This is part nineteen in my 31-day study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of this study is to learn what God has to say in this book about wisdom and discernment. Yesterday I continued to learn one of the predominant themes of this book – I need to guard my lips and choose…
In recent days and weeks there have been some interesting discussions in the forums about worship. A couple of these were kick-started by book reviews or articles I had written while others were started by readers in the General Discussion forum. A patter began to emerge that I would like to discuss briefly. This is…
This is part eighteen in my 31-day study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of this study is to learn what God has to say in this book about wisdom and discernment. Yesterday I learned that God uses difficult times in my life to shape and mould my character and that during these times…
This is part seventeen in my 31-day study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of this study is to learn what God has to say in this book about wisdom and discernment. Today we are looking at the seventeenth chapter of Proverbs. “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But…
I have had the privelege of hearing Louie Giglio speak on several occasions, both at conferences here in Toronto and in the church he ministers at in Atlanta. He is a wonderfully gifted speaker and has the rare ability to hold thousands of people at rapt attention for as long as he cares to speak.…
This is part sixteen in my 31-day study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of the study is to learn wisdom and discernment from this portion of God’s Word. Today our passage is the sixteenth chapter of Proverbs. A predominant theme in this chapter is God’s omnipotence. Where in the previous chapter the author…
This is part fifteen in my 31-day study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of the study is to learn wisdom and discernment from this portion of God’s Word. Today we turn to chapter 15 of this book of Wisdom. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil…
It is time, once more, to reach into the feedback files and answer a question sent to me by a reader. In fact, this question has been sent in by a lot of readers, so I thought I would answer it here once and for all! The question usually goes something like this: How do…
This is the fourteenth of thirty-one articles examining the book of Proverbs. Today we come to chapter fourteen as we near the half-way mark of this study. “A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding. Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words…
This is part thirteen in my 31-day study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of this study is to learn what God has to say in this book about wisdom and discernment. Yesterday I learned that I need to be willing to face correction and be willing to correct others. I also learned that…
This is part twelve in my 31-day study through the book of Proverbs. The purpose of this study is to learn what God has to say in this book about wisdom and discernment. Yesterday I learned that God is the source of wisdom and justice and in order to please Him I need to exhibit…
As you may know, Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life has begun to write a monthly column for Ladies Home Journal. This ought to be an exciting opportunity for a professed Christian, for this space is generally reserved for articles dealing with “spirituality” which equates to New…
This is the eleventh of thirty-one articles covering the book of Proverbs. Chapter eleven of Proverbs continues the theme of contrasting the righteous and the wicked. Though not every proverb uses these words, most of them adhere to this theme. “Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight.”…
This is day ten in our thirty-one day study of Proverbs, and today we reach the heart of the book. Chapters 10 through 22 of Proverbs contain mostly single-sentence proverbs and form almost half of the book. There are occasionally longer constructs, but generally verses are not interconnected. They may build on a common theme,…
One of my greatest passions in life is for history. When I was young I was more likely to be seen reading non-fiction than fiction, and it was natural that when it came time for post-secondary education, I elected to take history as my major. One aspect of history I particularly enjoyed was examining historical…
This is day nine in this thirty-one day journey through Proverbs. This chapter provides one final call for wisdom, contrasted with the call of folly, before the book turns to the Proverbs of Solomon which will extend nearly to the end of the book. Chapter ten begins to provide the short, contrasting statements for which…
When my son is well-rested he lives in a violent world. He dresses in armor and runs around smiting the bad guys. Because he is only five (he turned five on Saturday) and does not yet feel shame about having people watch him in his activities, so he plays loudly and energetically. I overhear the…
In past days I have been spending quite a bit of time reading about the nature of worship. Here are some quotes that speak of worship, and more specifically, music as worship: “Wherefore that much more ought we to take care not to abuse it, for fear of fouling and contaminating it, converting it to…
This is day eight in this thirty-one day study of the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 8 is an incredible poem that personifies wisdom as a teacher. Where in previous chapters the teacher has usually been a father instructing his children, we now see wisdom as the supreme teacher. In the first eleven verses wisdom cries…
This is the seventh day of this thirty-one day journey through the book of Proverbs. Due to extenuating circumstances (primarily a long night filled with sick children and hospital visits) I have not had opportunity to do as much study and writing as I would have liked. Thus I will be relying somewhat on last…