The Test

 Daniel 1

Today, we begin a new series. Over the next 11 weeks, we will study the book of Daniel. This book is familiar to most of us. Many of the events of Daniel’s life we learned about as children in Sunday school or vacation Bible school. Daniel in the lions’ den.Daniel interpreting dreams. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednago in the fiery furnace. The writing on the wall.

Time and again throughout the book of Daniel, we see the God of Israel (Yahweh, Jehovah) demonstrating His power and sovereignty. The little “g” gods of Babylon and the wisdom of their followers is shown to be empty and powerless by the one true God.

The Bible is unique in so many ways. It includes history, incredible details about the past. It includes prophecy, miraculous predictions of things to come. It includes instruction on how to live. It includes the explanation of why we are here. It includes the means by which we can have eternal life. It is profoundly concrete. There are mysteries in the Bible, but the Bible is no means a mystical book. You can read it and understand it.

Money Part 2

Good morning! Today we come to the conclusion of our topical series exploring the wisdom of the book of Proverbs. This is also the second part of a two-part message on Biblical guidelines for wisdom in the area of finances. I want to start with a recap of some of the things we talked about in Part I, which we actually covered two weeks ago. (Last week was our monthly communion and sharing time and John spoke about hard hearts vs. hearts soft to the things of the Lord.)

Two weeks ago we looked at a variety of passages not only in Proverbs but also in the teachings of Jesus and came up with the following main points:

I. Seek the Lord in your financial decisions. – We talked about guarding against compartmentalizing our faith with regards to financial decisions. In every significant financial decision, we should pray and seek Biblical wisdom. This is simple to say but can be difficult to do, particularly if we have built up a habit of making financial decisions on our own.

Jesus and Debt

Before we jump into the message, let’s take a moment and ask the Lord to soften our hearts and to speak to us.

Lord Jesus, I do pray that you would soften our hearts. We harden our hearts to protect ourselves from the hurts of this world. We harden our hearts to handle the trials we are facing. We harden our hearts to bear our own burdens. We even harden our hearts to do the things that we know are right. But that’s not how you are and that’s not how you want us to be. Give us ears to hear. Transform us and make us more like you. Soften our hearts that we might love as you do. In your perfect name we pray, Amen.

Do you ever think about your heart? I’m talking about your physical heart, the one inside your chest. As a general rule, I don’t think about it at all. When I was a kid, I would put my hand on my chest and feel my heart beating. I wasn’t fascinated by it, but I do remember at least thinking about my heart and the fact that it was pump, pump, pumping. Nowadays, I hardly think about it at all. It does what it’s supposed to, and I don’t really consider it.

Money Part 1

Good morning! Today we continue our series based on the book of Proverbs and focus on Biblical precepts for wise finances. There is so much to discuss in this area that we will spend two weeks on this topic. Next week we will have our monthly time of communion and sharing together what the Lord is teaching us, so we will finish this topic in two weeks.

I want to start with some foundational verses in Proverbs Chapter 3. The first of these I am sure you all know; we have talked of these before. They are not specifically tied to finances but deal with all of life. But all of life certainly includes finances, and without a proper foundation, details aren’t going to help you much. And so, let’s look at Proverbs 3:5-6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. – Prov. 3:5-6

Diligence vs. Neglect

Proverbs 10:4
Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.(NIV)

What makes a man or woman poor? Some would say that if you are born into poverty you are destined to remain in poverty. However, there are many cases where people who were born into poverty worked hard and rose out of their original impoverished state. For example, David was born into a family of shepherds but rose to become king of all of Israel. Abraham Lincoln grew up living in a lean-to with his father yet he became president of the United States. Babe Ruth was raised in an orphanage and grew up to become one of the most famous baseball players of all time. 

Truthfulness vs. Deception

Good morning! Today we continue our series based on the book of Proverbs and focus on truthfulness versus deception. I spent a little time yesterday thinking about some of the most common lies in our culture. With a little help from the Internet, here are a few I came up with:

1.The dog ate my homework.
2.Leave us your resume and we’ll keep it on file.
3.One size fits all.
4.Your baggage isn’t lost, it’s just not here.
5.This will only take a minute.
6.Satisfaction guaranteed.
7.That was the very next thing on my list of things to do!

Peacemaking vs. Contention

Welcome! Today we continue our series in Proverbs and look at peacemaking versus contention. We will start with contention. This is probably a word you do not use in everyday conversation. What I mean by the term is arguing, disputing, the expression of anger, complaining, and just general grumpiness. These types of things never happen in your house do they? The truth, of course, is that contention is more common in our lives than we care to admit.

Now, I’m not an expert in comedy or humor, but one thing that struck me this week is just how much humor is based on contention. If I were to guess, I would say it is the most common basis of humor. And this is not just in our culture, but seems to be universal. I recently got myself sucked into some Korean drama programs (with subtitles), and the humor is very much the same. If you have watched British shows, again, very often arguments are a central source of humor.

Purity vs Infidelity

What is purity?

According to "Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary" purity is defined as "the quality or state of being pure" and when a substance is referred to as pure, it can also be known as, " spotless, unmixed with any other matter, characterized by no appreciable alteration, marked by chastity, and containing nothing that does not properly belong." Some synonyms of pure are: innocent, guiltless, unblemished, chaste, clean, uncorrupted, unmixed, and genuine. We here people use the term pure gold when speaking of the value of this precious metal.

Even though the value of gold has risen over time, the value of spiritual purity has lowered in our world over time. People continually discover new ways to compromise their spiritual purity and find ways to attempt to justify it to themselves and others.

Wisdom vs. Folly

We are going to continue the topical series on the book of Proverbs that Carl introduced last week. This is a topical series because if you read the Proverbs, it is kind of like reading the dictionary. There are many different topics in a single chapter. The neat thing about that is by reading a single chapter of Proverbs, you are exposed to wisdom applied to a wide spectrum of your life. So, God allowed Proverbs in the best possible way. However, for a message like today, it would be a challenge to go line by line through Proverbs. So, we are going to take a topical approach looking at wisdom and folly.

Wisdom versus Folly. What a title! It is an epic battle isn’t it? Wisdom squares off against Folly in a fight to the finish. Could you imagine?

In this corner, shining brighter than the dawn, radiant in truth, formed by God Himself before the foundations of the world, we have Wisdom. And in this corner, lurking in the shadows, bringing only punishment, causing wounds to fester, is Folly.

Introduction to Proverbs

Good morning! Today we begin a new series on the Book of Proverbs. Today we are going to begin by talking about the book in general and look at the opening verses of the book.

To start, what is a proverb? It is some kind of a saying. It is usually short, and it is meant to make you think and reflect. The proverb is supposed to teach you something, share something of wisdom.

One place you see proverbs in the world today is inside fortune cookies. Did you know that fortune cookies are based on a Japanese cookie not a Chinese one, although the modern kinds of messages in the cookies is a distinctly American custom only going back to the late 1800s. Fortune cookies are almost unheard of in China. About 3 billion fortune cookies are made per year, and almost all of them are consumed in the United States.