"4.Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.
5.Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes." (NIV) These two proverbs seem to contradict each other, but they do not. In the first place, if you are talking to a "fool" and you have a disagreement, do not argue with him or her, because you will be acting just like him or her. In the second place, in another situation you might need to answer him or her to straighten them out, lest they "be wise in (their) own eyes." Different situations demand different responses. Some moments are teachable moments and some moments are not. If we don't learn to tell the difference we will become "fools." For what it's worth, let me tell you what I thought about when I read this verse. First, I have decided that there is very little that is worth arguing about. I have gotten to a point that when I hear something that I disagree with, I zip my mouth shut, because anything I say is not going to change that person's opinion. Second, I consider to whom it is that I am talking. There are some people that you can have a friendly disagreement with, and it will turn into an interesting discussion. In that case, we both learn something. But there are other people that you do not dare disagree with, because they will take offense. I'm not going to call the other person a "fool," but if I proceed to argue with him or her, I will become a "fool." I should know better. Third, I will not say anything at that moment, but in the future, in different circumstances, I might be able to talk with that person about the issue. In that case, I have moved from verse 4 to verse 5. Fourth, I have to remember that I can be kind of "testy" myself at times, so I try to abstain from arguing because I might end up being the "fool." If we will look honestly at ourselves, we will admit that we can "play the fool" sometimes. Frankly, I don't know if I clarified this issue for you, but it was clear to me. I have been in too many arguments in my lifetime where nothing was accomplished but hurt feelings. That is why I try not to argue. A fellow told me one time that he didn't think I cared, because when he said something that he knew I disagreed with, I wouldn't say anything in return. It didn't bother me, because caring does not depend on trying to prove your point when trying to prove your point is pointless. I remember a saying that proved my point: "I wondered if you were a fool, then you opened your mouth and removed all doubt." Selah Bro. Joe
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I copied this article from 2017. I needed to reread it and remember the truth that was revealed to me when I wrote it. You, no doubt, need to also read it.
“God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble…” This text is easy to read and easy to preach, but it is awfully hard to remember about ourselves. I think that pride is one of the most difficult things for us to deal with. I guess that one reason for this is that pride can be good and bad. We certainly want to take pride in our families, in our appearance or in doing a job well. But it becomes bad, even harmful, when we begin to internalize the pride and think that no one is better than us at what we do. It is at this point that we begin to think, “It’s all about me.” It is difficult for us to overcome this syndrome, if that is what it is, because we are so prideful that we think that we could never think that it’s all about us. Satan is a wily old tempter, and he will help us to lie to ourselves about our own pride. Let me begin with a personal example. When it became obvious to me that the Lord was leading me to retire, I balked at the idea at first. I tried to tell my Creator that I was not ready to “get out of the loop.” That meant that I was not ready to turn my work over to someone else, or that I was not ready to cease being the center of attention. I want to tell you, it is hard to imagine that we can be replaced. I began to pray about this, and the Lord convinced me that it was time to step aside into retirement. He also convinced me that I wasn’t being “replaced” but moving on to a new era in my life. Does it surprise you that for a little while there I thought that it was “all about me”? Well, you shouldn’t be surprised because you probably have to deal with the same thing in your life if you will be honest with yourself. I still have to be careful about it, but don’t you go getting self-righteous on me, you also need to remember that it is not all about you...:) Who taught us more about this than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Remember, now, that if anyone had a claim that it was all about Him, Jesus certainly did. In the prologue to his gospel, John wrote: “In the beginning was the word (Jesus), and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John 3:1-3) Do you see what I mean that He had a real claim that it was all about Him? Then we can go over to Philippians 2:5-9: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7. But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8.and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Don’t miss this point: He who could claim that “it was all about Him,” made it all about us instead. If this doesn’t humble us, nothing else can. When Jesus made it all about us, it was written of Him in Philippians 2:9: “Wherefore God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.” It becomes plain to us that we need to fight this temptation to think that everything is all about us. In order for us to get to that point, we need to confess our false pride, and start thinking like Jesus. We would do well here to remember what Paul wrote in Philippians 2:7: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” If we want to be like Christ, we must humble ourselves, get off of our “high horse,” as my Grandma Cooper used to say, and remember that it is not all about us but all about Him. When you start feeling all self-important, just say to yourself: “It’s not all about me.” Bro. Joe "O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.
21. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee." David saw the possibility that he could do something that would make him ashamed. I don't know if this was before or after Bathsheba, but it is something for us to consider. To bring shame on ourselves we do not need to do something as blatant as David's adultery with Bathsheba. For example, we can bring shame on ourselves by what we say to people. I have seen Christians bring shame on themselves (ruin their witness) by saying ugly things to waiters and waitresses - and that on Sunday after church services. We need to watch what we say and do in private and in public. How can we do this? By putting our trust in the Lord. David depended on the Lord to help to keep him from being an embarrassment. There were two things that he saw that could "preserve" him - integrity and uprightness. Integrity is what we are when no one else is around. (This is probably not an "Amen" but an "Oh me.") We need to remember that God sees everything we do and hears everything we say; therefore, we need to watch our thoughts and intentions when we are alone. We need to be true to the better part of ourselves at all times, especially when we are alone and have no one else to answer to but to God and ourselves. Uprightness is what we are in public, what people see us do and hear us say. If we want uprightness we need to have integrity. It will be easier not to bring shame on ourselves if we practice what we preach in private. Our public behavior will sometimes reveal our private sins, no matter how hard we try not to let them show. In other words, we need to keep our hearts right with God, ourselves and others. We need to be aware of these two verses, because the public behavior of Christians is keeping people away from the kingdom. We don't mean to, but we bring shame on ourselves and on our faith. I am certainly not being self-righteous here, because I have to watch myself, and my temper, when I encounter some problem with people who work in public places. I am glad when I leave and did not say the ugly things that I wanted to say. We need to all be careful about our integrity and uprightness if we are to be witnesses to the world about Jesus Christ. Don't you agree? “Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint not.”
To make a long story short, the ministry that Paul wrote about here is the ministry of telling others about Jesus. This ministry was not always welcomed in Paul’s day and it is not always welcomed in our day. Paul suffered greatly for sharing Jesus with his fellow Jews and Gentile pagans. He did not faint, quit, or as the NIV translates it: “We do not lose heart.” The way we would say it today: “We have not become discouraged." Paul would have had many reasons to become discouraged, since everywhere he went there was, as Leonard Ravenhill wrote, “a revival or a riot.” If Paul did not get discouraged in his day, we certainly need to guard against it in our day. Why should we refrain from getting discouraged? Discouragement is plain and simply used by Satan to stop us in our tracks in Christ’s work. If he can get us discouraged, his job will become easier because when we are discouraged we do not serve the Lord. The fact is that at the bedrock of discouragement is self-pity. I know that in my own experience when I have given in to self-pity, I wasn’t any good for Christ, His church, or anything else good that I should have been doing. Think of how the New Testament would be different if Paul had lost heart and had become discouraged, a lot of churches would not have been founded and about one-third of the New Testament would not have been written. We might think that our giving in to discouragement would not be as devastating as this, but for what God wants you to do and for what you can do for your church it would be devastating. I have probably written this in a blog before, but it fits here too well not to use it: Satan had a sale on his “tools” that he used for temptations. A demon was looking over the tools when he noticed a silver wedge on the top shelf with no price tag on it. He asked about the silver wedge and Satan answered him that this wedge was not for sale because it was the wedge of discouragement, and if he could get people discouraged it would be easier to get them to commit other sins. Discouragement does not lead to anything constructive in our lives. I was involved in a prison ministry for over twenty years in two prisons. Sometimes I would miss one of my regular attendees at Bible study and would ask him why? A good many times the reason was that they had become discouraged because of problems at home or some other problem and just didn’t feel right about coming to Bible study. My answer was always that his discouragement was all the more reason to come to Bible study. I could understand that problems at home would be especially distressing for a prisoner, but not coming to Bible study would not solve the problem at home. Discouragement has a way of making us do things that we know are not good for us. This affects our work, our Christian service, our family life, and a number of other things that we do not need to give up on. Discouragement can have a negative effect upon our witness to the world. As alluded to earlier, when we are discouraged we are wrapped up in our own troubles and do not look outside of ourselves. We become selfish, mean-spirited and indifferent about the things that go on around us. This is true of our Christian living as well. It affects our prayer lives, our study of the Bible and our interest in the spiritual welfare of other people. I know that it is not always easy to overcome discouragement, because devastating things can happen to us to cause it. Believe me, I know that the struggle to overcome discouragement is not always easy. Hey, I have worked with churches for over fifty years; do you think that I am not acquainted with the temptation to lose heart? But I intrinsically know that if I allow myself to become discouraged my work will become ineffective. With a lot of prayer, Bible study, fellowship with Christians and the love of the God who wants the best for you, you can overcome whatever may be discouraging you. Bro. Joe "When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.”
This verse gives us great reassurance when it states: “for God is for me.” Now don’t misunderstand me to be intimating that God approves of everything that we do, and that He is thoroughly impressed with us. Let’s just take this as a statement of fact – God is for us. He is not willing that any should perish, and He does not want anyone to throw their lives away. In fact, throughout the Bible, especially in the accounts of Jesus, there are some things that God offers that we need to claim, because they are there in God’s word for all of us to claim. We need to claim God’s grace. Grace means that, though we are sinners, God is for us anyway and wants the best for us. Grace does not mean that we have God’s blanket approval for everything that we do. It means that in spite of our sins and shortcomings, God still offers us salvation. In Ephesians 2:8 Paul wrote: “For by grace through faith are you saved, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God.” We can be saved from sin because God is the God of grace. Throughout the Bible we see the grace of God at work. In the Old Testament, we see God’s grace at work in Israel. Time after time the Israelites let God down, and they had to suffer His discipline, but still they were His chosen people and by grace they continued on and it was through them that our Savior came to us. We see God’s grace at work in the life of Paul. Saul of Tarsus was a real, and dreaded, enemy of Christ and His church, but Christ came into His life and turned Paul around. This is grace and it is available to you – claim it. We need to claim God’s mercy. I believe that mercy is God’s grace in action. There are times when we take the grace of God for granted and go too far, but in spite of this, God, through Christ, shows us His mercy. I think of Simon Peter when I think of mercy. During Jesus’ trial in Jerusalem, he denied Jesus three times, in spite of the fact that he had sworn he would not. One would think that Jesus was through with him, yet because of God’s mercy, Peter became a powerful advocate of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Without God’s mercy, this would not have happened. This mercy is available to you – claim it. We need to claim God’s love. Grace and mercy are at our disposal because of God’s love for us. A lot of people read the Bible and all they see is the wrath of God. In fact, they might think, whether they would admit it or not, that God ought not to be like that. But God is who He is and what He is and we cannot change His nature, but one thing is certain – wrath is not the final word about God. Throughout the Bible, God is depicted as the God of love. John wrote that “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Anyone who has ever been to Sunday School will remember John 3:16, which tells us of the extent of God’s love for us. This has not changed. God still loves us, in fact, God loves you. This love is available to you – claim it. We need to claim God’s forgiveness. God’s grace, mercy and love come together in His forgiveness. Our God of grace, mercy and love, revealed to us through Jesus, is the forgiving God. Throughout the Bible, we see God’s forgiveness at work. We see it at work in Israel. We see it at work in Jesus. In fact, the first words that Jesus offered from the cross were: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) If you have not been forgiven by God for whatever sin, or sins, that you have committed, God will forgive you. We see God’s grace, mercy and love at work in His forgiveness. This forgiveness is available to you – claim it. I don’t know what your present view of God is, but if it does not include His grace, mercy, love and forgiveness, you need to go back and take another look. All that God has to offer is available to you – claim it. Bro. Joe "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the profession of our faith. 15. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
We have a Savior Who lived the human experience for thirty-three years. He was "tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." Think of it, there is no temptation that you have to go through that Jesus has not dealt with. The difference in Jesus and us is that He was "yet without sin." We cannot say that we have never sinned, and we can never say that we do not sin. Sin comes in several forms, e.g., sins of attitude, sins of omission and sins of commission. That is why we are promised in 1 John 1:9 that, "If we will confess our sins, He (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Jesus does not condone our sins; but, thank God, He does forgive our sins. The Bible calls it mercy and grace. Because Jesus understands our plight in this life, He gives us an invitation to come "boldly to the throne of grace." For what reason? "That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." To come "boldly" does not mean to come "brashly." He means that we have a free invitation to come to Him at any time, night or day, and He will bestow His great mercy and grace upon us. Because Jesus knows you and knows what are going through, He invites you to come to Him in prayer on your own. You do not need anyone to take you to His throne. Because Jesus is your understanding high priest, you also are your own priest. (We call it "the priesthood of the believer.") Aren't you glad that our Savior is not remote from us, that He knows what we are experiencing and wants to minister to us through the presence of His Spirit and through the privilege of prayer? Bow your head now and thank Jesus for who and what He is in your life. If Jesus is not your Savior, sincerely confess your sins and ask Him, by faith, to come into your life. You will "obtain mercy and grace" then and there. Finding the mercy and grace of Jesus is not complicated. It is a matter of sincerely desiring His mercy and grace and sincerely asking Him to minister to your life. He is standing outside of your heart's door, waiting for your invitation to come in. Why would you keep HIm waiting? Bro. Joe “He restores my soul: He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake."
Why do we need restoration? We need it because we have wandered from the path that God has laid out for us. It is at these times that we need the replenishment that only the Lord Jesus Christ can give us. He comes to our rescue before we make any more of a mess than we have already made. I imagine that you know what I mean. (Okay, I will go ahead and confess that I know what I mean.) What we really fail to understand is that God really, really wants to restore us. You must seek it in prayer and deep meditation. Jesus literally stands at your heart’s door, not to just to save you, but to restore you to a deeper relationship with Him. This brings us to the “paths of righteousness” to which He leads us. When we are restored, we will not be so puffed up with our own religiosity that we will be stuffy and unapproachable. It is the path that will lead us away from the destructiveness that sin can bring into our lives. It is the path that leads us to saying “no” to things that we should say “no” to, and to saying “yes” to the things to which we should say “yes.” I don’t think you need a diagram to what I mean here. You already know right from wrong. But this is why we need to stay in the word of God in order to instill in us what it means to live a righteous life. It will be the path to humility and to the place of prayer. It will be the path to, not just to attend church, but to be the church in our daily lives. What does David mean by “for His name’s sake”? There is probably no end to what this means, but I will share you my limited understanding of what it means. I think that it means that He will restore us as we draw closer to Him in our daily lives. It means that we will cease living only for our “own name’s sake,” and for living for “His name’s sake.” I think that it is to have the attitude of John the Baptist when he said that “He (Jesus) must increase but I must decrease.” It should mean that instead of seeking self glory, we will seek to bring glory to Jesus. This doesn’t mean that we should not take great satisfaction in what we do in His name. We just need to realize that He is to receive the glory for what we do in His name. Seek His restoration of your life today. Bro. Joe “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”
Faith in Christ is the key to everything in the Christian life. The text written above shows that this is true. It says that without faith it is “impossible to please God.” The word “impossible” is emphatic here. We could paraphrase the text this way: “Without faith it is absolutely impossible to please (God).” It is also important to stress that the text is about faith in Christ, not faith in the idea of faith. A lot of people claim to live by faith in some life dream of theirs. That kind of faith might bring worldly success, but it will not succeed with God. Faith in Christ opens up a whole new dimension in the life of the believer. Things become possible which did not seem possible before, for Christ, through the Holy Spirit, goes to work in our lives, changing and enriching our lives. . We are saved by grace through faith, but beyond that we are sustained by faith. Hebrews 11:1 gives us the essence of faith: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith makes possible that which seems impossible.It makes real that which seems unreal. Without faith we cannot see the need to be saved, nor can we understand the works of God. For example, I talked to my oldest brother (Maybe “big brother” would be better.) about our various illnesses. He said that when he got prostate cancer he did not wonder "Why me?" but "Why not me?" "Why me?" is not a statement of faith, rather it is a statement of selfishness and despair. As children of God we are not to give way to despair or fear. As for me, I'm not that brave. I just have faith in a great big God, with Whom "all things are posslble." I have faith in a great God Who will be with me all of the way, and will work it all out according to His will. Do not think that I am bragging about my faith. I am bragging about a great God Who made faith possible. He made it possible for you too. If you realize that, this blog has achieved its purpose. Traditionally, Hebrews 11 has been called “the hall of faith.” It reveals the faith of certain great Old Testament saints whose lives portrayed great faith. The chapter points out that salvation and sustenance has always been by faith in Christ. Hebrews 11:13 shows that this is true: “These all died by faith, not having received the promise….” “Promise” here can only mean one thing, i.e., faith in Christ. Christ’s coming had been predicted in various prophecies and types all through the Old Testament. In fact, these texts were used by New Testament Christians to witness to people since there was no New Testament at the time. The verse concludes: “But having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” This saving and sustaining faith has been a reality since the beginning of time. Revelation 13:8 refers to Jesus as the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The faith that we have in Christ is deeply rooted in biblical history. Rejoice that you are saved by your faith in Christ; also rejoice that your life is sustained by faith in Him. Praise Him! Bro. Joe “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one was a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank you, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, and I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.”
Pharisees were the religious elite of that time and publicans, though wealthy, were religious outcasts. Jesus contrasted the prayers of a Pharisee and a publican to show the value to God of humility over self-righteousness. (It is likely that Jesus personally witnessed these two at prayer.) What was wrong with the prayer of the Pharisee? He was selfish. Notice that the Pharisee prayed “thus with himself.” He appeared to be talking to God, but he was only muttering to himself. His religion was based on himself rather than on God. We can call this misplaced faith. Read this carefully: If we are not careful, we can make our religion, our faith, about ourselves and not about Jesus We see this all of the time in churches, because people put their wishes and needs ahead of the will of God, as though it is all about them. Phariseeism did not die out in the first century. It is still among us. He was self-important. The Pharisee was very impressed with himself. Notice that he thanked God that he was not like other men, in fact, he thought that he was better than all other men. He even glanced over to the publican and thanked God that he was not like him. He even boasted to God about his fasting and tithing. The Pharisee was attempting to use his religion to advance his own importance instead of advancing the kingdom of God. Evidently, he did not realize that God knew his heart, and that the outward practice of religion should come from a heart of faith, not as a means of self-aggrandizement. If we are not careful, we will become very impressed with our religious practices and forget about what is in our hearts. We will look down at other people as being less than ourselves because they are not as “religious” as we are. We should not think that we have immunity to this kind of thinking. We also call this “self-righteousness.” He was self-satisfied. In his own mind, the Pharisee had arrived. He was complete as he was. He had no more growing to do. Compare this to Paul’s, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.” We never reach a point in our spiritual growth when we can say, “I can stop now. I have this religion thing all figured out.” That is not humanly possible. There is always something in our lives that needs changing. In contrast, Jesus pointed out that the publican simply prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” God heard this brief and simple prayer and rejected the highly religious prayer of the Pharisee. Jesus gave the bottom line on why one prayer was heard and the other rejected: “For everyone that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.” This will be forever true! Bro. Joe “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes is a puzzle to many people, because it has so many negative things in it that seem to take away from a positive, joyous life. That is because they misunderstand the reason for the book in the first place. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon relates that he had tried everything, pleasure, wine, work, etc. and it all proved futile. In the final analysis he wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.” These two verses make the whole book understandable. There is nothing on this earth that can bring the satisfaction to our lives that a relationship with God can bring. This is true of our text as well. In a sense there really is nothing new under the sun. For example, history repeats itself frequently. The settings are different, fashions are different, communication is different, but we human beings keep making the same mistakes over and over again. I think the book of Judges gives us an example of that. After Joshua and his generation died, Israel went into a spiritual spiral. Repeatedly throughout the book, Israel made the same mistakes. Today, it seems that people think paganism is a new thing. It’s almost as if people think that “anything goes” is a new concept, dreamed up only by this “enlightened' generation. If you will read world history, you will see that it is just like Judges: We keep making the same mistakes over and over again. We keep thinking that immorality is “freedom” and morality depends on what an individual wants it to be. The closing words of Judges describes our own situation: “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” It is true that “there is nothing new under the sun,” if you remember that this pertains to the things of the earth. But the Bible also deals with that which is new, that does not just have to do altogether with worldly matters, but with our relationship with God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 explains what I mean: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. 18. And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. 19. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” Jesus makes all things new in the life of the Christian, and gives him or her, a new purpose in life. Romans 6:4 relates to us that “we also should walk in newness of life.” The day is coming when all things will be made new: “And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new…” The Bible promises a new heaven and a new earth. In Ecclesiastes 1:9, Solomon wrote of the tired materialistic life that he was living. It is still true that in the matters of earth there is “nothing new under the sun.” Newness comes only in that which is eternal. It is in Christ that we have newness in our lives. Otherwise, life just goes on monotonously from day to day, and we try to find “newness” in that which is not, and cannot be new. God wants to do a new thing in the lives of every person on this earth. In fact, He sent His Son, Jesus, to give every person that newness. But most people choose the monotony of the world, and never learn what real newness is. I hope that this is not true of your life. If it is, Jesus is available to you. If you have given your life to Jesus, rejoice and enjoy the new life that God has given you. Bro. Joe |
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