PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. (Proverbs 12:5).

“The thoughts of the righteous are right,” God is concerned with our thoughts and mind; not just our words.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).

Now, what that should settle in verse two is (1) the outside is not everything, but the outside does count. In the modern mega-backslidden-all-the-nonsense churches, it's become less and less that the outside matters at all. Some guy can still be a “Christian” and be tattooed up one side and down the other (after they are supposedly saved), and they can get new piercings all over. I can hear someone saying now, “Well, they can be Christian!” and we don’t question that, they can be Christian too; but there is also a good chance that many of them are not.

Still, for one to deemphasize the outside to the extent that anybody that is concerned about what the outside says is a Pharisee, is way out of line. There is a lot of Phariseeism, there can be no disputing of that fact. To obsess on any one thing on the outside of a person dress, hair, or whatever, one can go too far with that; but to say that the outside doesn't matter is stupid, because it does. Paul here says, “Be not conformed to this world,” so the outside does matter, “but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The fact is that change starts on the inside by the renewing of the mind, and as the mind renews, then the outside changes, and is not conformed to this world. The key is the “renewing of the mind.”

“That ye put off concerning the former conversation [that is your lifestyle] the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts [that is what's going on inside]; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:22-23).

You can't do that with anything but the word of God, or the application of the word of God.

There is a lot that passes for mental illness that is actually nothing more than a spiritual problem, and it can be solved by being born again. But being born again doesn't fix it all. Just because you are saved doesn’t fix your character.

That is the basic problem with the guys that are in prison. They get saved and they're just as saved as any born again Christian, but the problem is that they have deeper character ruts than folks that have never been in trouble with the law. Just because you got saved doesn't change your character, and part of character is the way you think. That has to change. That's why salvation doesn't fix everything down here. Sure, it fixes it all for heaven, but the reason the Lord left us here was so that we would be transformed into the image of his son, and not conformed to the things down here. Its character, and a lot of it is hard work.

“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:9-10).

That’s a renewed mind; it’s a renewed heart, and it’s renewed in knowledge.

All this started with, “the thoughts of the righteous are right.” Everybody reading this knows that all your thoughts are not right, and that's because there is an unrighteous guy inside of you, alongside of the righteous one. And he is thinking stuff too. When you have an unrighteous thought, at least you know which guy was thinking it, right?

Daily Bible study is necessary if we are going to begin our day with the right attitude and the right spiritual diet. Proverbs has 31 chapters, and most months have 31 days, so let’s read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let’s keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread! Ideally, a chapter or two of Proverbs will fit in nicely with a good plan of reading our Bibles through each year.

If anyone would like to be added to the ping list, please let me know either by post or by p.m.

Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Great verse!