Devotional #6: What Solomon Says about Sex! … & What Genesis Tells Us
Don’t forget the future: Another Solomon Says devotional!
The Peril & Promise of Self-Awareness, Self-Consciousness
Awhile back I preached a sermon and said the following:
Continue reading “The Peril & Promise of Self-Awareness, Self-Consciousness”When Proverbs 17:22 says that “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” it’s not simply describing two states that people find themselves in. “Medicine” is an intervention you bring into someone’s life to end sickness and encourage health. Solomon is encouraging you to pursue a joyful heart and experience blessings from it rather than cultivate a crushed spirit and suffer the problems that it brings. A parallel text is Proverbs 14:30, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” The point is to not nurture a crushed spirit, but to do something about it that demonstrates your faith in Jesus.
More Videos: Solomon Says Book Devotional! Chapters 1-3
Pastor Jeffery has continued his devotionals using my book, Solomon Says! Here the are:
Solomon Says Interview with the University Podcast
I had a great time talking to Aaron and Jacob. I hope you enjoy it! Be sure to check out their other podcasts as well.
If you haven’t read my book yet (or know someone else who hasn’t) it’s available at Athanasius Press and Amazon.com (Kindle). And please consider helping us promote Biblical wisdom!
The Horse & His Boy by C. S. Lewis
Andrew Isker is a dear friend and a great encourager to me. How good a friend? He read his first Narnia Chronicle within a week of my asking him to do so!
Warning: MASSIVE SPOILERS!
If you’ve read the book, do you think I am right? Is The Horse & His Boy a fictional portrayal of Solomon Says?
Video: Solomon Says Book Devotional! Preface and Intro
All Saints Presbyterian Church – Fort Worth, TX
“Pastor Jeffery introduces a new series on Proverbs.”
Not all who wander are lost
It is the glory of God to conceal things,
Proverbs 25:2 (ESV)
but the glory of kings is to search things out.
On one level, this Proverb can be seen as aimed at reading and understanding the whole book of Proverbs as well as the rest of Scripture. Early in chapter 1 we are told Proverbs will contain the riddles of the wise (1:6). Proverbs is addressed to “my son” and “my sons.” Since it was published to everyone there is some sense in which we are all considered royalty.
But nothing indicates this particular Proverb is meant to apply only to reading the Bible. It could apply to many other things that you are concerned about.
To understand what I mean, ask yourself this question:
DOES YOUR LIFE MAKE NO SENSE?
Continue reading “Not all who wander are lost”How Proverbs Tells You to Go Beyond Solomon & Son
It may be helpful to understand the last chapter of Proverbs to consider the last chapter of Genesis.
Genesis climaxes with the story of Joseph. In that story, Joseph seems to be or experience the solution to problems that start in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve find they are naked by grabbing at forbidden wisdom-fruit. Joseph does not grab anything that is forbidden, but gets stripped and cast out twice. Yet, Joseph remains patient. He is eventually given authority over the world because of his wisdom. God promised Abraham and Sarah that kings would come from them (Genesis 17:6, 16). Joseph tells his brothers, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt” (45:8). Genesis began with a faithless man demoted, consigning humanity to privation, and it ends with a faithful man elevated, feeding the world.
And then he dies a slave in Genesis 50.
Continue reading “How Proverbs Tells You to Go Beyond Solomon & Son”