As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who
send him. ~Proverbs 10:26
Like coolness of snow at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him. He refreshes the spirit of his makers. ~Proverbs 25:13
You are to be Holy to Me because I, the Lord, am Holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. ~Leviticus 20:2:6
As the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. ~James 2:26
I suppose you could say that the proverbs today are a different version of the parable of the two sons. The difference is, both do what they are supposed to do, be a currier, but one does it in his own sweet time to bless himself because he does not appreciate the urgency of the situation, or worse yet, doesn’t care, and the other is timely and thus blesses others. In doing so, he also, “refreshes the spirit of his makers,” meaning the ones who sent him. Chances are, he’ll be trusted to do it again.
We too have a message and we have a maker. Have we been trustworthy with the message so that our maker can say, “Ah! How refreshing!” I hope so!
We’ve talked about the lazy Christian before regarding harvesting. He was not a benefit to others and ended up hurting himself. Today, the word picture that Solomon uses for the lazy messenger is like smoke to the eyes, “ouch,” or vinegar to the teeth. Besides the sharp and biting taste of that acid, vinegar saps the calcium out of bones and makes them weak and flexible. I remember the science experiment in elementary school where we left a chicken leg bone in vinegar. It didn’t take long before it was sapped of its strength and became weak and bendable. You don’t want that to happen to your teeth. How could we be like that to God by not delivering His message?
Could it be that our lack of willingness to share the gospel demonstrates, in general, our weakness of strength by our lack of willing obedience? Oh, we say we are willing to do other things, service type things, but we are often not willing to open our mouths to share. Very few Christians are willing to share the gospel with others. They say they are Christians and they attend church, but remain silent toward others, demonstrating that, in truth, our churches today are full of disobedient people. How can that make a strong Church? Smoke in the eyes hurts and often causes tears. Could God be brought to tears at our reluctant hearts? Could our distractions and disobedience be sapping the strength from the teeth of the gospel, rendering Him ineffective because we are not willing to do our part?
This should not be! God says: “You are to be Holy to Me because I, the Lord, am Holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” It is in our obedience in all things, both in our walk and in our talk, that we exhibit His strength through us, blessing others with our message from Him, and blessing Him by our obedience.
I know that we come back to this theme a lot, the theme of sharing the gospel in loving and appropriate ways with the lost. That’s because this is such a big deal to God Himself and it is the one thing that most Christians are the least willing to do. We know that it is a big deal to God because it was the first commandment that Jesus gave to His disciples. “Go and make disciples.” (Matthew 28:19) And in Acts 1:8 Jesus says that He is giving the Holy Spirit to us specifically to: “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, (your community), and in all Judea, (broader scope), and Samaria, (your enemies), and to the ends of the earth. (the entire world.)”
The Holy Spirit is not given to us to keep us safe and comfortable in our church pew, but to empower us to deliver an urgent message everywhere and every way we can that God Loves them and has sent His Son to pay the price for their evil ways and has prepared a place for them in Heaven if they will just believe and accept His offer. What we need to confess is, which kind of messenger are we? Every Christian ought to be a preacher of the gospel!
God has sent us into the world as his messengers. Think of the day of Pentecost and how those first disciples just started shouting God's praise and preaching the gospel when the Spirit came. It didn't matter who was listening or not, they just had to speak! And God used them to speak in many languages they had not learned so that many heard the gospel even though they were really in town for something else.
Think of Peter and John in the temple and before the Sanhedrin. They were not careful to be sensitive so that the Jews would listen. They spoke the truth boldly and got rebuked for it, even arrested! But they did well in God's sight and he rewarded their fearless proclamation.
Prayer: Father, forgive me for my lack of boldness and lack of spirit filled urgency to preach the gospel at every opportunity! I try to be "sensitive" to not offend, because I want the seeds I plant to go deep and not be wasted on the "unresponsive." But today I pray, fill me with more of Your Holy Spirit, so that I just can't help myself! In Jesus' name, amen.
Song: Freely, Freely
Like coolness of snow at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him. He refreshes the spirit of his makers. ~Proverbs 25:13
You are to be Holy to Me because I, the Lord, am Holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. ~Leviticus 20:2:6
As the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. ~James 2:26
I suppose you could say that the proverbs today are a different version of the parable of the two sons. The difference is, both do what they are supposed to do, be a currier, but one does it in his own sweet time to bless himself because he does not appreciate the urgency of the situation, or worse yet, doesn’t care, and the other is timely and thus blesses others. In doing so, he also, “refreshes the spirit of his makers,” meaning the ones who sent him. Chances are, he’ll be trusted to do it again.
We too have a message and we have a maker. Have we been trustworthy with the message so that our maker can say, “Ah! How refreshing!” I hope so!
We’ve talked about the lazy Christian before regarding harvesting. He was not a benefit to others and ended up hurting himself. Today, the word picture that Solomon uses for the lazy messenger is like smoke to the eyes, “ouch,” or vinegar to the teeth. Besides the sharp and biting taste of that acid, vinegar saps the calcium out of bones and makes them weak and flexible. I remember the science experiment in elementary school where we left a chicken leg bone in vinegar. It didn’t take long before it was sapped of its strength and became weak and bendable. You don’t want that to happen to your teeth. How could we be like that to God by not delivering His message?
Could it be that our lack of willingness to share the gospel demonstrates, in general, our weakness of strength by our lack of willing obedience? Oh, we say we are willing to do other things, service type things, but we are often not willing to open our mouths to share. Very few Christians are willing to share the gospel with others. They say they are Christians and they attend church, but remain silent toward others, demonstrating that, in truth, our churches today are full of disobedient people. How can that make a strong Church? Smoke in the eyes hurts and often causes tears. Could God be brought to tears at our reluctant hearts? Could our distractions and disobedience be sapping the strength from the teeth of the gospel, rendering Him ineffective because we are not willing to do our part?
This should not be! God says: “You are to be Holy to Me because I, the Lord, am Holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” It is in our obedience in all things, both in our walk and in our talk, that we exhibit His strength through us, blessing others with our message from Him, and blessing Him by our obedience.
I know that we come back to this theme a lot, the theme of sharing the gospel in loving and appropriate ways with the lost. That’s because this is such a big deal to God Himself and it is the one thing that most Christians are the least willing to do. We know that it is a big deal to God because it was the first commandment that Jesus gave to His disciples. “Go and make disciples.” (Matthew 28:19) And in Acts 1:8 Jesus says that He is giving the Holy Spirit to us specifically to: “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, (your community), and in all Judea, (broader scope), and Samaria, (your enemies), and to the ends of the earth. (the entire world.)”
The Holy Spirit is not given to us to keep us safe and comfortable in our church pew, but to empower us to deliver an urgent message everywhere and every way we can that God Loves them and has sent His Son to pay the price for their evil ways and has prepared a place for them in Heaven if they will just believe and accept His offer. What we need to confess is, which kind of messenger are we? Every Christian ought to be a preacher of the gospel!
God has sent us into the world as his messengers. Think of the day of Pentecost and how those first disciples just started shouting God's praise and preaching the gospel when the Spirit came. It didn't matter who was listening or not, they just had to speak! And God used them to speak in many languages they had not learned so that many heard the gospel even though they were really in town for something else.
Think of Peter and John in the temple and before the Sanhedrin. They were not careful to be sensitive so that the Jews would listen. They spoke the truth boldly and got rebuked for it, even arrested! But they did well in God's sight and he rewarded their fearless proclamation.
Prayer: Father, forgive me for my lack of boldness and lack of spirit filled urgency to preach the gospel at every opportunity! I try to be "sensitive" to not offend, because I want the seeds I plant to go deep and not be wasted on the "unresponsive." But today I pray, fill me with more of Your Holy Spirit, so that I just can't help myself! In Jesus' name, amen.
Song: Freely, Freely
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