Today Our Daily Bread Proverbs 27 & Psalms 122:1

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Proverbs 27:1-27
1Don't brag about tomorrow, since you don't know what the day will bring.
2Don't praise yourself; let others do it!
3A stone is heavy and sand is weighty, but the resentment caused by a fool is heavier than both.
4Anger is cruel, and wrath is like a flood, but who can survive the destructiveness of jealousy?
5An open rebuke is better than hidden love!
6Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.
7Honey seems tasteless to a person who is full, but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.
8A person who strays from home is like a bird that strays from its nest.
9The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.
10Never abandon a friend—either yours or your father's. Then in your time of need, you won't have to ask your relatives for assistance. It is better to go to a neighbor than to a relative who lives far away.
11My child, F41 how happy I will be if you turn out to be wise! Then I will be able to answer my critics.
12A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
13Be sure to get collateral from anyone who guarantees the debt of a stranger. Get a deposit if someone guarantees the debt of an adulterous woman.
14If you shout a pleasant greeting to your neighbor too early in the morning, it will be counted as a curse!
15A nagging wife is as annoying as the constant dripping on a rainy day. 16Trying to stop her complaints is like trying to stop the wind or hold something with greased hands.
17As iron sharpens iron, a friend sharpens a friend.
18Workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat its fruit. In the same way, workers who protect their employer's interests will be rewarded.
19As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the person.
20Just as Death and Destruction F42 are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied.
21Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised.
22You cannot separate fools from their foolishness, even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle.
23Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds, 24for riches don't last forever, and the crown might not be secure for the next generation. 25After the hay is harvested, the new crop appears, and the mountain grasses are gathered in, 26your sheep will provide wool for clothing, and your goats will be sold for the price of a field. 27And you will have enough goats' milk for you, your family, and your servants.
FOOTNOTES:F41: Hebrew My son. F42: Hebrew Sheol and Abaddon.

~Lena’s Journalin’~

I’m going to quote a Psalm as an encouraging word for us for this year.

Psalms 119:11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.

Again I want to emphasize, that God’s words are His words. They are to be honored above any other words we’ve ever heard. Do we set our words above His? Yes we do, everyday. Anytime we have an opinion that nullifies a request he’s made of us in His word, we’ve exalted His word as higher. When we do this, we find our life chaotic and in turmoil often. At those times we turn to God and ignorantly ask him, why is my life a mess? He wonders if we really want to knw or not, because he could tell us, but we haven’t listened to His word before, why would we listen now? Why would He expect if he told us that we’d accept it for the change we need.
The reason our lives are in the vicious cycles they are in is we esteemed His words mere opinion and ours as “gospel”, and our words are the words we live by, not His. Does God, the Lord just want to Lord over us, rule us and hurt our lives by requiring change? Some think this is the case. Any who feel that way have been lied to. They are deceived and do not know God, who is the truth. Those who know God will not listen to those who do not speak as He speaks. They wouldn’t lie to God’s children, yet an enemy is only full of half- truths and lies and will always lie against God and what and who are His.
So today, I encourage you to repent from only reading the word as an opinion and esteeming God’s words as mere stories that are interesting to read. I encourage you to live His words in action, deliberate on purpose action. Depending on the word and the truth of God, to help you. One prayer God delights in is where a human being tells Him of His desire to be more like His Divine image and likeness.
Today, I see this Proverb as full of relational instruction and maintenance. When it is all about you, it doesn’t matter how much you invest or give into a relationship. It doesn’t matter if it continues or not. When it is about being the love of God to others, the demonstration of His image in the earth, it is VERY important to keep a relationship through thick and thin. Now some you know or have known may sever the relationships they have had with you, that is their choice, but as much as is in you, make peace with ALL men. Heb 12:14
Pursue it, give into it, go after it with everything you are even if at times that means do that, give the energy of repair, into prayer for them), Let this be a goal of life, peace with me, saved and unsaved. Maybe the peace you make with an unsaved person will be or lead to their salvation. When you obtain it, keep it. Maintain it! make it a priority. Lay your life down for another 1 John 3:16. Jesus did this for us!
Do you remember a last conversation Jesus had with Peter? Feed My sheep! He was asking humans to take spiritual care and physical care and mental care of other humans, especially those who would through training, later on also help keep the flocks, the vineyards, etc. Are you a Keeper?
A little side note: if the "woman" is the church symbolically, and it is terrible for her to nag her "partner or family member" why do you think it is terrible? It is so sad that the people of God would have to be nagged about any of God's commands or words of wisdom, why does "she" nag, she started out desiring with passion that they grow up into the full stature of Christ, that they show forth Christ in our world. That they'd have a passion to show Christ. She showed the way, she encouraged, she trained, she'd been oh so patient that someone would turn away from sin and selfishness and serve God, but as many times as "she" instructed and asked, the hearts were hardened more and more by rebellion. the perception of the hearers now is that she is a nag, or is she a nag? Has she become so impatint of his change of his response to God, to the words of God? Yes she has, yet it is not exactly impatience, but urgence for time IS running out on the church, the Lord is about to invite the ones He did not make all the plans for and set the places for, at the wedding feast. Her impatient "nagging" is her passionate love and dire concern for her brethren to respond to their so called "Lord." The unresponsive, unenlightened, rebellious bride hears it as "nagging".
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.