Love Warns

"Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy."

Proverbs 27:5-6

Warning!
This is a brief rabbit trail before I write about the proverb quoted above.

It is important when we read Proverbs that we don't think that the book just teaches us good morals. Proverbs gives us an expansion on the law of God. We see in Proverbs how we are to love our neighbor and love the Lord. As we read Proverbs, we will more often than not, see ourselves as the fool rather than the wise man. What is said of a fool and his folly could be said of us. Yet if we fear the Lord, we will turn to Him in repentance rather than run from Him. Also consider as we read Proverbs that Jesus Christ is the great wise man. Amazingly He acted in wisdom in every action, every word, every thought, every look, and in every situation. The righteousness He won for us who are not righteous in any way was not easily won. Living a life of wisdom is impossible for us sinners. Studying Proverbs should make that clear to us. Yet we can ever be filled with worship and thanksgiving, when we consider that Jesus Christ was wise in all things for our sakes.

My wife was walking one day on a trail in the mountains. I was behind her as I am so much older and slower than her. Suddenly I look up and see a mountain lion about to pounce on her from a large rock above her. I also see a bear coming though the trees to attack her. What is the loving thing to do? I would warn her loudly that she should get out of the way. Then the lion would pounce on the bear instead of my wife. This sounds like one of my wife's nightmares. But this nightmarish fictional story does help to illustrate the proverbs I want to write about.

Love compels us to warn people. We love people so we warn them about dangers. We warn our kids about crossing the roads or the boiling pot of soup. We warn about bad stores and bad merchandise. We warn others about con artists. We warn about diseases. We warn people because we don't want them to suffer harm. We don't want them to be hurt. We want them to avoid dangers. Warnings about the dangers of the world we can see are generally acceptable and appreciated. When we are warned we know that the person warning us cares about our well-being. But what about the dangers of sin?

Sin is dangerous too. Sin can have very terrible short term and long term consequences. Sin can have eternal consequences. Sin is far more dangerous than any wild animal or deadly poison. If we believe this, than wouldn't we want people to be warned about sin? Why are we often so quiet about the sins of others? If we really loved them, wouldn't we tell them the danger their sin is leading them into? The reason we don't is that our faith is weak and our love is weak. We don't really clearly see by faith the deadly effects of sin. Our love is weak towards others. We need to pray for greater faith and greater love.

True love will warn another about sin in their lives even if it hurts them. Rebukes wound us. They hurt our pride. We love our sin and are reluctant to give it up. But a true friend will rebuke anyway, even if it may result in losing a friend. The loving thing to do is to warn them about their sin because we know the danger of sin. We desire their spiritual health. A kind rebuke is indeed evidence of a good friend.

Let us warn others of their sin with humility and kindness and let us accept with graciousness the rebukes of others.

Brad

Learning from Barf Eating Dogs

"Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly."

Proverbs 26:11

 

   Some proverbs use comparisons to teach a truth. This proverb paints a very disgusting picture that teaches us some very important lessons. Who knew barf eating dogs could teach us some weighty theology; a theology that is not understood by many people--even some Christians? So, please read on.

 

 Dogs were dirty, dangerous, and disgusting animals in ancient Israel. They were not the cute, friendly, and loyal dogs we know today. Israelite dogs were not man's best friend. This understanding makes the proverb a little more repulsive. Dogs often get sick in the stomach. This is understandable considering the disgusting things that dogs can eat. So in order to relieve his sore stomach, he vomits out the food. Fido now feels better. So what does he do? Find some thing better to eat? No! He eats up his vomit even though it was the cause of his sore stomach. How bizarre and gross! Yet this is similar to when a fool goes back to his sin.

 

The sinner eats sin like bread. The sin causes his conscience to be troubled. Or he suffers the painful consequences of his sin. As a results he leaves off his sin for a while. He resolves to be a better person. He may attend church, start reading the Bible or take up prayer. Yet after the bad effects of his sin wear off, he desires again to be satisfied with that sin. So he returns to a sinful life again. This is as strange and disgusting as the picture painted above with the dog returning to his vomit.

 

Why do sinners return to their sin and the dog return to its vomit? It is what they do by nature. Dogs eat their vomit by instinct. It is part of their nature as a dog. Change the dog into a man and he will not eat his barf, we can be sure of that. So it is with the sinner. He sins because he has a sin nature. He loves sin. Sin in reality is even more vile than vomit. Sin is a horrible and hideous act. It is a deepest darkness. Sin is a disease that destroys us. Yet sinners love to sin even though it wounds their conscience and wrecks their lives. Think of the alcoholic who continues in his drunkenness or the gambler in the casino.  While many try to reform themselves in various ways, yet they cannot change their nature. Peter in 2 Peter 2:22 quotes this proverb as an illustration of false teachers who turn away from the truth and from godliness. These people were apostates. They knew the truth. They had been influenced by the truth. But they were not converted by the truth and so, since their nature did not change, they rejected the truth and returned to their vomit of sin. They were still sinners who wanted to sin. We see this apostasy described in John 15:6 and Hebrews 6 and 10.

 

 We need God to change us. We need God to give us a new heart that has a different attitude toward sin. We need God to cause us to be born again. When He does this, we will begin to hate our sin. We will begin to see sin as God sees it. We will consider it like vomit. Now this doesn't mean a Christian will not sin or return to commit some awful sin. We still have our flesh that desires to do evil. But the Christian won't continue in sin. He will repent and turn from his sin. He may jump in the mud and mire like a pig for a time, but since he isn't a pig, he won't stay in the pigsty. Thanks be to God who doesn't leave us in the mud of sin, but brings us out of it. Thanks be to God whose grace and love in Christ Jesus is so great towards us who often find ourselves back in the mire of our sin.
 

-Brad

Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, and the Glory of the Lord

I was recently reading a little about the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas. These were civilisations in South and Central America. They flourished for a time until ultimately they were conquered by the Spanish. But what struck me as I read, was their bloody religion. Each of these empires sacrificed humans. This was not just once and awhile, but often. In fact, many of their wars were launched for the sole purpose of getting captives to be sacrificed to their gods. Often the best victims were taken up a pyramid on top of which was a temple. There the victim was held down and his heart cut out by the priest. The heart was then placed on the altar to please the gods and the body was thrown down the steps. Men, old women, and children were all sacrificed to please the gods. Even the worshippers of these gods would cut themselves and present their own blood to the gods. Their gods were angry gods. They needed to be appeased by the death of people. What horrible religions!

When we look at the religions that the heart of man has come up with, we see in most cases that his gods are horrible beings. The gods of the Greeks and Romans were sinful and wicked. Allah is cold and distant. The god of the Jehovah Witnesses and the god of the Mormons demand good works for salvation with no assurance of salvation. These are gods made in the image of man. In many religions the spirits are out to get people and must be appeased. People live in great fear that the spirit will harm or kill them. The gods of the nations are cruel to their worshippers. The worshippers find no peace of conscience by rituals.

Here in our modern culture, we have cruel gods too. We worship the god of Self. This god also demands us to sacrifice others. Sometimes it is a literal sacrifice, where babies are sacrificed by abortion to meet the selfish demands of the god, Self. Sometimes the sacrifices are not so literal but still very real. We sacrifice the feelings, plans, interests, and hopes of others to make the god Self happy. All our modern gods are not much different than the gods of the ancients. Yet in every case man-made religions and idols are oppressive to people. Strange as it is, it is true. But what a difference there is in the true God and His worship.

The true and living God is so glorious and good. His love is infinite. His laws are good laws intended for our joy.  He is good to His enemies. He should make a quick and painful end to all rebels. But He does something more glorious; He becomes a sacrifice for them. He came to earth, took on a human nature, and lived among His creatures. Then He suffered in their place for their sins. He died for them and then rose to give them eternal life. How different is our God than the gods of men. All that is needed for salvation, He accomplishes for us. We don't have to appease Him. We simply give to Him in love and gratitude our lives in holy service. The life, salvation, and peace that God gives are real and powerful.

Reading about the gods of the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas made me worship our great God who is so different. I hope you will join in worship to the Lord as well.

Psalm 96:2-6

Sing to the Lord, bless His name;

Tell of His salvation from day to day.

Declare His glory among the nations,

His marvelous works among the nations!

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

He is to be fear above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idol,

But the Lord made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before Him;

Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

 

-Brad-

A Short Manual on How and Why We Must Love Our Enemies

"Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the LORD see it and be displeased, and turn away His anger from him."

Proverbs 24:17-18

 

Have you an enemy? Have you someone in your life who is out to get you? Or maybe there is someone who ignores, mistreats, or slanders you? How do we act towards such a person? The Bible gives us clear guidelines for dealing with those who mistreat us. Romans 12:17-21 teaches us to not repay evil for evil, to promote peace, to not avenge ourselves but to trust God to deal with the person as is fitting, and to do good to them. We are to overcome evil with good. Matthew 5:43-48 calls us to love our enemies, to pray for them, and to do good for them. God is not only concerned with our outward actions to our enemies, but with our heart attitude toward them. These verses from Proverbs drive that truth home. We are not to even be happy about the fall of our enemy. There should be no secret thrill when we see our enemy stumble. We should never take pleasure in the misfortune and difficulty that comes to others. It displeases the LORD very much to see us gloating over the calamity that falls upon one we dislike.

 

This proverb also gives us a warning about such secret pleasure in the trouble of our enemy. By such a mean spirit, we bring on ourselves God's displeasure and discipline. God will now direct His anger toward us. The Lord sees not only our actions but also all that passes in our hearts. He requires us to love our enemies and to feel compassion for them even when they stumble. What a high standard that God has called us to! Who can ever live up to this? We all can confess that we have not loved our enemies very well. We can all remember times when we secretly rejoiced to see someone we didn't like in some trouble or difficulty. How we all need God's forgiveness! In fact it is only those who are children of God that can begin to love their enemies. It is only those with a new heart and the Spirit dwelling inside them that can show this love. This kind of love comes from God because this is how God loves.

 

God's love and compassion are so very great. We see His love shining in a blazing brilliance when we understand His love to His enemies. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the LORD God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" Ezekiel 18:23. It is not His delight to bring judgement. He does good to His enemies. He gives them many good things to enjoy. "He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust." Matthew 5:45. God gives evil people good food to enjoy, friendships, talents, comforts, laughter, and many other gifts. He does this even though they never thank Him or praise Him. The truth is, they often mock His laws and people. They insult and hate His person. They would kill Him if they could. But God continues to give good gifts. He even warns them of their sin through His word and their conscience. He is patient with them, giving them time to repent even when they reject His gospel. His love is so great that He died for those who were His enemies. "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life." Romans 5:10. All of us who are Christians were once enemies of God. But in His infinite grace and love, He paid our debts, changed our hearts, and adopted us into the family of God. Such magnificent love should motivate us to love our enemies.



 -Brad-



How God Used a Lost Calf to Teach Me About Evangelism

Last week, one of my calves escaped its pen. This calf was a very large red and white calf. Calves like that are very valuable these days. After his morning feeding he had pushed his door open and vanished into thin air. When I came back to the barn, he was no where to be seen. Normally calves stay around the barn when they escape. But not this time. All day as I did my work, I looked for the calf. I looked in all the tall grass. I looked through out the cow barn. I searched on foot and on the gator. Nothing! I was beginning to think someone stole the calf. I fretted over the disappearance of this calf. I had looked everywhere and now there was no more places to look.The work day was ending soon. I went out to feed the calves. As I looked about again for the calf, I saw a red and white calf off in the distance. As I ran closer I realized it was our lost calf. It must have walked out to the heifers out on pasture and then hid in the grass somewhere out in the field. As feeding time come around, it decided to try find that funny creature that gives it milk. The calf happily followed me back to its bottle and to its pen. Finding the calf was a huge relief. It brought me great joy to find this calf. I ran to tell my wife so she could rejoice with me.

While I was searching for the calf and later when I had found it, the parable of the lost sheep kept running though my mind. I understood that parable in a new way that day and it taught me a lesson. The parable is found in Luke 15:1-7. Jesus wanted to teach the Pharisees that God  joyfully seeks and saves sinners. The story Jesus tells is like this: A shepherd has lost one sheep from his flock of one hundred. So he goes out to look for the one sheep. When he finds the lost sheep, he takes it home rejoicing. Then he has a party with friends and neighbors to celebrate the finding of the sheep. So it is in heaven when one sinner repents. The angels rejoice. God rejoices. The question is: Do we rejoice when sinners repent? Do we share the same joy that God has in the salvation of sinners? Since people will not seek God, God seeks sinners. It brings Him great joy to bring one home. Do we seek sinners? Do we reach out to them with the good news of salvation? Do we struggle and sacrifice to tell others of the riches of God's grace.
   
Evangelism is one of the main reasons God has left His people on this earth. He uses His people to bring the light of the gospel to the dark world. Do we as individuals and churches realize how important this is. Often the church gets distracted by other issues. These may be good and right, but they end up taking people away from the simple task of reaching the lost with the gospel and teaching the gospel to those who believe. People spend more time, energy, money, and effort on these side issues rather than on evangelism. These things could be saving children from poverty, political activism, ending abortion, and feeding the hungry and homeless. These are good pursuits, but when they eclipse our passion for reaching the lost with the gospel, then they need to be put into their proper place. Let us share in God's joy by seeking the lost with the gospel. Let us pray sinners will repent and believe. Then we who are on earth can celebrate with those in heaven over the salvation of a sinner.

Brad

The Blessing of Trials

'Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet with trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.'
-James 1:2-3

Trials.

Most of us do not like trials.

We'd much rather avoid trials.

But each one of us endures trials.

And, it is often through our trials that we grow.

We grow in faith. We grow in patience. We grow in humility. We grow in love.

 

When a loved one dies, when we suffer from illness or pain, when we suffer emotionally, when we are persecuted.

Even in the smaller trials of every day life.

The battles that we need to fight with our children.

The battles that we fight against our own sinful selves.

The battles we fight when dealing with conflict.

 

They all teach us.

They may teach us to throw ourselves more fully on Christ.

They may teach us to be long-suffering or patient.

They may teach us to be content in all situations.

They may teach us forgiveness.

They may teach us that we have lingering sin that needs to be addressed.

 

So when we are faced with trials, we may rejoice in our suffering.

We may count ourselves blessed.

And, we may give glory to God as we look to Him for patient endurance.

We can say with Job, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:21)

~fenna

 

 

 



Scoffers and Church Discipline

"Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease."

Proverbs 22:10

 

What is the scoffer like and why is this drastic solution given to the problem of the scoffer? To help us answer these questions, we'll briefly look at how a scoffer is described in Proverbs. Scoffers are those who delight in sin. They like scoffing or mocking the truth. Proverbs 1:22. To rebuke or correct a scoffer is useless and in fact, he might turn on you and do you harm. Proverbs 9:7-8. A scoffer may seek wisdom, but his search is in vain for his heart is not in the right condition. Proverbs 14:6. Scoffers don't like to be rebuked and reject correction. Proverbs 13:1, 15:12. Scoffer don't learn from beatings or any form of physical punishment. The only benefit to beating a scoffer is that others may learn from their punishment. Proverbs 21:11, 20:25, 29.  Scoffers are proud and arrogant which is to say, there is no fear of God in their hearts and lives. Proverbs 21:24. Scoffers can destroy a city with their arrogant and stubborn behavior. Proverbs 29:8. This is how Proverbs presents the scoffer.

 

The only way to deal with this type of person when he is in the company of the godly is to drive him out. Don't let him continue to be in your presence. As long as he is there, there is only misery and trouble. No other solution will do. Talking, instructing, rebuking, or correcting him are useless. Punishment is useless. He needs to leave, now!

 

If you listen well to God's wisdom here, you will find that a lot of trouble will leave with the scoffer. The scoffer produces strife, division, discord, quarreling, abuse, disgrace, and shame. If he goes so will all these problems. So many problems could be avoided if we would listen to what God says

here.

 

While this proverb doesn't speak of church discipline, it certainly relates to it and anticipates it. Titus 3:10-11 says, "As for a person who stirs up divisions, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned." The person described in Titus is the person who is called the scoffer in Proverbs. Church disciple is needed for the individual in sin and for the church. Warning someone in sin with love is needed so that they will leave their sin and return to God in repentance. These people are in serious danger and need to be warned. If they refuse to listen to the warning of the church, then they must leave. Their presence will infect the whole church with trouble. "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened." 1 Corinthians 5:6-7. So many church problems can be avoided if we correctly, quickly, and lovingly remove such people from our congregations. One bad apple can ruin a whole church and bring great shame to christians and to Jesus Christ. Removing such a person from our midst will also warn others in the church. Some may wake up from their simple and foolish lives. They will see that sin is serious in the eyes of the church and of God. They may turn from their sin. Church discipline is painful, but it will have a very sanctifying influence in the church.

 

-Brad-