Tag Archives: rebuke

November 20, 2020 · 7:15 am

PROVERBS 30:5-6

Proverbs Greatest Hits

A Five Minute Devotional

The video shown below is the devotional from November 20th, 2020. The full text of the devotional follows the video.

Calvary Chapel Rosarito – English Devotional by Gary Wiram

WELCOME

Good morning! My name is Gary Wiram and it’s my pleasure to welcome you to Today’s Good News.

INTRODUCTION

As we continue the Today’s Good News series on The Greatest Hits From Proverbs, we’re getting pretty close to the end. Today, we will be in Proverbs Chapter 30 which is, in fact, the next-to-last chapter in the book. Proverbs has been referred to as a workshop in wisdom. So, not surprisingly, Chapter 30 continues with wisdom as its theme. What really draws it apart from the rest of the book, though, is that it is not presented as human wisdom, gained through life experience but as prophecy, given by the Holy Spirit.

As we prepare to dive into this very interesting Scripture, let me share a non-Scriptural story with you that may aid us in keeping open minds about what is and what isn’t true wisdom.

A young woman brings her fiancé home to meet her parents. After dinner, the father invites the fiancé to his study for a chat. “So what are your plans?” the father asks. “I am a bible scholar.” replies the fiancé. “Hmmm,” the father says. “But what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in?” “I will study and God will provide for us”, the young man replies. “And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring?” asks the father. “I will concentrate on my studies,” the young man replies. “God will provide for us.” “And children?” asks the father. “How will you support children?” “Don’t worry, sir, God will provide,” replies the fiancé. With each of the father’s questions, the young man continues to insist that God will provide. Afterwards, the mother asks, “How did it go, honey?” The father answers, “The bad news is, he has no job and no plans. The good news is he thinks I’m God.”

HUMILITY

Agur, the author of Proverbs 30, starts out with humility when he says, “Surely I am more stupid than any man, And do not have the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom Nor have knowledge of the Holy One.”

Then he points out the need for humility by asking, “Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, If you know?”

ADMONITIONS

Then, he goes on to provide a series of admonitions.

The ability to address Agur’s opening statement of humility, to answer his follow-up question revealing our need for humility and to comply with his admonitions are all wrapped up in verses 5 and 6. Please turn with me now in your Bibles to Proverbs Chapter 30, Verses 5 and 6 and we will read them together.

“Every word of God is pure;

He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.

Do not add to His words,

Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.”

GOD’S WORD IS PURE

“Every word of God is pure;” – When we read God’s word, we can take comfort in the fact that we don’t have to pick and choose what’s good and what’s not. The Bible is not a book filled with mostly true information mixed with some false information, leaving it up to us to distinguish which is which. The Bible isn’t that way because God isn’t that way! He is 100% pure. We can fully depend on getting the perfect and complete truth from Him and His Word.

GOD IS A SHIELD

“He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.” – This statement is a reminder that God will always be there to stand in the way of dangers that come to His followers. This doesn’t mean we should take this for granted but it should give us confidence where God wants us to have confidence. Though overconfidence is dangerous, under-confidence can be destructive.

DO NOT ADD TO GOD’S WORD

“Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.” – Every Word of God is pure but man’s word is not. Thus the importance of not adding to or taking away from it. Mark Twain famously said, “It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” Can you identify with that? Have you encountered Scripture that you wished you could change because it convicted you of your own shortcomings? I certainly have. But, Agur tells us that those who choose to do so are liars. To say we trust God and then try to change His Word is lying, proving that we don’t actually trust Him. Unfortunately, much of the religious world seems to think that changing God’s Word is not only “OK” but necessary in order to accommodate changing social standards. But that’s not the way the Bible is to be read or followed. It is timeless. It is a perfect and complete book that is only spoiled when man chooses to change or add to or take away from its instruction. We should spend our time following God’s Word, not looking for opportunities to change it!

GOD’S WORD IS REWARDING

Here, at Calvary Chapel Rosarito, we point our church to the Word of God, studying it verse-by-verse. In Proverbs 30, Verses 5 & 6, we’re given three foundational reasons for our doing that:

  1. God’s Words are true.
  2. God protects His people through His Word.
  3. He gives us the ability to not be deceived because we can identify when His Word is being misquoted or misused out of context.

And that is TODAY’S GOOD NEWS!

Comments Off on PROVERBS 30:5-6

Filed under Today's Good News

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

March 20, 2014 · 5:20 pm

Going To Heaven Alone

iron

REBUKED BY FRIENDS

When I express strong views on a sensitive topic, I’m not surprised when I get pushback from those who see matters differently. But, when I’m rebuffed by those who I think are friends, accepting me and my beliefs, it’s sort of shocking. I had that happen recently and it led me to do some introspection that I’d like to share.

The specifics of this recent occurrence involved a meeting I attended with a small group of people who I’ve worked very closely with for several years. Without inappropriately sharing intimate details of that meeting, let me just say that there was mention of another person who we’ve known through our work, who seemed to be going through a difficult time and that they were attending a Bible study being conducted by someone else we’ve known through our work. Hearing that was a pleasant surprise to me so I responded by saying something like, “I just hope (that person) is truly paying attention at the Bible study.” With that, I sensed a reaction that I later described as a unanimous rolling of the eyes by the other participants.

UNDERSTANDING THE REBUKE

Since my comment came just from my truly caring about the person we had been discussing, that added to my bewilderment over being chided as I was. So, the following day, I approached one of the other attendees to discuss this. In addition to getting affirmation of my sensing that unanimous rolling of the eyes, I was reminded that there are some settings where discussion of topics like religion and politics is just not welcome. And, beyond that, I was told that I was just more spiritual than the other attendees.

In reflecting on that one-on-one follow-up conversation, I came to the conclusion that there wasn’t really anything in it that I didn’t already know. And, in reflecting on my follow-up self-conversation, I remained sure of my caring intent with the comment that led to my rebuke. To me, though, the disapproval I had received from my friends clearly indicated the need for me to examine how I share my Christian faith in order that it’s received as intended. So, I determined to do just that.

FOCUS ON A SIN

In the course of making this examination, I thought of a point that I’d heard Pastor Brian Brodersen, of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, make in a teaching from 1 Corinthians. As a side note, I ended up going through 11 of Pastor Brian’s teachings to find what I was looking for. At first, that seemed like a nuisance but it turned out that I was richly blessed through a fresh look at much more of God’s Word than I’d had in mind. Anyway, I did find what I was looking for in Pastor Brian’s lesson, entitled “Tending to Our Own Issues”, based on the following Scripture:

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” – 1 Corinthians 5:9-13

The point that I had been thinking of was made by Pastor Brian in addressing the part of this Scripture that says, “I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.” Pastor Brian’s comments here were: “ … notice, first of all, that the issues of sin go beyond sexual immorality … notice the other sins included there … we have a tendency to isolate a specific sin and focus in on that sin to the exclusion of other sins … that’s part of the problem we have right now, in the current cultural situation, in regard to homosexuality. I think that we, the church in general, have over emphasized this one sin. If you think about it, as we share the gospel with people, generally, we don’t begin by talking about specific sins. But, with homosexuality it seems we focus in on that particular thing. That’s the wrong way to understand it. I was thinking the other day about the idea that so many gay people have in their mind … I’ve heard them say this, ’You think I’m going to Hell because I’m gay.’ The reality is, they’re not going to Hell because they’re gay. They’re going to Hell because they’re lost. They’re going to Hell because they’re a sinner. They’re going to Hell for the same reason an adulterer is and the same reason a swindler is and for the same reason a slanderer is … because they haven’t turned to Christ to have their sins forgiven.” Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, Christians, Church Issues, faith, Heaven, Homosexuality, Jesus, Love, Salvation, Sin

Tagged as , , , , , ,