Proverb A Day, Proverb 22 [Prayer and Meditation]

Bible NKJV ^ | 900 B.C. | Solomon

[OneVike]

Proverb 22:10 tells us to cast out the scoffer, and contention will leave; Yes, strife and reproach will cease.

This refers to those who are bullies in the way they act. Church bullies are common in many churches. They are
the wolfs in sheep's clothing who seem to thrive in situations where they can wreak havoc while creating
dissension. They typically must have an “enemy” in the church, because they aren’t happy unless they are
fighting a battle. They tend to maneuver to get an official leadership position in the church, such as
chairman of the elders or deacons or treasurer. But they may have bully power without any official position.
Here are 9 signs that you have a bully, with 9 solutions on how to deal with them.

9 Signs Of A Church Bully Church bullies have always been around. But they seem to be doing their work more
furiously today than in recent history. Perhaps this look at nine traits of church
bullies can help us recognize them before they do too much damage.

1.) They do not recognize themselves as bullies. To the contrary,
they see themselves as necessary heroes sent to save the church from her own self.

2.) They have personal and self-serving agendas. They have determined
what “their” church should look like. Any person or ministry or program that is
contrary to their perceived ideal church must be eliminated.

3.) They seek to form power alliances with weak members in the church.
They will pester and convince groups, committees and persons to be their allies in
their cause. Weaker church staff members and church members will succumb to
their forceful personalities.

4.) They tend to have intense and emotional personalities.
These bullies use the intensity of their personalities to get their way.

5.) They are famous for saying “people are saying.”
They love to gather tidbits of information and shape it to their own agendas.

6.) They find their greatest opportunities in low-expectation churches.
Many of the church members have an entitlement view of church membership. They seek to
get their own needs and preferences fulfilled. They, therefore, won’t trouble
themselves to confront and deal with church bullies. That leads to the next issue,
which is a consequence of this point

7.) They are allowed to bully because church members will not stand up to them.
I have spoken with pastors and church staff who have been attacked by church bullies. While
the bully brings them great pain, they have even greater hurt because most of the church
members stood silent and let it happen.

8.) They create chaos and wreak havoc. A church bully always has his
next mission. While he or she may take a brief break from one bullying mission to the
next, they are not content unless they are exerting the full force of their manipulative behavior.

9.) They often move to other churches after they have done their damage.
Whether they are forced out or simply get bored, they will move to other churches with the
same bullying mission. Some bullies have wreaked havoc in three or more churches.

Church bullying is epidemic in many of our congregations. So how do you deal with church
bullies? What can you do to prevent such bullying? Here are nine suggestions to consider
if your church is suffering from self righteous bullies.

9 Solutions For Handling Church Bullies 1.) Fight bullying with the power of prayer. The most common targets of church
bullies are the pastor and church staff. I encourage everyone in vocational ministry
to ask humbly for people to pray for them daily. In two of the churches where I served
as pastor, I had as many as 100 or more people committed to pray for me daily. They
typically prayed for me for only two or three minutes each day at noon. Their
intercessory prayers for me were brief, but they were powerful!

2.) Seek to have an Acts 6 group in the church. I am specifically referring to
the manner in which the Jerusalem church dealt with murmuring and complaining. They
appointed a group to take care of the widows who were being overlooked in the daily
distribution of food. The seven who were appointed to the task were thus not only to
do that ministry, but they were also to preserve the unity of the church. Churches
need either informal or formal groups that see their ministry as dealing with conflict,
complaints, and dissension so that unity is preserved.

3.) Have a high expectation church. I have addressed the issues of high
expectation churches and low expectation churches many times on this blog. Higher
expectation churches tend to be more unified, more Great Commission focused, more
biblically defined, and more servant oriented. Stated simply, high expectation
churches don’t offer an environment conducive to bullying.

4.) Encourage members to speak and stand up to church bullies.
Bullying thrives in a church where the majority remains in silent fear of
church bullies. Bullies tend to back down when confronted by strong people
in the church. We just need more strong people in the church.

5.) Make certain the polity of the church does not become a useful instrument
to church bullies. Many churches have ambiguous structures and lines of
accountability. Polity is weak and ill-defined. Bullies take advantage of the ambiguity
and interpret things according to their nefarious needs.

6.) Be willing to exercise church discipline. Church discipline is a forgotten
essential of many churches. Bullies need to know there are consequences for their
actions, and church discipline may be one of them.

7.) Have a healthy process to put the best-qualified persons in positions of
leadership in the church. Bullies often are able to push around less qualified
people who have found themselves in positions of leadership. There should be a
spiritually and strategically designed process to choose and recruit people for key
leadership positions.

8.) Have a healthy process to hire church staff. For example, an egregious
mistake would be the church’s hiring of a senior staff member without the enthusiastic
support of the pastor. If the pastor and new staff member do not have good chemistry,
a church bully can quickly pit one against the other. A unified church staff is a
major roadblock for a church bully.

9.) Encourage a celebratory environment in the church. Joyous churches deter
bullies. They like somber and divided churches.

Like a wolf in sheep's clothing, Church bullies can keep a church from being healthy and
well balanced. I hope this helps for anyone who recognizes this problem in their church.

Proverb 22 (NKJV)

The Value of a Good Name
01 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
00 Loving favor rather than silver and gold.

02 The rich and the poor have this in common,
00 The LORD is the maker of them all.

03 A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself,
00 But the simple pass on and are punished.

04 By humility and the fear of the LORD
00 Are riches and honor and life.

05 Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse;
00 He who guards his soul will be far from them.

06 Train up a child in the way he should go,
00 And when he is old he will not depart from it.

07 The rich rules over the poor,
00 And the borrower is servant to the lender.

08 He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow,
00 And the rod of his anger will fail.

09 He who has a generous eye will be blessed,
00 For he gives of his bread to the poor.

10 Cast out the scoffer, and contention will leave;
00 Yes, strife and reproach will cease.

11 He who loves purity of heart
00 And has grace on his lips,
00 The king will be his friend.

12 The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge,
00 But He overthrows the words of the faithless.

13 The lazy man says, "There is a lion outside!
00 I shall be slain in the streets!"

14 The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit;
00 He who is abhorred by the LORD will fall there.

15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;
00 The rod of correction will drive it far from him.

16 He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches,
00 And he who gives to the rich, will surely come to poverty.


Sayings of the Wise

17 Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
00 And apply your heart to my knowledge;
18 For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you;
00 Let them all be fixed upon your lips,
19 So that your trust may be in the LORD;
00 I have instructed you today, even you.
20 Have I not written to you excellent things
00 Of counsels and knowledge,
21 That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth,
00 That you may answer words of truth
00 To those who send to you?

22 Do not rob the poor because he is poor,
00 Nor oppress the afflicted at the gate;
23 For the LORD will plead their cause,
00 And plunder the soul of those who plunder them.

24 Make no friendship with an angry man,
00 And with a furious man do not go,
25 Lest you learn his ways
00 And set a snare for your soul.

26 Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge,
00 One of those who is surety for debts;
27 If you have nothing with which to pay,
00 Why should he take away your bed from under you?

28 Do not remove the ancient landmark
00 Which your fathers have set.

29 Do you see a man who excels in his work?
00 He will stand before kings;
00 He will not stand before unknown men.

[OneVike]

The purpose of Writing the book of Proverbs was to reveal the mind of God in matters high and lofty and in common, ordinary, everyday situations. It appears that no topic escaped King Solomon's attention. Matters pertaining to personal conduct, sexual relations, business, wealth, charity, ambition, discipline, debt, child-rearing, character, alcohol, politics, revenge, and Godliness are among the many topics covered in this rich collection of wise sayings.

Without wisdom, knowledge is nothing more than an accumulation of raw facts, influenced by emotional feelings. Many highly educated people are in positions of power in the United States, but very few of those educated leaders have the wisdom needed to rule properly.

One can say that they have been educated well beyond their intelligence. A cursory look at the court system will prove my point that knowledge without wisdom will only lead to an immoral society that eventually crumbles from within. Judges are supposed to be above the fray, and immovable to emotions. Instead, the vast majority of judges today are Godless individuals who are vacant of wisdom. So their rulings are totally based upon emotional feelings.

We the people are to blame, because we ignored God's guidance in appointing our leaders. Instead of putting leaders full wisdom in power, we instead chose those who would scratch our itchy ears to lead us.

Of the 31 Proverbs, only the first 24 were written by Solomon. King Hezekiah wrote 5, Proverbs 25 to 29, Agur wrote Proverb 30, and Lemuel wrote Proverb 31. Now many believe Lemuel was in fact King Solomon and Lemuel was just a nick name his Mother, Bathsheba gave him. We are told that Solomon write over 3000 Proverbs and composed 1000 songs, but the only Proverbs God decided to preserve for us are Proverbs 1-24. Like the New Testament epistle by James, it is impossible to get a chronological outline for a study since they all bounce from subject to subject.

Along with my daily routine of reading the Bible, I try to read through the book of Proverbs once a Month. It's an easy task when you consider there are 31 Proverbs. So all you need to know is what day of the Month it is. In the Months that have 30 days, or in the case of February, I just double up by reading more than one two proverb so I can begin the next month with Proverb 1 on the first again.

[OneVike]

Send FReep Mail to OneVike to get
[ON] or [OFF]
The Proverb A Day Ping List

[NEWwoman]

24 Make no friendship with an angry man,
00 And with a furious man do not go,
25 Lest you learn his ways
00 And set a snare for your soul.

So true in social media.

As for your comments in fighting bullies, I remember a pastor’s wife saying how they prayed someone out of the church. It works.

[Salvation]

04 By humility and the fear of the LORD
Are riches and honor and life.

[Ciexyz]

Train up a child in the way he or she should go — YES!