Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

A good name is more desirable than great riches;
    to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
Rich and poor have this in common:
    The Lord is the Maker of them all.
The prudent see danger and take refuge,
    but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
Humility is the fear of the Lord;
    its wages are riches and honor and life.
In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls,
    but those who would preserve their life stay far from them.
Start children off on the way they should go,
    and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
The rich rule over the poor,
    and the borrower is slave to the lender.
Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity,
    and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.

• Proverbs 22:1-8

Proverbs 22:1: ”Integrity keeps your eyes on your own paper during the test. Integrity makes you record and submit only true figures on your expense account. Integrity keeps your personal life pure and straight, regardless of the benefits and personal perks that might come your way through compromise.
Make no mistake, integrity is tough stuff.  Integrity does not take the easy way, make the easy choices, or choose the ‘pleasures for a season’ path. Integrity is what you are when there isn’t anyone around to check up on you.”

• Charles R. Swindoll, Bedtime Blessings

The Message

Rev. Swindoll’s last comment is what I heard almost daily as I was growing up.  Integrity is what you are and do when no one else is watching.  Let “integrity” be your “good name.”

No matter whether you have or you need, no matter your realm of influence, God still reigns supreme.  He is sovereign.  He is the Creator of all things, including us.

The old question is true whether there is a cliff nearby or not.  If your friends are all jumping off a cliff, are you going to do it too?  Peer pressure.  Blind self-confidence (or sheer arrogance).  But how did our secular world fall so horribly in such a short time?  People were conditioned to not think.  They were conditioned to follow, with the few brain cells that functioned thinking this was the new wave to a better future – not seeing the oblivion that lies ahead.  This applies to Proverbs 22:3 and verse 5.

But if we humble ourselves before God, our wages become the riches of this life and the next.  I saw a rare television show, since I rarely watch network television, where one visiting character of the drama lamented that a magazine had printed that her billionaire husband had hidden treasures.  People were invading her properties to find the buried treasure.  In the end, a “treasure chest” was found in an unlikely place.  They expected a chest full of gold.  When opened, it had photographs, lockets, music boxes, and other rather worthless trinkets – if it were not for the memories that these things represented.  God’s treasures that He gives us may not have tangible value here, but they may just be things that we can take with us to the next life.

Proverbs 22:6 was one of my mother’s favorite verses to quote.  It was used as a weapon any time my children did anything that she thought was out of line.  I have mentioned a few times in this Bible study that the proverbs are wise sayings and not guarantees.  My mother directly attributed any sin on the part of my children as being the weakness of the discipline from my wife and me.  But, in a way, there is a guarantee of sorts in this verse.  But what do the children see?  Do they see the rules without seeing the meaning behind the rule?  Do they see the busyness of the service to the community without seeing the giving of the heart?  Do they see the lack of video games and physical wealth and not a servant’s heart that gives to those in need?  Children all have selective hearing.  You can shout praises to God, but if you whisper, at the far end of the house, that you are hiding the cookies in a particular high cabinet, within minutes they will position the stepstool to that very cabinet.  But children also have selective seeing, selective tasting, selective smelling, selective touching, and selective doing.  Bring up a child in the way they should go becomes a smorgasbord of things from which they can choose.

When I wrote this, the election campaigning was in full swing.  Each candidate, a rich person – all of them, were talking about how they were going to give to the middle class and the poor.  Why?  To get their vote.  But which of these candidates had a plan that truly did as promised, and which were lying through their teeth, to manipulate those in need?

And as for the second half of Proverbs 22:7, my wife and I lived most of our married life in debt, a slave to the lenders.  We were out of debt twice.  Once, when I got out of the Army, having been paid the least at any time in my career (but with free housing).  That was followed by a mortgage when the rates were at their highest.  And then, when I lost my job and there was no more income, too young to start Social Security, too old to get a meaningful paid job.  My younger son has no credit cards.  He is dirt poor, but he is better off than my wife and I were.  He has no debt.

And back to those political candidates for Proverbs 22:8, if they made false testimony in getting elected, they will reap calamity and their rod of fury will be broken, and that goes for the schoolyard bully also.

And now let us sing.

The following song is Trust and Obey.  This is sung by Don Moen.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Help us, Lord. Remind us that a good name is more priceless than any treasure.  Help us to trust You and Your ways.  You are the Creator.  How can we respond in an intelligent way other than to humble ourselves before You??  Teach us prudence.  Teach us to think before we act.  And help us see others as children of God who need our help, not to be lorded over, but to be lifted up.
In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.