The Work of Deceit

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 12

Key Verse: Verse 5 – “The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.

Key Words:  the counsels of the wicked are deceit 

Recently two slick “con” men boarded a train that runs between New York and Boston and singled out a prosperous looking individual as their “patsy.” Sitting down next to him, they invited him to play a game of cards.  Soon the unsuspecting victim was several hundred dollars in the red.    The winner  agreed to take a check, but once he had it in his hands, he acted conscience-stricken and tore it up.  “ I never thought you’d lose so much money.  Let’s call the whole thing off,” he said.  Impressed with their apparent generosity, the loser insisted on writing out a new one.  Later, when his vouchers came back from the bank, he found that not only the second but also the first check had been cashed!  The crook had quickly slipped the first one into his pocket and had torn up a blank one instead.  The loser was hooked twice.

We despise that kind of deception even though gambling is wrong in the first place.  But do we fail to recognize in our own lives the same tendency to deceive?  Have we fawned over others, inflating their egos to gain personal favor, or winked at wrongdoing to advance up the ladder of success?  We may try to assure ourselves that we do these things “to win friends” or to be “diplomatic,” when actually we ar motivated by self-interest, not kindness.  Yet because our hearts are evil, we constantly seek to justify ourselves (Jeremiah 17:9).

Beware of deceitfulness.  It originates with the devil, the “father” of lies (John 8:44), and is one of the seven things God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19).

                                                                      Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Always remember the words of Walter Scott, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”    

✞Again remember, your sin will find you out.

Values

Bible Reading: Proverbs 11

Key Verse: Verse 1 – “ A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.”

Key Words: A false balance is abomination to the LORD 

There are at least ten different values found in Proverbs, chapter eleven.

There are commercial values (verse 1), conceited values (verse 2), Christian values (verses 3-9), city values (verses 10-15), comparative values (verse 16), contrasting values (verses 17-21), confused values (verses 22-23), congenial values (verses 24-26), concerning values (verses 27-28), and character values (verses 30-31).

But I draw your attention to verse one and the importance of dealing with others with honesty and integrity.  During Solomon’s day, the merchants would often cheat the consumer by tipping the scales in their favor.

A housewife went to the local market and asked the butcher for a chicken weighing four pounds.  The butcher had only one chicken left and it weighed three pounds.  “I’m sorry,” the woman said, “its isn’t quite big enough.  I’ll have to go to another market.”

The butcher, who was not scrupulously honest and didn’t want to lose a customer, stopped her.  “Madam,” he said, “I just remembered that I may have one more chicken in the freezer.  Please wait one moment.”  He then carried the three-pound chicken to the freezer in the back of the store, waited a minute, then came back holding the same chicken.  “You’re in luck, madam,” he said.  “I found another chicken.  He placed it on the scale and, unseen by the customer, slightly pressed the scale with his finger so that it indicated four pounds.  “ There you are , madam.”

The customer thought for a second.  “Tell you what,” she said.  “Since you were so helpful, I’ll take both chickens.”

The story makes us smile because the dishonest merchant was caught in his fraudulent scheme.  “A false balance is abomination.”  Be honest in all your dealings.

                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse  

What to do: 

             ✞Be honest.

            ✞Be sure your sin will find you out.

A Multitude of Words

Bible Reading: Proverbs 10

Key Verse: Verse 19 -  “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.”  

Key Words: In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin

 Proverbs, chapter ten, deals with a number of subjects.  Many call this chapter the “things” chapter.  It deals with family things in verse one, financial things in verses two through five, final things in verses six and seven, foolish things in verses eight through fifteen, fruitful things in verses sixteen and seventeen, fundamental things in verses eighteen through twenty-eight, and fatal things in verses twenty-nine through thirty-two.

The thing I would like for you to see is the importance of keeping our tongue in cheek.  The truth is the more we talk, the more the likelihood of us saying something we wwill regret later.  I read a humorous story that illustrates this point.

“Jim was not a good golfer,but he wanted to fit in with the guys who did golf well, so Jim began to invent stories about his prowess on the golf course.  After listening to Jim’s tales, some of the guys invited him to join them for a round of golf.  Now no amount of practice would prepare Jim for the big day so, as usual, he used his mouth more than his clubs.  On the first tee, he addressed the ball three times and missed each time.  After missing the ball for the fourth time, jim turned to the foursome and remarked, “This is really a tough course!”

“In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.”

                                                                     Dr. Mike Rouse                                                                                                     

What to do: 

✞Ask God to help you “guard your tongue.”

✞Never fell the need to “say something.”

✞Never let pride make you brag about things you have never accomplished.

 

Void of Understanding

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 9

Key Verse: Verse 1 – “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:”

Key Words: she (wisdom) hath hewn out her seven pillars 

There is much speculation as to what these seven pillars of wisdom may be.

Some say that the seven pillars are found in Proverbs 16, they are the seven things God hates.  Still others believe that the Holy of Holies contained seven pillars and that comes from being in the presence of God.  Still others believe that the seven pillars are found in Acts 2: the pillars of salvation, baptism, doctrine, fellowship, communion, prayer, and giving.

In Proverbs 9 we find Solomon inspired by the Holy Spirit of God writing to his son, Rehoboam.  Inside this chapter, you find seven solid pieces of advice.  It could be that these seven pices of counsel are the seven pillars of wisdom.

Pillar Number One: prepare in advance  (verses 2-3).

Pillar Number Two: partake of it all (verses 4-6).

Pillar Number Three: wisdom is practical in its advice (verse 7-8).

Pillar Number Four: wisdom is proper in its attitude (verse 9).

Pillar Number Five: wisdom is profitable in its application (verses 10-11).

Pillar Number Six: wisdom is piercing in its arm (verse 12).

Pillar Number Seven: wisdom is priceless in its association (verses 13-16).

When we are void of understanding we are bound for destruction.

I’ve been told that in certain portions of Africa that monkey meat is considered a delicacy, and that the men of Africa have a unique way of capturing the monkey.  The monkey has a particular nut that he loves to eat so the natives will cut out a hole in the base of a tree just large enough for the monkey to fit its hand into.  But if the monkey folds his fist, his hand will not come out of the hole.  The Africans know that the monkey will not turn loose of the nuts; therefore, he is trapped.  His choices are simply to turn loose of the nuts and live, or hang onto the nuts and thus he dies.

There are thaose who refuse to let go of their foolishness and grab hold of wisdom, and because of this they are bound for destruction.  How sad!

                                                                                

                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

            ✞Apply wisdom to every situation in your life.

✞Turn loose of your vices and  sins that are destroying you.

✞We all have a choice to be wise or foolish.  Which do you choose?

Death Wish

 Bible Reading:  Proverbs 8

Key Verse: Verse 36 – “But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.”

Key Words: all they that hate me [wisdom} love death 

It was in the spring of 1979, on a lonely three-mile stretch of Florida beach tht one hundred pilot whales hurled themselves onto dry ground in a apparent mass suicide.  It was another rexample of self=destruction behavior that continues to baffle marine biologists.  These hugh creatures had beached themselves in a kind of follow –the-leader fashion.  People came from miles around to try to turn them back.  At one point a human fence was formed between the whales and the shoreline.  But even when those sea mammals wre pushed, pulled, and forced back into deeper water, many of them repeated their death surge and threw them selves onto dry ground again.  Several theories have been advanced to explain this seeming bent toward self-destruction.  One is that the whale’s directional sonar, which steers it clear of danger, may have gotten fouled up.  Biologists found parasites in the inner ears of some of the huge creatures that may have disoriented them.

Do you suppose we humans look like tht to the angels?  As God’s ministers for our good, they might wonder what strange urge causes us to self-destruct en masse.  It’s clear to them that the Creator has provided a sea of wisdom for us to live in.  Yet there’s something about man that mimics these whales.  Like an unreasoning animal, he seems obsessed with a desire to break out of that element for which he was created.  Instead of remaining in the expanse of a loving, conscious submission to God, he throws himself onto the dry ground of disobedience.

We may think we’d never do that.  But believe what God says: All who hate wisdom love death.

                                                                                 Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞Hear wisdom.

✞Love wisom.

✞Apply wisdom.

Pre-Marital Promiscuity

 Bible Reading:  Proverbs 7                

Key Verse: Verse 5 – “That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.”

Key Words: from the stranger which flattereth with her words 

Solomon, in Proverbs chapter five, deals with pre-marital sex and here in chapter seven, Solomon once again is dealing with the same subject.

The essence of the chapter is that of a young man out on the town.  He encounters a harlot who invites him to come lay with her (verses 16-18).  Solomon closes out the chapter by giving a stern warning,  “Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.”

Sometime back, I learned an illustration that I like to use when talking to teens.  I attempt to draw an analogy between the bonding capacity of the body and adhesive tape.  Adhesive tape is not made for repetitive use.  The strongest bond adhesive tape is capable of making is formed with the first surface to which it is applied.  You can remove the tape and reapply it to other surfaces several times, and it will stick.  However, with every application, some of the adhesiveness has been compromised.  Finally, if you continue the practice long enough, there will not be enough adhesiveness left to make the tape stick to any surface.  God intended that the bond between mates be the closest and strongest one that can be formed.  If you want to really stick to your spouse, then your wedding night should be the first opportunity that you’ve had to stick.  If you get my drift.

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

      ✞We can make a difference by being different (from the world).

What God Hates

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 6

Key Verse: Verse 16 – “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him”

Key Words: These six things doth the LORD hate 

God hates sin.  In our Scripture reading for today, the author of Proverbs singles out seven specific transgressions that are an abomination to the Lord (it would be good to read verses 17-19 often).  Sin is so horrible that when the Lord Jesus, the perfect Son of God, bore our guilt on the cross, the Father turned His back on His beloved Son.  And Christ, in the blackness of that dreadful hour, cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).  If sin is so terrible in the sight of God, then we must fear it, hate it, and avoid it.

In F.B. Proctor’s Treasury of Quotations there is a story told by Johann Peter Lange, the 19^th century German theologian and author.  He said that a religious leader was viciously hated by the emperor of his day.  Some of the ruler’s advisors said to the monarch, “Burn him, confiscate his property, put him in irons, or have him killed.”

But others disagreed.  They said, “you will not gain anything by all this; for in exile, he would find a home with his God…he kisses his chains, death opens heaven to him.  There is only one way to render him unhappy, force him to sin.  He fears nothing in the world but sin.”

Note that last sentence: “He fears nothing in the world but sin.”  How many people do we know tlike that?  Unfortunately, we often become so comfortable in sin’s presence that we practice it rather than fear it.  But remember how God views it.  May we therefore, as lovers of Him, be haters of sin! 

                                                                                     Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞Evaluate your own life.  Are you comfortable in the presence of sin?

✞Do you fear sin or practice sin? Are you real of artificial in your Christian life?