Get ready to start a journey…a journey through the pages of the Bible and the pages of your life.
Many people long for life to be a circus of sorts, looking for entertainment and pleasure. That may include using your phone to scroll endlessly through YouTube, watching a daredevil drive her bike off the garage roof onto a homemade ramp that sends her flying into a swimming pool, or 100 interesting animal moments caught on camera. Seeking pleasure might drive you to drink, drugs, or sex.
Finally, our vocation is a gift from God. Every day we should do our work in a way that honors him. Sure, we have a boss and performance reviews, but at the end of the day, only one review will matter. The Scottish pastor and Bible scholar Harry Ironside worked for a cobbler when he was a boy…
Recently, Lori and I had breakfast with a couple whom we have known for a long time. They were in town because their daughter (and youngest child) was beginning her freshman year of college. The wife came to Pittsburgh thirty years ago as a foreign exchange student. She was an atheist until God grabbed her heart and loving “sponsors” (who became her spiritual parents) showed her what it looked like to love Jesus. The husband had been a Muslim until God transformed his life and gave him a heart to share Jesus.
Wisdom is an excellent tool for human progress but not the answer to the human problem. Sin has separated us from God and left a significant hole in our inner being. Wisdom allows us to live longer and more comfortably but cannot fill the God-shaped void deep within.
But Solomon’s journey is not hopeless. His questions and quests drive him to look deeper than the things this world can offer. At the end of his spiritual digging, he hits divine bedrock. God is the foundation of meaning, purpose, and eternal life.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the bestseller, Prayer of Jabez. It’s a book about an honorable man in the Old Testament who cried out to God, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” (1 Chron. 4:10). We like prayers that ask for more influence, impact, and opportunity, don’t we? But I doubt you are familiar with the prayer of Agur.
So, it’s time to change course. God’s great mercy is just a step away from secret sin. When you admit your sin and walk away from it, you will find the relief of forgiveness. Instead of the stress of hiding your sin, restoration will come to your contrite soul. Instead of hiding in the darkness, you can walk openly in the freedom of obedience. It’s time to stop the secret games and make the journey home to God’s welcoming arms of mercy.
So how are you doing? You up there on the mountaintop of career…you up there with the trophies of accomplishment. Be careful up there in the heights! A slippery slope surrounds the peak of success. It’s a long, hard, painful slide to the bottom. If you are not careful, success will produce pride, and pride always comes before a fall.
Becoming a Christian is a gift. Growing as a Christian is hard work. It calls for sacrifice. Your time, talents, and treasures belong to God. It calls for an engaged mind and ignited heart. It calls for rekindling the fire in your soul.
The Christian life was never meant to be lived alone. We need others who will build into our lives as we build into theirs. A true friend is like a safe harbor providing security and protection. Best of all, a good friend “loves at all times.”
The problem with the talker? Sooner or later, they tell a story they shouldn’t. They take a “just between you and me” and make it headline news. They contradict themselves, leaving people scratching their heads. They exaggerate or embellish the facts. They say some things they regret and many things they can’t remember.
God is not silent about sexual sin. He doesn’t whisper the needed truth. He doesn’t spell out the words to protect our “innocent” ears. In this section of Proverbs, God slams the hammer down with four important warnings.