Weekly Devotion, "True Beauty" - April 16, 2012

from Lenae, GEMS Training Manager

TRUE BEAUTY

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

It’s a joy to witness something come full circle. There are heartwarming moments like I experienced at our annual Widows’ Tea with our GEMS Club when the seasoned saint who founded our local club a few decades ago gave me a hug of thanks. She knew what it was to be on the giving end of GEMS and now she’s blessed to be on the receiving side. There are also humorous full-circle occasions like when my mom gifted me a small plaque that reads, “By the time a woman realizes her mother was right . . . she usually has a daughter, who thinks she’s wrong . . .” Full circle indeed!

In the final chapter of Proverbs we see the book’s theme come full circle. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised (31:30). This verse directs us to the book’s starting point and the theme of Proverbs: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (9:10).

Proverbs begins and ends with the fear of the LORD. The first and last word of this divine book of wisdom is to rightly reverence God in a manner that is worthy of His Name!

If you’re like me, you need look no further than your bedroom mirror to verify that beauty is fleeting. Nail polish chips. Skin sags. Bones lose density and memories wane. Although outer beauty is fleeting, it’s still essential to care for the bodies God entrusted to us. They’re temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Proverbs 5:15-19 instructs the man to delight in his wife’s body. It’s good and fitting that God’s girls eat right, exercise, and smell sweet for His glory and praise.

Our physical appearance is important, but it must always come secondary to the true beauty and strength of our heart. As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart (27:19). The heart is where God’s eye is drawn first (1 Samuel 16:7)!

The source of true beauty is the posture of our heart:

           Trust in the LORD with all your heart (3:5)

           Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life (4:23)

           The wise in heart accept commands (10:8)

           The LORD tests the heart (17:3)

           The LORD weighs the heart (21:2)

           Keep your heart on the right path (23:19)

The praise that matters most isn’t given to cover models, but to the woman whose heart rightly reverences and obeys God: the woman who fears the LORD (31:30).

Wisdom Step: What is the posture of your heart today?

[When I first read the description of the Proverbs 31 woman] I thought out loud, “Wow! That’s the kind of woman I want to be! Ever since then, to me, that’s what it has really meant to be ‘a beautiful woman.’”

Kim Boyce

Weekly Devotion, "Choose Wise Friends" - April 9, 2012

 From Lenae, GEMS Training Manager

CHOOSE WISE FRIENDS

Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.

Proverbs 13:20

As soon as Rehoboam was inaugurated king, Jeroboam, and the Israelites said to him: “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you” (2 Chronicles 10:4). Rehoboam told them to return in three days for his answer. In the meantime he sought wisdom from the elders who counseled his father Solomon and from the young men who had grown up with him.

The elders advised that he be kind and considerate to the people and they will always be quick to serve him. The young men recommended he take the heavy yoke Solomon originally put on them and make it heavier still.

King Rehoboam rejected the wisdom of the elders and listened to his foolish companions. After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD (2 Chronicles 12:1).

Rehoboam made two foolish mistakes. He rejected wise counsel and failed to seek God’s wisdom. His unwise choices led to a divided kingdom and a nation that abandoned God and His ways.

If only Rehobaom had heeded Solomon’s words of wisdom in Proverbs 13:20: Walk with the wise and become wise, for the companion of fools suffers harm. One of the best choices we can make to influence more wise choices is to choose wise, godly friends.

Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33). That’s true for children and teens, and holds true for our relationships as well. Our friends are either cultivating or corrupting our character. They are shaping us through word and example to be wise or to be fools.

Like Rehobaom we are influenced and we are influencers. We are led and we lead. Rehoboam was influenced by his foolish friends and influenced the entire nation to rebel against God and His commands.

How about you and me? Who are your closest friends? How are they influencing you and how are you influencing them? Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction (Psalm 1:1, 6).

Wisdom Step: Take a thoughtful inventory of your closest companions. Ask God to provide clear direction in the friends you choose.

Constant exposure to those who are wise will have a residual effect upon one’s life. You cannot remain the same, if you have a wise man or woman as your friend.

John A. Kitchen

Weekly Devotion, "Instrument of Peace" April 2, 2012

from Lenae, GEMS Training Manager 

INSTRUMENT OF PEACE

Better a meal of vegetables where there is love

than a fattened calf with hatred.

Proverbs 15:17

When all our daughters were still in the nest, anytime Mother’s Day, my birthday, or Christmas rolled around they would ask what I wanted for a present. Their question always included a disclaimer, “And you can’t say, ‘No more fighting!’”

What I considered a great gift didn’t count as a real gift to those little girls. Most mammas would agree that peace and love within the family is better than diamond earrings, roses, and even fine chocolates. It’s something Solomon understood as well:

·      Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife (17:1).

·      Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred (15:17).

·      Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife (25:24).

·      As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife (26:21).

·      A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day (27:15).

Chapter 15 of Proverbs commends peace in our relationships – peace with God – the fear of the LORD (v 16), peace with others – love (v 17), and peace with self – a cheerful heart (v 15). It’s God’s desire for our relationships and Jesus’ prayer: I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me (John 17:20-21).

Our love for each around the dinner table and the communion table powerfully points the world to God’s love. Strife within families and division within the church is destructive to the individuals involved and negates our witness in this world.

The way of the wise is marked with peace. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace (3:17). Wise people seek to restore broken relationships. When they promote peace they experience joy (12:20) and physically feel better (14:30). When we pursue God’s wisdom in relationships instead of following the foolishness of the world that holds grudges and seeks revenge, even our enemies will live at peace with us (16:7).

The God of peace commands us to be instruments of peace. If it is possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18). Make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification (Romans 14:19).

Wisdom Step: Is there a friend or family member that you need to make peace with today? If so, be wise. Make the effort instead of making excuses.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Oh Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.
-St. Francis

Weekly Devotion, " Primary Faith Nurturers" March 26

from Lenae, GEMS Training Manager
 

PRIMARY FAITH NURTURERS

Listen, my son (daughter), to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

Proverbs 1:8

A Barna Group study reported eighty-five percent of parents of children under age 13 believe they have the primary responsibility for teaching their children about religious beliefs and spiritual matters. That’s great news: parents understand their job description! The problem is negligence. They’re failing to take action and do what God requires of them. Related research “revealed that a majority of parents do not spend any time during a typical week discussing religious matters or studying religious materials with their children.” Most parents are willing to let their church (or GEMS Club) provide the religious teaching rather than doing what they acknowledge is their responsibility – training their children!

God assigned parents to be the first line of Christian education. Proverbs 1:8 points to the family lines needed in training children: Listen to your father’s instruction. Do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Proverbs 6:20 reiterates: Keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

There’s a tendency in our culture to bind our lives to schedules and things. People are tied to their calendars, car keys, cell phones, and TV remotes like a baby to her pacifier. Lose any one of these items and everything stops until the lost has been found.

God teaches us through Moses to bind ourselves to His Word and to take every opportunity to teach our children to do the same! We are to impress the command to love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul, and strength on the hearts of our children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:6-9, emphasis mine).

What children has God entrusted into your care as a parent, grandparent, aunt, or special friend? Talk with them about God. Identify God sightings in your lives and in the world. Talk about His creation and marvel at the wonderful deeds He has done. Read His Word together at breakfast and bedtime, and other moments sandwiched in between. Pray together and for one another. Expect Him to answer! Create a journal of thanksgiving to God – an ongoing list of praise and thanks. Memorize His Word. Choose a name of God to focus on each day or week. This is the tying and binding that is most needed in families. This is the tying and binding that will change lives one home and a time.

Wisdom Step: What one-on-one faith nurturing are you doing with the children God has entrusted to you or your sphere of influence? Will you do more? If so, what?

It is very important that children learn from their fathers and mothers how to love one another ­– not in the school, not from the teacher, but from you. 

Mother Teresa

Weekly Devotion, "Legacy", March 5, 2012

from Lenae, GEMS Training Manager

 

LEGACY

The memory of the righteous will be a blessing,

but the name of the wicked will rot.

Proverbs 10:7

Last night youngest daughter Melanie told us the Senior Class Hall of Fame categories that will be published in their high school yearbook. Each student in their small class received an honor as most musical, most competitive, most stressed, most unique, and so on. Melanie earned the honor for being most adventurous which probably has something to do with her going skydiving a few months ago.

If your friends and family created a Hall of Fame category for you, how would you best be remembered today? Nichole Nordeman considered that and put her thoughts to music in her song, “Legacy”: 

“I want to leave a legacy. How will they remember me? Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough to make a mark on things? I want to leave an offering – a child of mercy and grace who blessed Your name unapologetically and leave that kind of legacy.”

The book of Proverbs confirms that the legacy of the righteous will be a blessing (10:7) and that a good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold (22:1). The name, fame, or legacy of the righteous should point people to Jesus and edify, encourage, and benefit the body of believers. The Bible’s heroes of faith, Christian biographies, and the stories of saints within the family of God locally and around the world should inspire us as we consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith (Hebrews 13:7).

The Apostle Paul was ever mindful of his legacy and lived in such a way that he boldly encouraged people to follow his example. “I urge you to imitate me” (1 Corinthians 4:16), he told the church in Corinth. “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

A humble, dear sister in Jesus once told me that 1 Corinthians 11:1 is her life verse. Like Paul she intentionally seeks to live a life that is worthy of being modeled after because she’s steadfastly following the example of her Savior Jesus Christ. I can testify that I am blessed each time I have opportunity to spend time with her and am greatly encouraged when I reflect on the way her words and actions have shaped my life.

The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot (Proverbs 10:7). What great incentive for Titus 2 women and all believers to live righteously and leave a legacy that glorifies Jesus!

Wisdom Step: Think about your legacy. Could you boldly say with Paul, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ”? Why or why not?

You have been created by God and for God, and someday you will stand amazed at the simple yet profound ways He has used you even when you weren’t aware of it.

Kay Arthur