Proverbs 18:17
Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight.
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I’ve been fooled. I listened to one side of a story and because I trusted and respected the person, I believed what they told me was accurate. “They wouldn’t lie to me”, I reasoned. However, experience has taught me even mature Christians often present a side which “sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight.”

With an arrogant attitude she informed me, “My Dad refused to sign the disciplinary notice and he said he doesn’t care what you do about it.” I was principal of a Christian school and the high school girl had been brought to my office. I felt a twinge of anger rising up at Dad’s refusal to cooperate. We were bending over backwards to help get his daughter on the right path and he was refusing to cooperate. I called him but … I had been coached to always go into these conversation like a cat, gently. You can always turn into a bear later if you have to but start quietly, calmly. (Proverbs 15:1, 25:15) Continue reading →

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Proverbs 22:7
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
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Someone was commenting on the deal they got on a new car because of “good financing”. Instead of minding my own business I let them know I think the term “good financing” is an oxymoron. How can anything that makes us a slave to another be “good”?

It is so easy to go into debt to demonstrate our love, or meet a “need” we feel we have, to comfort ourselves, pass time shopping, etc.  Before we do however, it is wise to invest some time meditating on the warning of Proverbs 22:7. Continue reading →

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Proverbs 28:23
Whoever rebukes a person will in the end gain favor rather than one who has a flattering tongue.
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What an important message for parents. When our children misbehave we are tempted to look away, ignore it, if in public to act like we don’t even know who these kids belong to. Sometimes it seems impossible to muster the strength to deal with it one more time. And sometimes our attitude (anger?) is such that we shouldn’t try to deal with it right now.

But this passage makes a promise for worn out parents who do rise to the occasion and rebuke, discipline, even chastise if necessary “one more time”. If we dig deep and find the energy (and self control) to make the effort, endure the grief and embarrassment it causes us, we “will in the end gain favor”.  Continue reading →

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Proverbs 27:5
Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
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This passage seems a little strange. No one likes to be rebuked but everyone wants to be loved. So how is rebuke better than love?

Hidden love is worthless. Love is a verb. It requires action. If I love you but never act lovingly toward you, my “love” amounts to nothing. So this passage is saying: If you love someone, do something, act like it, tell them.

What an important truth for parents and children, husbands and wives and even friends. The old, “They know I love them so I don’t have to tell them” is a deception. Tell them, express your love, lavish it on. Do not let your love remain hidden. Continue reading →

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Proverbs 27:6
Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.
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What a strange passage. We don’t usually think of a friend wounding us or of enemies kissing us – except perhaps the kiss of Judas which this passage is obviously prophetically referring to. But sometimes it is only a friend who will wound us. Continue reading →

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Galatians 5:4, 10, 12
You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.
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Paul is really in attack mode here. You have been severed from Christ, fallen from grace! “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.” All this just because they are trying to get folks to keep the law? Don’t do this, don’t touch that, don’t go there, be sure you do this and do that.  What’s wrong with getting people to “clean up their act”? Continue reading →