324 year old words that can change your life

What do you devote your time to? What do you spend your extra time doing? Where do you go, what do you see? What holds your attention? Whatever holds our undivided attention surely becomes something that can end up being our devotion. For some it might be work, a hobby, money, a car, children or numerous other things. Brother Lawrence understands this and wrote:

“We should put life in our faith. We should give ourselves utterly to God in pure abandonment, in temporal and spiritual matters alike, and find contentment in the doing of His will, whether he takes us through sufferings or consolations.”

He urges that our devotion should be targeted towards God no matter the consequences. This devotion should be a complete abandonment to Him.

What holds your attention? What consumes your time? Who or what has your devotion?

324 year old words that will change your life.

In the last 5 years the art of conversation has diminished through the used of Social media tools and apps. Many young christians struggle to have a consistent prayer life and thus struggle to truly know who God is. Nevertheless, we are encourage to have constant prayer life. Brother Lawrence writes:

“There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.”

In order to experience this sweet and delightful life, we need to have a continual conversation with God. Have you spoken to him today?

324 words that can change your life.

James 1 begs us to consider it a pure joy when we encounter painful and unpleasant circumstances. It continues by stating that through the endurance of these circumstances, our faith will grow. Once this perseverance is finished, it will make us mature and complete, not lacking anything. Bother Lawrence puts it this way:

“I did not pray for any relief, but I prayed for strength to suffer with courage, humility and love.”

Let’s pray to have the same resolve – to allow painful and uncomfortable situations to help us grow in faith and to draw us closer to God.

324 year old words can change your life

“The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him. As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.”

Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

Knowledge begets knowledge. When this knowledge is centered on God then this knowledge is transformed to love, genuine love. This love is not swayed by time, or situations. It is a constant love. After all, God love. The more we know about God, the more we know about love and the more we know about love the more we understand the type of love God has for us.

324 year old words that can change your life

324 years ago, on Feb. 12 Brother Lawrence, a former soldier who had a dramatic religious conversion, died. He devoted his life to follow God. After joining a monastery he became Brother Lawrence and spent the rest of his life serving others. During this time he discover a profound truth – God presences can and should be experienced everywhere.

Brother Lawrence never wrote a book, but one was created using some of his letters and discussions with his peers.

For the next 10 days I will be posting one quote a day by Brother Lawrence.

“The King, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me with love, makes me eat at His table, serves me with His own hands, gives me the key of His treasures; He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all respects as His favorite. It is thus I consider myself from time to time in His holy presence.

Count your white hairs.

Most people say that white hairs are a sign of experience and wisdom. In that case I must say that I am getting more and more wise every year. Unfortunately, according to scientist, white hairs are a product of an increase of hydrogen peroxide as we get older and has nothing to do with wisdom or experience.

Proverbs 8 uses personification to project wisdom. Unlike the previous chapter in which we see the adulterous woman leading the young man astray, Wisdom is seen as teacher who teaches about what she knows and has experienced. Why should we prefer wisdom over folly? According to verse 18-22 there are great blessings in following wisdom. Kings and rulers use her to rule wisely and her fruit is better than fine gold. There is enduring wealth and prosperity with wisdom. This wisdom is for all without prejudice. Verses 35-36 read “For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.”

Wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing. Knowledge comes from books, classes, learning, in other words, education. Unfortunately some take this knowledge and use it as a tool to keep others subjugated, knowledge is power, instead of helping. Rick Warren states that knowledge without love in action turns into pride, and pride leads to downfall.

On the other hand wisdom come from life lesson’s, from experience, from age. Wisdom is acquired through time and not necessarily in a classroom setting or through books. Wisdom seeks to protect, to help and to contribute for the betterment of others. Those that are wise are the ones that should be sought out for counseling, they should be listened to when they speak, and they should be respected for their judgement.

Though wisdom might not be characterized by the amount of gray or white hairs, one can easily see that those that are wise are blessed, have life, give sound judgement and find favor from the Lord.

 

Burn baby burn…

Proverbs Devotional Day 7

“If you play with fire, you will get burn” is a common quote. It is used to indicate that if you do something dangerous or something that is not appropriate you will eventually get hurt or caught. In Proverbs 7 we find a father giving advice to his son regarding adulterous relationship. Verses 6-27 the father tells a story of a young man with no sense who falls for an adulterous woman. As he is walking by the house of this woman, she comes out to seduce him with the way she dresses, with her words and with food. Verse 18 says “Come, let’s drink deeply of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love!”  Some might look at this story and think that she is at fault since she is the one that is seducing him. The truth is that the young man, who had no sense, understood what he was doing, and I would dare say, went looking for it. He directed his steps towards her house. The result is, perhaps, what he expected. “With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk.” 

There are some occasion in which we are inadvertently misguided and seduced to do something unforeseen, but the truth is that most of the time we are seduced is because we ignore the warnings or we chose to go down that road. Unfortunately there is always a consequence to this. “All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose” 

The father ends the story with a warning. “Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.” At the end, the father is saying that she is like fire and all who venture to play with fire will ultimately be burned.

What is your fire? What is that thing that seduces you? Is it money? Power? Is it lust? No matter what your fire is remember that fire burns and leaves permanent scars.

Proverbs Daily Devotional Day 3

We live in a time in which we have any and all types of information at our finger tips. With the technological advances of the past ten years we are able to do research, acquire knowledge and learn many things. This false sense of wisdom can lead us to rely more on our understanding than that given by God. Verses five to seven address this concern, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.”

Trusting is hard to do, especially if you have been previously disappointed. Truthfully, who has not been dissapointed? Trusting with your heart is even harder to do and we reserve that privilege for the few people who have a special place in our lives. This is understandable, since our feelings are tied in to our hearts. Nevertheless, if we trust in The Lord, if we do not rely on what we know or on what we learn from Google, wikipedia or Youtube then He will help us to make the right decisions. Understanding this danger, of not trusting God but trusting on our own knowledge, enables us to make the right choices and gain the right perspective on our knowledge in comparison to the knowledge that God gives.

There are benefits to not relying on our own understanding and to trusting in God with all our hearts. Verse eight reads, “This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” In choosing to trust in God we are believing that He will protect us and keep us safe. We are saying that He knows exactly what we need, better that we do, and He is willing to give it to us if we trust Him. Pride can sneak up on us especially if we have accomplished much, but it leads to our destruction. God is saying that He will bring health to us and we will live a life pleasing to Him.

Proverbs 1 Devotional

The book of Proverbs is an interesting book that is seldom used in churches to preach with or used for Sunday school lessons. This is partly because at first glance the book of Proverbs might seem like a book full of scattered wisdom, sayings and practical advice. The purpose of this book can be read in the first couple of verses. The book was written by Solomon the son of David for the purpose of “gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young.”

The text state that “the fear of The Lord is wisdom,” but “fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This sentence encapsulates the purpose of the book of Proverbs. It also highlights the sentence structure which juxtaposes a blessing or wisdom with a curse or consequence or rebuke that is use prominently throughout the book. This fear is not one of intimidation but one of reverence. It’s not the type of fear that we experience when we are afraid of the unknown or of consequences. This fear is more like awe, similar to standing in the presence of someone great, knowing the power and authority this figure holds. Is this type of fear. As we explore this book we will see that many of the passages revolve around a father bestowing his wisdom towards his son. This however, does not mean that the wisdom found here is only for sons. Wisdom is wisdom and it is meant for everyone.

The first exhortation in the book is to not follow the invitation of sinful men. Verse fifteen and sixteen reads,“my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into evil, they are swift to shed blood.”

How easy is it to do the wrong thing. How easy is it to join in on something that we know we should not do. It is easy to justify our actions “because everyone else is doing it,” finding nothing wrong with our actions and how it might affect others. How easy is it to laugh at an inappropriate joke, or lend our voice to criticism, course joking or “white harmless” lies. Nevertheless, there is a warning for us if we go along. If we follow those that are doing this, if join in, calamity will come to us and we will surely share the same fate found in verse eighteen, “These men lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush only themselves!” In other words they will rush into their own destruction. If we are to be wise we need to heed the advice and wisdom written in this book, for if we do we “will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

My question to you today is, are you following those that will lead you to the path of destruction? or is your life characterized by peace and without fear? Are we not only tolerating the sin around us but being complicit to it? or are we making sure that we live holy and righteous lives?

Take time to examine your life, your actions, your surroundings and those who are around you. Let’s take stock in what we are holding on to and what we are doing. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you if there is anything that is not pleasing to Him and allow God to cleanse you. The promise is that we will live in peace…I want to live in peace. Do you?

31 days in the book of Proverbs

The Bible is a practical book that helps believers in their character formation, spiritual formation and how to live a life pleasing to God. In other words the Bible is a book that informs and instructs a believer in how to live life and it does this through different types of writings. One of these types of writings, which is unfamiliar to most modern Christians is that of the wisdom books. There are three Old Testament books that fall under this category, Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes. These books provide readers with wisdom in which they can make godly choices in life. The book of Proverbs is clear on it’s purpose as we read in the first seven verses. It is for gaining wisdom and instruction, to receive instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair, to add to the learning of the wise and to let the discerning get guidance. As we begin to read Proverbs we can see that much of the writing presents a clear contrast between choosing the life of wisdom and choosing the life of folly.

One thing that we need to keep in mind when reading the book of Proverbs is that some of the wisdom presented in the writings is not universal. In other words, the wisdom presented in some of the passages are meant for a specific times and certain events but they are not to be acted on or used in all situation and at all times.

In the next 31 days I will be posting a short devotional on a chapter of the book of Proverbs. They will not be exhaustive devotionals, but just some musing and insights that might help you to understand and see the wisdom contain in this book. Feel free to comment, to share and to engage in the readings and the writing.