Proverbs 6 Today

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.

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Proverbs 6:1-35
Like a Deer from the Hunter
1Dear friend, if you've gone into hock with your neighbor or locked yourself into a deal with a stranger,
2If you've impulsively promised the shirt off your back and now find yourself shivering out in the cold,
3Friend, don't waste a minute, get yourself out of that mess. You're in that man's clutches! Go, put on a long face; act desperate.
4Don't procrastinate--there's no time to lose.
5Run like a deer from the hunter, fly like a bird from the trapper!

A Lesson from the Ant
6You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.
7Nobody has to tell it what to do.
8All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions.
9So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed?
10A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy--do you know what comes next?
11Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, poverty your permanent houseguest!
Always Cooking Up Something Nasty
12Riffraff and rascals talk out of both sides of their mouths.
13They wink at each other, they shuffle their feet, they cross their fingers behind their backs.
14Their perverse minds are always cooking up something nasty, always stirring up trouble.
15Catastrophe is just around the corner for them, a total smash-up, their lives ruined beyond repair.
Seven Things God Hates
16Here are six things GOD hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion:
17eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent,
18a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track,
19a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family.
Warning on Adultery
20Good friend, follow your father's good advice; don't wander off from your mother's teachings.
21Wrap yourself in them from head to foot; wear them like a scarf around your neck.
22Wherever you walk, they'll guide you; whenever you rest, they'll guard you; when you wake up, they'll tell you what's next.
23For sound advice is a beacon, good teaching is a light, moral discipline is a life path.
24They'll protect you from wanton women, from the seductive talk of some temptress.
25Don't lustfully fantasize on her beauty, nor be taken in by her bedroom eyes.
26You can buy an hour with a whore for a loaf of bread, but a wanton woman may well eat you alive.
27Can you build a fire in your lap and not burn your pants?
28Can you walk barefoot on hot coals and not get blisters?
29It's the same when you have sex with your neighbor's wife: Touch her and you'll pay for it. No excuses.
30Hunger is no excuse for a thief to steal;
31When he's caught he has to pay it back, even if he has to put his whole house in hock.
32Adultery is a brainless act, soul--destroying, self-destructive;
33Expect a bloody nose, a black eye, and a reputation ruined for good.
34For jealousy detonates rage in a cheated husband; wild for revenge, he won't make allowances.
35Nothing you say or pay will make it all right; neither bribes nor reason will satisfy him.

Copyright Statement: THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language


~ Lena’s Journalin’
Time is of the essence where obedience and the execution of it is concerned. Many would say, “Why?” One must trust the Lord. Does this proverb say why? It gives hints, yet the hints are urgent of nature.
There’s a trap, you are serving men rather than God, you’re bound up rather than freed.
Freed for what? To serve God all out while there is still time of influence left. Souls are hanging in the balance, while we wait to obey. People die and go to hell, while we get it together.
We feel sad when we hear of one, we feel sorry, but godly sorrow brings repentance and repentance means change.
The laziness has to do with not yet living for God and His kingdom, rather than always working to set up our own kingdoms. When we are busy setting up our own, God may call us lazy. It’s not that we’re not working, It’s that we’re not working for anything of great and eternal value while we still have the time. We will neglect His to set up and arrange and build ours, or sort through ours, or get ours in order. The orderliness never seems to come, it goes on and on and on and His will is still not 1st priority. All the while, the harvest is what is neglected, and thus lost. We weren’t just lying around, it’s not that type of sleep of laze. No we neglected to be a part, a key part of what He felt was #1.
The “napping” is how we pause to strategize our own kingdom work some more, we rest, but we rest up so we can do more of our own work. We’re saying maybe it is so we can get strong enough through rest to be able to do His, but we never get to it, after doing ours we’re tired again.
What keeps one from being able to just say yes or no about things? One thing, one sign of dishonesty is I can’t just say yes or no. One sign of excusing myself from what I don’t really care to do is, I him-haw around…I’m therefore not yet “All in”. Somehow in my mind I’m excused for this that or the other thing, while I never get to the #1 and most important thing, the accomplishment and fulfillment of His will.
Mother could be counted as church, the mother of our faith, the one put in place in our lives by God to train us up. Follow your father’s good advise the key there is to follow after. If God says it in His word, do it, follow after it, then make it become you, who you are, how you think, why you live. Why did you think you were alive here now anyway? To get more things stored up? If the church is our mother, who is the wonton woman? The world, of course. The world has tried to stand in the place of mother-teacher, but she’s been out of place, though she still continues to stand there, we are out of place if we listen to her or obey her words. They are death and not life!
Our excuses, though they seem valid to us, like a hungry man stealing bread, are not valid before the will of God. We will absolutely reap what we sow, unless we wholeheartedly repent, meaning change. Even when we change, we my reap the consequence of previous choices anyway, now we just become responsible to live for God while tending to the responsibility we created for ourselves to have to tend to. It’s like oh a thief is caught, but he doesn’t steal anymore, he’s repented. That’s great, PTL, but he still has to repay what he stole before he changed His mind on how to go about things. This is the type of thing we are speaking about in the beginning here. We do not see ahead much, but God sees even how the consequences of our decisions will effect us later on, who we’ll be entangled with, who we’ll be a servant to and may never be able to really join in the execution of while still here on earth, where God Himself appointed each of us to accomplish His will. Consequences of bad decisions try to suck life out of us and will pull us around the rest of our days. He wants us to trust Him enough to just obey, not asking why. In fact if we obey there is no why, we may have eliminated what could have been.
The church has been an adulteress. God is very jealous, He may become enraged if His wife is not given back.

Daily Repetitive Verses:

Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.