Hope for the Harried Household

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  • Posted by Tim
  • Wednesday, June 30, 2010
  • Labels:
    • "Wisdom is not listening to wise sayings. And wisdom is not writing notes on the hearing of wise sayings. Wisdom is not the amassing of journal pages of pithy statements of insight. Wisdom never truly becomes wisdom until it is put to work in one's life."

    Written to provide navigational wisdom for safely and successfully traveling the troubled waters of life, Proverbs is a "user-friendly" manual of insight. But perhaps in our numerous readings of this collection, you have noticed that it is designed to give us glimpses of multiple topics, yet rarely categorizing and grouping them for simple contemplation. Having not been present when the Spirit guided the construction of the book, we can only speculate as to His purpose for this design. I suspect that at least one explanation is that we are to read and think deeply on a statement/declaration, rather than simply accumulate topical lists of related statements. To read Proverbs is to be challenged to think Proverbs with a mind to apply/live Proverbs. It is a "user-friendly" manual of insight.
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    Training Up a Child

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  • Posted by Tim
  • Friday, June 25, 2010
    • "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

    Parenting world-class kids requires dedication! Training requires both doing and giving up.

    "It was as much a reaction as anything," Landon Donovan said. "But what went into all of that was a lot of hard work!" USA-1, Algeria-0

    Training requires both doing and giving up.

    Thomas Edison insightfully stated, "The first requirement of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary." This is the price of "training up children," a single-minded, never giving-up dedication to the highest mark of success any parent may attain.
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    A Story of Revival

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  • Posted by Tim
  • Wednesday, June 23, 2010
    • Revival - "The work of God in waking His church!"

    When we hear the word "revival" what images are conjured up in the mind? We probably have visions of hot summer nights, sitting under a large tent with a passionate and fervent preacher whose electrifying elocution and overwhelming oratory overwhelms the audience to action. Or perhaps we think of a drowning swimmer who is "revived" by the efforts of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

    Pastor Scott Carlson reminded us this past Sunday of God's perspective on revival as we were reminded of the church in Corinth and the ways God used Paul in accomplishing the waking of this church.
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    A Mind Focussed on the Simple Gospel

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  • Posted by Tim
  • Friday, June 18, 2010
    • This Sunday Scott Carlson, former elder at Faith Bible Church and current pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Newman Grove, Nebraska, will be filling the pulpit for Pastor Tom. He will be preaching the same message both services from 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 titled "A Mind Focused on the Simple Gospel."

    As you prepare for worship on Sunday take time to read through the following passages and prepare your heart to hear God's Word.
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    Parenting is a Team Sport

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  • Posted by Tim
  • Tuesday, June 15, 2010
  • Labels:
    • Dad, Get Back in the Game!

    "The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise son will be glad in him; let your father and your mother be glad, and let her rejoice who gave birth to you." Proverbs 23:24-25

    Throughout our study together in Proverbs, it is noteworthy the number of times we read the phrase..."my son" as the writer of the book endeavors to communicate truth to his/her child.

    "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching." Proverbs 1:8
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    Parenting is a Team Sport

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  • Posted by Tim
  • Friday, June 11, 2010
  • Labels:
    • Dad, Get Back in the Game!

    It was a major teaching moment seized by the Master instructor!

    "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders. But they have never failed to imitate them!" - James Baldwin (no known relation to our own Jennifer Baldwin who is also not the designer of the pianos bearing her name! :)

    It was 37 ½ years ago. It is one of those moments that is forever burned into the memory. There was no digital video 8 mega-pix record of it. If such a thing would have been available at the time, we could not afford one. It was all we could do to pay the rent ($75 per month...a pretty reasonable price for a converted turkey coup, don't you think?) and keep food on the table for two preschool-aged children. But there is no need for a download record. The image will remain chiseled into my memory for a lifetime. It was a major teaching moment seized by the Master instructor!
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    Parenting is a Team Sport

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  • Posted by Tim
  • Wednesday, June 9, 2010
  • Labels:
    • "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and do forsake your mother's teaching." Proverbs 1:8

    The Purpose
    Training our children and our grandchildren to live well in God's world, in God's way, informed by God's Word. (Adapted from lecture notes on Proverbs by Dr. Vern Steiner...altered without permission, but in the knowledge that he is a man of great grace :)

    The Plan
    God's design, "Plan A," for passing the baton of truth from one generation to the generations which follow is by the faithful sharing of the teaching and training ministry of a set of parents, a mother and a father, who are committed to the truth, are living it out in their lives as an example, and by intentional communication with their children.
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    Parenting is a Team Sport

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  • Posted by Tim
  • Friday, June 4, 2010
  • Labels:
    • They pack a stout punch in a few short phrases. Take, for instance, the wisdom contained in this Zulu one: "He who walks into a thunderstorm must put with hailstones."

    A proverb is "a short sentence drawn from long living." And this one definitely fits the profile!

    Regrettably the following one hits a little too close to home! A Persian Proverbs declares:

    "Three things make a house intolerable:
    TAK: the leaking of a roof, NAK: a nagging wife, and BAK: bugs."
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    Are You Sincere?

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  • Posted by Tim
  • Tuesday, June 1, 2010
    • "Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, so you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man." Proverbs 3:3, 4

    In ancient times, when potters would make jars or other types of pottery, they would place them outside in the sun to harden in the sun. In many cases, this would cause tiny cracks throughout it, barely visible to the naked eye, because the heat causes it to shrink and dry quickly, challenging the structural integrity of the jar.

    In an attempt to still sell the faulty pottery, they would rub wax on the jar which would cause it to appear smooth, without cracks. But the jar would still be structurally unsound. This was not a truthful practice, but a careful check, usually holding the pottery in the light of the sun, would show that the vessel was not sound. Some feel that our word sincere comes from the Latin words sine cera, without wax.
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