Category: Solomon

Many years ago while driving down a Texas freeway, I looked down and noticed that my fuel was running low. Spotting a service station up ahead, I pulled in and filled my tank. Five miles further down the freeway, my little Volkswagen sputtered, died, and coasted to the side of the road. Unable to get it running again, I called for help and left the car. A relative towed the car to his house and fixed it. It was a simple fix, one that even I could do. The problem was that the last batch of gasoline had been contaminated with water.

 Sometimes in my life I too am doing fine when suddenly I sputter and stop. When I do, I try to remember the lessons learned from that night:

 I learned that if I put bad fuel into my tank (my heart), it will not worked it should. Before that night I would have guessed a glass of water in 10 gallons of gasoline might cause sputtering, but not a total failure of the engine. I was wrong. David said, “Your Word have I put in my heart that I might not sin”” (Psalm 119:11). The right fuel for the Christian heart is the word of God. The wrong fuel is any thing that will contaminate it.

 I learned that a thing does not have to be all bad to cause failure. I did not put all water into the tank. I put mostly gasoline with a little water. People talk about how much good someone does and somehow think that will make up for the evil behavior, but a little bad destroys a lot of good. Solomon wrote, “As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor” (Ecc 10:1). It does not take much poison in a glass to make the whole drink poison.

 I learned that just because I thought I was doing right, did not mean it was the right thing to do. I thought I was putting pure gasoline in, but I was not. Good intentions do not overcome the bad actions (or dumb behavior). “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

 I learned that you will not have a good result until you remove the bad and put the good in its place. Once the pure gasoline replaced the contaminated fuel, everything started working as it should.

Lonnie Davis

HeartWord – Proverbs 4:23

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Today’s brief note was written especially for folks like me. Folks who get the “I wish I hadn’t said that” disease. If that is you, then listen to the words of an article I call

First You Listen

Someone once noted that God gave us two ears and one mouth because he wants us to listen twice as much as we talk. This is an easier task for some than for others. I would say that it is easier for one gender than for the other, but I have seen people on both sides of the gender line face that same problem.

If we complain about someone who gossips, it is assumed that it is women we are talking about. That is not true. Men also gossip, but we call it talking. Preachers even gossip. When they do it is often about another preacher. Let me tell you about what this one preacher…

Well, maybe I won’t tell you.

 Years ago I was at a men’s breakfast. I told a really good joke and everyone started laughing. I always enjoy it when people laugh at my jokes. Just as they started to laugh, one of the other men spoke up, “Let me tell you a joke I heard.” I was ticked. He didn’t give people enough time to enjoy my joke. In just a few seconds everything was okay. In the middle of telling his joke, one of the other men spoke up, “Hurry up and finish your joke. I have one I want to tell.”

 Unfortunately that little story illustrates the way a lot of folks communicate in life. Instead of listening to what someone is trying to tell us, we start thinking of how we want to answer. Solomon said, “He who answers before listening – that is his folly and his shame.” (Proverbs 18:13).

 As you can see, Answering before we hear the whole issue is a very old problem. This text was written 3,000 years ago. Answering before we hear is a foolish thing to do and will bring shame. You may get away with it for a while, but eventually it will bite you.

 Remember

First you listen.

Think about the words and THEN give the response.

You will be glad you did.

 Lonnie Davis

Today’s Heartword: James 1:19

“Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”

Spiritual Thoughts for August 23

The School in the Forest

 Once there was a man who wanted to help the animals in the forest. He wanted to make things better for them so he decided to start a school in the forest. In his school he had a squirrel, a fish, and a bird. To make their lives better he decided to help each of them become better at what they did not do well. Since the squirrel could climb, but could not swim, he decided to teach the squirrel to swim. The fish could swim, but could not fly so he worked at teaching the fish to fly. The bird could fly, but could not swim so the fish was enrolled in a swimming course.

 Over the next year, the squirrel practiced swimming, the fish worked at flying, and the bird tried hard to swim. At the end of the year, the teacher had a squirrel that was a bad swimmer, a fish that could not fly, and a bird that nearly drowned daily.

 There is a moral to this story. If you are a squirrel, climb. If you are a fish, swim. If you are a bird, fly. Do not try to be something you are not. God gave each of us special talents. Each of us should work to discover our own special talent. When we do, then our lives and the Kingdom will be blessed.

 Paul wrote, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” (1 Cor. 12:17-19)

 You have the special abilities that God wanted you to have. If he had wanted you to be taller, he would have made you taller. If He had wanted you to be prettier, he would have made you prettier. If He wanted you to be a better singer, he would have given you a better voice. Success is not about what you have, but about what you do with what you have. 

                                                                                 ~Lonnie Davis

Heartword – Proverbs 23:6-7

“Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. ‘Eat and drink,’ he says to you, but his heart is not with you.”

Note: We would do well to remember that generosity is not always generosity, but the great lesson we should see in this verse is that we need to share with a willing heart.

Don’t Bury Your Talent

 Not one is a thousand would recognize the name of Reginald Heber. On April 3, 1826 he served as a missionary in India. That day he preached outdoors under a hot Indian sun. To cool off, afterward he went for a dip in a nearby pool. While in the pool he had a stroke and drowned.

 A few days later his wife was going through his belongings and found in his trunk several old songs that he had written but never published. Among those songs was one that he wrote called, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty.” Since that discovery millions of people, if not billions, have been blessed by the work of Reginald Heber.

 This is not a note about what a great song he wrote, but about how he buried that song in a trunk. He had great talent, but he buried that talent.

 One cannot help wondering how many of us have done the same thing. How many of us have a song, a story, or a sermon that we have never shared? Fear is a powerful force that can cause us to bury our talent. It may seem like no big deal, but we would do well to remember the Lord’s answer to the man who buried his talent, “You should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.” (Matt 25:27)

 God did not call us to sit on our opportunities or talents. The talents God has given to you is God’s gift to you. What you do with those talents is your gift to God.

 What is your talent? Use it!

HeartWord – Proverbs 22:29

“Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings;they will not serve before officials of low rank.”

Everybody Fails!

Men fail – Women fail
Young people fail – Old People fail
Poor people fail – Rich people fail

Even you fail, I know I do.
Because everybody fails.

Since everybody fails, failure  can not be how we judge our lives.

In Proverbs 24:16, Solomon said:

“Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.”

Notice from this text that both the righteous and evil man falls, the difference between the righteous and evil is whether they get up from their fall. The righteous man, the good man falls down but gets up. The wicked man falls down and just wallows in his failure.

Have you messed up? Try again.

Avoiding failing is not the sign of a righteous person.

Not giving up is the sign of a righteous person. Try, try again!

It is the Godly thing to do.
It is how we are successful in our reach for eternal life with God.
It is also how we become successful here on earth.

Maybe you know the true story of Harlan. Harlan was a sixth-grade drop out. Over his life He worked as a farmhand, a railroad worker, an insurance salesman, a tire salesman, and had a failed attempt in politics. At the end of all these jobs, he retired broke. With little more than social security checks he decided to sell chicken, more specifically a chicken recipe. He went from business to business asking restaurants, cafes, and grills to use his recipe and pay him 5 cent for each piece they sold. He tried for two years. “No, no, no,” he kept hearing. In fact, he heard 1,009 rejections before someone finally said “Yes.”

We all know him now as Colonel Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. When he died in 1980 he was a rich man, a millionaire. He failed 1,009 times, but he tried and tried again. Winners keep on keeping on. Losers quit!

Let’s go back to that beautiful text in Proverbs and put the names of a couple of people into the text. Remember the text, “Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.”

Here are the two names: Peter and Judas. Both of them failed.

Peter failed. He bragged that he would never deny Jesus, but before the next morning he had denied Jesus three times. He even took an oath before the enemies of Jesus that he did not know Jesus. Feeling his failure, he wept bitterly. Jesus forgave him and a few days later Peter preached the first gospel sermon.

Judas failed. He betrayed Jesus for money – thirty pieces of silver. He regretted his act of betral and tried to return the money. When he could not and so he hanged himself. Now let’s read that verse again:

“Though a righteous man (Peter) falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked (Judas) are brought down by calamity.”

Never give up.
Failing and trying again is the mark of a righteous person.
Never, never give up!

Lonnie Davis

HeartWord – Proverbs 26:13

“A sluggard says, ‘There’s a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!'”

NOTE: A lazy person does not see himself or herself as lazy. They always have an excuse for not doing what they should do.