Harvest Community Church

Unless you are a hermit, you have to deal with people on a regular basis.  Some people, you want to do life with.  Others can be extra-difficult to deal with and you avoid at all costs (you know…. that one guy).

One of my favorite books of the Bible is Proverbs.  It is absolutely chocked full of great wisdom that really helps me out in my day to day life.  The Bible is full of practical, applicable-to-our-lives advice and information.

The verses that follow have to do with choosing your friends wisely.  Check it out:

Make no friendship with a man given to anger,
nor go with a wrathful man,
lest you learn his ways
and entangle yourself in a snare.

Proverbs 22: 24-25 ESV

You will become like the people that you spend the most time with.  We, as humans, are easily influenced.  People rub off on people- for good or bad.  These particular verses highlight the importance of staying away from angry people.

Last week, I took my wife and son out for dinner.  As we were pulling out of our parking spot to leave the restaurant, another car came around the corner into the aisle that we were parked in.  I continued to back out, as they came to a complete spot.  As I was backing out, I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  It was a soda cup from a gas station flying toward my car.  Thankfully, it landed short, thereby not forcing me to get a car wash.  After the soda cup hit the ground, I looked toward the fellow that threw it.  He was a passenger in the car that I thought was waiting for me.  Apparently, they didn’t want to wait.  I gave him a thumbs up and a smile.  He returned with a one-finger salute back to me and I could see by the movement of his lips and the angry look on his face that he was not pleased with me.  Really? Someone pulling out of a parking spot caused you that much anger and frustration??? Really?

“You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him angry” -author unknown.

I didn’t want to make friends with the pop-throwing, obscenity-mouthing, nasty-gesture-making guy.

And for good reason- Proverbs says that if I started to hang out with him, I’d become like him, and eventually it would come back and bite me.

I hope the story today was a bit entertaining, and that it helped you to realize a couple of things: 1) Choose your friends wisely, and 2) Read your Bible- you will become wiser.

I am not as generous as I’d like to be. Now be honest with yourself, isn’t that true for you too? I think we’d all like to be more generous with our time, our money, and our lives. Nobody wants to be known as Stingy-Joe or Tight-Wad-Tricia.

Acts 4 really challenges any type of stingy mentality that we may have.

32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

They shared everything they had?  Really?  I am generally hesitant to let someone borrow my car.

There were no needy persons among them?  It sounds too good to be true.  I know that it is true- I know that at that time, there were no needy persons among them, but I honestly struggle to imagine what that would be like now.  To have no needy people among us now would be so radically different from how things currently are.

The Bible is full of challenges.  These verses are very challenging to me.  Thank God that He loves us enough to challenge us to change our thinking, to change our habits, and to be more like Him.

Many people have an idea in their head that God is angry and doesn’t like people. They think that he’s waiting up in the clouds, ready to launch a lightening bolt right at your face as soon as you do something that he doesn’t like. While comical, this view is inaccurate.

There loads of passages in the Bible that demonstrate to us just what the heart and character of God really are like. John 15:15 is one of those passages:

“15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus doesn’t call us His servants; He calls us his friends. As such, He doesn’t want to boss us around all day. He wants to know us and He wants us to know Him. He wants us to spend time with Him regularly and invite Him into our lives. He wants us to seek His expertise as we make decisions in our lives.

How easy we forget the blessings of God. How easy it is to become discontent.

Reading through the first few verses in Numbers today reminded me how easy it is to become discontent with where God has us. Here we have God’s chosen people who He delivered from the hands of Pharaoh complaining because they had forgotten the blessings of God.

Numbers 11:4-6 “Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

I like these few verses because they remind me to gut check my motives, my thoughts and my actions. The Israelites seemed to discontent or tired of what God was providing, opting to reminisce about the lush foods they received in Egypt that “cost nothing” (they seemed to forget that it was costing them their freedom, their future and their lives!)

The interesting thing is, in the following verses we read that during the night the manna came just as it had the night before. Despite their complaining, God still provided. God knows what’s best for us! The challenge for us is to continue being content with what God provides for us each and every day.