DO NOT (PART 1) - THE CAUSE OF THE POOR

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the Lord will take up their case and will exact life for life.

Proverbs 22:22-23          

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today we begin looking at a series of “do not” statements found through Solomon’s 30 sayings of the wise. These sayings begin in Proverbs 22:17 and span across the remainder of Chapter 22 through Chapter 24.

Today’s saying is centered on the poor and perhaps we could have no better message for today as we look into the new year and consider how we might better carry out the will and way of Jesus.

I say this because of these words He spoke, first to a hometown audience within the Nazareth synagogue and then to His disciples:

He went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue, as was His custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because he has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’”

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and go to visit You?’"

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.’” Matthew 25:34-40

Let me address both of these statements and then connect the wise saying of Solomon.

First, Jesus, in His hometown of Nazareth, pronounces Himself as the anointed One who had come to fulfill the prophecy of the Old Testament messenger Isaiah and bring good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, sight for the blind, freedom from oppression, and proclamation of the Lord’s favor. Those who had been marginalized by Jewish society now had an advocate and not just any advocate but God’s one and only Son Jesus, the promised Messiah sent to deliver people in the present and future.

Think about how many people in our world today have been pushed aside because they aren’t as well off as others. Every nation has problems with hunger and homelessness and unattainable health care for many who die from preventable and treatable causes. Now think about the wealth in the world and how much money is squandered on unimportant matters. The truth of the matter is that no one in our world should be left in a place where they are not cared for and given a decent lease on life. Nations seem to feel they are only obligated to take care of their own when the truth of the matter is that everything they have came from the Lord who expects them to be proper stewards of His gifts. I wonder how He feels when a nation has enough money and resources to keep someone alive in the world and yet they die because no help was extended.

And lest we feel like this is only a national issue, it isn’t. For each and every person in the world who has the opportunity to give is obligated to return what is rightfully the Lord’s to care for His people. There is no doubt that the word of the Lord calls us to do so but how well are we responding?

For in looking at the second passage from Matthew, we are told by Jesus Himself that if you want to be considered righteous and thus end up with the sheep on the right when He returns, then you had better be obedient to His word that exhorts us to care for the less fortunate, for the hungry and thirsty, and estranged, and naked, and sick and imprisoned. He did it and if you are to be Christian and thus partnered with Christ, then you must live as Jesus lived and advocate for those considered the least in society.

All this now leads to Solomon’s second saying of the wise:

Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the Lord will take up their case and will exact life for life. Proverbs 22:22-23

Solomon never had a chance to meet Jesus but they did have something in common: the wisdom of the same Father. And that wisdom led them both to support and campaign for the cause of the poor, the oppressed, the sick and lame, the hungry, and the incarcerated. There is to be no exploitation rather contribution toward giving those who are in need a better life, all the while letting them hear the good news of the salvation that comes only through Jesus, the motivator for our actions. We give because Christ gave first. We love because Christ first loved us. And we help others find their salvation because that is the purpose that Jesus gave us in His Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

Solomon spoke out for the cause of those in need. Jesus came to liberate those who had been marginalized in Jewish society and then passed the torch of compassion and caring and charity for the least of these unto us.

As we enter 2014, we should explore how well we are carrying that torch, the torch that burns with the light of the One who was, is, and will always be the Light of the world for all people, rich or poor.  

Our first “do not” tells us to “do not” ignore the needs of the less fortunate.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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WHY WISDOM MATTERS

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Pay attention and turn your ear to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips. So that your trust may be in the Lord, I teach you today, even you.

Have I not written thirty sayings for you, sayings of counsel and knowledge, teaching you to be honest and to speak the truth, so that you bring back truthful reports to those you serve?

Proverbs 22:17-21          

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Between Proverbs 10:1 and 22:16, we find a series of individual verses on a variety of topics, each holding their own pieces of instruction and direction on life and living. For four months, I wrote through this series, only combining proverbs when they had a similar topic. Today, we move into a new section of the book simply titled “30 Sayings of the Wise”. These sayings cover the remainder of Chapter 22 and the entirety of Chapters 23 and 24. We will predominantly see a list of “do not’s” intended to lead us away from certain ways of living. That series on the “do not’s” will begin tomorrow but first we need to look at Saying 1 as Solomon prefaces the 30 sayings on wisdom that are to follow, answering the question, “Why does wisdom matter?” in the process. Look at the following five verses:

Pay attention and turn your ear to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips. So that your trust may be in the Lord, I teach you today, even you.

Have I not written thirty sayings for you, sayings of counsel and knowledge, teaching you to be honest and to speak the truth, so that you bring back truthful reports to those you serve? Proverbs 22:17-21

The exhortation from Solomon regarding wisdom is clear. We are to pay attention and listen to it, applying to our hearts what we learn. Wisdom is no good to us if we don’t receive it and apply it. The power in wisdom is in its use and how that usage impacts the way we live. Accept it and the Lord, who is the source of all wisdom, will lead you to righteousness. Reject it and the world, where Satan dwells and influences, will lead you to sin and wickedness.

Yes, there’s that much at stake. Righteousness and living in the Lord’s favor or wickedness and living in His judgment. You choose which way you will go and by choosing wisdom, you will always make the right choice by choosing to live right.

But there’s more we gain from wisdom. Solomon hits on three other main benefits:

1. It’s pleasing when we keep wisdom on our hearts and lips.

I can tell you that there is no greater joy in life then knowing you are selling out for the Lord, willing to put yourself aside for His service. Wisdom leads us to that attitude and keeps us living the kind of life that the Lord desires and expects, a life that is pleasing and satisfying and filled with peace, joy, and contentment.

2. Wisdom leads us to trust in the Lord.

When we allow wisdom to dominate our lives and always seek it, we are basically saying to the Lord, “I can’t rely on my own understanding and decisions. I need your help Lord and trust that You and You alone will lead me in the right direction.” Friends, when we reach this level of desire for wisdom, we will find ourselves in the place Jesus referred to as hungering and thirsting for righteousness and when we do, when we sincerely hunger and thirst for His righteousness, He assured us we will be filled (Matthew 5:6). No one who craves wisdom will ever be left empty. God’s word promises us this through the words of our Savior. We simply need to place our trust in the Lord and when we seek His wisdom, it helps to bring us to that trust.

3. Wisdom allows us to give sound answers to others.

The more spiritually mature you become, trusting the Lord and always turning to His wisdom, the more people will see you as wise and discerning and will want to ask you questions regarding their own life or the matters of the world they are trying to make sense of. I know it happens to me all the time. And while I feel good that people seek me out, there is a certain anxiety I have about the answers I am expected to give. I think this anxiety is the Holy Spirit’s reminder that I don’t have the sound answers to any questions. Only the Lord has them and they are imparted through His wisdom. And so if I am going to provide answers that are sound, I must eliminate my own views, opinions, and insights, allowing the Lord to provide truth instead. In these instances, I must reduce myself to a mouthpiece and allow the Lord to speak through me to the person seeking wisdom. This is the only way that a right and righteous response is generated and frankly, I’m grateful to the Lord for His willingness to impart wisdom to others through me. It takes all the pressure off and places me at ease as I know the answer will not be of me but of Him.

Friends, we’re about to look into 30 sayings on wisdom and we had best pay close attention to them, turning our ears to their teaching and applying them to our hearts. The Lord is ready to bless us richly with His instruction.

I don’t know about you but I can’t wait.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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THE MATTER OF CHARITY

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

Proverbs 22:16            

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today is the last proverb within this collection of individual snippets of wisdom served up by Solomon. Of interest here is that the subject is the matter of charity and giving gifts in the season where we celebrate giving the most.

The unfortunate nature of giving today is that it is so world-centric and materialistic. We place our focus on giving in the wrong places and often it is in the spirit of either helping us get ahead or others who really don’t need the help to get ahead or both. Giving today is more and more increasingly self centered and self beneficial. We tend to look more at what can aid us more than we do others.

Unfortunately, that is as far away from the way the Lord intends us to give as possible. For we need only to look to our Savior Jesus, the One we are to model our lives after to see just how we are to live and that is always selflessly with the welfare of others always at the forefront. It’s little wonder why the Apostle Paul wrote these incredibly powerful words of instruction when it comes to our Christian walk and the attitude we are to have toward life:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

We all are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices that are holy and pleasing to God for this is the only true and proper worship. It is a call to submissiveness, to bowing down before the Lord God Almighty and be willing to surrender our will so His will might reign supreme in our lives, that we might be guided by no other forces other than the Holy Spirit.

Friends, when we live this way, when we live as Jesus lived for He was the perfect fulfillment of Paul’s exhortation, then and only then will we be able to be transformed from the ways of the world we had fallen prey to in the past and start anew with the very spirit of God at the forefront.

When we arrive at this place in obedience to the word of the Lord, then we will not find Solomon’s proverb as applicable to the way we live for when it comes to the matter of charity, we will freely give to the benefit of those who are truly in need. We will never oppress the poor with the purpose of benefitting ourselves instead and we will never be poor stewards of what God has given us, contributing His gifts to the wrong places.

The end result?

We will be living in the richness that comes through obedient conformity to righteousness as we live as Christ lived to the pleasure and favor of His heavenly Father and ours.

The matter of charity begins and ends with the will of God for the blessings He has bestowed upon us. Use yours wisely as Solomon, a man known for his wisdom would encourage, and make a difference in the lives of those who are poor and less fortunate, the least of these Jesus spoke about when He said that when we work to their benefit, it’s as if we are doing it unto Him.

A Christian should do nothing short of that, living in every way to bless the Savior whose birth we have just celebrated, the Savior who will usher us into the coming new year with a hope that can never be taken from us, the hope we are to extend to others in need through our charity.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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THE DETERIORATION OF COMMITMENT

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit; a man who is under the Lord’s wrath falls into it.

Proverbs 22:14            

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Want to see how much the institution of committed relationship is under attack by Satan?

In a 2013 study on fidelity, 57 percent of men and 54 percent of women admitted to being unfaithful in their relationships, more than half! And keep this in mind, these were the ones who admitted it. The percentages are actually much higher.

We have allowed Satan to redefine what relationships mean today and the word commitment as attached to relationship now has a footnote that often reads, “I will remain devoted to my partner through sickness and health, through rich and poor times, through the good and bad until death do us part, that is, unless someone better comes around or it just gets too difficult for us to live together or I get tired of living with my mate. In those instances, I will simply look for a replacement.”

Yes, Satan has a way of convincing men and women that they would be better served to go after another partner and leave their mate behind. Adultery has somehow become an accepted part of the relationship business instead of the heresy that the scriptures rightfully make it.

Think about it. God made it one of the big Ten Commandments! He clearly said, “You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14) His Son Jesus took it a step further when He taught the following during His Sermon on the Mount:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27-28

There is no doubt here that we are to not commit infidelity in our relationships. And yet we do. Solomon had this to say about the subject of adultery in this proverb:

The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit; a man who is under the Lord’s wrath falls into it. Proverbs 22:14

There’s plenty of this in play today and it obviously was an issue more than 2,000 years ago or else Solomon would have written about another topic. Adulterous women will always attract sinful men who are looking to be lured into infidelity, those men who through their wicked thoughts and motivations are firmly under the wrath of the Lord. There are no shortage of potential suitors for the adulteress, those ready and willing to fall into the deep pit of depravity she offers. That deep pit will not offer blessing to the one who falls in, only curse. This is what amazes me about the number of people who are still willingly opting to transgress this way.

So how do we stop this trend? How do we reestablish relationships to the place where the Lord favors them?

The answer is simple. For the relationships that the Lord looks to bless are the ones where both partners are first committed to Him. In other words, no commitment within that relationship takes greater precedent over the relationship that the man and the woman have with the Lord themselves. In these Lord-centered relationships, the man and the woman are connected with each other through the Lord and the Lord alone. Nothing flows between them without it flowing through the Lord first. When we live like this in relationship, then every decision, every action, and every ounce of love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness is born from the Lord first into the hearts and minds of the committed couple, and as a result, all they do will be blessed.

How can I write about this with such confidence?

Because for 21 years, my wife Grace and I have lived and functioned within such a relationship, a marriage that has thrived because we both first and foremost seek to magnify and glorify the Lord with everything we do. The beauty of all this is that we are seen by so many who view our marriage as a model they want to follow and this is just the way the Lord wants it.

Friends, I’m not sure if you are in a relationship or not as you read this today.

If you are, I pray that you will make a vow to go through the entire year ahead seeking to glorify and magnify the Lord in everything you do, a commitment that may be new or just a continuation of what you have already done. Either way, it’s simply paramount that we do it and show others what a Christ-centric relationship looks like.

If you are seeking to enter into a relationship, choose wisely and make sure your partner is as equally committed to place the Lord first as you are. It may mean you disqualify some candidates but the end result will be a relationship the Lord will favor and bless and that’s what we all should want.

Commitment may have deteriorated in relationships today but that doesn’t mean we can’t turn it around. The Lord is ready to help us, one couple at a time. Let’s all do our part to allow Him.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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