15 15 All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast. NIV Is this really about people living in an opposed situation in life being wretched and those not living in that manner having a grand old time? I think not. Who is the great oppressor of the soul? Who is it that tries with all his might to oppress people? Satan is the one who would desire nothing more than to see people so oppressed they would even commit suicide. Is it any wonder God declares those people who allow Satan to oppress them wretched? Now it may be true some of them simply do not know the solution to this oppression. Some of them may not ever have heard that Jesus can set them free, and if he does, they are free indeed. Some of them have heard and refuse to escape from being oppressed by Satan. It is difficult to understand how anyone would want to continue in that condition, but then again Satan has so deceived them into believing they have made the right choice. He has filled their minds, oppressing them, with thoughts of their own greatness, making worldly knowledge, intelligence, science and money their gods, which indeed makes them wretched. It is sad to watch them living within that deceptive trap, being oppressed, but it is their choice. The people who have decided to be freed from his oppression by the blood of the lamb indeed have a reason to be of cheerful heart. No longer having to live under that oppression, but being free to see the truth of God, and understanding the power to live a life filled with the fruit of His Spirit, knowing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Feasting continually upon the very Word of God enjoying all the fruit, enjoying all the gifts of the Spirit, enjoying the nourishment from the stream of living water, drinking in all that is within it makes for a very cheerful heart. Once again it would seem quite clear which the best way to live is.

God or Fool

DEVOTION PROVERBS GOD OR FOOL Prov 15:14 14 The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly. NIV So many of the scholars have decided not to investigate this saying due to it seemingly being repetitive to some previous proverb, but it must be important enough to God to say it again. The folly on which the fool feeds is surely the wisdom of this world. To devoir and digest the foolishness of this world is simply unacceptable to God. This foolishness extent to a variety of concepts mankind has devised to live by. Whether it is a moral code, a financial plan, a science theory or simply a life plan when it is not centered on the Word of God and His plan for man, it is folly. True those who feed on it think it is the best thing they have ever tasted, but they have not tasted to see that the Lord is good for blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Through David, God declared those who fear, revere the Lord will lack nothing. He says the lions, the fools may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Anyone who feeds on the uncertain wisdom of this world will indeed go hungry for they will not get to eat from the tree of life. They will in fact taste death instead. But the discerning heart seeks the truth within the Word of God and knows that through the writer of the letter to the Hebrews God declared that Jesus already tasted death for everyone, so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life and thus eat from the tree of life. Fools simply go on their merry way feasting on the stupidity feed to them by Satan in hopes they will never hunger after the Word of God and thus join him in his misery. Maybe he still thinks he can win against God, if he shows Him how many fools he has gathered unto himself, trying to prove God’s creation is flawed, and so God is not as perfect as He is. Yet the fact remains, God is perfect and those who seek after him have discerned this truth and see Satan for what he is, a fool. Once again the choice is clear, God over fool equals life, fool over God equal death.

Show and Tell

DEVOTION PROVERBS SHOW AND TELL Prov 15:13 13 A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. NIV “If your happy and you know it then your face should surely show it” are part of the lyrics of a song expressing the truth of this proverb. If a person’s heart is happy then it would only make sense his countenance would reflex it. Yet are there not believers who carry themselves in a fashion that would not depict a happy heart? What else could be the cause of a happy heart other than the assurance of ones salvation in Christ Jesus? If a person knows Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior than a happy heart surely must be the result. And having a happy heart certainly means a certain spring in the step, a smile upon the face and a cheerful disposition. To a certain extent it would imply living above the circumstances of life, when compared to having a crushed spirit. Those who refuse or simply do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have no hope of anything more than what they have now. Within the course of life a variety of events occur, many which without hope could cause heartaches. Worry, anxieties, frustrations and even fear bear heavy upon those who have no hope. Pain and suffering in the body can bring a person down if they have no hope. This is the plan of Satan, to crush the spirit of man. His deceptive practices of trying to convince people the accumulation of material goods will bring happiness only leads to crush their spirits, if not now, in the end. Things cannot bring anyone true happiness, only Christ can do that. That is why the believer should have a happy heart and a happy countenance, and thus living above the fray of ordinary life. If God is for us, what can man do to us? What could cause a believer to get down, become distraught? How can a believer, who has a happy heart, be sad? How can a believer with a happy heart experience worry, anxiety, tension and be despondence? Do any of these expressions upon the countenance of a believer bring glory to God? If your happy and you know it clap your hands, if your happy and you know it then your face should surely show it. And when you show it you can tell it.