December 27, 2008

Today's Reading - Proverbs 27
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Following Scripture Verses

1. Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
2. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.
3. A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both.
4. Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?
5. Open rebuke is better than secret love.
6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
7. The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
8. As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.
9. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel.
10. Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.
11. My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me.
12. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.
13. Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.
14. He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.
15. A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.
16. Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself.
17. Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
18. Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured.
19. As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
20. Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
21. As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so a man to his praise.
22. Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
23. Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.
24. For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation?
25. The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered.
26. The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field.
27. And thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.

Today's Pathway:
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"He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him." - Proverbs 27:14

Today's proverb gives us some very practical instruction. It is possible to attempt to do something nice for someone, and yet do it in such a way that it becomes offensive. Thus, we must always think through what we are about to do lest our good intentions produce bad results.

In the illustration given here, a man wants to pronounce a blessing upon his neighbor, which would obviously be a proper and benevolent thing to do. Unfortunately, he decides to do it very early in the morning, before his friend has gotten out of bed. He does it with a loud voice, which implies that he actually wakes his neighbor from sleep, which results in his friend being angry at him. What the man intended for good wound up being a curse.

There are many way that we can do such things. We could shovel snow from our neighbor's driveway, but wake him up on his day off doing it. We could cook a meal for a friend, and use ingredients that he is allergic to and make him ill. We could stay with someone who is recovering from an accident, yet that person may not want us to stay with him, and our presence bothers him. In all of these situations, our heart and motives are right, but we simply has not given sufficient thought to what we want to accomplish and how it will be received. The end result is that the man we are trying to help is in worse shape after we are done than he was before we started.

It is a wonderful thing to want to be a blessing to someone else. Just make sure that what you choose to do is something that your neighbor will see as being a blessing.

Pastor Mark J Montgomery