Proverbs 6 Lazy Content

The Proverbial sluggard… are you Lazy or Content?

If the Apostle Paul had “followed his heart” and “pursued his dreams” he would have ministered exclusively to the Jews and missed his calling to the Gentiles.

This is just one of countless examples where conventional worldly wisdom has entered into the church and distorted our understanding and values. The modern church teaches things Jesus actually taught against. Things the apostles and early church would have found both foreign & carnal.

Modern Christians pursue self-focused ambitions by either twisting the scriptures away from their intended meanings or through plain ignorance of what their bible teaches.

We are told “God will give you the desires of your heart” and “without a dream, people will fail” or “I know the plans I have for you says the Lord…” all in an attempt to place God’s seal of approval on our flesh driven pursuits, but what do the scriptures REALLY say?

Christians who are content with what they have are accused of lacking ambition, while those who openly pursue materialism are praised and celebrated.

In tonight’s installment of ‘Thru the Bible’ we examined Proverbs 6 which contains many truths and instructions, but the one that stood out among the rest was the teaching on the sluggard. So we dove into that topic – taking a 30,000’ view of scripture in order to seek out the whole counsel of God’s word on the topic and the results expanded our teaching to include the topics of laziness, ambition, contentment, needs, desires, pursuits, dreams, materialism, God’s will & the kingdom of God.

The findings may surprise you! At very least we arrived at a more informed grasp of God’s thoughts on these issues which for a true follower of Christ is a win regardless!

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Rejoice Wife Youth

Rejoice with the wife of your Youth

This Proverb is actually quite explicit in terms of solid advice regarding sex and the blessings of the same if enjoyed in the sanctity of marriage.

The advice of course extends to virtually all other arenas of life as well, but is targeted by David towards the weakness of his son Solomon – which was women.

This not only offers sound wisdom, but also demonstrates it by revealing that David knew his son and spoke into his world words of instruction and wisdom which were highly tailored to the strengths and weaknesses of his son!

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Clog Spout Life

Don’t clog the Spout where the Life comes out!

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.

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Proverbs 3 Promises

The Promises of Proverbs 3

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.

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Lord gives wisdom

For the LORD gives Wisdom!

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!

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