February 25th – Proverbs 25: Are You Polluted?

“Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked.” – Proverbs 25:26

I believe that this Proverb is all about compromise and is a very real warning to all believers. The word in the Hebrew here for “gives way” is translated to: waver, to fail, to shake and to be moved. When the righteous are moved by the wicked, springs get muddied and wells get polluted. The purity of the spring is defiled. The very purpose for the spring, to provide a drink and refreshing to the weary is thwarted. It’s like Jesus said,

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” – Matthew 5:13

We’re called to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world and springs in the desert. But if we back down to the wicked and if we compromise, we lose our effectiveness.

There is a PR campaign being waged against the church by the kingdom of darkness. This campaign tells us that to minister to the lost, hurting and dying, we must become like them. Pastors and leaders are taking their cues from Hollywood and Wall Street. (What we’ve been left with is infotainment that makes a HUGE profit!) We’ve been told that if we’re going to reach this world, we must become like it. Huge swaths of the church have embraced the mantra of being “relevant” to the world.

Many Christians “love” unbelievers so much that they have decided to become one!

But it’s our purity that attracts the defiled. Your difference is what sets you apart. You SHOULD stand out. I don’t blush when I tell unbelievers that my wife is the ONLY woman I’ve ever had sex with. I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve never seen the inside of a strip club or smoked a joint. It’s what sets me apart and it’s what makes me different. It’s the light they come running to when they are afraid of the dark.

LIFE LESSON?
Some Christians are so “relevant” to the world, they are irrelevant to eternity.

February 24th – Proverbs 24: Harvesters, Not Homebuilders

“Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.” – Proverbs 24:27

My wife and I really enjoy the show, “Gold Rush: Alaska”. In the show, several guys, in debt up to their eyeballs and out of work head up to Alaska to try their hand at gold mining. The show to us in an accidental comedy; it’s not supposed to be funny, but to us it’s hilarious for reasons described in this Proverb. They arrive to the gold claim and have limited time to set up camp and get mining before the Alaskan winter shuts them down for the season. Several of the guys take days and weeks to set up this elaborate camp, with beautiful camp homes that have every possible convenience.

The entire time they are doing this I was hollering at the screen, “GET BACK TO MINING!”

Of course, they take their time and are JUST about to get some decent gold as they run out of time and the Alaskan winter shuts down their operation, well short of the financial goals they need to meet. It was amazing that as the weather began to change and the end of the season was imminent how focused they became. They mined 12-16 hours a day at the end but it was too little, too late after wasting literally months screwing around doing anything but gold mining.

This is like so many of us. Instead of being focused on the task at hand, we get busy taking care of our own house. I can’t tell you how many folks I’ve watched have one good season or year in their business go out and buy a palace for themselves. Instead of investing back into the business to make it stable and strong, they get busy building their own house and taking care of themselves. In the meantime, their bread and butter melts down, with the sound of their construction project still lingering in the air.

Jesus told us:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33

We’re called to seek FIRST His Kingdom, not our own well-being. His job is to take care of us, our job is to pursue the Kingdom. If we were as focused on working HIS Harvest field as we are in taking care of ourselves, all that we need would be GIVEN to us!

LIFE LESSON?
You’re a harvester, not a home-builder.

February 23rd – Proverbs 23: The Hurt Rod

“Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death. “– Proverbs 23:13-14

The Bible couldn’t be any clearer; if you want to save your kids soul from death, SPANK THEM! Yet all the self-help, pop psychology gurus in the world (and in the church) would have you think otherwise. Their thinking is: “Instead of disciplining our kids with the tried and true methods of corporal punishment, maybe we can talk them out of their bad behavior with manipulation logic?”

Maximum Security jails are full of the undisciplined fruit of this thinking.

Sorry, no matter how much you dislike the rod, the Bible tells us to use it. I’ve heard some “leaders” in the church with nice, shiny books on the subject who are promoted by certain “mega-pastors” on the left coast refer to spanking as “violence” and “control”. This is dangerous psychobabble that encourages people already predisposed to NOT doing the Bible in their error and the sham teachers that preach such blatantly unbiblical stuff will be held accountable for every soul they taught to disobey God.

Some folks have legitimate reasons for not wanting to spank; their parents didn’t discipline them when they were kids and they turned out all right. Or even worse, maybe Dad beat them in a rage instead of disciplined them! Well, good news, that’s what the blood of Jesus is for. You can come to Jesus and get healed of all your past garbage so you can be free to obey God and live according to His.

The results are amazing and the promise is clear: “if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.” Nobody wants their kids to die prematurely; everyone wants their kids to outlive them. But the righteous discipline their kids with the rod, teaching them that foolish behavior is painful. The logic is iron clad: foolish behavior and disobedience HURTS. When you reason with the rug rats, they may learn how to talk themselves out of discipline, but they still don’t understand that their behavior has painful repercussions. At best, not disciplining your kids is irresponsible parenting and unkind to their future development.

LIFE LESSON?
Save the planet: SPANK YOUR KIDS. Dirty hippies that are opposed to spanking unleash the hordes of hell upon the earth with their undisciplined little monsters that have never known a moment of discomfort.

February 22nd – Proverbs 22: Train Up A Child

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” – Proverbs 22:6

To a parent, this is one of the most encouraging, yet sobering Proverbs there is. There is a command to train our children and then an encouragement that if we do, they will not depart from it in their old age Training is VERY different from what most pop psychology teaches us.

Webster’s defines training as: to develop or form the habits, thoughts, or behavior of (a child or other person) by discipline and instruction. The purpose of training is to form habits, thoughts and behavior. But to what end? The Bible tells us to train our children “in the way they should go”. What way should they go? The same way we should go, after Jesus!

It’s appalling to me the hypocrisy of many parents regarding training their children spiritually. They will gladly train their physical bodies: “Take a bath”, “Wash behind your ears”, “Brush your teeth” and my favorite, “Eat your vegetables!” They gladly train their little minds. “Go to school”, “Do your homework”, “Study hard”, “Don’t roll your eyes when I talk to you!”

But somehow when it comes to training kids spiritually they go all mealy mouthed! “They don’t want to come to church and I don’t want to make them do anything they don’t want to do so…”

What is wrong with you people??

If you left your children do what they want in any other area of life, they would NEVER take a bath, they would eat candy 3 times a day, rot their teeth out, and they would play in the street! So what makes us think we can afford to not train them spiritually?

And just in case you “Grace Police” think this is only Old Testament and somehow we as parents are absolved of our responsibility to train our kids under the New Covenant:

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” – Ephesians 6:4

Stop trying to be your kids’ friend. They have lots of those. Just be their parent, they only have you. Train their little spirits. Teach them to worship, teach them to pray, and teach them to sacrifice a couple hours a week to go and worship God with other believers at church.

LIFE LESSON?
Kids are stupid. You have to train them to be wise.

February 21st – Proverbs 21: More Coffee, Less Beatings

“To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.” – Proverbs 21:3

I had a rather religious friend back in the day. He was in his 40’s and I was barely 20 at the time, just married. He would wax eloquent on his spirituality, talking at length about his newest, latest and greatest revelations. He was always doing some strange fast or bizarre prayer ritual and the Holy Spirit was talking to him about EVERYTHING. At the time I was in awe of someone that could pray for hours a day, memorize huge portions of scripture and have a DEEP prayer life.

One time we went out for breakfast and instead of ordering his usual coffee he ordered some water. He was a big coffee fan so I asked him what was up. With hushed tones he told me how the Holy Spirit spoke to him and convicted him of being addicted to coffee. He would be fasting coffee for several months, maybe giving it up entirely. I was in awe. Firstly that the Lord would speak to him about his beverage intake and secondly over his great spirituality that enabled him to sacrifice so much for the Lord! I mean, come on people, COFFEE!? Wow.

My response was classic. My new wife and I were having considerable difficulty communicating at the time and I was always very frustrated with my total inability to be a good husband. As he told me of his great sacrifice of doing without coffee I replied, “Wow, all I’m trying to do is not hit my wife!” (For the record, I have been quite successful, never hitting my wife in 13+ years, praise me.) Shaking my head, I walked away disappointed with myself at my apparent total lack of true spirituality and in awe of this great man’s amazing relationship with God.

We lost touch over the years, but it was discovered by some mutual friends that this guy had a serious problem with anger, beating his wife and children bloody repeatedly for 20+ years.

LIFE LESSON?
Go ahead, drink coffee and don’t beat your wife.

February 20th – Proverbs 20: A Faithful Man

“Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?” – Proverbs 20:6

I could fill a book with the quotes of people I have known that have claimed unfailing love; love for their mate, love for their friends, love for their calling and love for God. Yet for all those proclamations, few have stood the test of time and proven themselves faithful with their actions.

Why is this?

I promised on the day of my marriage to be faithful and love my wife “Till death do us part”, but that profession means little if I don’t get up every day and actually DO what I said! The proof of my faithfulness is not in what I promised but in what I deliver. I am not a faithful man because a couple hundred folks at my wedding witnessed my proclamation of unfailing love. I am a faithful man because I do what I vowed to one person, my wife.

I’ve read that there was a time when a person’s word was their bond and I’ve heard about the good old days when bankers would close large accounts with a handshake. But I’ve personally never witnessed them. I’m sure there has always been a remnant of folks that lived up to their word, but in reality, since the days of Solomon, men have been professing their undying love and affection with only a few sticking around to become what they promised they would be.

Let’s be those men and women.

LIFE LESSON?
You aren’t what you say, you are what you do.

February 19th – Proverbs 19: Owning Your Failures

“A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the LORD.” – Proverbs 19:3

Time and time again I have watched people royally mess up their lives through their own bad decisions only to turn and get angry at God! The way it happens is like this:

We’re presented with a problem or difficulty. (Nobody said life was going to be easy, especially God) We respond badly to a bad situation, which is BAD. Things get worse and start melting down. Faced with the overwhelming failure that is our life, (marriage, relationship, finances, etc.) we start looking for a scapegoat. We need someone to blame for this mess and it sure as heck can’t be us! I know, let’s blame GOD! Deep down we know that He is infallible and perfect but why should that stop us? We rage against the Lord and run from Him, wrecking our lives further, instead of repenting and CHANGING. That should teach Him!

It’s the oldest response to sin in the book:

“And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." – Genesis 3:11-12

Man sinned in the garden. God calls man on his sin and what does man say? "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Adam shouldn’t have eaten it, period. But he doesn’t own his failure; he pawns it off on God. And we all know how this story ends. Lots of blood and generations of sin. Not good.

LIFE LESSON?
Own your failures and learn from them. Ruining your life won’t teach God anything.