Proverbs- Part 3

On Sunday, Pastor Aaron began his sermon with the question, “If you were going to start out a prayer asking for two things, what would they be?” As I have let this question sink in throughout the week, it has caused me to re-evaluate my perspective. Would my request be selfish? Would I ask for something fleeting? Would my request bring glory to God, or to myself? Whatever my, or anyone else’s response to this question may be, the answer is very telling of where one’s priorities fall.

In Proverbs 30:7-9, Agur (the writer of this chapter) offers a great example of what our prayer should look like in regard to this question. Instead of asking for blessings, protection, or favor, Agur does something surprising. Agur asks the Lord to “keep falsehood far from him” and to “give him neither poverty nor riches.” Initially reading this one may wonder, “Why would Agur ask God to prevent him from becoming rich? That’s crazy!” One may also question, “Of all things, why did Agur first ask the Lord to keep him away from falsehood?” It is clear that Agur had a specific intention behind these requests. While he may have liked to have had a different request granted by God, he saw something of greater importance at stake. Agur recognized the fact that he had shortcomings interwoven throughout his character, and he wanted to eliminate the temptations that would cause him to stumble.

Agur demonstrated an important lesson in this Proverb that I find to be incredibly useful today. Not only was Agur aware of his areas of weakness, but he was willing to take sacrificial action to prevent him from experiencing temptation. 

What are some areas that you find yourself being tempted? Have you asked God to help you set healthy boundaries in these areas? Maybe you need to end some friendships that are toxic and degrading to your character. Maybe you need to let go of some of your work hours to shift your focus away from financial gain, and towards God. Maybe you need to let go of a habit that is trapping you from moving forward in your relationship with God. Whatever the case may be, I challenge you to analyze your heart this week. What are the holes in your character? Where do your priorities fall?

This week, let’s begin the journey of addressing the holes in our character. Let’s be proactive rather than reactive to our temptations. Rather than claiming ourselves victim, let us pray and ask God to give us separation from the things that tempt us. 

Written by: Tamara Sturdivant

Proverbs- Part 2

As a whole, my generation hates correction. Now, I'm sure this has been the case at one point for nearly every generation, since it has likely been the case for every person at one point or another. However, my generation has practically rebuilt our lives on this idea. We hate correction so much so that we've abolished truth altogether and figured out how to claim that it simply does not exist. Instead, we prefer to free fall in this deconstructed idealism of ambiguous morality and therefore strip any right of one person to question another, much less suggest something different than what we are doing.

Anyone who is not a millennial and currently reading this is likely having a small party right now. A millennial admitted one of the many stereotypes that exist against them to be true! They really are terrible!  

Yes, it is true that my generation has rejected the idea of truth, and refuses anyone to be "right" or "wrong"-but we are not the only victims of this philosophy. Across cultures, gender, and yes, even age, everyone around us has bought into it. 

The generations before us are now echoing back the post a modernistic concept of no truth and no reality that we adopted and embraced into mainstream culture for the sake of sparing the world of discipline and correction. It is in our classrooms, in our media, everywhere.

Sure, this might sound like a perfect world, where nothing can be wrong. However, when we rebuke correction and discipline, we devalue the power of the gospel itself. 
If we, as Christians, choose to endorse the notion that we cannot be corrected because what is "true for me" may not be "true for you" we discredit Scripture for being an alive, breathing Word of God that truly has the power to change lives.

Not only does the refusal of correction devalue Gods Word, but it ultimately prevents our growth as Christians, and as people. To try and build our character on a constantly shifting, ambiguous moral ground that is forever effected by the tide of culture is the equivalent of building one’s house on shifting sand. Where there is little to stand on, there is little to uphold us and our conviction. But when we receive and embrace correction in a loving, constructive context, we build our houses upon the Rock. The rock that is truth, the rock that is love, the rock that is Christ.

This week, I challenge you (myself certainly included) to examine your attitudes on correction. Are you willing to sacrifice a moment's pride to enrich your life and build your identity in Christ, or are you tempted by the illusive, indefinable ideals that the world sells you?

Written by: Bri Vanderveen

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant

Proverbs-Part 1

On Sunday, we kicked off a series on the book of Proverbs. We talked about how it can be easy to brush this book off as a bunch of antiquated quips from an ancient agrarian society. But the truth of the matter is that the book of Proverbs is full of wisdom for us today. Sometimes we just need to take a few extra moments to meditate on the words, ideas and the hard-hitting, life-changing truth found therein.

Our challenge is to read one chapter of Proverbs each day corresponding with the day of the month. For example, we began on Monday, October 12 so the assignment was to read Proverbs 12. After you’ve read the chapter, pull out one verse that speaks to you and really analyze it and apply it to your life.

Aaron and I are doing this individually in our personal devotional time.  Proverbs 12 really convicted and challenged me in a few areas.  (Ahem…Proverbs 12:16. As one who is easily annoyed and impatient, that one hurt.)

We’ve also decided to, together as a family, read the corresponding chapter in the evenings. It’s been a time of reflection, honesty and encouragement for all of us. Aaron and I have been impressed with the insight and teachability of our children. We’ve been humble and contrite with them in the areas that we are being challenged as well. (Don’t get me wrong – I am not claiming that my kids are theological prodigies. You may have seen my social media post regarding the Proverb that my 7 year old “wrote”: If you don’t do what’s right, you’ll be eaten by the Kraken. But weird sea creature folklore aside, this is a great opportunity for my girls to begin to read and interpret scripture alongside of us.)

As you take this Proverbs Challenge over the next weeks, I would encourage you to customize it for yourself so that you can allow the scripture to impact you deeply. That may look different for each person. Many are posting their verse on social media. Maybe journaling about your verse will be most beneficial for you. Or perhaps writing it on a notecard or sticky note and placing it somewhere you’ll see it throughout the day works for you.

For those with artistic hearts, maybe putting the words to music will deepen the meaning of the words. I’ve seen people superimposing the words over a nature photo. Paint or draw the words in a way that speaks to you (I’ve seen my daughter do this with scripture).

Or talk about it around the dinner table or with a group of friends.

But whatever you do, please, take this challenge to heart. I pray that each of us would allow the wisdom of the Proverbs to drive deep into our hearts and change us.   

Written by: Jaime Hlavin

Edited by: Jenelle Kelly

Spiritual Warfare- Part 5

A few months ago at work, I was unexpectedly overcome after spotting a newswire story that the actor Dick Van Patten had died. I don’t just mean a sentimental twinge – I lost my composure in the newsroom, which is one of those open and collaborative spaces that management consultants rave about and workers often don’t. So I had to duck into a bathroom stall for several minutes until I could dry my eyes and get it together. It was disconcerting, to feel so stung by the loss of a man I’d never met and hadn’t even seen on TV for close to 30 years. But Van Patten and the whole fictional Bradford clan of “Eight Is Enough” were part of my childhood after my own father was gone, and are part of a larger dysfunction I hadn’t addressed as an adult.

I had no friends as a small child. My mother, adrift after a divorce that wasn’t amicable, changed jobs and towns frequently. So I was one of the first kids dropped off at day care in the morning, bused to school and back, and usually the last picked up to go home after dark. For the evening hours, while my mother divided her attention between my toddler brother and scraping dinner from a can, I was relegated to prime time TV. And I had crowdsourced my parenting, without realizing it, to several fictional TV dads. The first was probably Bradford, since the divorce came early in that series run. Others followed, as I discovered Howard Cunningham, Mike Brady, John Walton, and later Tony Micelli or Heathcliff Huxtable (by then my mother had remarried, but the pattern was ingrained). I absorbed every helpful talk those men gave their fictional kids in Brooklyn, Sacramento, or wherever, because I was convinced they were the same lessons other boys and girls on my block were getting from real human fathers, and I didn’t want to fall behind on growing up.

In the “Wild at Heart” series at men’s ministry we discussed “The Wound” men carry that affects their personalities and relationships with God; in most instances for me, this was the absence of an earthly father. It still manifests unexpectedly, like the Van Patten obituary incident, and we need a strategy to deal with our wound. In the message we studied the Good Samaritan, of Luke 10:25-37, as a model in coping with wounds. I’m used to thinking of that parable in terms of godly compassion, but it never occurred to me the robbery victim might be modeling something as well.  Sometimes you have to take yourself out of the game, or battle, and go on a disabled player list a while. Own that you are wounded, and allow yourself a chance to heal. It’s also important to make that only temporary, and to resolve to return to the fight.

In my prayer life I’ve become a warrior against loneliness. God often births ministry out of our own pain, and I try to spot isolation of others in the church and the world. I say “warrior” because I’m convinced chronic loneliness is an enemy, even a handicap, that causes people to be underdeveloped and dissociative and ineffective at coping with others’ needs. So I do what I can, just to try and get back in that battle. The end note of the message resonated for me, where after our wounds are tended we must get up and go and, maybe more importantly, to tell others we’re on our way back. Good rallying cry.

I doubt I’ve been derailed for the last time. There are other land mines that we stumble upon here and there, or leftover shrapnel from our wound that aches when we bend a certain way. After all, there are still a few more TV dads out there (really, I don’t know what children of divorce do today without so many nuclear families on TV – they must go deep into basic cable networks for their therapy). But I resolve to heal, and make that determination to cope and to minister with God’s help. We’ll see how it goes – after all, this isn’t over.

I’m on my way back, people.

Written by: Chad Halcom

Edited by: De Ann Sturdivant