Proverbs 11:23-30 ~ The desire of the righteous ends only in good

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.

 

The Market place has BORED people. People tossing the Styrofoam chicken in the grocery cart who don't even care that the world just a few years ago had you pick the clucking chicken and come back in 15 minutes to have feathers in one warm paper bag and a warm headless chicken in the other paper bag.

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.

Could be that a problem is not within discussing distance.

Or it's the way we have learned to dish back what hurts us. A hierarchy of hurt.

Could be that path is worn out with old patterns and needs renewal to go forth. Encouragement.

The Signs are everywhere. 

 

Fight for Truth and Mercy

Sometimes you have to reach out and then set a boundary. The fight is to reach out and the mercy to reach out. And Love Yourself to set the boundary. A complete circle.

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.

The Scriptures tell us not to be driven to and fro like a rocking chair. Yet Waves happen. Our journey in life has wind. We can go with the flow, or be dashed on the rocks, get our sea legs, learn the rythme.

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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1 Kings 12 ~ And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.”

1 Kings 12

Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2 And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. 3 And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, 4 “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” 5 He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.

6 Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” 7 And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.”

But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. 9 And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” 10 And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. 11 And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”

12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.” 13 And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him, 14 he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” 15 So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.


The Kingdom Divided

16 And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents. 17 But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. 18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. 20 And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. There was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only.

21 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. 22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: 23 “Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24 ‘Thus says the Lord, You shall not go up or fight against your relatives the people of Israel. Every man return to his home, for this thing is from me.’” So they listened to the word of the Lord and went home again, according to the word of the Lord.


25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel. 26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. 27 If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” 28 So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29 And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30 Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one. 31 He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. 32 And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. 33 He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings.

Altar at Shechem, this altar remains after 2,000 years. The foundation holds.

Steppenwolf Magic Carpet Ride 

Well, you don't know what
We can find
Why don't you come with me little girl
On a magic carpet ride

Well, you don't know what
We can see
Why don't you tell your dreams to me

Circles. Repeat Patterns. Repeating Scripture.

 For

Dreams and aspirations - a Davidic Kingdom?

Rehoboam was given the Children of Israel. Rehoboam was the anointed grandson of David and the Heir of Solomon. Amazing. The Promises of God fell into his anointed hand.


Commandment # 1 -
Solomon broke his house. His legacy was tattered. Rehoboam was 1 of the only 3 children Solomon recognized. The rest were swept from history as concubines delivered his other children from his 700 wives and 300 concubines.

Solomon, in his young years, put his flesh before His God.


Again, Commandment # 1 -
When asked for mercy - Rehoboam, went for show and not substance - abandoned the Covenant to be merciless. Treating God's children with Mercy - God said - is tandem with Commandment #1 - Loving Others.

The repeat circle of Shechem - for many ages - the place of blessings from Abraham, Jacob and others, fell from his anointed hand. Abraham blessed others by talking to God about Mercy.

The anointed of God forsook Wisdom.

Jeroboam took on a Spiritual Battle and used..... to fight the anointed of God  ... Spiritual tools.

Generational cycles.

Ever heard ignorance of the law is no excuse? Dragnet? Law and Order? Apply named...

What was used against the people who would leave the anointed of God? The same temptations their fathers faced for generations.

The purpose of life -  is to test our metal. God asks us what are our priorities when the waters of Life get very white water. Our Priorities are set forth to learn when the waters have gentle eddies of calm. We learn what is important from our parents teaching us the 10 Commandments. Commandment #1 Again.

God is orderly. He sets up the 10 Commandments in an orderly fashion teaching us our priorities.

Exodus 20
The Ten Commandments

20 And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

1 “You shall have no other gods before me.

2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

4“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

6 “You shall not murder.

7 “You shall not commit adultery.

8“You shall not steal.

9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

Pharaoh's Chair in the 1956 Movie of "Moses"

Our priorities are to God. We listen to Him. We worship Him. Jesus is our Center. We do what God tells us to do.

Not our images. Commandment # 2 -
Rehoboam, biblically not so famous, the anointed grandson of David, the Heir of Solomon - fell like Pharaoh - Pharaoh was a biblical Giant - and fell to his royal image. The Children of Israel fled. They just didn't have the anointed when they left.


Commandment # 2- Again
Jeroboam used the tools he could find -  he used what caused their forefathers to fall. Jeroboam used apparent goodness, at hand, to offer comfort. I bet Jeroboam hoped the people would not stop to ponder their histories of these images.


 Commandment # 3
God's Word was seen as mere vanity. Not substantial to honor Him. Only words. Jesus said we err when we do not know Scripture and the Power of God. In His Word.

 Commandment # 4
Teaching our kids their histories and the applications.
Using the Sabbath to speak to our children about Father God and the promises in Jesus. 

Father God, be our center in Jesus. Our first priority is to You. Help us, Guide us, Lead us in our life applications. In Jesus the Lord. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

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Matthew 7 ~ Ask

Matthew 7

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 

4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 

5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

7 “Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.         

9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Wadi Moses

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

 Olive Tree in the Desert

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

 
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 

26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because 

He taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.







 

Matthew starts out by saying - Don't Judge. Yet. We all are Guilty.

Don't cast your pearls before swine! ... Om... Isn't that judgement?
Watch out for false prophets. Sounds ominous. Like the reprise of the "Jaws" chorus.
What about what your children ask for? Do we listen well? Ask enterprising and prizing questions?

Don't believe apparent goodness??? Hide the obvious from ourselves.

And some real - solid, easy to understand - instructions. Just like Proverbs.

Proverbs 4:20
My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them depart from your sight;
Keep them in the midst of your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them
And health to all their body.
23 Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.

For - Judgement?
NO! Discernment. We discern every day - almost every second.
Judgement is when your mouth says "you always" and inflicts a label. Judgement is what you don't want the person spoken of to hear. Judgement is final and unbending.

That solid, easy to understand instruction - Yay! 

My Child, Jesus says, give attention to My Words -
Watch what your mouth says.

Jesus would ask you  - Are you that example of perfection?
Why do you allow dogs to have what is sacred - like the television blaring in your house and your radio.

Prayer comes first. If you are thinking - you can add more sentences on that thought - To the One Who Knows and Loves you Best.

Do the storehouses of God's Blessings run out? Are all things Possible with God?
Put your salvation first. Let others do the same. Let your aspersions be handed to Father God first in prayer and kindness.

Your words yoke you to your opinions. In a potato sack race, you want to move forward to God. Run your race to win. Don't fall down and hurt yourself and the ones who love you and don't want you to be hurt.

Watch out for godly advice - generate your desire to Love and Serve God in your talents, gifts, and opportunities. Put your hands out like Isaiah and Paul - Sent Me, Lord! See how it goes with me, give me the opportunities!

Upon His Rock - do you do the Words of God? How are your fruits and talents to Your Abba? 

We ask for Discernment and that is received as mostly Mercy; we want this from God. Go and do likewise.


1 John 4:9
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Revelation 1:5
and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,

 


2 Corinthians 1 ~ New American Standard

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 will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction
with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance,
so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

Thank You, Father, for Jesus Christ the Messiah. Lord of all.

Amen.



 

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

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