Category Archives: Proverbs

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Redemptive Lift

God Calls You To Be An Agent of Transformation

SYNOPSIS: Petros Network’s goals are not simply to plant a certain number of churches and have a certain number of souls saved, but to train our church planters to be the voice of reform, education, and vision casting for all that comes from the domain of God’s goodness within their communities. The gospel demands of people a better way of living. The Good News ought to lead villagers to better health and hygiene, clean water systems, environmental stewardship, human rights, women’s empowerment, protection of vulnerable children, food security, government that serves the best interest of the people, better family relationships, and ethnic harmony. When the gospel takes root in a city, Redemptive Lift must follow. “By the blessings of the upright, the city will be exalted.” (Prov 11:11) That should be the result of the gospel you bear in your village, too.

Moments With God // Proverbs 11:11

By the blessings of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

I am writing this devotional after two trips in two months to four different African nations. Our joint Petros Network teams of North Americans and Africans completed fifteen intensive days of leadership training in the remote, impoverished, and unreached areas with 600 East African church planters—indigenous missionaries—who are taking their regions region by storm.

Not only did we train, but we also individually interviewed all 600 of these Spirit-filled, brave men and women. We heard story after amazing story of physical healings, deliverances from demonic possession, the dead being raised, and other signs and wonders that, as much as those I’ve just mentioned might be hard to fathom, are way beyond our grid of experience and belief.

To say the least, we are witnessing a veritable Book of Acts type revival before our very eyes. The gospel is being proclaimed, souls are being saved, converts are entering the discipleship process, and the Kingdom of God is rapidly and assertively coming to places previously ruled by darkness. No more! Now that rule is being returned to the rightful ruler, God!

Yet what excites me as much as anything is the Redemptive Lift of village after village that follows the proclamation of the gospel and the salvation of souls. By Redemptive Lift I mean that wherever people respond to the gospel, not only are souls saved for all eternity, but life in the village gets better right now. In other words, when the Good News takes root in a place, the city is exalted. As it should! We call this transformation, the Redemptive Lift Cycle. The great advancements in the history of civilization as well as the greatest social reforms over the centuries have always been inspired by the people of God who carry the message of God to their corner of the world.

Our church planting goals are not simply to plant a certain number of churches and have a certain number of souls saved, but to train our church planters to be the voice of reform, education, and vision casting for all that comes from the domain of God’s goodness within their respective communities. The gospel demands of people a better way of living. The Good News ought to lead villagers to better health and hygiene, clean water systems, environmental stewardship, human rights, women’s empowerment, protection of vulnerable children, food security, government that serves the best interest of the people, better family relationships, and ethnic harmony.

“By the blessings of the upright, the city will be exalted.” And, with God’s help, we are going to see once impoverished nations transform into a shining light on hill for all of Africa. Pretty lofty goal, I know. But village by village, we will prevail because the gospel will prevail. Jesus promised it would.

This brings me to you: God wants you to be an agent of Redemptive Lift in your village—your home, your school, your workplace, your neighborhood, your social network, or wherever you do life. He desires wherever you live to be exalted by your righteousness. This is not just God’s plan for Africa; it is his plan for you!

Is life in your “village” better simply because you are there? It should be! After all, the gospel is meant to spill out of your life once in a while, making you an agent of Redemptive Lift.

Take A Moment: Ask God where and how he wants to use your righteousness to exalt the little corner of the world in which you live. Seriously, life in your “village” ought to get better simply by virtue of you being there.

We invite you to learn more about Redemptive Lift and the Redemptive Lift Cycle by visiting Petros Network at petrosnetwork.org. 

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The Shortest Route To Spiritual Perfection

The Path Is the Word of God

SYNOPSIS: I know of no other road to the kind of wisdom that Proverbs promises, no other route to spiritual perfection, no other path to a thriving Christianity, and no other spiritual discipline that will lead you to a God-pleasing life than by centering your life on God’s Word — reading, meditating, journaling, praying, then obeying the Scriptures. Nothing will contribute to your growth, health, and success in every area of life as a believer than that. It is this simple, my friend—not easy, but simple.

The Shortest Route To Spiritual Perfection

Moments With God // Proverbs 7:1-4

Follow my advice, my son; always treasure my commands. Obey my commands and live! Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes. Tie them on your fingers as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. Love wisdom like a sister; make insight a beloved member of your family.

In the first ten chapters of Proverbs, Solomon, the primary author of this amazing book, uses a literary technique by which he personifies wisdom as a woman. This woman, we might call her Lady Wisdom, calls out to a young man, who represents us, offering insights that will keep him from foolish decisions that will train wreck his life. Obviously, Lady Wisdom is God’s call to you and me to invest our highest and best energies in that which will enable us to lead a good life—one that is successful, satisfying, and most of all, pleasing to him.

Now that sounds like a huge task—and in many ways, it is—but the path to that kind of life, let’s call it spiritual perfection, is quite straightforward. And it is a way of the Word of God, where those who make the journey will grow in their knowledge of and obedience to God’s revealed truth. A.W. Tozer said it this way:

The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.

I know of no other path to the kind of Wisdom that Solomon talks about, no other path to spiritual perfection, no other path to becoming a whole Christian, and no other spiritual discipline that will lead us down that path to a God-pleasing life than by centering our lives in God’s Word—reading, meditating, journaling, praying the Scriptures. Nothing will contribute to your growth, health, and success in every area of life as a believer than that.

It is this simple, my friend—not easy, but simple. If you want to mature in your faith, morph into greater Christlikeness, deepen your knowledge of God, insulate your life from sin, enlarge your Kingdom effectiveness, increase your spiritual power, develop life skills for the daily challenges you face, and in general, live in the blessing zone of God’s favor, you’ve got to be in God’s Holy Word on a regular, if not daily, basis. Here is how King David said it in the very first Psalm:

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, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither — whatever they do prospers.

That’s the kind of life I want! How about you?

Take A Moment: As you read the Word of God, Ray E. Baughman, who wrote The Abundant Life, suggested the following method to help you apply the Scripture. From the passage read, apply the SPECS method by asking yourself these questions:

Sins to forsake?
Promises to claim?
Examples to follow?
Commands to obey?
Stumbling blocks or errors to avoid?

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Adult Beverages

It’s Always Better to Follow Christ than Culture

SYNOPSIS: It used to be, not more than a mere generation ago, that “thou shalt not drink alcohol” along with a few other inviolable “shalt not’s” was on a corollary set of Ten Commandments that my family and most other families in our brand of Christianity fiercely observed. These days it has gone so far the other way that you may be handed a brewski when you show up for your small group Bible study. Praise the Lord and pass the Coors Light!

New Article: Adult Beverages

Moments With God // Proverbs 20:1

Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

So who’s right: our tee-totaling grandparents or the beer-swilling hipster Christians of this present generation?

How about somewhere right down the middle. In my humble opinion, the Bible doesn’t condemn the moderate consumption and enjoyment of alcohol (I read somewhere that Jesus once turned water into the best wine ever tasted by man), but it does give us some pretty clear guidance on the matter:

  • It comes down pretty hard on those who use alcohol in a way that leads to drunkenness: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” (Eph 5:18)
  • It issues a clear admonition against alcohol’s mind-altering effects: “Whose heart is filled with anguish and sorrow? Who is always fighting and quarreling? Who is the man with bloodshot eyes and many wounds? It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns, trying out new mixtures. Don’t let the sparkle and the smooth taste of strong wine deceive you. For in the end it bites like a poisonous serpent; it stings like an adder. You will see hallucinations and have delirium tremens, and you will say foolish, silly things that would embarrass you no end when sober. You will stagger like a sailor tossed at sea, clinging to a swaying mast. And afterward, you will say, ‘I didn’t even know it when they beat me up…Let’s go and have another drink!’” (Prov. 23:29-35)
  • It strongly warns again the false bravado and the negative personality change often associated with drinking: “Wine makes you mean, beer makes you quarrelsome—a staggering drunk is not much fun.” (Prov. 20:1)
  • It prohibits the believer’s use of alcohol when it causes another believer to struggle in their faith: “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Cor. 8:9)

As it relates to whether you should drink “adult beverages” or not, I would simply suggest that you consider the following:

First, consult what the “whole counsel of Scripture” has to say about drink, drinking, and drunkenness. There’s a lot there, by the way. When it comes to alcohol or any other questionable issue, let Scripture interpret Scripture as you form a Biblical opinion on the matter at hand.

Second, as a New Testament believer you have been set free from a long list of religious do’s and don’t’s. So don’t let any legalist draw you back into spiritual bondage. On the other hand, however, remember that just because God permits something doesn’t mean he will bless it.

Third, whenever there is an occasion where you will be offered a drink, ask yourself, “what would Jesus do in this situation?” Seriously, WWJD? I know that might sound hackneyed, but I truly believe it would be a good way to approach this whole matter.

Fourth, there is probably a very good reason why no one ever has said, “beer makes me a better Christian.” Nor has any ever said, “that guy’s drinking habits makes me want to follow Christ.” Maybe for that reason alone—for the health of our discipleship and our Christian witness—we ought to step away from the tap. Just saying!

But whether you and I agree on this matter or not, how about we extend each other a little grace? Or a lot!

Take A Moment: Develop your own theology of strong drink. Go through the Bible and read every passage that teaches about the consumption of alcohol, and write out a position statement summarizing your understanding of what God says about the matter. Then, if you don’t mind, send it to me. I’m curious what you found.

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Identify Your Area of Selective Sluggardliness

The Danger of 9-Out-Of-10 Thinking

SYNOPSIS: When it comes to areas of personal growth in your life, perhaps you feel that you’re doing well in nine-out-of-ten areas. And that is pretty good. But that nine-out-of-ten mentality has been the undoing of so many. It’s what we might call, “selective sluggardliness”. To neglect even the little, hidden, seemingly inconsequential areas of undeveloped and unredeemed moral fiber is to commit malpractice in life’s most important work—the development of our character.

Nine out of ten thinking

Moments With God // Proverbs 6:6

You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do.

“The first and best victory is to conquer self.” That’s according to the Greek philosopher Plato. He was right, of course! Unfortunately, however, far too many people are on a serious losing streak when it comes it comes to self-mastery.

But that’s not you, right? Since you are reading this, chances are you are doing it for personal improvement, self-discipline, and spiritual growth. You have taken the time and made the effort to read and reflect on how you might better align your character with God’s design for your life. That’s not to say you are perfect, but in nine out of ten areas, you’re doing pretty well, if you don’t say so yourself.

But hold on, my friend. It’s your inattention to that tenth area that very well may be the difference between God’s abundance or wasted potential in your life, between living a life of great faith and being an also-ran in the race of life, between hearing “well done, faithful one” and depart from me, I never knew you” on that day you stand before the Almighty.

It’s that nine-out-of-ten mentality that has been the undoing of so many. It is what we might call, “selective sluggardliness”. To neglect even the little, hidden, seemingly inconsequential areas of undeveloped and unredeemed moral fiber is to commit malpractice in life’s most important work—the development of our character.

That’s why Solomon says in Proverbs 6:6 (The Message), “You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do.” What does the ant teach us?

  1. The ant needs no outside motivation—it just follows its God-given, built-in, intrinsic motivation to do what needs to be done.
  2. The ant just instinctively knows what to do—and so do you.
  3. The ant, like Nike, just does it.

Okay, you’re doing great in nine out of ten areas. Pat yourself on the back and have a party. And once you’re done, tackle that tenth area. Don’t stop until you master it. Believe me, you won’t regret it.

Take A Moment: Talk to a trusted friend about this nine-out-of-ten idea and ask him or her if they see an area of neglect in your life. Then allow them to hold you accountable for growth in that area.

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Sweet Poison

Find Your Satisfaction God’s Way

SYNOPSIS: When we ignore God’s promise to fully satisfy our sexual desires through a loving, life-long, and faithful relationship with the person to whom we are married, we will end up elevating the world’s false promise of sensual satisfaction to god-like status—at our own peril. Apart from God’s design for human sexuality, sexual gratification is what C.S. Lewis referred to as the “sweet poison of the false infinite.” It is nothing more than a “substitute sacred”—a surrogate we desperately use to fill the emptiness of our dissatisfied lives, but never can. In reality, only the one true Sacred can do that! St. Augustine said it well, “Sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire, and try desperately to fulfill it without God…All these good things, and all our security, are rightly found only and completely in him.”

Sweet Poison

Moments With God // Proverbs 5:5

The seductive woman is dancing down the primrose path to Death; she’s headed straight for Hell and taking you with her. (The Message)

“Sex, sex, sex!” Have you noticed how our culture worships sexual gratification—sexual fulfillment achieved with anyone, any time and in any way you want? My guess is that any alien who landed on Planet Earth to research our species would have to conclude one thing just from the 250 million pornographic links from the 1.3 million porn sites that are available on the Internet.

No doubt about it: sex is god of the human race.

The book of Proverbs warns us repeatedly that when we ignore God’s promise to fully satisfy our sexual desires through a loving, life-long, and faithful relationship with the person to whom we are married, we will end up elevating the world’s promise of sensual satisfaction to god-like status—at our own peril. You see, money, power, fame, relationships, possessions, and sex—especially sex—are what C.S. Lewis referred to as the “sweet poison of the false infinite.”

We might call them “substitute sacreds”—the surrogates we desperately use to fill the emptiness of our dissatisfied lives. In reality, however, no substitute sacred ever fulfills what it so brazenly promises. Only the one true Sacred can do that! St. Augustine said,

“Sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God…All these good things, and all our security, are rightly found only and completely in him.”

God longs for us to come to him with the needs of our soul so he can graciously and abundantly and unendingly satisfy our deepest longings and most powerful passions—in his way and in his time. As Augustine said, God has created us for himself, and we will only find satisfaction when we find our satisfaction in him. Again, that includes our sexual needs fulfilled according to God’s design.

Annie Dillard tells of an experiment in which entomologists enticed male butterflies with a painted cardboard replica larger and more enticing than the females of their species. These male butterflies would repeatedly and eagerly mount the colorful cardboard cutout to mate with it, while nearby, the real, living female butterfly enticingly opened and closed her wings in vain.

Friend, the real, living God is near, longing to cover you in the shadow of his wings, where he will provide for you soul-satisfaction in every dimension of your being—even the sexual. Why settle for a substitute sacred when the real Divine awaits!

Take A Moment: Make a conscious effort today to identify all the substitute sacreds along your path. My guess is that you’ll probably lose count before the day is out since there will be so many. Each time you are enticed with money, sex, or power, stop and give thanks to God that he has instead given you eternal wealth, true satisfaction, and spiritual authority—far more gratifying than the sweet poison of these false infinites.

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Life Lessons

Early and Often, Impart Your Wisdom to Your Kids

SYNOPSIS: Parents, start early and do it often. Don’t abdicate the impartation of wisdom to your children’s teacher, youth pastor, their friends, and especially not to pop culture. It is your job—so you do it! Do it out of love. Do it out of your own reservoir of Godly wisdom. Take responsibility for shaping their lives. Do it because next to the Word of God, you are the single biggest influence for good and godliness your child has.

Life Lessons

Moments With God // Proverbs 4:1-2

Listen, friends, to some fatherly advice; sit up and take notice so you’ll know how to live. I’m giving you good counsel; don’t let it go in one ear and out the other. (The Message)

“Listen up!” People who know me will hear me say that with some regularity. It’s my way of getting people’s attention. It means that I’m fixin’ to say something that’s extremely important—at least in my humble opinion.

I think it’s especially important for parents to be giving those kinds of “listen up” talks to their children. It may not be as frequently, but now that I am a grandparent, I plan to have those kinds of talks with the grandkids, too.

Parents, start early and do it often. Don’t abdicate the impartation of wisdom to your children’s teacher, youth pastor, their friends, and especially not to pop culture. It is your job—so you do it!

Do it out of love. Do it out of your own reservoir of Godly wisdom (which, if you don’t have it, means you need to quickly get to the Source and start filling your own tank). Take responsibility for shaping their lives. Do it because next to the Word of God, you are the single biggest influence for good and godliness your child has—or at least you should be.

My fear is that far too many parents have left the business of molding their child’s intellect and character to the winds of fate. Perhaps that’s why, as many of us are convinced, our country is morally and intellectually adrift—fast approaching the shoals of a once-great nation. But I’m not ready to abandon our culture to second-rate status; I believe we can quickly reverse our spiritual-moral-cultural drift one child at a time by parents simply doing what parents are supposed to do: Having those “listen up talks” with our kids.

When my older daughter graduated from a leading business school with her MBA, during a break in the commencement activities, her mother and I were having one of those “listen up” talks with her—at her invitation (by the way, the ratio of unsolicited to solicited parental advice obviously decreases as the age of your child increases—and at a certain point, you get to have those talks only as they invite you into their world). I found myself sharing with her my list of life lessons—humorously couched in “Life Lesson #…” language. But I was seriously sharing from my reservoir of life experiences as filtered through God’s Word—and she was listening.

Fast forward a few years and I can tell you she has done just fine because that wasn’t the first nor the only “listen up” talk we had. We still do from time to time. And now I have the joy of watching her give the “listen up” talks to her children. I am convinced those children, my precious grandkids, will do just fine, too.

Maybe it’s time you had the first in a series of many “listen up” talks with those special people in your life.

Take A Moment: Make a list of your ten most important life lessons. Over the course of the next 90 days, find ways to slip them into conversations you are having with your children or grandchildren. The younger they are, the more assertive you can be. The older they are, the more creative and Spirit-led you will need to be.

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You’re Not That Impressive

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us!

SYNOPSIS: Your biggest worry today is not the economy, inflation, the threat of another world war, climate change, or an enemy. It is you! But if in things big and small you will run to God and run from evil, you will be on the way to a life of success, satisfaction, and significance.

Be on your way to a satisfying life.

Moments With God // Proverbs 3:7

Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

“We have met the enemy, and he is us!” That’s the famous line from the long-running Pogo comic strip. And that is pretty much the truth about us, isn’t it? We’re our own worst enemy. And the sooner we come to grips with that, the sooner we can get on the road to a satisfying and successful experience of life.

For that very reason, King Solomon said that we shouldn’t “assume that we know it all” (Proverbs 3:7, MSG) because you know the old saying about what happens when we “assume”. Rather, Solomon says we are to do two things:

  1. We are to run to God—that’s what it means to fear the Lord, which is a recurring theme in these early chapters of Proverbs.
  2. We are to run from evil—that’s a big part of what the Bible calls wisdom. As Paul exhorted Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

There it is: run to God and everything that is good and run from anything that would steer you into the ditch of foolish and immoral living.

The more famous verses that go before and come after Proverbs 3:7 are important to note here. Proverbs 3:5-6 instruct us as to how we can “run to God”: We are not to rely on our own smarts—we’re not that impressive anyway—we are to make God the first, continual and final source of authority in our lives. If we do that, God himself guarantees to direct our decisions.

When God directs the daily decisions of our lives, then he also takes responsibility for the outcome. Proverbs 3:8-10 tells us that a God-directed life will produce a body that is lean and mean with a healthy sheen and a wallet that is fat. For real, just take a look at verses 8 and 10 from The Message

Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life … [and] your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over.

That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it! If that is the outcome of running to God and running from evil, I’ll take that God-directed life over the me-directed life any day. How about you?

So, my friend, your biggest worry today is not the economy, inflation, the threat of another world war, climate change, or some enemy. It is you! But if in things big and small you will run to God and run from evil, you will be on the way to a life of success, satisfaction, and significance.

Take A Moment: Practice stopping throughout the day to talk to God. Before you make a decision, for sure, but even when you are in a quiet moment of contemplation, when you are watching a television show or listening to talk radio on the way to work, or after you have had a conversation, be sure to include God. Ask him what he thinks, what he wants, and if he will help.