July 2022 – Page 2 of 3 – Sonshine's Journal

July 21, 2022July 21, 2022

Ponderings from the Wisest Man

Eccl 1-3 Solomon spent much of his time musing over many topics and came away thinking that all this striving is futile, fleeting, and incomprehensible (J.MacArthur). Yet Solomon kept going back to his drawing board with this phrase “I said in my heart; I searched in my heart; and I turned my heart.” That is where we all have to go as we wander this life; go back to the source, the heart of the matter. And when he did that, he concluded that God has set eternity in man’s heart. He drew two conclusions: serving God is our highest calling, and God has made everything beautiful in its time.

So what to do? If you want to be wise and if you want to understand God’s ways, ask Him. James 1:5 “But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him.” Remember, “God is the Father of Lights and bestows good gifts to His children.” [Matt 7:7]

July 20, 2022July 20, 2022

Creation: God & His Son!

Prov 30 God – Do You Know Him?

It often amazes me when people say Christ is not revealed in the OT, yet the evidence is clear that He is there. You have to be a detective, looking for the puzzle pieces like Agur did but when you search you can find Him! Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you” [Matt 7:7]

Agur must have been a man much like Job in that he wanted answers, but unlike Job, he didn’t seem to ask God for them. However, that being said, he analyzed much of society and nature. Although he admits his inability to be wise, he observed and searched and noted there is evidence of God. He concluded that surely no man could ascend into heaven. He is right in that men cannot but God’s Son could and did. Jesus “was lifted up, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” [Acts 1:9] Then he asks about the wind and the waters and the ends of the earth. How like Job in his questioning and answering!

Through the OT/NT, God reveals His work through men and nature. Agur studied them both and concluded yes, there is a God, and He has a Son. He then asks this profound question: “What is his name, and what is his son’s name? Surely you can know!” He is saying, my search revealed Him, what has your search revealed? That is the question every believer should ask those who claim to be a Christian or do not.

Too many stop in their search for God and His Son. Are you searching? What have you found? For me, I cannot wait to meet Agur in heaven and ask him how he came to all the conclusions he did.

July 19, 2022July 19, 2022

Lessons from the Fool & the Sluggard

Prov 25-26 The Fool and the Lazy Sluggard

Wouldn’t it have been fun to be a fly on the wall in the Palace when Solomon faced both the fools and the lazy? Solomon wrote these chapters on what he gleaned, and we have those before us in these chapters. He observed, then interpreted, and then made applications. We are far richer from what he saw and experienced.

He left us with three very valid questions: (1) Why would you take counsel from the fool? To do so is your folly. (2) Why would you try to train the fool by trying to lead him or counsel him? He only learns the hard way (by whip or rod). [Seems to me that I heard that refrain more often in my childhood than any other as my mother often shook her head at me and said you only learn the hard way. Maybe she was right; I don’t know. but her words ring forth from eternity to me even today.] (3) Why would you send the fool on a journey with a message when you know that it will either be lost or rehearsed incorrectly? The bottom line is that we can learn much about fools in these chapters so that we do not become a fool.

Then there is the sluggard or the lazy. They are lazy and refuse to work! Paul later said that he who is lazy and won’t work should not benefit from the toil of others. These people are habitually lazy! Hard work never hurt anyone and, in fact, teaches us much about character development. There will always be the workers and the shirkers. Which are you?

So today, look at your decisions and then determine if you are wise or foolish busy about work, or lazy.

July 18, 2022July 18, 2022

Two types of people

Proverbs 19-22 There are people with integrity and those who are the scorners/scoffers. Maybe like me, you too struggle with these people. They draw my ire, and I find them to be despicable.

Now, sometimes as we read, we come across a pithy saying that tells us what God is really looking for in a person. He says scoffers bring about contention and strife, so drive them out! [Prov 22:10] and Prov 19:1 “Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is perverse in his speech and is a fool.” So we see the truth, but just as Jesus taught with examples, we also find teaching examples,

For example, King Ahab and his wife Jezebel were biblical characters that lacked integrity. They also were scoffers who scoffed at God. In sharp contrast was Naboth, the vineyard keeper, a poor man but a man of integrity. He lived next door to the palace, and he tended his land because it was his ancestral inheritance, and he would not relinquish it even for a penny—even to a king! It was not the money, but it all boiled down to integrity. But King Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard, so he stooped to deceit and murder to get it. God told Elijah to tell Ahab that He would bring disaster upon his ancestral line because of his sin of murder and his lack of integrity. He lacked the honesty of Naboth through and through.

The lesson for us is in the proverb: God looks for someone who exemplifies integrity, like Naboth. Am I a Naboth or King Ahab? OUCH!

July 17, 2022July 17, 2022

Learn from Wisdom.

Prov 19: In this life, we face the scorners, the naive, and those who are the wise. The scoffer does not learn from rebuke, but the wise take a rebuke as a lesson to be heeded. The naive may glean wisdom in what not to do if caught in the same scenario but the wise glean from the rebuke of another and gain knowledge.

Charles Spurgeon spoke about this regarding the way men come to the cross. The scoffer/scorner seeks to add to the simple message of salvation by heaping up works rather than the simple message to repent and believe. The wise listen and accept the simple message of the gospel.

The scorner/scoffer is an example of Pharaoh. Prov 19:3 his heart rages against the Lord– Prov 19-19 A man of great anger will bear the penalty, For if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again.– But why is one person a scoffer who is rebuked but does not learn? Pride. Why does one person learn from another’s rebuke? Listen to the words of Jesus: Blessed are the poor in spirit/the humble; theirs will be the kingdom of heaven. [Matt 5:3]

So which person am I /are you?

July 16, 2022July 16, 2022

Choosing Words Carefully

Prov 15 Words come easily to us because God has made us a people of language. We use it to heal but also, at times to hurt. Prov 15:4 Speech that heals is like a life-giving tree, but a perverse speech breaks the spirit. Job remarked that his heart was broken after hearing all of the bad news on one particular day. [Job 17:1] Again, we read that the Lord is near the brokenhearted, and he delivers those who are discouraged. [Ps 34:18]

When we hear news such as Job’s or news that pierces the heart, what should be our response? We can be the conduit of healing with the correct words to the brokenhearted, “But, there are also words that seemingly sound “nice” but, in fact, are hurtful such as

“I know how you feel, or it was for the best, or it was time.”

It seems like some of us are truly sensitive, but others like me need much practice and much prayer, and I am on that learning curve right now! I ask myself if I will ever learn! 🙁

Some phrases to consider:

I am here to listen; I feel your pain, and just checking in to ask how is your heart today?

Recognize that these days are seen as our friend’s affliction, trial and are hard. Therefore, be gentle and patient as you walk this road with the one in “heart pain.” Know and apply this truth: “A person has joy in giving the appropriate answer and a word at the right time—how good it is!” [Prov 15:23]

©Dreamstime image

July 15, 2022July 15, 2022

Wise or Foolish?

Prov 12 Proverbs are wise sayings explained through illustrations, but wisdom “has never appealed to proud intellectuals who consider themselves beyond the simplicity of God’s truth.” [Dr. Constable]

Looking back at Proverbs 6, we are told to consider the ant and how she wisely prepares and works. Aesop captured those principles in a fable about the ant and the grasshopper. Whereas the ant wisely prepared for the winter months, the grasshopper spent his time playing his fiddle. When winter came, and the grasshopper was hungry, the ant reminded him there was a time for work and play. In the NT, Jesus used the parable of the homebuilders of the wise and foolish to show that principle in real life. While the wise built on rock which took time, patience, and planning, the fool built his house on sand which was impulsive and quick. [Matt 7:24-27] Just like the grasshopper fable, when the winter storms came, all was lost. The Israelites also failed to learn the lessons as well and spent forty years wandering in the desert.

The MSG captures this lesson: If you love learning, you love the discipline that goes with it-how shortsighted to refuse correction! [Prov 12:1] We must be hearers of the words; learn from them and put them into practice, which is true wisdom.

Prov 12 reminds us of this principle: The inspired word of God is “useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” [2Tim 3:16]

July 14, 2022July 14, 2022

A Teaching Moment

Prov 8-11 Choices have Consequences

It is said that we make 35,000 choices each day! Choices are either that that will be recorded in heaven as wise or as foolish. Solomon uses his time to teach and model so that the child chooses wisely as they reach maturity. God will hold each of us responsible for carrying out that teaching properly. Note that Solomon presents both the positive and the negative and implores the child to learn wisdom through these examples.

Examples: The one who heeds instruction is on the way to life, but the one who rejects a rebuke goes astray. OR When words abound, transgression is inevitable, but the one who restrains his words is wise. OR What the wicked fears will come on him; what the righteous desire will be granted.

A NT story comes to mind where Jesus used that teaching principle in Luke 10:38-42 in the story of the two sisters. One was “busy” with the momentary satisfying things, but one sister chose that which would be eternal or, as Jesus said: she chose that which cannot be taken away from her. If you have not read the story of these two sisters, go there and learn at the feet of Jesus just as the one sister did. Paul echoed Jesus’ teaching when we wrote to the Ephesians: “Therefore be very careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise,” [Eph 5:15]

Choices have consequences – Choose wisely today!

July 13, 2022July 13, 2022

Parenting 101

Prov 4-7 Parenting Responsibilities

Once a parent, always a parent. It begins before birth and ends only when you, the parent, pass on into eternity. [If you are a grandparent reading this, know that the next generation will also recall your counsel as good or evil.] Just as when Solomon wrote these words long ago, parenting is fraught with the world’s dangers and Satan’s deceptive ways. Therefore, parents must be attentive to the business of teaching discernment [good judgment and insight] and the rewards or consequences of heeding or rejecting a parent’s counsel.

These chapters encourage a parent seeking to raise a child in the way he should go, and Prov 22:6 will repeat that idea. Jesus told the disciples: I am sending you forth into the world, and it is full of wolves. Truth be known, the world has not changed but has gotten progressively worse! Therefore, we must be wise as serpents but also innocent as doves. [Matt 10:16] As the master deceiver, Satan is shrewd and a liar. He is always planning to thwart our children’s way from godliness to ungodliness and for them to reject their parent’s counsel. Therefore, in Prov 4:20-27, he reminds the child that the deceiver knows the way to enter is through the eye, ear, and heart gates. Teach them that they must be on guard, discerning, and make wise choices if they desire God’s blessing.

Pray for parents and grandparents as well for wisdom and discernment. Pray that we have the wisdom to help children to discern both good and evil. [Heb 5:14]Pray we seek wisdom and wise counsel for children because the master deceiver is busier today than ever.

July 12, 2022July 12, 2022

The Two Paths of Life

Proverbs 1-3 God’s path leads to wisdom if we fear/revere Him. Therefore, the foundational principle is that if we want to be wise, it must start not just with our head but our heart’s knowledge of who He is. He is holy, He is in heaven, and as the author of Eccl so succinctly says: God is in heaven; therefore, let your words be few (I think he means may our words be wisely chosen.)

Prov 1:7 is the overarching principle: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. Thus, Solomon, as the author, reflects on the positive along with the negative. In Prov 3:5-6, he again gives us another overarching principle along with God’s promise: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

What path am I on or what path are you on? God’s path is clear and to obedient is my desire; is it yours?