All Blog Posts Tagged 'proverbs' (166)

Desire and commandment

“[The commandment is a light] to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.”
-Proverbs 6:24

When it comes to sex, it seems that more and more people are using the DESIRE as justification for the ACT. When asked why its okay to be in a homosexual relationship, or to sleep around outside of marriage, or to have an affair, or to have multiple pa… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on April 8, 2010 at 9:59pm — No Comments

The influence of a parent

“When you walk, they [your parents’ teachings] will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.”
-Proverbs 6:22

There isn’t a day that goes by that my parents’ influence isn’t evident in my life. I may not even think about it, but their wisdom from the first two decades of my life has influenced everything. It’s like an… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on March 29, 2010 at 7:42pm — No Comments

Remember this one?

“Bind them [your parents’ teachings] on your heart always; tie them around your neck.”
-Proverbs 6:21

My wife and I are meeting with some friends of ours every week right now to discuss our marriages and lives. In a lot of ways, it has been a very rewarding experience. In honesty and love we are able to really talk about our successes and failings and what God is doing in ou… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on March 25, 2010 at 8:46pm — No Comments

Wanna hear something cool?

“My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.”
-Proverbs 6:20

When Abraham came back from a particular battle, he met a man who was both priest and king. His name was Melchizedek. He appears for a few short verses in Genesis 14. It’s such a tiny part of the book that you forget it almost immediately, at least unless you know what it means… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on March 17, 2010 at 9:37pm — No Comments

Liars and mischief makers

“a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”
-Proverbs 6:19

I’ve been very interested in these last few verses. Normally, as we have gone through Proverbs, we are seeing truisms. They are statements of advice, and not necessarily promises of a return. We actually run into trouble when we try to apply them universally, because they were ne… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on March 12, 2010 at 9:11am — No Comments

Schemes and anxiousness to sin

“a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,”
-Proverb 6:18

Sometimes you stop before you sin. Sometimes, you stand there a moment, asking yourself if you really want to do that. You weigh the pros and cons and make a decision. Often, you decide to sin anyway.

Sometimes you just find yourself in a situation where sin is staring you in the… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on March 9, 2010 at 9:16pm — No Comments

Pride, lies, and violence

“haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,”
-Proverbs 6:17

If God gave you a list of things He just hates, you would think you would pay attention. I mean, that’s important, don’t you think? That’s worth our attention?

Of course we would say yes right away, and yet the Bible gives us such lists, and we ignore them. One such list is the Ten Co… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on March 4, 2010 at 10:53pm — No Comments

Seven things that bug me

“There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him:”
-Proverbs 6:16

List out seven things you hate. Go ahead – I’ll be here when you get back. Now, I don’t mean like spinach or reality television. I mean like evil things. Certain types of crimes.

If I were to make my list, I think that, obviously, rape and murder would be on there. Abort… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on March 3, 2010 at 8:19pm — No Comments

Someday is sooner than you think

“therefore calamity will come upon him [the wicked man] suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.”
-Proverbs 6:15

There have been times when I thought my life was broken beyond the ability of anyone to fix. Mostly, I have these moments because I am seeing so narrowly that I can’t recognize that things can change, and probably will change within the next hour or… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on March 1, 2010 at 9:13pm — No Comments

Are you good?

“with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord;”
-Proverbs 6:14

I think most people I meet could make a good case that they are good people. They will talk to me about how they obey the law, give to charity, love their families, etc. By the world’s standards, they are good.

That doesn’t really understanding the real meaning of “good,” but we can go w… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on February 26, 2010 at 6:49pm — No Comments

The evil next door

[A wicked man] “winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger,”
-Proverbs 6:13

Our world is so filled with evil. We see it every day on television and in the newspapers. All over the world is there murder and war and horrible atrocities. And there really doesn’t seem like there’s anything we can do about it. I mean, there are tyrants rulin… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on February 24, 2010 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Sons of the devil

“A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech,”
-Proverbs 6:12

Who would you think of if I used the phrase, “a son of the devil?” I think we would immediately think of the worst people on earth, wouldn’t we? Maybe we wouldn’t even want to think of a person in those terms at all. Maybe we would shy away from calling even the worst human beings such a phras… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on February 19, 2010 at 10:27am — No Comments

The fierce dogs of debt

“and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.”
-Proverbs 6:11

Solomon has been talking in these last verses about the slothful, or lazy. Here he has a very practical warning, but it is a warning that we too little heed.

Americans are loaded down with debt, and it’s usually over the silliest of things. I hear people complaining about how… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on February 17, 2010 at 9:30am — No Comments

So many reruns, so little time!

“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,”
-Proverbs 6:10

We could almost rewrite this warning against laziness to add a few modern conveniences. A little Facebook, a little television, a little movie-going, a little Wii, etc. Our time rests better than any other times. In the great scheme of history, our 40-hour work week isn’t terribly much.… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on February 15, 2010 at 9:48am — No Comments

Crazy early in the morning

“How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?”
-Proverbs 6:9

My friends think I’m a little strange. More times than not, I’m up by about 6:30 on weekends. Work days, I’m up earlier, but even if I don’t have to be anywhere, I get up rather early.

A lot of it is from habit, but most of the reason I get up early is because I was saved o… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on February 13, 2010 at 7:13am — No Comments

Working by faith

“she [the ant] prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.”
-Proverbs 6:8

All ages have had lazy people, but I think our age makes the problems so much worse. In older times, you could sleep late if you wished, but that would make it hard later to eat. When you had to grow your own food, the amount of work you put in had a direct result on the amount of foo… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on February 10, 2010 at 12:21pm — No Comments

Hey! Get off the couch and get a job!

“Without having any chief, officer, or ruler,”
-Proverbs 6:7

Have you ever just sat and watched an ant? I suppose everyone has in childhood. They are fascinating. You’ll see one ant scouting about. Talk about self-motivation! He doesn’t seem to ever rest. He finds some source of food, and before long, he’s told several hundred of his friends. Now they are lined up, back and… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on February 8, 2010 at 7:01pm — No Comments

Lazy bones!

“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” -Proverbs 6:6 I am still upset about my own laziness last weekend. Granted, it was a long week, and I am totally in favor of having a day of rest every week. Even so, I’ll still use one of the weekend days to get some writing done, record and post the podcast, and that sort of thing. Not last weekend. Last weekend, I couldn’t summon the energy to get anything done at all. To my defense, I had worked a lot of hours last week, a… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on February 3, 2010 at 8:15pm — No Comments

Like a squirrel up a tree

“save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.” -Proverbs 6:5 I very much like nature. I like watching birds and squirrels and the like. There is little much more exotic in the city where I live, but at times I can sneak up on a squirrel on a tree trunk. I never get really close, of course. Usually, if I’m close enough that I can see him well, I won’t try to get any nearer. The squirrel doesn’t know that I don’t mean him harm. As soon… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on February 1, 2010 at 9:12pm — No Comments

Caffeine . . . need caffeine . . .

“Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;” -Proverbs 6:4 So we’re going to get two lessons for the price of one here. In the first, we will see how importance context is to biblical interpretation. I quoted this verse, as usual, without any verses around it. If you take the verse as it stands, you may start believing that to sleep is to sin. Obviously, that is not what is going on here. But it stands as a good warning in an age when certain preachers will speak on a single v… Continue

Added by Paul Lytle on January 29, 2010 at 6:40pm — 1 Comment