Posts Tagged: Bible

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26
Jul 08

Daily Devotion: Proverbs 26

Have you ever had a time–maybe even now–where things seem to be closing in on you and you don’t know what to do? You question why you of all people should have to deal with such a thing? After everything you’ve been through, you ask, “When will it all end?”

As difficult as it is going to sound, I’d ask you to just step back and believe that you are going to get through it. Whether it is a threat of something due to not having enough money or losing a job while you have debt or struggling with temptations…whatever it is, just pause and give it all to the Lord. Tell him that you’re believing this isn’t for you and that you will rise above it by trusting that God has bigger and better plans for you and that he intends to prosper you rather than harm you just like it is revealed in Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV):

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Don’t let the deceit of Satan the liar get the best of you. All sorts of calamity may appear to be raining down upon your head or your house, but do not fear. Stuff is always going to happen around you, but you have been given faith in order to have hope and know that there is always a positive outcome in the works of the Lord.

Reflect today on the words of Proverbs 26:2 this time from The Message translation:

You have as little to fear from an undeserved curse
as from the dart of a wren or the swoop of a swallow.

Believe the curse is undeserved because God would not cause you harm! Treat it as if you were being descended upon by a tiny little sparrow. Obviously, the much-smaller sparrow would not intend you to be its target so you would not be concerned. In Christ, you are bigger than anything any devil would throw at you. It’s time to take a stand and profess in the name of Christ that you are not going to give in to the lies and fear and the stress of this world. Trust in God and he will see you through anything. Even though the sky is dark and the clouds look ominous, you may see the light of day before you see any rain.

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25
Jul 08

Daily Devotion: Proverbs 25

In verse 4 of the King James Version (KJV) we find that the language used isn’t common for most of us today. The word dross is used:

Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.

What is dross? Well we can guess or look it up, but I’m sure you know what we typically do. We’ll just skip over that and go onto to the next passage. When we do this, we lose a lot as the passage we skip must be relevant and intended to be known by us or it would not have been included in the scriptures.

One of the things I like to do is go to other translations and see how verses are interpreted or sometimes even spend longer periods of time just in one different translation to get a different perspective. For study this isn’t good as some translations are paraphrases and not completely accurate to the original language (Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic), but for meditation it is great in my opinion!

Let’s take a look at verse 4 in other translations and see if it helps:

NIV: Remove the dross from the silver,
and out comes material for the silversmith;

This is exactly the same translation used in the KJV so most-likely we’d just skim past it too.

NLT: Remove the impurities from silver,
and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith.

Ah, this is beginning to make sense now to those of us that don’t know the meaning of the word dross. It’s like impurities. We could have probably guessed that, but should we approach the Bible guessing about what it means?

Let’s look at one more translation and see if it offers any more help:

CEV: Silver must be purified

before it can be used

to make something of value.

Can you see how this elaborates even further than the NLT version? It’s not just that the impurities must be removed from the silver before the silversmith can use it; instead, we must have the impurities removed from the silver so that the silversmith can make something valuable. Now that is something that most people can read and come to understand clearly without a dictionary or without having to guess.

I’d encourage you to refer to translations like the NLT (New Living Translation) or the CEV (Contemporary English Version) to help in your devotion and meditation time. It will allow you to know and understand some of those things that God wants you to give up (impurities) so that he (silversmith) can present you as something valuable to others. We must keep in mind too that we are of tremendous value in God’s eyes just as we are! We should remember that he would leave the 99 to go after the 1 that went astray (Matthew 18:12-14). So, we don’t remove impurities to be more valuable to God, instead we become more valuable for God to use us so that someone else can be found.

May God be perfecting you as precious silver so that others can look at you and see the beauty in God and all that he creates.

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24
Jul 08

Daily Devotion: Proverbs 24

Proverbs 24:26:

An honest answer
is like a kiss on the lips.

Some of us need that sweet kiss of honesty and some of us need to offer more honesty. There really isn’t thing good about a lie regardless of the context. It sets a trap to justify more lies. Stand firm in your honesty and it will be as if those around you just got a kiss on the lips.

Is there someone you weren’t completely honest with that deserves to know the whole truth? Won’t you make an effort to seek their forgiveness and give them the rest of the story?

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23
Jul 08

Daily Devotion: Proverbs 23

Truth…what is it? Unfortunately we live in a day when many will say what is true for me may not be true for you. However, if the truth you know is more valuable than gold and someone paid the price of death so that you may come to know it, is it really relative to you and not others? At what point does it become a call to save the life of another rather than something you don’t want to impose on someone else?

Proverbs 23:23 in the Amplified Bible reads:

Buy the truth and sell it not; not only that, but also get discernment and judgment, instruction and understanding.

What does that mean? Well, I believe it means that truth comes at a price. We must give something in order to know it. However, once we have sacrificed to know the truth, we shouldn’t be so quick to sell it and walk away from it, regardless of how green it looks on the other side. You see, the devil is a liar! He is a tempter that comes like a temptress. Don’t become his next victim! Guard the truth in your heart with sound judgment and discernment. Seek instruction from the Lord through prayer, through reading his word, through wise counsel. Desire to understand everything in the context of God and his kingdom rather than of earth and the ways of darkness. If you do this, then we know that by John 8:32: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

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22
Jul 08

Daily Devotion: Proverbs 22

Have you ever noticed that there are some traits of people you associate with that have become of your own personality? Like if you are around people that have no patience you tend to start losing patience too? Unfortunately, who we keep company with will ultimately influence us. Sometimes it can influence us negatively in that we begin emulating their negative traits, but sometimes it can influence us positively in that after observing their negative behavior we commit not to do the same things.

Verses 24 & 25 (New Living Translation):

24Don’t befriend angry people
or associate with hot-tempered people,
25or you will learn to be like them
and endanger your soul.

It’s really hard to know that if we are around people that can influence us negatively that we will have the wisdom and resolve to not start acting out their negative behavior. Therefore, please be careful when you are around others frequently that do the wrong things. Please be in prayer for yourself constantly and also pray for them to have the Lord breakthrough the negative behaviors.

Is there someone you know that needs to be broken of being hot-tempered or is there someone you know that you probably shouldn’t be around so much because of their hot-tempered nature? Won’t you take the time to pray about these relationships and seek higher ground from the Lord?

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