The Priority of Integrity

Bible Reading: Proverbs 19

Key Verse: Verses 1 - “ Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.”                    

Key Words: Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity 

As you read the beginning verses of Proverbs 19, you read about:

·         Knowledge and hastiness in verse 2,

·         Foolishness and fretting in verse 3,

·         Wealth and friends in verse 4, and

·         False witnesses and punishment in verse 5. 

But it’s verse one I want you to see with me today, and the priority of integrity.  An unscrupulous salesman was delivering a bid that his company had made for an engineering firm.  He was ushered into the office where he would present his bid  to the firm.  After a brief introduction, the firm’s representative politely excused himself for a minute.  The shady salesman quickly noticed the bid of his competitor lyning on the desk.  Unfortunately, there was a cold drink covering the total amount.  He gazed out into the inner office and noticed ther was nobody to see him sneak a peek.  He lifted the Coke and got the surprise of his life.  Rather than a cold drink, it was a bottomless can filled with BBs.  The quiet office was filled with the sound of BBs racing across the desk and spilling onto the floor.  The firm’s representative then returned to the office and showed the dishonest salesman the door.  Integrity is demonstated more when people are not looking than when they are. 

                                                                                     Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

      ✞Make integrity a part of your daily life.

      ✞Remember it’s better to be poor and have integrity than to be rich and have no integrity.

To Have One, Be One

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 18

Key Verse: Verse 24 - “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”

Key Words: A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly 

In a book by Henry Durbanville, the author underscored the importance of friends as a means of overcoming the dreaded enemy of loneliness.  He included the following excellent quotes that are worthy of repeating.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.”  A small boy defined a friend as “someone who knows all about you and likes you just the same.’  And an old Arab saying goes like this: “A friend is one to whom we may pour out all the contents of our hearts, chaff and grain together, knowing tht the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping , and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.”  Durbanville himself made this observation: “A friend is the first person to come in when the whole world goes out.”

Solomon  wrote in Proverbs 17”17, “A friend loveth at all times.”  We can’t improve on that definition.  To have someone who remains true to us under all circumstances. Is indeed one of life’s choicest blessings.  The support and encouragement that only an intimate personal friend can offer is sorely needed when the burdens and pressures of life weigh heavily upon us.  But today’s Scripture makes a very important point.  It says that “A man who hath friends must show himself friendly.”  The implication is clear – Friendliness must begin with us.  We must take the initiative in developing relationships with others.

Let us be to others what we desire for ourselves.  When it comes to friends, to have one you must be one!

                                                                             Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞There is an old saying that goes like this: “I went out to find a friend and could not find one nowhere; but when I went out to be a friend, I found friends everywhere.” 

            ✞You want a friend? Be one first.

A Loving Friend

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 17

Key Verse: Verse 17 - “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

Key Words: A friend loveth at all times 

Proverbs chapter seventeen deals with the subject of contentment.  We see in verses one through five that Solomon deals with contentment from possessions.  In verses six through ten, he deals with contentment from having right priorities.  In verses eleven through twenty-one, he talks about being content with people, and sometimes being content in spite of people.  Then in verses twenty-two through twenty-eight, he talks about contentment that comes from being prudent.

But in verse seventeen, Solomon touches on being content in our friendships when he says “A friend loveth at all times.”  A real key to loving someone is in really being their friend,.  Let me explain.

On July 29, 1981, Britain’s Prince Charles married Lady Di in a grand royal wedding.  The glamorous wedding was a “fairy tale comes true” for both Prince Charles and Lady Di, or at least that’s what we were led to believe.  For their wedding London was a city dressed like a large stage.  City busses were painted the color of the wedding.  There wee 4,000 pots of flowers tht lined the wedding route of Lady Di.  All the flowers were, there again, the color of her wedding.

That day it is said tht three million people lined the streets of London to get a glimpse of Lady Di.  The wedding was carried live on television in seventy-five countries.  Approximately one billion people watched the wedding. 

It was indeed a glamorous wedding, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a glamorous marriage.

Fifteen years and one month after Prince Charles and Lady Di said “I do,” they were divorced.  Someone asked Prince Charles why the marriage failed.  His answer was, to say the least, shocking.  He said, “Lady Di and I were lovers and admired each other, but we were never friends.”  Oh!! The Word of God is so true.  “A friend loveth at all times.” 

                                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞Remember, a friendship that can’t endure trials can’t be trusted.           

✞Don’t just marry a lover, make sure you’re friends.

            ✞Don’t just want friends, be a friend.

God Is In Control

Bible Reading: Proverbs 16

Key Verse: Verse 33 - “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.”

Key Words: The lot is cast into the lap 

Flipping a coin, drawing straws, or even taking a number out of a hat have always been ways of resolving a disagreement when other ways have failed.  One of these methods was recently used to decide the winner of an election.  It seems as though two men tied with 140 votes apiece in a city council election in a small town outside Norman, Oklahoma.  Rather than go through the expensive of another election, city officials used a chance method to decide the winner, and apparently everyone accepted the outcome.  In case you are wondering, they actually drew straws to decide the winner.

Many people view all of this as nothing more than a matter of chance, of gambling and playing the odds; but Solomon said that ultimately the whole matter would be decided by God.  In bible times this was not an unusual way of resolving situations. For example, remember in Jonah where they wanted to cast lots to see who had angered God and caused the storm (Jonah 1:7)?

So should we resort to casting lots or flipping coins to resolve conflicts, or to find God’s will, or to seek His direction?  Absolutely not!  We have His Word, His Spirit, and His assurance that He is guiding us.

Then what does all of this say to us?  I believe it says that from the Christian perspective there is no such thing as chance or luck.  God is either directly or indirectly involved in everything that happens to us.  He can, therefore, be trusted and obeyed in any circumstance because God is in control.

                                                                                             Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

             ✞Turn everyday and every situation over to God.

             ✞Follow God’s direction as He speaks to you through His Word.

            ✞And remember, lots would never had been cast in Jonah, had Jonah been in God’s                 will.

A Soft Answer

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 15

Key Verse: Verse 1 - “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.”

Key Words: A soft answer turneth away wrath 

            The best way to unarm an angry man is with soft words.  The soft word doesn’t carry near the sting or the pain as something hard does.

            Chapter fifteen deals with our words.  On at least seven occasions you find the words tongue, lips, mouth, and words.

            Solomon says that our words should be wise (verse 2), wholesome (verse 4), knowledgeable (verse 7), timely (verse 23), pleasant (verse 26), controlled (verse 28), and lastly soft (verse 1).

            As in elderly woman prepare to park her large expensive car, a young college student cut her off and stole her parking spot.  Now that was neither chivalrous nor wise, but it gets worse.  The young driver jumped from his car and sarcastically said, “Oh, to be young and fast!” poking fun at the elderly lady.  Later when the student returned to his car, he was appalled.  The elderly woman was using her big car as a battering ram to demolish his little car.  The lady powered down her window, smiled and said, “You may be young and fast, but Oh, to be old and rich!”

            Don’t you think his words stirred her anger?  I remind you, “A soft answer turneth away wrath.”                   

                                                                                             Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞Keep your answers soft, and I might add, brief.

            ✞Remember, “A fool uttereth all his mind.” 

What to do with Anger

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 14

Key Verse: Verse 17 - “He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated.”

Key Words: He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly 

We are not told in the Bible that getting angry is sinful.  What we do read, however, is that we must never allow anger to cause us to sin.  Instead, if the pent-up power of our wrath were directed into constructive uses, we could help right some of the wrongs of our evil world.

In Matthew 21, Jesus cast the money-changers out of the temple, but He controlled His emotions and accomplished something good.  When the hard-hearted Pharisees brought Him a man with a withered hand, hoping tht Christ would break the Sabbath by healing him, he “Looked round about on them with anger” (Mark 3:5).  But then He healed the man.  On the two occasions when His wrath was raised against the money-changers in the temple, He expressed it in a purposeful way by driving these religious frauds our of the Lord’s house.

Leslie B. Flynn tells that after the American Civil War the managers of the infamous Louisiana Lottery approached Robert E. Lee and asked if he’d let them use his name in their scheme.  They promised that if he did he would become rich.  Astounded, Lee straightened up, buttoned his gray coat, and shouted, “Gentlemen, I lost my home in the war.  I lost my fortune in the war.  I lost everything except my name.  My name is not for sale, and if you fellows don’t get out of here, I’ll break this crutch over your heads!” Anger can easily lead to sin, but it can also help us to take a strong stand for righteousness.  The next time an angry spirit rises in you, ask God to help you direct it toward purposes that honor the Lord. 

                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

      ✞Be angry at sin, not the sinner.

✞Remember anger can lead us to sin, so guard yourself; but it can also help us stand for

    righteousness. 

✞There is an old saying that that goes, “Keep your temper, no one else wants it.”

Truth

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 13              

Key Verse: Verse 6 – “Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way: but wickedness overthroweth the sinner.”

Key Words:  Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way 

Chapter thirteen of Proverbs deals with the subject of truth.  There is a truth about listening (verse 1), a truth about living (verse 2), a truth about laziness (verse 4), a truth about lying (verse 5), and a truth about limits (verse 6), and so it goes throughout the chapter.

It’s the truth about limits I would like for us to look at in today’s devotion.

If you would look again at the word righteousness in our text verse, it is a judicial word meaning to make Godly decisions.  Then notice the word upright, it carries the idea of being whole, not divided.  I believe the principle is clear – Godly decisions keep you whole.

Every one of us needs to set some limits for ourlife: things we will not do, places we will not go, words we will not use, clothing we will not wear.  Without limis we find ourselves in a constant quandary.

As a boy growing up in south Alabama, I lived in an area that allowed me the space to run in open fields, but I also was able to hide in the woods.  It was certainly a good life for a young boy.  One of the things I would do was to catch the field larks that would fly into th fields for their early morning breakfast.  I would put a cardboard box out, stick a stick under it to hold it up, tie a string around the stick, and then I would take the string and hide.  In order to lure the field larks into the box, I would put one of Mother’shomemade biscuits under it.  Sure enough, when they flew in, they couldn’t resist Mom’s biscuit.  I would occasionally tag the birds I caught with a little band around their leg.  You know, I was continually catching saome of the same birds oven and over again.  You know, the same thing happens to us.  Satan constantly puts out the lures and because we have not limits, we continually find ourselves trapped and in distress.

Today I challenge you to live your life with limits.  The only other option is to live a life of spiritual defeat.

                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do: 

✞Write down your limits an dstick to them.

✞Pray for God’s power daily to stay within those limits.

           ✞Stay away from compromising situations.