August 14 ~ Proverbs 24
23 These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.
24 He that saith unto the wicked, Thou are righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him:
25 But to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them.
26 Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer.
27 Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.
28 Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips.
29 Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work.
(Scripture taken from the King James Version, 1987 printing. The KJV is public domain in the United States. To read this passage from The Message, go to www.biblegateway.com and do a passage lookup.)
When I was teaching kindergarten, I had a little boy in my class who arrived at school one day with probably the biggest black eye I had ever seen. It must have been a Monday, because the bruise was a couple of days old and was already starting to turn yellow in places. I asked the little boy what happened, and he said he was standing near a logging truck and his uncle lowered the boom on him. If you don’t know what that means, dictionary.com describes a boom as "a spar or beam projecting from the mast of a derrick for supporting or guiding the weights to be lifted.” On this old logging truck, I am suspecting that the boom had a huge pulley and hook on the end of a chain to attach to a chain around a bundle of logs. That pulley and hook is most likely what hit my little boy.
I was more than a little upset to think that this child had been so close to such a dangerous piece of equipment. I know accidents happen, but this could easily have killed this tiny little 5-year-old. Suspecting there might even be more to this story, I requested the school nurse visit with him, and as we checked him over, we found even more bruises on his back, arms and legs. By law, I was obligated to call SCAN, which stood for Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect. Had there been no further marks, I would have been obligated to report this as potential neglect. The SCAN worker came and looked at the little boy, and a report was filed. This resulted in a home visit to determine if there was indeed abuse and/or neglect.
The next thing I knew, the little boy’s mother was at my classroom door. She was furious. SOMEONE had reported her to SCAN. Of course, SCAN could not reveal their source, and I surely didn’t own up to it, because she was ready to “whoop up on me” but good! But I did try to explain to her that the marks were there, and by law, they had to be investigated. I also tried to smooth her ruffled feathers by pointing out that someone had cared enough about her child to be concerned, and for that, she should be grateful.
I don’t know for sure whether there was abuse or neglect in that little boy’s home. I always felt like it wasn’t a totally safe environment for him, but the mother was able to satisfy the investigator who visited, and it did put her on notice that we were watching. Would I have called SCAN if I weren’t obligated by law? I don’t know, but I surely hope so. The Bible tells us that we are not to stand by and allow injustice, and abuse and neglect of children surely qualifies. Sometimes it’s hard to get involved… to step out and plant yourself in a vulnerable position for the sake of someone else. But as Christians, we must ask ourselves if we are merely minding our own business or sweeping an injustice under the rug. Ask God to help you figure out which is which!
©2007 Debbie Robus
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August 13 ~ Proverbs 24
13 My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste:
14 So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.
15 Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place:
16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
18 Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
19 Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked:
20 For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out.
21 My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:
22 For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?
(Scripture taken from the King James Version, 1987 printing. The KJV is public domain in the United States. To read this passage from The Message, go to www.biblegateway.com and do a passage lookup.)
How many times do we turn on the television and hear about the “fall” of someone. They got caught doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. Maybe they ran a huge business and they were caught laundering money from the business for their own purposes. Maybe they were in ministry, and they were discovered in an affair with someone in the ministry – or as we have heard in recent years – a prostitute. Maybe we learn of someone who is hiring illegal immigrants and then mistreating them in the workplace.
I am not condoning ANY of these behaviors or the many others we hear and read about in today’s society. But what I do believe is wrong is our celebration, in many instances, of these events. We have become so hungry for scandal. We watch for it with baited breath, almost. We enjoy other people’s misery – and downfall. And I’m afraid sometimes we may even help to cause it. We build things up and talk about them and make them something they are not… and people are hurt in the process. In many cases, lives are somewhat ruined by the delight others take in their misfortune – and the gossip that often surrounds it.
Here’s one example for you to consider. Night after night, late night talk show hosts make jokes in their monologue about the misdeeds of celebrities and other people in the news. Now, most of the time, you could argue that these people are getting what they deserve. At the very least, you could argue that politicians, pro athletes, and entertainment celebrities are “fair game” and knew that this comes with the territory. But it gets to be like kicking an injured animal. And in doing so, we are no better than the person or situation we are kicking! Soon, it’s a common part of our everyday practices to “beat up on” and delight in the misfortunes of those the talk show hosts berate each night.
I’m not saying the people being discussed are innocent. I’m not approving of bad behavior – by people in high positions or anyone else. But we all need to work on “taking the high road.” We all need to work on our attitude toward the “fallen.” Let’s ask God to help us to develop a more compassionate attitude of asking Him how we can help, rather than delighting in the failures and miseries of others.
©2007 Debbie Robus
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August 12 ~ Proverbs 24
1 Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.
2 For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief.
3 Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:
4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.
6 For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.
7 Wisdom is too high for a fool: he openeth not his mouth in the gate.
8 He that deviseth to do evil shall be called a mischievous person.
9 The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men.
10 If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
11 If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain;
12 If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?
(Scripture taken from the King James Version, 1987 printing. The KJV is public domain in the United States. To read this passage from The Message, go to www.biblegateway.com and do a passage lookup.)
There is a wonderful old hymn called Rescue the Perishing. It was written by Fanny J. Crosby, who lived from 1820-1915, with music by William H. Doane who lived from 1832-1915. The words are still worth reading today:
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
weep o'er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.
Refrain:
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying;
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.
The Proverbs tell us that we must spend our time paying attention to people who matter – avoiding evil people and helping those in need. This passage tells us to be strong – not to fall apart in adversity (hard times or trouble), but rather to pick up our bootstraps and move ahead. It also talks about not turning our back on others. If we say, “That’s not my problem.” or “That’s none of my business,” when we see someone with a need, we are not obeying God.
I’m not suggesting you become a busybody and meddle in everyone’s life. But I am suggesting that we be more attentive to others, so that we can pray for them, care about them, encourage them, and when appropriate, assist them as much as our abilities allow. “Rescue the perishing… lift up the fallen… tell them of Jesus… Jesus will save.”
©2007 Debbie Robus
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August 11 ~ Proverbs 23
29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
34 Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. (Scripture taken from the King James Version, 1987 printing. The KJV is public domain in the United States. To read this passage from The Message, go to www.biblegateway.com and do a passage lookup.)
This passage deals with drinking. I encourage you to go to BibleGateway.org and read it in The Message or The Contemporary English Version to really get the full impact of what is being said. For some of us, drinking is a non-issue – we simply don’t touch alcohol – ever! For some of us, drinking means having an occasional glass of wine with our dinner or while we visit with friends. For some of us it is sharing a couple of beers and a pizza with family or friends – or one of those delicious frozen treats in the fancy glass while at a nice restaurant. Some of us drink to relax. Some of us drink until we throw up or pass out. Some of us drink to forget. Some of us drink to be popular and fit in with our crowd – to be cool. For some of us, drinking is illegal. For some of us, drinking is totally off limits, because already as teenagers, we have become addicted to alcohol. Some of us are adults who have struggled with an alcohol addiction most of our lives. Some of us smoke when we drink. Some of us change personalities – we become more talkative and “fun” – or, we may become sullen, quiet – and even belligerent or violent. Some of us can be talked into anything when we drink!
As we have seen and heard in news reports, some of us drink and drive. And we all probably know at least one person who has been affected by a drunk driver. Drinking even small amounts of alcohol and operating machinery – especially something as massive and powerful as a car, truck, or boat – is a potentially deadly combination.
I’m not going to tell you that you should never drink alcohol – IF you are of legal drinking age. I’m not going to condemn anyone who indulges too much at some point and feels a bit tipsy – or even drunk! There are some really tasty concoctions that pack a powerful wallop of alcohol, and by the time you realize how strong the delicious drink or two tasted, you are unable to walk across the room without help! Everyone tolerates alcohol differently – and in different amounts. Most likely, a next-morning hangover with splitting headache, queasy stomach and more will be lesson enough for many of you to pay closer attention to what and how much you drink!
But I AM going to tell you that you should never, ever EVER drive after drinking. You should not drive a car, a truck, a boat, a motorcycle – even a bicycle! Get someone else (who has NOT been drinking) to drive you. Designated drivers are not a joke. If you are with a group in which no one has been named as the designated driver, call someone else! It only takes a split second of inebriated thinking/reacting – or non-reacting – to cause lifelong heartache – injury, fatality, jail time, and more.
If you are of legal drinking age and you drink, I encourage you to examine your drinking behavior(s) and evaluate your motives, your patterns, and the effects it has on your life. If you discover that drinking is an issue for you, I encourage you to seek help. There are wonderful people and organizations who can assist you in finding your way out of what The Message calls “serious business.”
©2007 Debbie Robus
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August 10 ~ Proverbs 23
22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
25 Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.
26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
27 For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28 She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
(Scripture taken from the King James Version, 1987 printing. The KJV is public domain in the United States. To read this passage from The Message, go to www.biblegateway.com and do a passage lookup.)
We sure hear a lot about bad women and obeying our parents in The Proverbs, don’t we?! You don’t have to channel surf on the television very long before coming upon “one of those shows” where deceitful men and women are leading others down the wrong path and into a huge mess. Women lie about their past and “play nice” to snag a wealthy husband, and then they say, “oh, by the way, I have been married 4 or 5 times and I didn’t support my children and they live with foster parents now,” or worse. Men cheat on their wives and get other women pregnant, and amazingly, they come on a national TV show and have the results of a paternity test read to prove whether or not they truly are the baby’s father.
Sometimes you will see parents on these shows telling the host, “I just don’t know what to do with my child any more.” And the child is there, rolling his/her eyes and rebutting everything that is said by the parent. I recently watched the movie Facing the Giants. If you haven’t seen it, you should rent it right away. The movie is fun and entertaining, but it also tells an important story. The movie is about a high school coach in Georgia and his losing football team and how they struggle to be better in all areas – on and off the field. At one point, the coach observes a player being disrespectful to his dad. He is impolite when the dad calls him. He speaks poorly of his dad to others. In short, he just has a really bad attitude about his dad. And to be fair, the dad is not exactly “Father of the Year” material. But the coach points out that the Bible tells us to respect our parents. We aren’t called to agree with everything they say and do, but as our parents, we are to respect them and to acknowledge their authority as our parents.
There is an e-mail that is circulating with a photo of a truck that ran through a guard rail beside a highway, and the caption is something about “this is one lucky guy.” And when you scroll on down the page, you see he is lucky. There is another photo that shows that the guard rail runs along a very deep ravine. This is no ditch… it is more like a canyon! As you look at that picture, you think, “what if the truck had gone on over? How would they have ever gotten it out? And how would the driver have survived?”
God holds the power to keep us out of the ravines of life. He can keep us from falling into a pit from which we can’t seem to return. But we have to listen to His Word and follow Him. What about you? Has your “truck” run through a guardrail in life? Will you avoid the ravine?
©2007 Debbie Robus
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August 9 ~ Proverbs 23
11 For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.
12 Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
15 My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16 Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
17 Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
18 For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
(Scripture taken from the King James Version, 1987 printing. The KJV is public domain in the United States. To read this passage from The Message, go to www.biblegateway.com and do a passage lookup.)
It seems that lately, everywhere we turn, one of our celebrities is falling into some sort of shambles. Driving under the influence, endangering the welfare of children, sexually explicit videotapes, racial slurs… you name it and they have done it! These celebrities – “celebrated people” – are not really worthy of celebrating, are they?! So many strive to be like these people, forgetting that at the core of it, they are just human beings like you and me … and vulnerable to the same temptations and challenges and sins as we are - and then some.
Maybe you are not trying to emulate a national celebrity… maybe your “hero” is your big brother or sister… or that kid in your math class, or the quarterback on the football squad or a cheerleader. And maybe that person you idolize has a drinking problem or an eating disorder. Maybe he/she cheats on school work or shoplifts. Maybe that person is physically and/or verbally abusive. But they are popular, and that’s what draws you to them!
I would encourage you to look beyond popularity. Look at the person as a person. Remember the bully I told you about who tormented so many of my classmates and me in junior high and high school? From all I can determine, adult life has brought a lot of torment for her. Her seemingly popular life has not been so rosy. Just desserts? Maybe. But that is not for us to decide. God will have the last say. The important thing for us to remember is to choose wisely and not travel the same road as those we would idolize. Don’t let them lead you to a sad end… for as we read, “surely there is an end.” I encourage you to “be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long” and enjoy His blessings now and always.
©2007 Debbie Robus
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August 8 ~ Proverbs 23
1 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
2 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.
4 Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
6 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:
7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
8 The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
9 Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
10 Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
(Scripture taken from the King James Version, 1987 printing. The KJV is public domain in the United States. To read this passage from The Message, go to www.biblegateway.com and do a passage lookup.)
When my husband and I married, one of the meals we enjoyed was spaghetti I made from a family recipe. The recipe made a huge pot of sauce, and what we couldn’t eat in a day or two would be frozen in individual servings for later meals. We filled our plates with a big pile of cooked spaghetti noodles and topped that with sauce. To us, the spaghetti dinner was a treat… a feast.
Once while we were visiting my husband’s parents, his mother made a spaghetti dinner. She had the spaghetti noodles and the sauce in pots on her stove, along with some vegetable dishes and probably some bread (this family seemed to always serve bread with a meal!). My husband and I filled our plates with noodles, like we did at home, and topped it with sauce. When we sat down at the table with the rest of the family, there were whispers among the others that there sure wasn’t much spaghetti…there was barely enough to go around! When we looked around, we realized that nobody else had plated such a large portion of the spaghetti. They had spooned up smaller servings and rounded out their plates with the vegetables and bread. We were so embarrassed as we looked at our huge plates of spaghetti, and we offered to share our oversized portions with others. In the end, everyone laughed, but to this day, I almost never serve just spaghetti. I always prepare other dishes to complete the meal… and smaller servings of spaghetti!
Who would have thought that the Bible would address our manners and how we eat? Verses 1-3 tell us we must not stuff ourselves at a large meal. We must eat modest portions and “mind our manners.” It also tells us we must consider our dining company and behave accordingly. For instance, you may go out to eat with a tightwad who says, “It’s my treat… have anything you want!” And then he/she proceeds to order the cheapest thing on the menu. The Bible tells us to follow suit. Sure – they said to have whatever you want, but they didn’t mean it! They just wanted to impress you, and Scripture tells us not to play into their hand.
There was not any harm in us eating so much spaghetti, and surely nobody went hungry at that family dinner. And it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you ordered something really pricey when the tightwad treated you to dinner. But the next time you are invited to an all-you-can-eat buffet meal – or any meal for that matter – remember the words of Proverbs 23 and “consider diligently what is before thee.”
©2007 Debbie Robus
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