Proverbs 11:23-30
23 The desire of the righteous ends only in good;
the expectation of the wicked in wrath.
24 One gives freely, yet grows all the richer;
another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
25 Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,
and one who waters will himself be watered.
26 The people curse him who holds back grain,
but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it.
27 Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor,
but evil comes to him who searches for it.
28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,
but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.
29 Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind,
and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.
30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
and whoever captures souls is wise.
Jesus is the Righteous.
And His advice ends in... good. Proverbs is as true today as in the days of David and Solomon.
Proverbs 15:3
The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.
Not everyone would agree on this, but this wisdom lines up with a tree like a flowchart. Reaching for the light. We want discernment for what we need in life - God wants that with us.
Psalm 116
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
10 I believed, even when I spoke:
I am greatly afflicted
The Vow to Fight for Truth and Mercy
Is Pleasing to GOD. And aligns us in His Love.
The Day that is hurtful - that says I'm greatly afflicted. Is a day of meaning. We cannot always smile that smile of fake it until we make it. There are seasons where a bump in the road can hurt a weary spine. When you read the final writings of Paul and Peter, you see real hurt and real pain and real blame and feelings of being let down and deserted.
The times we don't want to go the party. Everyone else has plans that seem far from our own hurt.
I've seen that. I've lived that. I've had seasons that just didn't seem to end. I've had seasons where my pain didn't end, but the people around me found solutions.
I've looked in the Grocery Store some days and felt I was the lowest person in there. I've had seasons where death happened, mourning wasn't over and my face was too tear stained to go to the Grocery Store. Once I was checking out at the Grocery Store, after the death of my father, and the Clerk said in front of the line, "OH Cheer UP, nothing is that bad!"
The line looked at me. I felt anger rise in me for one more request to fake it till I could make it and I said, "You just don't know."
Gotta love the wisdom of the line. "Just Cheer Up."
"Oh, just Shut up - you are young."
The compassion of mankind. "She's right. Shut up."
You know what. GOD bless that compassion. You feel at that moment- Freedom!!! For the one who says emotion of reality is not going to kill us. We don't have to offer the chicken wrapped in Styrofoam like it was born there.
The Vow to Fight for Truth and Mercy
Paul and Peter stood in the market place and spoke something new. A Truth that swept the Mediterranean. The reason it swept the world - This Jesus is Alive. He keeps on coming.
Next time you are in the market place. Open your eyes.
There are days that are sunny when you realize - THERE IS SOMETHING SO MUCH BIGGER THAN ME - AND BETTER THAN ME.
THAT SOMETHING - is Jesus. AND HE is Alive.
Are you bored? So, you think that during the day the sky is blue and at night you can't see very far? The Heavens are vast. And when you open your front door and see the sky - maybe you just aren't looking far enough with more than your eyes.
You know sometimes just rearranging your furniture give you a new seat. But if you watch the same old news shows and the same radio, it's comforting to know that the world is more messed up than you have to do today.
The Vow to Fight for Truth and Mercy
Why do we have so many capabilities to talk and we retreat to social media. Why do people and families fail to return their phone calls with joy?
Usually, that's just selfishness.
But it could be apparent goodness really is a cover for a desire to overcome. Abuse.
Or it's the way we have learned to dish back what hurts us. A hierarchy of hurt.
Fight for Truth and Mercy
Even Peter and Paul did this in ministry. They left one area to try another. Refreshed, to try again.
I heard a friend say that age 90, his dad feels alone because his friends are all gone. I lost a long time friend this year and she was considered to be elderly. A different age group. She found that reaching out is a time to reach out, a time to draw back and in doing so we find an ebb and a flow that will prove enduring. Not the insistence that time and tide wait for no man. Ebb and flow. Truth and Mercy.
A friend will get up with you at midnight and help in an emergency, God's Word says, but be prepared to do for him. Be prepared for fly back and blow back. It's the Truth and the Mercy that causes things to grow. Life can get to be too sterile. Too fast.
Are prayers are answered, so what are we doing with the results.
When we reach sixty years of age we hit a decision -
did
I Live a Life of Meaning or am I a Loser.
Life rarely rests in one angle.
Faith has a lot to do with our attitude.
Love keeps us Alive. Happiness is being able to take what you have
and finding the gratitude.
However, if you don't turn over a few tables and yell, you might only have polite acclaim.
If you can't be yourself,
if you can't let it all hang out,
if you can't love - something is going to shake out unless you can do "frozen forever."
It's not up to us to shape everyone up, it's up to us to enjoy what's in the pathway.
It's not up to us to never complain, it's up to us to look for solutions.
My father, for years drove us M A D with his need never to be hot in a car in Texas in the summer in front of us in blue language. And one day, he was being complained about. And a doctor said to him, the facts are you live in Texas, it's hot, it happens and you drive a wedge in your own life without adapting. There is a solution. After 50 years? A solution? Your car is going to be hot. Open your car door, then walk around and open the passenger door. Start the car and swing your legs out of the car. Have prior set the air conditioner on maximum blow and maximum cool. Open the moon roof to allow the heat to rise and escape. Stand out of the car. Hang up any jackets in the back seat. Adjust your sunglasses. Test the car, can you do this without complaint and hang tough for a minute because by now the car is twenty degrees cooler. Then get out and walk around the back of the car and close the passenger door. My father said the routine kept his mind off the heat and he felt gratitude to be momentarily busy and then he could put his hand fully on the fan blowing and feel gratitude to live in an air conditioned time in life.
It's not up to us to take our lives, make them a pineapple and eat it in one bite.
Speak up, forsake the need to be heard, Do This For God. We cannot go around smiling all the time. No one in the Scriptures does. We can't get it right all the time. The Word of God tells us this is true.
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous
I believed, even when I spoke
I am greatly afflicted
Part of the Team. Part of the Plan.
Luke Chapter 7 wallops in a funny little event of a walk to Nain. The multitudes saw Jesus raise a widow from no son and no support - to bringing the young man back to life. A little event tucked in. This small event showed the multitudes Jesus could resurrect. They saw a demonstration of faith, to create belief.
God uses a walk, a small event, to have multitudes tell us even today - Jesus is ALIVE.
In this, we must trust. God is for us. Jesus said in Scripture, "I am still at work. And My Father with me."
IN God we Trust. Amen in the name of Jesus.
♔ Lord Jesus Saves †
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TO VOW FOR TRUTH AND MERCY is yes pleasing
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