Choose Wisdom, Part 4

Do you have trouble forgiving others for wrong things they’ve done to you? Or perhaps you have trouble forgiving those who have hurt or offended, not you personally, but someone you love. Refusing to forgive causes broken relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, sons and daughters, friends and extended family members. The list goes on and on.

Unforgiveness causes all sorts of health problems, such as stomach ulcers, and brings you into Satan’s bondage. The person you’re not forgiving may not be affected by your unforgiveness – it’s you who is suffering. Let your pride go and forgive as God forgives you.

“The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish tears it down with her own hands.” Proverbs 14:1

A wise woman readily forgives a wrong when it happens to her or to those she loves. She knows that God will take care of the matter if she gives it to Him. She follows Jesus’ example when He hung on the cross and said, “Father, forgive them for they don’t realize what they’re doing.” Because of her forgiving spirit, she is loved by everyone.

A foolish woman is offended easily and holds grudges against those who hurt her. She is bitter and people avoid her. She gossips about those who have offended her and she lashes out in anger at the smallest thing. Pride is more important to her than anything else.

A Word to the Wise - Jesus commands us to forgive, but it’s easier said than done, isn’t it? If you have trouble forgiving, remember this: Forgiving is not saying that the wrong is okay - It’s realizing that you’ve made a lot of mistakes and you choose to forgive the person and let it go so that God can forgive you. Matthew 18:32-35

Choose Wisdom, Part 3

Faith is interesting. It’s not believing that God can, but knowing that He will. When we pray and ask God for something, we must add faith to our prayers and have an expectation that He will answer them.

“The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish tears it down with her own hands.” Proverbs 14:1

A wise woman prays and expects God to answer. She looks and waits for His answer with excitement, but she’s not surprised because she was expecting it.

A foolish woman may pray, but she really doesn’t expect God to do what she asks. When the answer comes she wonders if it was just a coincidence.

A Word to the Wise - Allow God to answer your prayers not according to your will, but His will. His answers may be packaged differently than you would expect. Romans 8:28

Choose Wisdom, Part 2

Baby birds aren’t very quiet about it when they’re hungry. In baby bird talk, they squeal and holler until their parents feed them. While they’re still young, the parents begin teaching them where to hunt for their food and how to feed themselves. If the baby birds don’t learn this, they will starve.

Like baby birds, we must learn to feed ourselves spiritually from God’s Word and not expect others to do it for us. We are each responsible under God for our life and how we care for ourselves spiritually.

“The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish tears it down with her own hands.” Proverbs 14:1

As wise women, we must feed ourselves from God’s Word, and not expect others to do it for us. We must spend time in the Bible regularly, thinking and meditating on it. Our wisdom will be increased as we fill our hearts and minds with spiritual food. If we eat regularly from His Word, our wisdom will increase and we will be able to rightly judge situations that present themselves daily in our lives. Only by taking in spiritual food can we grow spiritually.

A foolish woman neglects the reading of God’s Word. She searches her own mind for the answers to life’s problems. She doesn’t know the Word of God and she thinks she doesn’t have time to read and learn from it. She justifies her busy schedule as the reason she can’t make time for learning spiritual things. A foolish woman lacks discretion because she pours into her heart and mind the things of the world. What pours forth from her lacks wisdom.

A Word to the Wise – Take a moment and open God’s Word to 1 John, chapter 1. Spend 5 minutes reading, and then ask God to help you read 5 minutes more tomorrow, and the next day and the next day, etc. Just 5 minutes reading God’s Word every day will change your life forever!

Choose Wisdom, Part 1

The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish tears it down with her own hands. Proberbs 14:1

A wise woman builds her house by starting at the foundation. She wisely accepts Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior and He becomes the cornerstone of all that she builds on in the future. She is careful to always stay fully surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ and lets Him have His will in her life.

A foolish woman puts off accepting Christ, thinking she will do it later. Meanwhile, she is building her house on the things of this world. Unfortunately, her foundation won’t hold when the storms of life come and wash it away.

A Word to the Wise – It is never too late to surrender everything to Jesus. You can start today to build a new life with Him as your foundation. Pray this prayer, “God, I’m sorry for leaving you out of my life. I repent and turn away from my sins. I invite you to come into my life and live in me. I accept Your Son, Jesus Christ as my Savior. In His name I pray. Amen.”

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite!

For decades no one worried about bed bugs, but for the last few years the problem has escalated and now its making headline news. Bed bugs were so prevalent back in the 1920s and 30s, it was common for people who stayed in hotels, (even nice hotels) to strip the beds and check the mattresses for the pests before they settled into a room.

Well, the bed bugs are back with a vengeance and some people are finding that they’re not an easy problem to get rid of. When hotel rooms become infested, management has to bring in exterminators who pull out base boards and treat them in the walls. Mattresses and box springs are thrown out and when the room has been fumigated, they replace the beds with new ones.

If hotels didn’t take extreme measures to get rid of them, you and I would take them home in our luggage. What do these little pests thrive on? Would you believe human blood? It’s a pretty serious problem, wouldn’t you say?

We deal with a similar enemy on the spiritual level. Job 1:7 says, “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ and Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.’”

Just like checking for bed bugs, we have to check our own hearts and see if there is anything we are hiding from ourselves. We have to strip back the masks we wear and let the light of the Lord and His Word shine inside us, exposing any hidden sin. After all, even our own hearts will deceive us.

We have to surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit and let Him exterminate the sin in our lives. He will cleanse us and restore us like new. “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:8-9

Let Go

We often hear the phrase; Let Go and Let God, but how do we do that? Paul L. Tan wrote about a college student back in the nineteenth century who “took six postcards and wrote a large letter on each one of the postcards;  L – E – T -- G – O – D

He then put them on the mantelpiece in his room where he was living at school. One evening a draft blew through the window and the card with the “D” blew away. As he picked up the remaining cards, what he saw seemed to be a message from God, and the secret of the Christian life; LET GO. Only by letting go can you let God carry out His will in your life.”

Letting go and giving everything we have to God should be a daily practice for Christians. Why? Because we tend to hold on to “things” and take back “things” that we’ve already given to Him. Actually, we don’t own anything anyway. Everything we have is simply “on-loan” for a while. Well known author, Corrie Ten Boom understood this. She once said; “I have learned to hold everything loosely. That way it doesn’t hurt when God takes them from me.”

I have my own way of Letting Go and Letting God. In prayer I tell the Lord that I am giving Him what I’ve been holding onto - I name it. It can be one of my children, my husband, or another family member. It may be a person I’m angry with and haven’t forgiven. Instead of a person, it may be a sin. You fill in the blanks.

Then I picture myself picking up the person (or the sin) and laying them at the feet of Jesus. I give to Him what I’ve been holding onto, what I’ve been worrying about and brooding over. He takes my burdens away when I let go. “Cast your cares on the Lord…” Psalm 55:22

Pulling Together

A great marriage is all about pulling together. But married or not, some things are hard to accomplish unless we have someone helping us. We worked in Mexico for 20 years and during that time we ministered with Pastors and Churches in poor areas sharing Jesus Christ among the people. Not only were the people in these areas poor, but the Pastors and their families were as well.

Our ministry brought in resources that helped the Churches spread the Word of God. Pulling together, we were able to reach thousands of people with the Gospel that would not have been reached otherwise.

One Pastor in particular touched my heart. His name is Pastor Guerra. His flock loves him so much and he loves them. He is an excellent Pastor and a powerful preacher, although he is poorly educated. Many have come to know Christ as their Savior through his faithful work for the Lord.

So what is so special about this man? His shortcoming is what makes him special. He’s totally illiterate. He can’t read or write. So, what miracle has God wrought that enables this humble, uneducated man to prepare his sermons? It’s the miracle of a loving, patient wife who can read.

Every night, sometimes for hours, Senora Guerra reads the Bible to her husband. God has given this Pastor an excellent memory and he has committed much of the Bible to memory just by listening to his wife read.

It makes God smile when we come together with others and lend a helping hand. Who do you know that needs you to come alongside and pull together with them? What are you waiting for? Go ahead, make God smile. 1 Corinthians 3:7-9