Author: Mark Horne

“Jesus Is Lord!” A practical suggestion for struggling with sin

I wrote this back in 2001 and had forgotten about it. Someone brought it to my attention and it seems to me that, though not about Proverbs in any way, it actually shows I was thinking in ways that would eventually help me to understand Proverbs.

All Christians struggle with sin.

Many times even relatively mature Christians commit sins they thought they had long since left behind and end up struggling anew with sinful habits in thought, word, or deed. Naturally, this means they must rouse themselves to action in putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Continue reading ““Jesus Is Lord!” A practical suggestion for struggling with sin”

What would Solomon think about social media?

Let me just say at the beginning: I don’t know what Solomon would think about social media.

I’ve occasionally had fun with the question in the title of the post…

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#irony #SolomonSays #Proverbs #NotAStrictTranslation #Wisdom

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…but I don’t know the answer to my question and neither does anyone else. Continue reading “What would Solomon think about social media?”

Proverbs on Strength and Gender

I posted this image of the text of Proverbs 31:17 on Instagram back in February mainly because I thought female lifters, as well as male lifters, would find it cute.

Since then, I’ve begun to wonder about the significance of this verse. Why is there no passage in Proverbs commending a man who “dresses himself with strength” or “makes his arm strong”? Why is this said of the godly wife? Continue reading “Proverbs on Strength and Gender”

Getting Better Takes Time & Doing Well Requires Endurance

One of the enduring puzzles of human life is that a good start is better than a bad one… and yet a good start isn’t enough to finish well.

This is obvious in mundane circumstances. A person starts a well-planned health regimen (whether gym or diet or both) and makes great progress in a year. Yet he fails to continue and, four years later, the effects of the change have dissipated. You can’t tell that he ever made himself healthier. Someone else however, because he had many distractions or maybe some misinformation about how to proceed, showed much less progress that first year, and yet stuck with it, and is much healthier or stronger or a better runner five years later.

Every good thing has to begin but not every good beginning ends up becoming a good thing for the long term. Continue reading “Getting Better Takes Time & Doing Well Requires Endurance”

When Did Society Decide Darwinism Is Just a Useful Myth?

In Katy Faust’s column “A Gay Parent’s Complaint About Adoption Illustrates A Dangerous Adult-Centric Mindset” at The Federalist, she writes of a Lesbian who wanted her Supreme-Court-defined spouse to get to be the parent of record for her artificially-conceived son without any legal fuss:

Throughout her narrative Leigel presents herself as the sole victim of her family arrangement. She focuses entirely on her own desires and discomfort — detailing the cruelty, the cruelty, of the “cold stethoscope” during a routine physical and how she once had to endure the metal detectors and “hard wooden benches” of a courtroom. Not one sentence in her article acknowledges the fact that she participated in intentionally depriving this boy of his father … for life.

When considering what cruelty looks like I’m going to go with father deprivation over cold stethoscopes, every single time.

The entire post is well worth reading, but one of the things that it reinforced for me is a strong belief that our society doesn’t believe in Darwinian evolution–at least, not any more. Continue reading “When Did Society Decide Darwinism Is Just a Useful Myth?”

Understanding Proverbs by Thinking about Sloth

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor. Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth. In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death (Proverbs 12:24-28).

I chose this passage for one reason: it mentioned sloth twice in close proximity.

Like many other things, remarks (or riddles) about sloth are scattered throughout Proverbs in no seeming order.

Is there a method to Solomon’s apparent madness? Continue reading “Understanding Proverbs by Thinking about Sloth”