Day Eighteen

Proverbs 3:1-10

1.) My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, 

2.) for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. 

3.) Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. 

4.) So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. 

5.) Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 

6.) In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. 

7.) Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. 

8.) It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. 

9.) Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; 

10.) then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. 

         Paul was a year ahead of me in college. We got to know each other a little, but we were in different years and he was in Education and I was in Theology, so we just weren’t together enough to be friends. Paul’s Dad was a big time pastor somewhere in Ohio and Paul was going to create a Christian elementary and junior high school at the church after he graduated. He was a nice guy and I was a nice guy, but we were headed in two different directions.

         I hadn’t seen Paul in ten years when I took the pastorate of a church in Warren, Ohio. We lived in Howland, Ohio, the next town over. In that town was a very large church with a Christian school. Our son was second grade and Marsha and I decided to see about enrolling him in the Christian school. We made the appointment to meet the administrator and, at the appointed time, we strolled in. Low and behold, it was Paul. The church was where his Dad pastored. In a situation like that, even though you weren’t close before, you feel like you have found a long lost friend. Over the next few years, Paul and I hung out some. We had prayer together. I got to speak at a graduation at that school and Paul got me scheduled at Kent State University to speak for five days in a row. It was all good.

         I also got to know his father. This was not the atypical pastor of a large church. This man was humble, loving and honest. He was a dynamic man. And, he was a man who believed in education. He had been an educator for ten years before being called into the ministry. He felt that education was the first step to serving the Lord fully. In time, though, he felt it was time to step down as pastor and let a younger man have his pulpit. He retired. He went fishing. It didn’t take him long to be miserable. He told me that he knew the Lord had something for him to do and he wanted the Lord to reveal it really soon.

         The Soviet Union was breaking up at the time. One day Paul called and asked me if I would meet him at the wing place for lunch. (Honestly, this place served wings so hot that when you smelled them your nose hairs curled. Paul and I ate there fairly often.) Paul had something to tell me.

         Once we ordered and were waiting for those delicious plates of fire, Paul told me that one of his father’s old teaching buddies had called him and told him that some of the nations that had been in the Soviet block were now looking for English language teachers. Paul’s Dad wound up dealing with a man in Ukraine and the deal was set. The retired pastor was told to bring his own textbooks. So, he was going to take around a thousand Bibles to use as textbook. Isn’t that amazing?

         This passage brought this back to my mind. It is as though this was written with that retired pastor in mind. A couple of days ago we saw in Romans the good, the acceptable and the perfect will of God. I have seen many in the good will of God, some in the acceptable will of God but only a few who were closing in on the perfect will of God. However, that was this pastor. Nothing came between the Lord and him. In the end, the Lord went far beyond his wildest dreams. He was the first man to bring Bibles legally into the Ukraine since before World War II.

Think about your fondest dreams. How important is the Lord in those dreams? Is your life centered on the Lord, or is He somewhere out in the orbit of your life?

Consider verses five, six and seven from the above passage;

5.) Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 

6.) In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. 

7.) Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. 

         For today, our prayer needs to be that we have the Spiritual strength to trust Him with all our heart, to see things with His understanding, to acknowledge Him as our Lord and let Him lead us, to set aside our wisdom for His and finally, turn away from evil. None of that is easy, but it is necessary if we are to walk with the Lord.