Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The generous will themselves be blessed,
    for they share their food with the poor.
Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife;
    quarrels and insults are ended.
One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace
    will have the king for a friend.
The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge,
    but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.
The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside!
    I’ll be killed in the public square!”
The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit;
    a man who is under the Lord’s wrath falls into it.
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
    but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.
One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
    and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

• Proverbs 22:9-16

Proverbs 22:13: ”When someone does not diligently attend to his business, he is committing great wrong to himself and to others. When a man is slothful as a servant, he is unjust to his employers, and when he is in business on his own account, idleness is usually a wrong to his wife and family: I know one who is the cause of poverty and need, to those whom he ought to provide for, and all because honest labor and himself have long since fallen out. He would not move an inch if he could help it, nor even open his eyes if he could manage to live and sleep all his life away. When a man is thoroughly eaten up with the dry rot of laziness, he generally finds some kind of excuse, though his crime is really inexcusable. ‘There is a lion outside’ and therefore the man judges it to be quite right that he should keep his bed, or that he should sit leisurely indoors and should not give himself too much trouble or run any risks, but all this is mere makeup to screen his loathsome vice. No Christian ought to be slothful in his ordinary work.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from his sermon notes

The Message

Be generous and God will reward you.  I remember when my son first gave a tithe.  He hardly had enough money for food, but he gave a tenth of what he had received.  Then, the next day, on Monday, he got a call from a concert hall.  Someone had given the leader of the orchestra his name.  One of the woodwind players had gotten sick and my son was suggested as someone who could sight read music with any of the woodwinds.  He was paid one day of practice and one day of performance.  And he received a little more than what he had given to the church.  Not only did he have enough for food, he ate well.  This did not happen to him that often, and it may not be that dramatic with you.  But for my son, he has been generous ever since, in good times and in bad times.

Picture yourself as the king, or even the boss, who has your ear?  Are they mockers? Do they insult people?  Do they start strife and quarrels?  Or do they speak wisdom?  Do they have a pure heart and speak grace?  Be careful who you have around you, even if your ‘kingdom’ does not fill the house that you live in.

God looks out and knows what is true, what is truth.  With God there is never any subjective truth, never your truth or my truth.  With God, He knows the truth, and He is the Truth.  The unfaithful might make excuses, or claim that they have their truth, but their pleas fall on deaf ears when God knows the truth.

Proverbs 22:13 reminds me of an old Jerry Clower story when Newgene told his father, Uncle Versey, that there was a lion in the yard.  It was just a collie dog that had been sheered for the hot summer, with a little of the long hair left around his head and a tuft at the end of the tail.  Uncle Versey made Newgene go to his room and pray for forgiveness for telling such a whopper of a lie.  When Newgene returned very quickly, he told his father that he had talked to God and God answered.  Newgene said that God had said, “The first time God saw that dog, He thought it was a lion too!”  Now, that is going to the extreme to try to get out of mowing the lawn.

The adulterous woman is only the lure into the pit.  The man must be looking for the sin to commit.  Keeping one’s eyes on God would prevent that.

Folly is at the unrepentant person’s heart.  Strong discipline may be needed to first get the person’s attention, so that then correction can be made.  The strength and severity is whatever it takes to get the person’s attention, which can vary from one person to the next.  With some, their commitment to doing their own will and ignoring God’s will may be stronger than any discipline that you could imagine, but not administering the discipline becomes a sin in itself.  My mother rarely disciplined.  I do not know if my wife ever did.  It was always, “Wait until your Dad gets home.”  And when Dad was on a three-month long business trip, discipline does no good, for neither the one administering nor the naughty one knows what the discipline is for.

Oppressing the poor is obviously wrong, but I have heard people say that it is much easier to do than oppressing a group of people who have the means to fight back.  When you hear that, you should learn to steer clear of that person in the future.  I have heard that said more than once.

Giving gifts to the rich to impress them is hard to do when they can buy and sell you many times over.  My wife knew someone that showered a “friend” with gifts, always being there to do the hard work when the friend hosted a party, but when the person my wife knew needed some help, her rich friend was busy that day, out of town that day, or had trouble of her own.  And this pattern of behavior lasted decades.  No amount of wisdom imparted could stop the behavior.  My wife’s acquaintance knew the effort would one day pay off, but it never did.

And now let us sing.

The following song is In Christ Alone.  This is sung by Adrienne Liesching, with Hadleigh Baptist Church, Hadleigh, United Kingdom.  It may not match these eight verses, but in a way, it works.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Let us speak truth.  It is useless to come to You with our falsehood.  Let us be generous.  Let us speak wisdom.  Help us be self-disciplined.  And may we tirelessly work for Your service, no excuses.  These are lofty goals that we cannot live up to unless You are in control within us.
In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.