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Screaming in the Streets_Proverbs

Feeding the Heart | Proverbs 18:15

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An intelligent heart acquires knowledge and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. – Proverbs 18:15

It’s fascinating to me that this proverb does not say “the mind” acquires knowledge. Solomon wants us to key in on “the heart” for a moment, because the knowledge he alludes to does not stop at mere cognition. Abraham Kuyper suggests “the heart” is the root unity of our human existence. When Scripture refers to the heart, it seems to be the life-center by which everything else flows. From our hearts come desire, emotion, motivation, and personality. Yet, the heart may be our most fragile part because it touches the depth and breadth of who we are. This is why collecting wisdom in our heart is of utmost importance, and why gaining wisdom at this depth is risky. Wisdom of the heart has the potential to change our very core.

In a method typical of Hebrew poetry, the second line of this proverb repeats the first, but it focuses more specifically on the “ear of the heart.” Solomon uses imagery to push the readers to recognize there’s a way by which we attune the ear of our heart to gain a knowledge that goes beyond information and deepens our perceptiveness and insight for living. Learning wisdom at our core will affect everything. That’s why true wisdom is found in the heart; not just in the head. At that depth, it can’t help but flow out of us. If that’s the case, how do we get the goodness of wisdom inside?

Just like the body needs consistent and intentional nourishing, so does the heart. We all know how to feed the body, but we must also feed our life-center. The Apostle Paul would suggest feeding our beliefs through repeated renewal of the mind (Romans 12:2, Philippians 4:4-9). James K. A. Smith would suggest feeding our desires through repeated behavior (Desiring the Kingdom). Cognitive Behavioral Theory would suggest retraining both mind and body. However, if we align our minds and our behavior with the ways of wisdom, it will change us. The key is attuning the ear of our heart to the voice of wisdom, willing to let the way of wisdom captivate us. It feels more like falling in love and nourishing our love with more knowledge of our beloved. The more our hearts yield in surrendered posture joined with the discipline of acquiring wisdom from God’s Word, the more our hearts will delight in the Lord and in the wisdom of his ways. Let’s spend a few moments today reading Proverbs 28 praying to fall more in love God’s wisdom.[/vc_column_text][us_separator height=”25px” size=”custom”][vc_column_text]

By Yvonne Biel  

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Feeding the Heart | Proverbs 18:152017-06-28T05:00:06-06:00

Cleansing the Heart | Matthew 5:8

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Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. – Matthew 5:8

For something to be clean and pure, it takes effort.  We go to great lengths to make sure we have clean water, using all sorts of techniques to make water pure.  Air purity is the same.  Years ago, we all remember the cloak of pollution that clung to cities, including Denver and its infamous brown cloud.  Only through great effort and expense has it been possible to diminish the pollution.  So it is with the heart.

The heart isn’t self-cleaning.  There’s nothing to automatically clean up our heart like those sucker fish that sometimes help clean fish tanks.  Heart-cleansing is intentional – it requires something that is humbling to our souls – it requires confession and repentance.  Most of us would admit our hearts need some cleaning.  We’re not perfect and certainly have things lingering around that could be swept away.  For some reason, usually pride, we’re unable to call on God, and the debris and the cutter in our lives lingers still.

But, the end of the cleansing process is one of joy and peace, being burden free.  The soul feels lighter, more willing to worship.  Willing to yield to God, leaving ourselves open to God’s divine plan and architecture.  It feels the same as when we finish doing anything unpleasant, like that presentation to leadership at work or perhaps begging forgiveness from a friend or family member for wrongs done.  The prayer below carries the emotion of reaching to God and finishes with the mercy and grace God gives once we’ve made the cleansing move.  Read it as a prayer and seek God’s forgiveness through repentance and unburdening in your own life.

Purification
Lord Jesus,

I sin – Grant that I may
never cease grieving because of it,
never be content with myself,
never think I can reach a point of perfection.

Kill my envy, command my tongue,

trample down self.

Give me grace to be holy, kind, gentle, pure, peaceable,
to live for thee and not for self,
to copy thy words, acts, spirit,
to be transformed into thy likeness,
to be consecrated wholly to thee,
to live entirely to thy glory.

Deliver me from attachment to things unclean,
from wrong associations,
from the predominance of evil passions,
from the sugar of sin as well as its gall,
that with self-loathing, deep contrition
earnest heart searching
I may come to thee, cast myself on thee,
trust in thee, cry to thee,
be delivered by thee.

O God, the Eternal All, help me to know that
all things are shadows, but thou art substance,
all things are quicksand, but thou art mountain,
all things are shifting, but thou art anchor,
all things are ignorance, but thou aren’t wisdom.

If my life is to be a crucible amid burning heat,
so be it,
but do thou sit at the furnace mouth
to watch the ore that nothing be lost.

If I sin willfully, grievously, tormentedly,
in grace take away my mourning
and give me music;
remove my sackcloth
and clothe me with beauty;
still my sighs
and fill my mouth with song,
then give me summer weather as a Christian.

from The Valley of Vision

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By Rich Obrecht  

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Cleansing the Heart | Matthew 5:82017-06-27T05:00:28-06:00

Prominence of the Heart | Proverbs 4:23

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“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

I love football season. One of the things I find fascinating is watching the coaches on the sidelines calling plays. Some of them carry a clip board, others carry a spreadsheet that looks like it’s describing how to take a space shuttle to the moon, and some sit in a booth far above the turf so they can see the whole field more clearly. However they do it, the coach calls a play in, and the players run it on the field. That got me thinking. Who or what is calling the plays in our life? If our life is the field, what determines how we live? The wisdom tradition has an answer to that question. In Proverbs 4:23, Solomon wrote, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Solomon’s claim cannot be overstated. He suggests everything we do on the outside, flows from the inside. Jesus echoes this teaching when he tells his disciples, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45) Our heart is our command central. Our heart is calling the plays. Our heart is guiding our speech, our actions, our reactions, our lives. If we have a healthy heart, we’ll have a healthy life; however, if we have a sick heart, we’ll have a floundering life.

Psychologists have long studied how to help people make better choices and walk with increased joy. Unfortunately, many start with behavior modification. Behavior modification is a treatment approach which is focused on changing behavior. This method is based on the work of B.F. Skinner, a well-known psychologist who developed the operant conditioning theory – which suggests that behavior can be modified by consequences and through reinforcement. Solomon and Jesus would take it further. They would claim, “If you want to change your behavior, your heart must change – because everything is flowing from your heart.”

Anger. Manipulation. Bitterness. Impatience. They are all symptoms of an unhealthy heart. Think about that for a moment. What if we started to become better students of our heart? What if we started to pay better attention to what we’re thinking, feeling, and desiring? What if we started to see our actions and reactions, as a mirror of what’s going on in the inside of us? And, what if we started to take more seriously fighting for the health of our inner life – because the fight for our inner life is really a fight for our joy. Take some time today and think about the prominence of your heart. Watch this video – it paints a great picture of the importance of heart and soul care.[/vc_column_text][us_separator height=”25px” size=”custom”][vc_column_text 0=””]

By Ryan Paulson  

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Prominence of the Heart | Proverbs 4:232017-06-26T05:00:52-06:00

Expectation of Favor | Hebrews 12:10-11

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10For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” – Hebrews 12:10-11 

Those who follow the way of Jesus are typically skeptical of the fact that God gives rewards. It doesn’t seem like getting something from God should be a motivation for giving our lives to him. Something about it feels wrong. We long to have pure motives – to love God for God’s sake rather than to love God for our own benefit. While there is much truth in that statement, the Bible doesn’t clearly make such distinctions. It holds out the reward for walking in the way of wisdom with compelling clarity. Solomon says wisdom leads to riches and honor. He claims it leads to a long life. He posits it brings blessing (Proverbs 3:15-18). And, in writing to his son, Solomon clearly claims there are benefits that come with walking in the way of wisdom.

People push back against the idea of rewards because they question motivation, but also to ‘hedge our bets.’ We aren’t confident God’s going to deliver on these promises, so we doubt whether it’s safe to be motivated by them. Still, is it true that those who walk in the way of wisdom live a long life? Is it accurate that those who live wisely have riches and honor and peace? The problem occurs when we mistakenly read the Proverbs as promises rather than principles and it erodes the ground we stand on. When Solomon writes about the rewards of walking in the way of wisdom, he understands the results don’t happen 100% of the time – they didn’t back then, and they don’t today. However, most of the time, they hold true. Solomon is inviting us to play the law of averages and take the long-term approach to life. He’s calling us to align our lives with the reality of the way God has made the universe to work, and in so doing to walk in the way of blessing.

The author of Hebrews picked up on Solomon’s expectations resulting from discipline and wrote, “For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:10-11). When we recognize that the Proverbs are pointing out principles and not making promises, we’re freed to walk in the way of wisdom with realistic and honest expectations. We can expect that good awaits because God’s discipline always shapes us to be more like him – this fruit shows up in holiness and peace. However, even when things don’t go the way we expect or hope, we’re still able to walk in faith and expectation. I AM SECOND is a company that tells stories of people who surrender to Jesus and find life – who walk in wisdom and find freedom. Take a few minutes today and pick one story that relates with your life, watch it, and be encouraged.[/vc_column_text][us_separator height=”25px” size=”custom”][vc_column_text 0=””]

By Ryan Paulson  

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Expectation of Favor | Hebrews 12:10-112017-06-23T05:00:21-06:00

Disposition of Trust | Proverbs 3:5-8

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Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.

Trust. Trust is a funny word. Not because it’s humorous to trust but because trust likes to put us in humorous predicaments. When we place complete confidence in someone or something outside of ourselves, it forces us to let go of control, to suspend what we believe is reality, and to lean into the unknown. Growing up at summer camp, counselors would make us practice trust using a trust fall – an activity where a team of friends line up below you prepared to catch as you fully lean your weight backward to fall into their arms. Most of the time the activity ran smoothly just as long as the person falling was a person of trust. Some campers would squirm and struggle for a while because their trust was being tested.

Trust comes easy for some people. Oftentimes, kids growing up in healthy families learn to trust quickly, which can put them into precarious situations because they’re still naïve. But, young children must learn trust before they can learn discernment. Erik Erikson says trust is the first stage of psychosocial development – between birth and 18 months. Even as little humans, we come into the world wondering who and what we can trust? When we get older, our trust is tested and sometimes even betrayed. At that point, we often turn to control rather than walking in trust. For some reason, it feels easier to lean into our own understanding and place trust in ourselves. Ironically, we genuinely want others to trust us but when it comes to trusting others or trusting God, we think twice.

The wisdom in Proverbs 3:5-8 invites us to develop a healthy psychosocial relationship with God. Trust begins when we lean away from our own understanding. This means letting go of control and developing a healthy skepticism of self. We probably won’t have all the answers, we most likely won’t find wisdom within ourselves, and we most certainly won’t reach health and wholeness alone. Instead, when we place our trust in God, we lean with confidence unto his character and trustworthiness. Just like the person falling into their friend’s arms, we lean toward the awe and risk of God by placing ourselves in situations where God alone must show up. Sometimes this will make us look crazy, but this is the way of wisdom. Trusting God is the key to walking in wisdom. Use Proverbs 3:5-8 as your prayer today. Write out these verses in your own words as you listen to Will Reagan’s prayerful song, Nothing I Hold Unto.[/vc_column_text][us_separator height=”25px” size=”custom”][vc_column_text 0=””]

By Yvonne Biel  

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Disposition of Trust | Proverbs 3:5-82017-06-22T05:00:13-06:00

Conviction of Being Loved | Proverbs 3:3-4, 12

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Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
    bind them around your neck;
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
 So you will find favor and good success
    in the sight of God and man.
for the Lord reproves him whom he loves,
    as a father the son in whom he delights.

A necklace is a beautiful adornment in our culture, a symbol of remembrance, important to its wearer. In Hebrew thought, the neck (translated as throat) was considered the seat of life.   Therefore, to bind love and faithfulness around your neck and write them on your heart is like recognizing you’re loved and you belong to God the Father with every breath.  It’s allowing your identity to be molded by God’s grace, wisdom and power in every moment of existence.

To embrace God’s loving discipline, we must be confident of being loved by him.  We must see corrective training in every experience out of love, not anger or retribution. It’s to motivate us to please the one who loves us and to make us the best we can be in our relationship to Him and others.  In the Father’s tender correction, there is an intimacy and a satisfaction of being fully known and fully loved.   This is what our heart truly longs for, was created for and it’s time to embrace it.

When you remind yourself you’re loved, you’re acknowledging God knows where you’re at and he knows where you’ve been. You’ll feel like a weight is lifted because he knows where you’re going.  Jesus endured suffering and hostility from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted (Hebrews 12:3). Let yourself feel this freedom. It’ll help you live well with others and with God.  Make a plan to continually remind yourself of his love. Use Made to Love by TobyMac or come up with a plan of your own.[/vc_column_text][us_separator height=”25px” size=”custom”][vc_column_text]

By Donna Burns  

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Conviction of Being Loved | Proverbs 3:3-4, 122017-06-21T05:00:10-06:00

Teachable Spirit | Proverbs 3:1

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 “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.”  – Proverbs 3:1

Have you ever heard the prodigal son story from Luke 15? You know, the one where the younger son asks his father for inheritance early and proceeds to go to a far-off country to squander it. Long story short, the son wastes his money and returns to his father to ask for forgiveness in hopes of survival. The father shows him amazing grace and restores him completely. I’m not that son. I was actually a pretty compliant kid growing up. I tend to be much more like the older brother in the story. When the father restores the younger son, the older brother is bitter because he thinks it’s unfair his younger brother should get a party after making so many stupid life choices. The story ends with the older brother outside the party and the younger son inside the party with the father. I’m the older son, outwardly obedient to the father but inwardly self-righteous and entitled. I battle that tendency all the time.

Proverbs 3:1 says, “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.” The father tells his son in this proverb to obey with the heart. There is a kind of obedience that is NOT from the heart. It may look like responsibility but the benefit of heartless obedience is grossly limited. There is a much deeper kind of soul work that must be done to truly be teachable. A teachable sprit is a relational issue not a task issue. The value of heartless obedience is limited, maybe even eliminated, because it’s divorced from the relationships around us.

Being teachable demands we believe our teacher knows the answer. It’s a trust issue, a relationship issue. If you have ever struggled to get your heart into following Jesus, it could simply mean you don’t trust where he’s leading you. A teachable spirit says to the teacher, I trust you to do the teaching and whatever you teach me is best. If we approach every situation believing we know best, we cannot truly be taught. Ask a close friend if you have a teachable spirit. Ask them to help you find blind spots where you may be doing your own thing and need to learn to trust your teacher again.[/vc_column_text][us_separator height=”25px” size=”custom”][vc_column_text 0=””]

By Aaron Bjorklund  

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Teachable Spirit | Proverbs 3:12017-06-20T05:00:03-06:00

Posture of Discipline | Proverbs 3:11-12

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11My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”

– Proverbs 3:11-12

“Wait until your dad gets home!” I heard those words more than one time during my childhood – and I can tell you, it was always deserved and it was never a good thing. That phrase was only uttered when I had screwed up so big that my mom needed to wait for reinforcements before she handled the situation. Those were extreme cases, but even in the lighter circumstances, I didn’t appreciate being disciplined as a kid. In fact, I’ve never met someone who enjoyed discipline. However, I’ve also never encountered a person who didn’t enjoy the benefits of discipline. That’s the quandary of correction – we hate it in the moment, but we love the fruit of what it produces.

Solomon, the author of Proverbs, understands the tension of disliking discipline, but needing it. That’s why in Proverbs 3:11, he wrote to his son, “My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof.” Solomon deduces that not only was discipline necessary, but that our posture towards discipline is essential for reaping its benefits and growing as people. To that end, he encourages his son to long for discipline and to last in it. He addressed the two tendencies we have towards discipline – they either resist it altogether, or they withdrawal before it’s finished its work. Embracing the Lord’s discipline is a choice every person must make. It’s a posture we must choose to take. If we believe that we’re a work in progress, unfinished masterpieces of the Divine (Ephesians 2:10), then we must choose to embrace his correction and discipline trusting it’s for our good and growth.

Even if we long for discipline and decide to last in it, it can be hard to identify God’s discipline. In the book of Hebrews, the author suggests God uses affliction to discipline his people (Hebrews 12:4-7). He uses both internal affliction (conviction of sin) and external affliction (evil in the world). The author of Hebrews doesn’t suggest that God causes these afflictions, but rather that he uses all of life’s circumstances to shape us into the people he invites us to become. When affliction strikes, we typically ask, “Why is this happening to me?” But, that’s the wrong question. The right question is, “How is God growing me and what is he teaching me?” When we walk with God, all of life becomes his laboratory and every situation is one to learn from. Take some time today and identify a hardship in your life. How might God be using it to refine your character? How is God disciplining you? What invitation for growth is in front of you through that affliction?[/vc_column_text][us_separator height=”25px” size=”custom”][vc_column_text 0=””]

By Ryan Paulson  

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Posture of Discipline | Proverbs 3:11-122017-06-19T05:00:55-06:00

In the Marketplace | Proverbs 1:20-21

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Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
– Proverbs 1:20-21

 

Do you ever wonder how the universe works? Because it does. It works. Scientists have been discovering laws built into the very fabric of our physical world for years. Gravity pulls. Planets orbit. Objects at rest stay at rest. The list goes on. But our investigation of reality doesn’t stop at scientific discovery. The ancient Hebrew book of Proverbs claims wisdom is wired into the very fabric of our universe, too. Proverbs says wisdom is so obvious, it’s like a woman screaming in the streets, no one can escape the sound of her voice.

Just notice where wisdom-personified is crying out. She’s in the marketplace, in the streets, and at the gates. She speaks into these common places. This means wisdom has something to say about going to the grocery store, walking around your neighborhood, and how you conduct life at the office. You’ll also notice wisdom is not described as some highfalutin woman with obscure ideas about how the world works. She broadcasts common sense with passion hoping the world will hear and live according to it.

This summer, we’ll journey together in the book of Proverbs. By learning wisdom and living according to it, we can align with the way we’re created. Perhaps that’s common sense to you, but perhaps you’re still struggling to see it. Either way, as we observe wisdom, it’s different from smarts. It’s knowing the art of how to live, anchored and grounded for whatever the world may throw at us. Spend some time on this first day in the book of Proverbs reading chapter 1. Consider how wisdom is wired into the very fabric of your universe.[/vc_column_text][us_separator height=”25px” size=”custom”][vc_column_text 0=””]

By Yvonne Biel 

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In the Marketplace | Proverbs 1:20-212017-06-12T05:00:43-06:00
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