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Daniel
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. (11) If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: (12) Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: (13) We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: (14) Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: (15) My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: (16) For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. (17) Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. (18) And they lay wait for their [own] blood; they lurk privily for their [own] lives. (19) So [are] the ways of every one that is…
Here we go again!
For our third run through of the book of Proverbs, we start again, this fine April Fools’ Day, but this time we are posting twice a day. Most will be re-posts from six-seven years ago, a few will be new or edited.
Either way, please join us again as we dive into the wisdom literature afresh. Remember to sign up for updates if you have not already, and feel free to share your thoughts with us!
The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; (2) To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; (3) To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; (4) To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. (5) A wise [man] will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: (6) To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
Welcome!
Welcome to the first day of the third run of Proverbial Thought. Our 7th anniversary!!
Seven years ago, on this day, we started out on an ambitious project: write daily thoughts and commentary about every proverb in the Book of Proverbs. It took us almost two years to make it all the way through. We are now going to re-post…
and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 CHRONICLES 7:14, NASB
God desires to save us and have relationship with us.
He made a way through Christ. Turn from your sin, and seek His face.
REMEMBER – We once were all slaves to sin, God redeemed us, be merciful to others
REMEMBER – We once were all strangers to God’s Kingdom, show love, tolerance and accommodation, where possible, to the stranger who is not of God’s Kingdom
REMEMBER – God has provided for us, be generous to others who have legitimate needs
REMEMBER – God has been more than just to us, be just in all of our dealings with others
REMEMBER – God is impartial, be impartial when dealing with others
REMEMBER – God is faithful to us, be faithful to God and to others
REMEMBER – God is holy, strive to be holy in all we say or do to/with others
REMEMBER – We are the sons and daughters of our God, act accordingly towards others
REMEMBER – God forgives us our sins, we need to be willing…
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
2 CORINTHIANS 4:7-9, NASB
God has chosen to dwell in us by the Holy Spirit. The world hates God, but we know He ultimately wins. Do not fear the world.
But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
MATTHEW 6:6, NASB
We must spend time alone with God. Prayer is not a last resort, it is our direct line to our Creator and Lord.
I did not do the silly high five at the end of this video! Am I a horrible person? (Theologically speaking, technically yes … apart from Christ …)
But it is addressing that tantalizing question: What is faith?
Give Me 5: What Is Faith?
Many people do not really understand faith.
In a recent book, “A Manual for Creating Atheists”, philosopher Peter Boghossian defined faith as belief without evidence, pretending to know things you don’t really know.
But is this right?
In a word: no.
How does the Bible explain faith?
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1, ESV
Another way of explaining faith is putting your beliefs into action. If you believe something to be true, prove it! Prove you are faithful to those beliefs by acting on them.
The most used example of what faith is is a chair. You can say you believe a chair will hold you up, but faith is proving it by sitting on the chair. Typically, you are acting on evidence. (In this case, you have been told chairs are for sitting on, and you may have seen other people sit in chairs.)
As Christians, we do not have a blind faith. The Bible is our evidence for God and Jesus.
The Bible has several prophecies about the coming Messiah who would take away our sins, and Jesus claimed He was the fulfillment of those prophecies. He made many claims to His deity, as well, and He said that He would prove it all by dying and rising again.
The Apostles and early disciples did not just write about things they heard. They claimed to have heard these things and seen the crucified and risen Jesus with their own eyes.
And the Bible is the most reliable ancient set of documents we have from antiquity, by far. Few experts contest this. (Maybe the actual events, but not that at least the New Testament is reliably from people from the First Century.)
Who lives with and uses faith?
Everyone.
It is not only Christians and the overtly religious. My evidence for this?
How about evolutionary theory: How is it claimed life began? Several chemicals somehow combined in the right amounts at the right time to create the building blocks for RNA and DNA, creating the first living cells.
How do we know it happened this way?
We don’t. No one was there to see it, and no one as recreated it in the lab to test this hypothesis. People simply believe it is true.
This is more like blind faith than Christianity!
As said before, everyone lives by some form of faith in someone or something throughout their days and lives. Faith is putting beliefs into action.
What do you think? Am I way too far off the mark? (I think most others are.)
How about we talk about, either in the comments (on this blog post or on the YouTube channel) or through the e-mail: Together@asimplemanofgod.com, or even at the Facebook page: a simple man of God.
[Love] does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
1 CORINTHIANS 13:6, NASB
We can not be so friendly with the world as to accept everything they do, nor do we celebrate when anyone suffers, but we we share the truth of Christ and rejoice all the more when a lost soul receives it.
Do we truly love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths? Maybe I can help with the mind part, at least! This is Daniel M. Klem, apparent poet, reluctant yet passionate Disciple (Peter?), and foolish man attempting to understand theology!
a simple man of God 