Be stayed upon the Lord

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths." Proverbs 3: 5,6

Corey,

Countless times I have dismissed this passage from my mind, especially in stressful situations. When a problem arises, my first instinct is to worry, looking with anxiety into the unforeseeable future to try to see the outcome. Suddenly, my whole world revolves around this one complication, and I desperately strive to fix it or set it right with all the speed that my frustrated self can muster. Afterwards, I find myself reflecting back on my reactions and I ask myself, "Was that a biblical response to trouble?"

In Proverbs 3, Solomon gives an answer; a very famous answer known and repeated by so many believers; so much so that at times we have lost the real comfort that lies in these words. "We are to trust in the Lord," he says, and not to rely on what we can see. To put our confidence in our Lord is to rest in the assurance that He has reasons for everything He does and that sooner or later, somehow, He will set it right. This means we have nothing to worry about. We are being led down the road of life by the hands of a glorious creator who has planned our life down to the tiniest detail, and we need to remember this wonderful truth in times of worry or trial. What a relief it should be to us to know that our all-knowing God will direct our paths.

Judges 7 is a good example of this. Gideon, with three hundred men armed with only pitchers and trumpets defeated the huge army of the Midianites and Amalekites. Gideon had faith in God's promise, the promise that He would deliver Gideon's enemies into his hands.

I understand that some problems are bigger than others, and I am not suggesting that you can't pray for the outcome to be favorable. On the contrary, the Bible encourages such supplication. But whether it's an upcoming CLEP test, or the misplacement of a certain item, or the decisions of the government, or the salvation of your relatives or friends, in every circumstance, no matter how trying or painful, our faith and trust should always be in the Lord who knows the results of our problems before the foundations of the world. "We have a strong city; He sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. Open the gates that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord is an everlasting rock." Isaiah 26: 3,4

Your Brother in Christ,
Tru

"He who hates correction is stupid"

Dear Corey,

Proverbs 12:1 says, “Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.” We must learn to love correction. Only those who love knowledge will receive instruction. Sometimes we feel that we will appear stupid if we ask how to do things. But if we don’t ask, we are already stupid. We need to be able to set aside our pride and learn. God hates the proud. Proverbs 11:2, “When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.” We see that to have the wisdom that is from above we must be humble. If we are proud we not only care about what we look or seem like, but we can also cause problems; by not doing the job right, etc. We need to set aside our pride to gain wisdom. Think of someone you know that is wise. Is he proud or unwilling to receive correction? No. That person is probably humble and willing to receive correction. Examine yourself; are you willing to receive correction?

Your BIC,

Nick

Trust in the Lord

Dear Corey,

This week when I was reading my Bible, I came across this verse, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Prov. 3:5) Sometimes we can believe in God, but still trust ourselves to be able to do the job. Whatever comes we need to trust in the Lord and not in ourselves. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find myself thinking, “I can do this.” (Note the “I”) But then later I will realize that I had the wrong attitude. We need to not lean on our own understanding, but realize that even what we know is from God.

Your brother in Christ,

Nicholas

God's Absolute Authority

"In You, O Lord, I put my trust..." ~ Psalm 71:1

Nick,
One of the greatest temptations we suffer is to disregard God's authority. I don't mean a flagrant violation of the laws He has put in place. What I'm talking about is a much more general category. When I say, "disregard God's authority" I'm also saying, "substitute man's foolishness for God's authority." God's laws are perfect, just, and wise; they are the first thing we should look at in any type of situtation, whether it is an argument at a discussion or edification. In contrast man's laws, though often based off God's laws, are often twisted a little bit. The laws of man, when they are against what God says in the Bible, are foolish and have no goodness in them.

Now I'm not saying that we should disregard the authority of man. I'm just saying we should check it agianst Scripture, which we should be doing with everything. The best way to do this is to have God's law written on your heart and your soul wholly given over to the Lord. Why is this the best way? Because we can check things against Scripture if we know what the Word says. However, we must also have our trust be fully in the Lord. We can only do things because the Lord allows us.

So put your trust in the Lord and "lean not on your own understanding." Let us make God's standards our standards and His law our law. Do not give 90% of your heart to God; give him 100%. You may have to give it to Him several times, because you have taken your heart back for yourself. Daily, even hourly, reaffirm that your heart is the Lord's.

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15) Let that be your motto.

Think about all the things God did to make it so that you could enjoy His creation. Though we constantly rely on our own foolishness, He does not impute the punishement of our iniquity upon us. No, He sent His Son, His own, only begotten Son, perfect, blameless, just, merciful Son. Jesus was present before the world began and will exist forever. Yet He became flesh and took on the full punishment of our sins. He suffered the wrath of God, so that we might gain eternal life. He was willing to be made a curse for His people. He was willing to be separated from the Father, because as a result, you would be joined to the Father. If the Lord was willing to make such great sacrifices for you, why shouldn't you give your life to Him?

Your Brother in Christ,
our Savior and Lord,
Corey

Ways of Destructive Speech

"What is desired in a man is kindness, and a poor man is better than a liar." ~Proverbs 19:22

Nick,
We often hear the phrase, "If you have nothing good to say, don't speak at all." We've talked about this before, but I want to look at it in a different way. As Christians, we are commanded to do more than "not speak". We are to love our enemies. We should be more anxious to say good things than bad; encouraging words rather than destructive utterances. When we are called names behind our backs, ridiculed and mocked, we should not return their speech with equally bad language of our own. Instead we should seek to show kindness to them. We should not lie and say things we don't believe. We should either speak words that build up, or not speak at all.

Perhaps the hardest place to put this into effect is in our own homes. Because that is true, however, it makes our homes the best, as well as the most worthwhile, place to practice. But destructive language comes in many forms. The first is the simple, "He did ___", with "___" being something destructive. The second is in the form, "I could do it better." The third is, "Well he's good at that, but I'm good at ____" The last two are different from the first in one way: they put the speaker a level above the other person. But this type of comment will only make the other person resentful. Let it be known that you never speak an offensive word, but rather challenge and "sharpen" others with your words. As the verse says, "What is desired in a man is kindness." If you can not only show forgiveness, but also show kindness to your enemies, how great will be your reward! If we are to show this loving-kindness to strangers, even enemies, how much easier it should be for us to show that same love to our friends and more importantly our family! The Lord continues to test me in this area, yet oh! how miserably I fail! How many times have I spoken before I have thought! May you not have the same struggle! Go forth with love on your lips and good will in your heart!

Your Brother In Christ
Corey

Words are Important!

"In the Multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, the heart of the wicked is with little. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of wisdom. The blessing of the Lord makes me rich, and He adds no sorrow with it." ~ Prov. 10:19-22

Yesterday I was talking with my mom about a pamphlet Mr. Kayser wrote. It is called Leader Development. It is basically a checklist for young men (though it can also be used for men, not just young ones) to evaluate what they need to work on in order to become godly leaders. The very first section is titled "Communication". After I went through the list, I found just what I expected; I don't talk enough. My favorite question was, "I don't always speak my mind but instead seek to be short on words." I got a perfect score on that one.

There are some benefits to little speaking, but also many weak points. As the passage above says, "In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise." But as my mom pointed out, we communicate, fellowship, relate to, encourage, evangelize, teach, lead, and understand people because of words. So there is a fine line between speaking the right amount and speaking too little. But we should not go to the other extreme of talking too much. Looking at the first line at the top, we see that Proverbs says that "in a multitude of words sin is not lacking" So we draw another line between speaking the right amount and speaking too much.

"Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has understanding" ~ Prov. 10:13

The passage up top says that the words of the righteous are like "choice silver." Our words should be like honey to those who hear us. Even if we speak correctively, we should be able to have it be loving correction. There is an old saying which I am sure you have heard:

"If you have nothing nice to say, don't say it."

But I think it should go like this,

"If what you have to say will harm someone needlessly, don't let your mouth speak. But if what you have to say will build up and not in the least destroy, don't hesitate to say it."

May you bring every thought and word captive. God bless you in all you do!

Your Brother in Christ,
Corey

Of Friends and Brothers...

"There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother." -Proverbs 18:24B

There are many times when your friends stick closer than your brothers. Although this is not often as true when you are younger, it is very important when you are older. While you are young (Before 20 or so), you make the most friends, which will hopefully be friends who are willing to lay down their lives for you when you get older (Above 20 or so) you strengthen your relationships. Now say that house prices went down in another state and you decide to move there. The friends in that state would be more comforting to you in times of need, because of the distance between your brothers. This does not mean that brothers are somehow less loyal than friends. As a brother, I not only want to be looked to for help by my friends, but also by my brothers. Although the above example is sometimes true the next example is always true: In Christ, your friends are "Brothers and Sisters". This means that a friend sticks as close as a brother. Your siblings should also be your best friends, which means that a brother sticks as close as a friend. Many times people may pretend to be your friend in order to seek some benefit. Don't rely on friendships that just scratch the surface, but seek out the ones that seem to join you as a brother.

Your Brother in Christ
Corey