Safety

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 21

Key Verse: Verse 31 - “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.”

Key Words: safety is of the LORD 

It is said often enough so we certainly can’t forget that we live in dangerous times.  We are reminded of that tidbit of discouraging news by the media, medical and ministrial professions; so in the midst of all this discouragement and danger, what is a guy to do?   Well, he should…

• Avoid riding in automobiles because they are responsible for 20% of all fatal accidents;
• Avoid staying home because 17% of all accidents occur in the home;
• Avoid walking and exercising because 14% of all accidents occur during these events;
• Avoid, if at all possible, traveling by air , rail or se-going vessels as 16% of all accidents involve these forms of transportation;
• Of the remaining 33%, 32% of all deaths occur in hospitals.  Above all else, it would appear hospitals must be avoided.

So what’s left?  Well, interestingly enough, only .001% of all deaths occur in church services and those are usually related to previous disorders.  Therefore, common sense tells us that church is a safe place to be. 

The Bible is certainly safe as well.  The percentage of deaths during Bible study is enormously small.  Therefore, I have reached the conclusion that for safety’s sake, attend church and read your Bible.  It could save your life.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse                                                What to do:

            ✞  Where do you believe your safety comes from?

            ✞  Ask God for safety each day.

            ✞  Pray for the safety of others. 

Integrity

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 20

Key Verse: Verse 7 – “The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.”

Key Words: The just man walketh in his integrity 

In Proverbs 20:7a we are told that, “The just man walketh in his integrity.”  The word integrity comes from the Latin word integer.  It’s a math term meaning whole number.  The idea behind integrity is that we are whole, that our walk and out talk are one.  We do what we say we will do and we are what we say we are.  Today so many people freely attribute integrity to others, but are you aware that in the entire Word of God only three people were ever said to have integrity,  Abraham, David , and Job.  The reason so few people have integrity is because of the pressure placed on them to lose their integrity.  For example, Job was attacked by Satan so he would lose his integrity.  His wife put family pressure on him, and then his friends pressured him, all so that Job would lose his integrity.  No wonder so very few people keep their integrity.  Now integrity is not so much what I say about myself as what others say and see about me.  I remember for one of my college final exams we had twenty questions.  Numbers one and twenty were blank but numbers two through nineteen had questions our beside them.  The professor asked us verbally question number one, “Do you have integrity?’  Yes or no was the only  acceptable answer.  Then he told us to answer questions two through nineteen and turn our papers over on our desk.  After everyone was finished, he took our exams and then passed them out and said, “Now look at the name on the exam you have before you and look at question number one.  If you believe they were truthful about their integrity, give them five points.  Integrity is not what you think of yourself, it is what others see in you.”

Today when others look at you, they’ll reach a decision about your integrity.  What decision will they reach? 

                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do:

      ✞Always practice integrity.

      ✞Parents, remember integrity is not so much taught as caught. 

      ✞What would others say about your integrity?.

  

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.”