Proverbs 25 selections “in other words”

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
Our place is the pursuit.

Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a work spoken in right circumstances.
Timeliness is beautiful.

Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him, for he refreshes the soul of his masters.
What a relief it is to have a reliable helper.

Have you found honey? Eat only what you need, that you not have it in excess and vomit it.
Be mindful of your pleasures this side of paradise.

Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor’s house, or he will become weary of you and hate you.
Give the man his space.

Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar on soda, is he who sings songs to a troubled heart.
Do not be quick to comfort, nor make light of grief.

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.
Returning good for evil will bring a gratifying agitation on the wicked. And God likes it.

It is better to live in a corner of the roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.
Solitude is better than bad company, and irritation of the body than that of the soul.

Like cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a distant land.
Missionaries are better than Coca-cola.

Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.
It is a shame to be a sycophant.

It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glory to search out one’s own glory.
Receive honor gratefully when it comes to you, but do not go after it.

Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit.
Filter your mind, resist being molded by every worldly passerby.

On the miracle at Cana

The first of Jesus’ signs is not some uninterpretable transmogrification of water to wine, the purpose being to refute the expectation of total abstinence from liquor. It was a beautiful and fitting first glimpse of the coming Messiah. John’s story is loaded with symbolism indicating that God has become flesh in Him to purify mankind, with the curious sensation that “something is afoot” with this man from Galilee.

According to Jewish wedding tradition, the bridegroom and his family were obligated to provide the wedding feast, including the wine. To fail in this feast was a terrible social mistake – an embarassment on the family so grievous that it even made the family liable to lawsuits from the bride’s family.

Thus, at the wedding in Cana, the when they ran out of wine, the bridegroom and his family were in danger. When Jesus provided sufficient wine, he satisfied the legal obligations of the bridegroom and saved the family’s honor. The wedding was saved from total disaster.

It seems to me that Christ, in doing this, was indicating that he would do the very same thing for his own wedding feast, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. He came to earth to restore his people to God as a wandered woman to her husband (read Hosea) and marry her as his own. In some cosmic sense, the whole messianic mission that Christ began with this miracle was to provide wine for His wedding feast.

I will venture that providing the wine required by law is symbolically equivalent to providing the blood required for the atonement of sins. Consider how intricately linked is the symbolism between blood and wine, throughout scripture. “This is my blood, given for you” (Matthew 26:28). This symbolism is the basis of one of the greatest sacraments given to the church, the eucharist/Lord’s Supper (the name depends on your denominational camp). Blood and wine are interchangeable here. Now in heaven there was a price to be paid by the bridegroom for his bride (God for his people) and there suddenly appeared a great lack. The law demanded “more blood!”, just as it demanded the wine in Cana. “Insufficient!” The honor of this God who intended to draw humanity back into his holy arms was in danger. Thus Christ provided this blood and saved the honor of God in the eyes of his own justice. Do you see the parallel?

The means of his providing it also shows a majestic picture of the incarnation. For consider that it was in pots of ceremonial cleansing that the servants poured the water which became wine. How were we to be purified, made holy and cleansed before God? Not through water alone, as had been done in the Old Testament covenant, but through wine—through atoning blood. What is the difference between blood and water? Blood contains living cells—it is the life of the being contained in water, if you will. Perhaps the spirit is saying this: Our atonement could be achieved not through mere water, until real flesh and blood and life entered this water. Without the substance of real incarnated life, our purification was incomplete. “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11). It was Christ’s becoming man – his incarnation, his adoption of a human life with human blood, that satisfied the debt incurred by our for our sinful blood.

So what did the miracle at Cana say? Can you here God speaking through the scripture, “There is a price to be paid for the union of God and man, and my son Jesus Christ will provide it, through his taking on human blood, to complete the life-for-life exchange that mere water pots could never fulfill?”

Praise be to God, who through this first sign of Christ’s ministry is already peeling back the revelation of the beauty of His Son crucified for the sins of the world!

Wind and eternity

Drifting clouds mark passing time
While I spare a moment now
to seek eternity

Alluring and elusive, God
You tease me with euphoria
Passing like the autumn gust

All too infrequently
While the rest is drudgery
And chasing after wind

Spirit, linger please!
Stay, whisper like the breeze
Your voice makes all else fade

I’ll drink in your fragrance sublime
For a moment, While I’m
Still far from home

Rivers of water for the thirsty

Notes from a sermon by Mike Sharrett of Redeemer Presbyterian Church

Why does Jesus use the thirst analogy?

It was the last day of the Feast of Booths
He spoke the language of the Hebrew people, from scripture and the arid climate
He spoke the language of the human heart

“No one in the presence of God thirsts. Why? Because there is nothing more to be desired. You lack nothing. Every aspect of human enjoyment is fulfilled.”
“It is our nature to grab something…something…to satisfy us.”

Because it invites self-evaluation

“Material things, good of themselves, have a way of satisfying us so we stop hungering for God.”
Can I say “God is my exceeding joy”?

Who can hear the message?

Whoever…
…is thirsty

Why wouldn’t people respond?
“I Presuppose that God is at work in everyone’s life to some level.”
They are in denial about their thirst because they are:

Religiously self-sufficient (“You can go to church in order to keep God out of your life.”)
Morally self-sufficient

“I am not as bad as Hitler, and God must grade on a curve.”
“I can come out smelling like a rose comparing myself to Saddam Hussein…but not if I compare myself to God.”
“There may be a standard in this world higher than the one you hold yourself to. Just look at what ticks you off in other people.”

Intellectually self-sufficient
Materially self-sufficient
Essentially self-sufficient

“I am my own person.”
“Not only are you forgiven in the gospel, you get a new heart.”

How do you drink?
From Jesus flow the rivers of living water.

Believers are never promised their own source of water – we must go to Him and drink constantly.
Not “ask Jesus into your heart” but believe a promise.

“Drinking is believing.”
How do you know you’re satisfied? Your desires begin to change. You will become more thirsty.

Drenched in affection

Oh what security!
You know everything in me
And still chose to love me
Though it cost even Calvary.

You chose me, said I’m pleasing
Said I can’t keep you from chasing
And your love will not be shaken.

Drenched in such affection, now I am free
To love with self-forgetfulness as you loved me.

In Spite of Me

I praise you God, for when I deliberately disregard you, you disregard me.
When I am obstinate even in starvation, you add your fury seven times.
In spite of all your goodness, you will make me desolate.
In spite of your tenderness, you act with wrath,
because you know what it takes to win me back.
God, act in spite of me
nevertheless for my sins
notwithstanding my walls.
When I sin even again
do not be bested by my stubbornness
do not be deterred by my unreliability.
May my defiance never prevent you
from loving me one more time.
Love me although.
Love me anyway.
Love me yet.

Prayer for favor

Be benevolent to me, God. Have grace toward me.
Think of me as a friend. Hang out with me and tell me secrets.
Approve of me and think of me highly. Compliment my virtues, and value me.
Be excessively kind to me. Spoil me and lavish on me.
Be partial and preferential toward me. Choose me.
Treat me gently. Take care in how you relate to me, and be sensitive.
Oblige my requests. Go along with my desires and delight to bring me pleasure.
Facilitate me. Encourage my success and arrange for my path to be clear.
Aid and support me. Be my supply line and my reinforcement.
Give me everything from you that brings joy, pleasure, and delight.
Let me taste your sweetness and smell your charm and loveliness.
May I find favor in your eyes. May the favor of Christ be on me.

My rules

“My Rules” (a poem by Shel Silverstein):

“If you want to marry me, here’s what you’ll have to do:
You must learn how to make a perfect chicken- dumpling stew.
And you must sew my holey socks,
And soothe my troubled mind,
And develop a knack for scratching my back,
And keep my shoes spotlessly shined.
And while I rest you must rake up the leaves,
And when it is hailing and snowing
You must shovel the walk…and be still when I talk,
And – hey – where are you going?”

We are wonder-babies

“From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength because of Your adversaries” (Psalm 8:2)

The humble are like children and babes before you, Lord, but from their mouths you have chosen to reveal your strength to earth. Through the impotent ones you have brought your kingdom and authority to earth. What is man, that you are mindful of him, but you have given authority to exercise stewardship of your kingdom on the earth.

This means that even the most feeble baby believer has power to shake the earth by bringing the kingdom of God down into contact with it, to unleash divine strength. Lord, if I have but a mustard seed of faith, a drop of hope, a quick but earnest call to heaven, I can move entire mountains. Let me never say, “Ah, but I cannot do that – I am too impotent of a believer.” We have no faith in faith. We simply have faith in God. Faith is not a quantity which we must accumulate through long disciplines, it is an immediate reality when it comes. Let me not forget that God works miracles through the most abecedarian believer.

Service is a response

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.
THEN I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to You.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
THEN my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips,
IN ORDER THAT my mouth may declare Your praise.

By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem.
THEN You will delight in righteous sacrifices, in burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

Your vows are binding on me, O God; I will render thank offerings to You.
FOR You have delivered my soul from death, Indeed my feet from stumbling, so that I may walk before God in the light of the living.

Our sacrifice and good works are a response to his grace coming upon us. The realization of the good news and a sweetly broken heart in the light of it is the root out of which our action flowers. Better to be mindful to cultivate this cause in my heart and let it do its sprouting work, rather than to be mindful of the works themselves.