Proverbs 4 has everything to do with the heart. Its receptivity, its hunger, its trust, its purity, its treasures & how well it is guarded!
We established a very clear line between the teachings of this chapter (especially the later part), the teachings of James and the words of Jesus in Matthew 12 & Mark 11. Taken all together these teach a very well rounded lesson on the heart, the importance of treasuring God’s word and guarding the heart, trust and our words.
Continue reading
Though it is not unusual to find peppered throughout the Old Testament, Proverbs 3 has some promises which Christians truly need to view in light of established New Covenant theology. The differences are made by the New Testament authors themselves and so they aren’t hard to discover and reconcile.
These issues deal with understanding & application of verses dealing with abundance, sowing and reaping & even God’s grace as first debuting with Noah before even the Old Covenant. The New Testament can only be understood through a robust knowledge of the Old Testament. There IS however, a huge difference between the Old Testament and the Old Covenant. Understanding this is crucial!
I hope this helps you in your study of not only chapter 3, but all of Proverbs and the greater Old Testament at large.
Continue reading
Like Proverbs 1, the second chapter offers conditions for better understanding the Fear of the Lord and obtaining the knowledge of God. These bear much in common with Jesus’ teaching on the heart soils in Mark 4. Furthermore, you can see the words of this chapter in the New Testament letters of both Paul and James.
God stores up wisdom for us to store up in our hearts. He goes before us and prepares wisdom, insight and understanding for those who meet the conditions outlined at the beginning of the chapter but He goes on record as guaranteeing that we WILL receive it from Him!
This is a very important chapter in the overall book of Proverbs – primarily due to the clearly stated conditions for obtaining knowledge of God and understanding the Fear of the Lord!
Invaluable!
Continue reading
Series: In Pursuit of Relational Knowledge
Parable of the Heart Soils
What makes the ‘Good heart’… good?
First, it is incline to understand the message of the kingdom – that it requires surrender to the King of the Kingdom and that for now all who belong to the Kingdom of God will suffer persecution, temptation and hatred.
God offers the Good Heart this understanding because BEFORE the message of the kingdom was planted there it was already worshipping God to the degree that it understood how (consider Cornelius and Lydia).
The other primary attribute of this heart is that even though it knew the cost of entering the kingdom it welcomed the message, clung to the king of the kingdom and through patient endurance it produced the fruit of conformity to Jesus’ likeness over time.
Continue reading
Series: In Pursuit of Relational Knowledge
The Thorny Heart Pt. 3
When it comes to the Thorny Heart, the thorns were already present before the message of the Kingdom was sown there. These “thorns” choke out and starve the seed of the Kingdom in the human heart so that it bears no fruit unto God.
This week we addressed the desire for other things entering in and choking the Word.
As I was preparing for this lesson my years of teaching Creation and Evolution made me think of Darwin and the “thorns” which led to his eventual agnostic views and rejection of the gospel. It serves as a poignant warning for anyone in the world’s battle for the heart against the inroads of the Kingdom of God.
Continue reading