Have you ever heard of John Chapman?  My guess you probably have but you just didn’t know it.  What if I told you he walked barefoot around the United States wearing a pot on his head?  Now it all begins to come together…John Chapman is better known as Johnny Appleseed.  Johnny Appleseed was a pioneer of the early 1800’s and is best known for his generous ways and leadership in conservation.  Moreover, he is the man that introduced apple trees to most of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Johnny Appleseed is a classic American legend that left a huge legacy.

Have you ever wondered how the United States would be different if Johnny Appleseed didn’t like to eat apples?  One of the most intriguing things to me is that Johnny Appleseed planted thousands of apple trees knowing that he would never get to enjoy the fruits of his trees.  He worked tirelessly so that others may enjoy the fruits of his hard labor!  What an inspiration.

At the beginning of Proverbs 7, we find some very inspirational words if they are taken seriously.  At the beginning of chapter  we find a father’s instructions to a son. Instructions that if kept…will bring life!

My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.  (Proverbs 7:1-3)

This appeal begins with the plea of a father for his son to take the father’s wise instruction to heart in order to keep himself from the of dangers found in the temptations of adultery.  Temptation is a powerful thing.  It can cause us to stop doing what we are doing and begin to ponder another “way.”  Many times that other “way” can be dangerous and down right stupid.

One of the things that I think allowed Johnny Appleseed to be so successful is that he learned to keep his focus.  I am sure there were moments as he walked that people made fun of him, times of loneliness (he never got married), and times he felt like quitting.  However, he never gave into any of those temptations.  He truly learned to keep the apple the “apple of his eye.”  I assume if he had given into other temptations, his legacy would have been much different.

In this passage, the Father instructs his son to keep his teachings or instructions as the apple of his eye.  What an interesting phrase to use.  Later on in history we find that Shakespeare uses the same phrase in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”  Here is was meant as the center of your eye.  However, the original meaning traced all the way back to Proverbs 7, literally means to hold dear or to cherish.  In other words, the Father is saying that if you hold dear to my teachings, if you cherish my words, then you will find life!  Very powerful words for a father to say, aren’t they?

This passage got me thinking…do I fully cherish and hold dear the instructions of my heavenly Father?  Do you truly hold dear the words or teachings of the Bible as the source of life?  Proverbs 7, brings with it a great challenge to the way that we live.  If we learn to hide God’s Word in our hearts, to cherish each word, hunger for each word…then we will find life.

Furthermore, it is interesting that the Father never assumes that the temptation will never come.  Temptation is part of living in a fallen world.  However, if we learn to cherish the Father’s Words, then we have the truth that will help us say no to the “other way.”  What kind of legacy do you want to leave? How do you want people to remember you?

You have a choice.  You can do things the way that the Father instructs us to live…which in the end I am convinced leads to a great legacy demonstrating the goodness and love of God.  A legacy that leaves an everlasting effect on our kids, families, friends, etc.  However, how different that legacy would be if we prostituted ourselves to the temptations of this world?

The previous post from Micah pretty much summed up what the second half of Proverbs 6 is all about. I felt his words really captured the authors message. So I am going to focus on the beginning of Proverbs 6 and a section of verses later on that really sum up what I have learned throughout this Proverbial readings.

The author begins chapter 6 with a multitude of warnings. If you are like me you have probably said one maybe two (or more) things in your life that you wish you wouldn’t have said. Verses 2 through 5 jumped out to me immediately, they read;

“if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor. Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber; save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.“

Have you ever been snared by your own words? Said something that you can’t take back and not really have a clue of how to fix the situation. These verse put it clearly that we are to plead with those who we have wronged with out words. When I think of the word plead I picture someone on their hands and knees begging. And perhaps thats what we should do. I mean the verses continue urging us to go with out sleep or even rest until we have saved rectified the situation.

As I read through my notes on this passage it makes the comparison to a wild animal caught in a trap. Have you ever seen one? They fight with all their might to get out of the trap, because they know that the trap will lead to their ultimate death. The same is with us, if we choose to not watch our words, they can trap us into situations that may lead to death. Maybe not actual death, but maybe death of a friendship or relationship.

This next set of verses come from the second half of Proverbs. They seem capture what I feel we should do with these words of wisdom we have been learning. Proverbs 6:20-22:

20 “My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. 21 Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. 22 When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.”

As I read those words, I feel a sense of encouragement. Those words feel like a promise. A promise that if I can hold onto these teachings they will be there when I need them most, when i’m scared, alone, happy, in temptation, whatever! So these last few verses are my encouragement to you, take them, memorize them, “Bind them to your hearts” so that when you and I need them most with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will be there to guide and watch over us.

Sex is a formidable gift.

Formidable:
Inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or capable.

The fifth chapter of Proverbs offers us some straightforward wisdom on human sexuality, the truth of which is increasingly poignant to our progressively amoral culture.  By and large today’s cultural mainstream would consider “prudish” many of the Biblical guidelines for sexuality.  I am entirely comfortable with the label, knowing the reality is that in a quest for freedom from sexual regulation, our culture has accepted a very real enslavement to sexual bondage.

Working in youth ministry for years, the sexualization of our culture is, for me, probably the most difficult reality to confront.  Students might spend 2 hours a week in our ministry, but they were absolutely saturated for hours every day in sexual conversations, programming, advertising, and more.  Depending on our age and home setting, we as adults may have spent our youth in a comparatively innocent environment, but we live in the same culture today.

Proverbs 5 begins with warnings to avoid adultery and the “forbidden” woman.  As you read this chapter understand that adultery has broader applications than the most obvious and literal one (remember what Jesus said).  About this adulterous “woman” we are urged:

Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house (v.8)

If we don’t avoid her, if we pursue sexual gratification outside of marriage, we waste and lose the best of ourselves (v. 9-14). We may have been told that sexual freedom means throwing off “prudish” Victorian beliefs about sexual purity.  Eventually those who follow such a lifestyle will realize that such a lifestyle is not true freedom:

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. (v.22)

This a great chapter, also because it offers some very explicit applications for putting our sexuality to good use:

Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well…
…Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her [hey there.  It get's pretty racy hear so you go ahead and read it for yourself!]

We are encouraged here to seek sexual satisfaction, but to do so from our spouse alone.  There absolutely is Godly sex.  Sexuality is gift, and it is a formidable gift.  If ever there is an area of life in which we desperately need Godly wisdom it is this one!

I started reading a book called The Death of the Grown-up, which caught my attention at a recent library trip.  The concept so far has been interesting, citing evidence that the long-American balance of the adult mainstream in culture to the youthful extremes is largely non-existent these days.  The “grown-up” cultural mainstream has abdicated its power and authority and embraced the youth counter-culture.  Take, for example, the counter-cultural ideas of rock ‘n roll as it developed in the early ’60s.  This was a movement outside of the mainstream that conflicted with values about sex, drugs, and responsibility that were held by The Greatest Generation that had come home victorious from the second World War.  Then think of the last few Super Bowl half-time shows.  To recover from the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction we had a former Beatle (Paul McCartney in 2005), followed by The Rolling Stones in 2006.  This year’s act featured The Who.  What is so interesting about this is that these bands were certainly not featured in their height in the 60s or 70s for Super Bowl performances.  In fact, marching bands and the likes of Ella Fitzgerald were ruling these shows through the 1970s.  The reason?  The counter-culture, youth movement has become the mainstream, begging the question where have all the grown-ups gone?

It’s a fitting question as I read through Proverbs 4 today.  This chapter begins with a plea from a father to his son, urging him to listen to the wisdom his own father had given him.

Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight,
for I give you good precepts;
do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a son with my father,
tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.
Get wisdom; get insight;
do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you. (Prov. 4:1-6)

I love this description not only for it’s instructions to us in wisdom, but also for the picture of a father having been parented well and learning wisdom from his own father, now passing on his wisdom to his son.  There’s a legacy of wisdom here that I want to be part of.  I want my son someday to be able to say “look son, I love you and I want you to listen to and honor the direction I will provide for you the same way I learned from my father.  There’s wisdom in my council.”

We’ve been talking about parenting this week and I feel challenged by Sunday’s sermon, this weeks Life Notes, this proverb, and even the book mentioned above to be a Godly Grown-up.  To truly learn how to disciple my own children so that they too are Godly grown-ups, possessing a personal, moral, and spiritual maturity.

Having worked with teens for years I am convinced that what this generation needs are godly grown-ups who avoid the opposite pit falls of being too distant and of being too similar.  I saw many parents who lost their influence by becoming too distanced from their sons and daughters.  I also saw many parents who’d abdicated influence by being a friend or peer more than a grown-up who’d make tough calls when needed.

What about you?

As I was reading through Proverbs 3, I came across a couple of verses that really stung. Proverbs 3:27-28 says;

“Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, “Come back later; I’ll give it tomorrow” – when you now have it with you.”

Do you ever feel as if life is so busy that you can’t stop and help those who are in need or even the people who live next to you? I can think back to my own life and see how God has blessed Tirsa and I through the hands of others. Where would we be if people had withheld gifts, funds and even the occasional hug from us?

As I think back I find it funny how I try to justify to myself the reasons for not helping someone out when I am perfectly capable of doing so!! This verse is calling me, you and every believer out there to a higher standard.  How often do we sit back and do nothing because we think that someone else will? I can’t even recall the amount of times that I have had that conversation in my own head.

I am a sports guy, basketball is one sport that I love above the rest. Growing up I had this poster that hung on my door with a quote that read “You will always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Everyday we have opportunities to share God’s love and God’s blessings with others. But you know what “You are always going to miss 100% of the opportunities that you don’t take.”

Let’s get in the game together. God has blessed each of us in some way, shape or form and we have the power to act! Let us not wait till tomorrow, but do it today.