Proverbs 14:4 – “Where there are no oxen (bulls if you will), the crib is clean; (no bull waste), but abundant crops come by strength of the ox.  (Not pulling power but abundant waste).”

I have learned that God’s Divine appointments are helpful tools in producing Divine accomplishments and building Divine relationships.   As I read, prayed, and mused on the Word, joy, awe, trembling, and a sense of triumph flooded my heart.    I was encouraged and challenged.  I was inspired and convicted, at times, through the same passage.

A seemingly odd statement found in Proverbs 14:4 inspired and convicted me.    It is our text verse and very pertinent to this discussion.  As I read in Proverbs, the LORD spoke to my heart that we are to turn the Bull Droppings of life into fertilizer.    How do we do that?   We give it to Him totally.   We refuse to dwell on it for a millisecond.

Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” 

We want to defend ourselves, retaliate, give tit for tat, stew on it.  We fight against relying on our human ways or thoughts.   They produce death, but if we totally give it to God, it becomes fertilizer for our harvest.

Proverbs 17:9 – “He who forgets an offense (forgives and surrenders it to God) seeks friendship (fellowship); BUT he who HATES TO FORGET an offense estranges (isolates, divests of benefit, makes an adversary) himself from a friend and neighbor.”

We must never forget that breaking a three-fold chord is not easy. 

Proverbs 20:27 – “The soul of a man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the heart.” 

We need to heed the tugging of the soul to flee those things that defile our hearts.  Embrace God’s searchlight.  It brings it to life.  Hebrews 12:6-7 reminds us that God’s discipline is because of His love.  He corrects us so we can take the bull droppings of life and turn them into fertilizer.   Fertilizer gives the seed the nourishment needed to produce fruit.  May your harvest be abundant.  

As I said, I was inspired and convicted at the same time.  I’m inspired because I see it.  Convicted because I’ve been guilty.  My prayer is, “LORD, help us to turn the negative into fertilizer through your Holy Spirit.”   Now is the time to turn all the bull of life into fertilizer!

Have a victorious day in Jesus, and rejoice because you are more than a conqueror!

Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Today is the day the LORD has made, and I believe it is filled with victorious discoveries if we are sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.    God wants to lead us into fullness, but we tend to trust our own wisdom and desires more than the quiet guidance of the Holy Spirit.

During my multiple decades on the planet and my decades of serving God, I have learned that when He speaks to you through the Bible, you listen.   When God gives a Rhema, a prophetic voice, and you sense the nudging of the Holy Spirit, it is vital to Hear that warning or urge.   I have received many through the years!

I wish I could say I always obeyed and heeded them quickly and fully.  I wish I could.   However, I have found that choices have consequences, and actions of obedience or disobedience have their own unique awards.  One is reward and a step into more fullness; the other is discipline and a step backward Until we obey.

Most likely, we have had times when we were disobedient to what we knew was right, but the pull of the flesh overpowered our hearts, and we walked in disobedience.   I hope I am the only one, but I suspect others have been guilty.

Today, the LORD revealed something personal to me, and I desire to walk in complete obedience to that directive.   Will it be easy?  Is solving a quantum physics problem easy if you do not know quantum physics?  However, I have also learned that if we set our hearts to following God completely, He will help us.    The key is being willing and then being obedient to Him.  The flesh says no, but the Spirit says yes!

I pray for each one today that we will all have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us individually and have willing hearts to obey that directive.   

The declaration of Proverbs 14:12 resonates powerfully with the heart that desires to be obedient.  “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

As I read today in the George Lamsa Translation of Aramaic to English, Proverbs 15:3 leaped off the page, “Commit your works to the LORD, and He will establish your thoughts.”   That is a compelling thought.  If we commit our lives, works, actions, deeds, and pursuits to God, He will guide our thoughts and establish us in right thinking!  Right thinking leads to right believing, and right belief leads to right behavior.  I want that!  I cry, “More, Lord!  More Lord!”

May your days be filled with peace as you hear and heed the directives of the LORD!

Ecclesiastes 1:1-8 – “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.  ² Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.  ³ What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?  ⁴ A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.  ⁵ The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.  ⁶ The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits, the wind returns.  ⁷ All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.  ⁸ All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word of God today, the thought of “Life” became my focus.   Life?  Yes, both the daily routine and that which is unseen and eternal.

Many live in the mundane sameness of a routine that has become who they are.   Ecclesiastes 1:1-8 speaks to the routine of life.   In verses 4-7, there is the description of the perpetual routine of day after day.   The sun comes up and goes down day after day.   There is “Sameness.”   The wind blows, goes, and returns.   Life is marked by “Sameness.”   The rivers run into the sea, but the sea is not full, and the water returns to do it again.  

Day after day, the routine, grind, and rat race continues.   If that defines us, we lose focus on the eternal and the potential beyond our routine ruts.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 is incredible.  “The thing that has been is that which shall be; AND that which has been done is that which shall be done; AND there is nothing new under the sun.”

That can mean the inevitably of mundane sameness, or it can be seen as an inspirational invitation into the endlessness of newness in God.  It can be the inspiration to dream spiritual dreams and achieve eternal visions.

In life, walking alone invites the temptation to become stuck in the ruts of life.  Partners, whether husband and wife or co-laborers, can open the door to move us off high center and being stuck in the mundane.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 should be memorized and kept before our consciousness all the time.  There is Strength in tandem.  Encouragement, inspiration, challenge, and help come from a partner who also seeks God’s best.

The enemy cannot easily defeat a tandem.  A threefold cord is not easily or quickly broken.  Wait!   A tandem is two, not three, right?  Yes, but Jesus said that where 2 or 3 were gathered in His name, He is there too.  So, in Christ 2, become three.  He multiples us.

Jesus sent them out in tandem.  The principle is everywhere.   Don’t be an island.   Open yourself to the dangers and joys of partnership in God.

We are more than conquerors because of what Jesus did and God’s words.  The only thing lacking is to believe and receive that position and condition.   Today is your day of greater victory.  Receive it.

Have a victorious day as a member of the Body of Christ, and be Victorious in Jesus!

Song of Solomon 8:7 – “Many waters cannot quench Love, neither can floods drown it.  If a man offered for Love all the wealth of his house,  he would be utterly despised.”

As I prayed, read, and meditated on the Word and Life, I was drawn to several thoughts, and a question perplexed me.   The question is less important than the content of the thoughts.

The Song of Solomon presents a beautiful reflection on the matter of Love. Song of Solomon 8:7 paints a picture of Love, its power, and mankind’s inability to truly understand it.

“Many waters (waters usually refer to people in the Bible) cannot quench love, neither can the rivers (often expressive of difficulties or trials) carry it away; AND YET, IF a man would give all the substance of his house for love, people would mock him.”

Love is powerful, captivating, consuming, and of more value than all material possessions.   Yet, those not captivated by that Love ridicule the total devotion to it.

That is true in the natural and spiritual.    Love is said to be blind to the one consumed by it.   Why is that?   Because they choose not to see flaws.   Their purpose is to see Love and the object of Love.   They strive to embrace and enhance that Love.   This is true in the natural and spiritual.   

The object of Love becomes the consuming focus.  Those outside consider that foolish because their focus is on themselves.

Love is a central theme and command of the Bible.  God made us to be receptors and receptacles of Love.  We receive it and dispense it when we are healthy and whole mentally, morally, socially, and spiritually.

Until we are whole in Jesus, through His blood and grace, we are broken cisterns that cannot contain the waters of Love.  We leak because our inner desire is our self-satisfaction, and the unredeemed self never shares it takes rather than gives.  Love gives without focusing on receiving.

God’s Love for us and through us is selfless.   Love Himself made us to love and be loved.   Whatever hinders us from giving and receiving Love must be taken to the Cross and surrendered if we are to live an abundant life.

I can love the unlovely only through God’s Love.   The extent to which I can love and be loved is directly connected to my Love for God and my ability to trust His Love for me.

2 Peter 1:2-8 speaks beautifully about the process of becoming whole.  Love is the defining fruit and characteristic of spiritual wholeness.  In v. 11, Peter says that if we follow this progression and development, we are granted a free entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom of God.  That is amazing and makes me say wow!

Therefore, if we want heaven on earth and to live in the kingdom’s culture, we do those things listed.  Love!  Today, it is possible that God will allow some unlovely and unloving things and people to cross your path.  Recognize it as an opportunity to receive and manifest His Love, mercy, peace, and grace, giving you the key to the open heaven you desire.

May your day be filled with the Love of God, and may His Love flow through to you others!

1 John 3:3 –   “Let every person who has this hope (being transformed into the image, nature, and character of Jesus) in him purify himself EVEN AS He (Jesus) is pure.” 

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word, the little Johns crushed me and elevated me to new heights. 

Notice the directive to walk “Just As” Jesus walked.   Who among us can claim that we are fully doing that?    That can be a crushing thought because we know our frailty and deficiency.    Imagine Loving “Just As” Jesus loves.   Who can claim that?   We are flesh, and human emotions are very much alive in us.   We have doubts, fears, desires, ambitions, and individualized dreams.   How can we claim to be selfless when we are not?   That’s why I say this is a Crushing directive.

Then, in 1 John 3 and 4, we are told how to love.  We are to Love not with words alone but with actions.   Love is far more a demonstration than an expression.   Our actions either validate or deny the expression.

1 John 4 and 5 bring us immeasurable Hope!   If we surrender our hearts to God in true humility, Jesus comes to us, and by the Holy Spirit, is “in” us abiding “in” us.    He enables us to live (empowered and enabled) to live life through Jesus.   If we can receive it, it is to live as He lived and lives.  It is Christ “in” us.

In that union and total commitment, we defeat the sin nature and cooperate with the Holy Spirit to “be” in this world “Just As” Jesus was and is.

We can love without fear and serve without expectation of reciprocation.  We can forgive without nurturing our wounds and building defense walls.

1 John 5:18 is incredible.   “We know that Everyone who is born of God does not sin; For He who is born of God Guards Himself, and the evil one does not come near him.”     What?   James tells us that if we submit to God and resist the devil, the devil has no choice but to leave.

• The key:  Submit 100% to God.  Resist 100% the temptations of the devil.
• Guard every Word and thought, making them subjected to Jesus. 

As we grow in grace and love (mature), sin begins to fade into the background because it has no soil in which to grow.   That is the objective of my heart as I ponder the Word today.

We can be free!  Jesus gave us the way!  Today is a new day and a new beginning for Freedom!

Have a great day in His Love and live Just As!