Tag Archives: the book of Proverbs

September 22
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“Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over.” (Proverbs 3:9-10, The Message)

Do we honor God with everything we own: Our time, our talents, our treasure; the power at our disposal by virtue of our position in life and its prerogatives?

If not, we are operating at a level far below both our potential for blessing the lives of others; and we have restricted the “return” from God to our own lives.

You are what your are; and you have what you have. Begin to give God the first fresh hour of your day, rather than the left-over minutes at its end. Give God a tithe of thanksgiving from the top dollars at the beginning, rather than the pennies that remain after everyone else has taken their due.

These small, but significant, steps lead to a life of usefulness, abundance, and joyful surprise.  – Luther

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September 20
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“Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them.” (Proverbs 24:17-18, NIV)

The world maintains a “dance on the ashes of your enemy” approach to human relationships because it is too short-sighted to appreciate the long-term benefit of reconciliation.

As disciples of Jesus, we are His “ambassadors”; and as His ambassadors, we represent only His interests, not our own.

His interest, according to scripture, is not the condemnation of the world, but its salvation. (John 3:17) His purpose is not the perpetuation of the world’s estrangement from God, but its reconciliation to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

In all that you do, endeavor to illuminate the path to reconciliation.  – Luther
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September 19
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“Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” (Proverbs 23: 4-5, NIV)

There is an old ditty about money that goes like this: “Money talks, and that’s no lie; I heard it once, it said, ‘bye-bye.'”

God’s wisdom reminds of the deceitfulness of riches, and warns us of the perils of chasing money. The bumper sticker says, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” However, the “winner” still dies and all of the “toys” he has accumulated will pass to someone else in an estate sale — or in a garage sale — at a small fraction of the original retail price!

The wise person works for the treasure that “moth and rust cannot corrupt; and thieves cannot break-in and steal.” The wise person does not work for the treasure that is here today and gone tomorrow; but for the treasure that is earned today and is remembered by the Creator of the universe for all time.  – Luther

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