SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
12/30/2012 8:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Wisdom’s
Call to Salvation PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Proverbs
1:8-10, 15-19
Message of
the verses: The voice of instruction (vv. 8-10,
15-19): “8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And
do not forsake your mother’s teaching; 9
Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your
neck. 10 My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent. 15 My son, do not walk
in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, 16 For their feet run to evil And they hasten to
shed blood. 17 Indeed, it is useless to
spread the baited net In the sight of any bird; 18 But they lie in wait for their own blood;
They ambush their own lives. 19 So are
the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the life of its
possessors.”
I want to quote the last paragraph of Dr. Wiersbe’s
introductory commentary from this chapter in which he entitles, “Is Anybody
Listening?” If you’ll refer to the
suggested outline of Proverbs, you’ll see that the first nine chapters present
two women—Wisdom and Folly personified—as they seek to win the attention and
obedience of people in the city streets and squares. In this chapter, I want to focus on Wisdom’s
calls, and then in the next chapter we’ll listen to Folly and learn what she
has to offer.”
The main section we are looking at is entitled “Wisdom’s
Call to Salvation which covers Proverbs 1:8-33 and we will see that this
paragraph will record three voices that the person reading Proverbs needs to
indentify, and the first voice is that
of instruction which comes from the verses written above.
We read the following in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, but will
focus in on verses 6-9: “4 ¶ "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God,
the LORD is one! 5 "You shall love
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
might. 6 "These words, which I am
commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach
them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house
and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 "You shall bind them as a sign on your
hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 "You shall write them on the doorposts
of your house and on your gates.”
The parents in this section of Proverbs were taking these verses in
Deuteronomy very seriously.
As we look at Proverbs 1:8-9 we see it is the desire of
the parents to teach their son the Word of God so that it would become a “graceful
wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck.” What does this mean exactly? Paul writes to Titus these words, “that in
everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” Peter writes the following to his readers in
1Peter 3:3-4, “3 Your adornment must not
be merely external-braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on
dresses; 4 but let it be the hidden
person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet
spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.”
All of these authors are telling their readers that obeying the Word of
God, living out the truths in the Word of God is a beautiful thing that others
can see.
12/30/2012 9:15 AM
12/30/2012 8:23 PM
How to avoid yielding to temptation as seen in verses
15-19: First we are to avoid hanging
around with the wrong crowd. Let’s look
at the first part of the first Psalm: “1
¶ How blessed is the man who does not
walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in
the seat of scoffers!” We see in this
verse that there is a progression in falling into temptation that must be
avoided. Don’t walk, don’t stand, and
don’t sit with those who are wicked.
Paul tells the Corinthians something similar, “14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers;
for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has
light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony
has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
16 Or what agreement has the temple of
God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,
"I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND
THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. 17
"Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE," says
the Lord. "AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you.
18 "And I will be a father to you,
And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty.” (2Cor. 6:14-18) In our sermon today at church the Pastor was
giving us a sermon on what we should be doing in the coming New Year, and one
of the things that we are suppose to do is not get too close to sin. It is kind of like the saying that says if
you get to close to the fire you are going to get burnt. The father in this section of Proverbs is
telling his son these same principles that we have just gone over.
Second the father tells the son not to play with
temptation because as we see in Proverbs 1:17 it always will led to a
trap. If a bird sees at trap that has
bait in it they will stay away from it, however if they can’t see the trap, and
only see the bait then they will be trapped. Dr. Wiersbe says in an endnote “Temptation
is the bait, and Satan wants us to think we can grab the bait and avoid the
consequences (Gen. 3:5). Alas, it never
works that way.”
Third: In verses
18-19 we see that when we disobey the Lord by hurting others that we are
actually hurting ourselves. I have heard
that God is the One who created time, but God does not own a watch. I suppose that is a pretty good proverb that
tells us that eventually we will have to pay the price of our wrong doing. Dr. Wiersbe puts it this way, “You end up
sacrificing the permanent for the immediate, and that’s a bad investment.”
Spiritual meaning
form my life today: I have been
taught or reminded two times today, once in a sermon and once in the lesson
from Proverbs today not to get too close to sin or I will fall. When I became a believer in Jan. of 1974 at
the age of twenty-six the Lord cleaned up my mouth as soon as I became a
believer and for that I am grateful.
However there are other things that I sometimes wish that He would have
taken away from me that He did not. It
is kind of like when the children of Israel came into the Promised Land and
through Joshua they defeated many of their enemies, but the rest of the enemies
were to be driven out after the major battles with Joshua were done. In order to defeat the rest of these enemies
they were to place their trust in the Lord, however this did not happen for
most of the children of Israel. We do
see that Caleb did follow this plan and took control of all of his inheritance.
I believe that God did not take all of
my sinful ways away from me so that I could learn to trust in the Lord to give
me the wisdom and the help to overcome those temptations. Paul writes, “There hath no temptation taken
you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a
way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
(1Cor. 10:13)
My Steps of faith for Today:
Remember 1Cor. 10:13; Continue to learn
contentment; and continue to memorize God’s Word in order to have my life
transformed into His image.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 121:1-3
1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, from where
shall my help come? 2 My help comes from
the Lord who made heaven and earth. 3 He
will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.
12/30/2012 8:53 PM
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