The Folly of a Poor Listener

The Folly of a Poor Listener

“He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him…” (Proverbs 18:13 KJV)folly talk

The most important skill of one who would give wise counsel to others is the skill of being a good listener. A good listener is not only is skilled at listening the spoken word, but he is also attentive to other forms of communication e.g.,  body language and voice inflection. Sometimes, with people we know well, we may think we know what they are about to say, so we react and begin to respond before they finish talking. When they say something and we assume that we know where the conversation is going, we stop listening attentively to what they are trying to communicate as we start to formulate our answer.

Miscommunication like this, at the very least can cause confusion and at the worst lead to a foolish and shameful mistake. We need to listen more and speak less, and at least hold our tongues until we have truly heard and understood  the matter before us. To truly hear a matter, oftentimes we may need to listen to people on the other side of the matter before we can advise anyone.

Read Proverbs 18:17; 27:17; James 1:19-20

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The Longest Word

The Longest Word

The longest word in the English language is some scientific word for a protein that is 189,819 letters long. Some would say, that’s not really a word. The longest word found in standard dictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It’s a disease that you get in your lungs from breathing in volcanic ash. The longest word in the Bible is Mahershalalhashbaz, the name of Isaiah’s second son that represented impending doom on Israel from Assyria. However, as long as these words are, there is a word that is longer than any of these.longest word

The word that I am talking about is a word that is as long as the ocean is deep. It is as long as the back is from the front. It is as long as the east is from the west. It is as long as seventy times seven. It is the word “forgiveness.” Yes, I know there are only eleven letters in that word, but there is no end to it because when you have been forgiven, you know how far away your sins are, and it is much bigger than eleven letters. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Isaiah 38:17 says, “For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.” Micah 7:19 says, “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” “Then Peter came to Him and said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’” (Matthew 18:21-22). Out of all the words in the English language, “forgiveness” is the longest, because it never quits as long as we keep asking.

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Jesus was Not Afraid to Battle

Jesus was Not Afraid to Battle

How does Satan win modern-day battles? One way is by successfully convincing Christians not to engage in battle—to instead focus on how we come across to others and how we “appear” to those in our culture.battle table

He has convinced Christians and many preachers/elders that being nice is the only way we can demonstrate a Christian spirit.

Sure, we read about the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6)—and we may even talk about it at VBS—but we currently live in a culture where it is politically incorrect to actually suit up and go into battle.

Satan has convinced Christians to focus so much attention on niceness that we have totally lost sight of righteousness. A quick look at the New Testament reveals Jesus and His disciples were a lot more concerned about righteousness, rather than making and keeping friends.

Jesus was not concerned about being nice and making friends with the greedy moneychangers. Jesus was not concerned about being nice and making friends with the religious hypocrites. Jesus was concerned about doing the will of His Father.

We have been silenced into thinking we should never make someone mad or else we may not be able to convert them. Obviously, as Christians we should never be mean-spirited or antagonistic.

But if Jesus and His disciples couldn’t convert everyone they interacted with, what makes you think you can?! There will always be people out there who have stiffened their necks against God. Don’t allow those individuals to silence you!

Friends hear this loud and clear—Jesus had no problem making some people mad.

In fact, He made people so mad they ended up killing Him. Stop and really think about that: Jesus angered people so much they want to kill Him. Many of the apostles did the same and experienced horrendous deaths. But also notice neither Jesus nor His disciples were willing to compromise or sugar-coat the Truth. He knew there was a battle going on, and Jesus was not afraid to engage the enemy. He was not afraid to call people out.

Take a minute and look at some of the phrases Jesus used in Matthew 23.

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (v 13)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (v 14)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (v 15)

Woe to you, blind guides, (v 16)

Fools and blind! (v 17)

Fools and blind! (v 19)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (v 23)

Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! (v 24)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! …inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. (v 25)

Blind Pharisee (v 26)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness (v 27)

Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (v 28)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (v 29)

Serpents, brood of vipers! (v 33)

Fast forward to our common era and social media. Imagine for just a moment if I called religious hypocrites or immoral pagans even a fraction the names Jesus used in Matthew 23. Social media would blow up as preachers and those seeking to take the moral high ground called me out as “unloving” and “hateful.”

I would be “tar and feathered” in the virtual world for not loving my neighbor—and I can assert this confidently, because it has happened to me in the past. And yet, Jesus used these names—and He didn’t back off. He kept calling them names. He kept piling on the insults. He kept pointing out their wicked hearts.

Friends, Jesus had no problem calling people out. He did not walk on eggshells, always worrying about what people thought. Yes, Jesus was the sacrificial lamb that we all needed, but He was also the Lion of Judah. Jesus was more than nice.

We know according to Scripture that God is love (1 John 4:8). Sometimes love means rebuking someone practicing immorality. Sometimes love means reproving things that are displeasing to the Lord (2 Timothy 4:2). Jesus loved individuals enough to say the hard things that needed to be said.

Please stop allowing Satan to sit you down comfortably at the tables Jesus flipped. Do not be afraid to suit up and engage the enemy. Why would you need the whole armor of God if there was never going to be a battle? Jesus said: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).

Maybe instead of trying to always be nice and make the world love us we should ask ourselves why we covet the love of the world in the first place!

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Muscle Memory: Automatic Response

Muscle Memory: Automatic Response

The boys and I have been playing ping pong lately. They often wonder how I can hit and return a fast-hit ball to their side of the table. My answer: muscle memory. After you do something so many times, you don’t have to think about doing it anymore;it just becomes automatic. Muscle memory is a good thing to have when you are driving a car.For example,when you see brake lights come on in front of you, it’s important that your legs and feet do what need to be done to stop the car without having to think about it too much. A delay could create a collision. I’m very thankful for muscle memory.brain training

Muscle memory, however, isn’t really muscle memory, it’s brain training. We train our brain to remember how to do things again and again. I’m glad I don’t every day have to learn again how to walk, or eat, or drink, or talk, etc. We have learned these things and now know how to do them without thinking.

Muscle memory and brain training can be useful or detrimental depending on how we use it. When we use it for sinful purposes, it becomes addiction. When we use it for good purposes, it becomes good habits. In Philippians 1:9, the apostle Paul wrote, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment.” God wants us to use our muscle memory for good. This means that we must practice it daily. The more we practice loving one another, the more of a habit it will be, and the easier it will become to do it. For our love to abound, we must love one another more and more. Make love a habit.

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Using the Greek

Using the Greek

Even though I minored in Greek years ago and deeply appreciate this amazing language, I remember what my dad told me so often. “Dan, when you preach rarely use the Greek, for if you overdo it you will silently convince people that the Bible cannot be understood without being able to read the Greek.” Even though the Greek sometimes allows us to see how profoundly God has stated His truth, every man on this earth can know the vital truths of God simply by reading the Bible translated into the language he speaks. The Bible means what it says in any language.

However, in this article allow me to show you how the knowledge of how a Greek word was used in the first century can enhance the truth that is stated. Let us never forget that one does not need to know Greek at all in order to understand the Bible.

Paul told Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). What does it mean to “rightly divide the word of truth?” Obviously, it means that to be approved of God we must handle the Bible in the right way. You do not need to know Greek to understand this.

You can go deeper by seeing how the words “rightly dividing” are translated in the common language of the Greeks. The words come from one Greek word and literally mean to “cut it straight.” They used this word in their daily life in three ways. The first was when they talked about building a road from one point to another. It stressed the idea of cutting the path from one place to another in a straight line. We all need to use His words as we teach others, and we must make it simple and straight to the point. Far too many have too many “curves” as they study and teach the Bible. Read His words. Listen to what you read. It means what it says.

The second way the word was used in a secular way was to describe how one plowed a field in a straight line. Cut the furrow straight. Christians need to find His way and never lose focus that the place we keep our eyes on is His path to heaven.

The third way was to describe how masons cut stones so that they perfectly aligned with all the other stones. This is the nature of the word of God. It perfectly fits in its place when we understand that what it teaches in one place will perfectly fit with the truths of God taught in every other place. When we have to twist a verse to make it fit what we want it to say, we have not been honest in our study. Every Bible verse and every Bible word fits perfectly with every other verse or word.

You do not have to know Greek to learn these three truths. I found out all of this by reading words in English!

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