January 10, 2016
Scripture:
Scripture:
Hymn 312 - Jesus loves me! this I know
Prayer
Last time, we took a quick look at the first chapter of Joshua. Joshua was the next leader, after Moses. Before in Proverbs, we learned about knowledge and wisdom. God told Joshua that if He meditated on His Word, He would prosper, or do wisely. Today we are going to look at one phrase in particular, and the several blessings that come from it.
Proverbs 1:7
This verse starts off with “the fear of the Lord.” The phrase “the fear of the Lord” is found 18 times in Proverbs and 27 times in the whole Bible, one being in the New Testament. Some of those references mention blessings we can have. We usually think of fear as being frightened. It’s the feeling that we get when there is danger. But here it means, “to have a deep reverence or respect for God.” When you see the sun, stars, and other planets you can think of how great God is, and the love He had in sending His Son. God is our creator. He is Lord of our lives. He upholds everything. We can be in awe of all He is and everything He has done.
This is the beginning of knowledge. There are others who don’t believe in God. They don’t see those things as we can, and they won’t have the knowledge we will because of it.
So “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” For children it would be like having respect for our parents. It you have a “fear” of your parents you wouldn’t want to displease them at all.
Read Proverbs 9:10. This one says that it is the beginning of wisdom. Remember, knowledge is understanding, and wisdom is knowing how to apply that knowledge. God wants us to have wisdom in the way we live. He wants us to know how to use the skills He has given us.
Read Proverbs 15:33. Here the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. If you want to have knowledge and wisdom you have to realize who God is. If we listen to the Bible and obey the scriptures we will learn to walk wisely.
Read Proverbs 16:6. When someone has the fear of the Lord they depart from evil. God desires us to walk in a way honouring to Him. We can honour Him by helping others, obeying our parents, and departing from evil.
Read Proverbs 3:7. The fear of the Lord is humble. We don’t know all the answers, but we can look to God, and He will give instruction to help us. When we obey His instruction we will not disgrace Him in the way we live.
Read Proverbs 14:26. A place of refuge is a place where you can find shelter. If it’s raining that might be an umbrella. Sometimes it’s a place to get away from something that’s bothering you. We can find safety and protection in God’s care.
Read Proverbs 19:23. When the Lord is watching over us we won’t be visited by evil. The Children of Israel were protected by the blood they put over the door in Egypt. With the fear of the Lord we will understand all that He is, and it will bring us peace and joy in daily life.
Read Proverbs 22:4. This does not necessarily mean money. It can also be spiritual riches. When we read the scriptures they bring blessing and build us up. “Them that honour Me I will honour.”
If we looked at more we would find there are more blessings that come from having the fear of the Lord. And when we have it we can know God and all He has done for us. I hope these few verses can encourage us, and that we can have rich blessing through God’s love for us.
Philippians 1:1-18
Paul usually wrote letters to deal with problems in an assembly. However, there wasn’t much that needed correcting in Philippi. Also, Philippians contains the least amount of doctrine found in an epistle.
Doctrine is different from truth. Truth deals with big, fundamental realities; doctrine deals with our behaviours, the governing of the assemblies, etc. Wrong doctrine can bring in evil.
What this epistle does contain a lot about is Paul, and emphasizes communion between Christians. Joy is also one of the dominant themes. Paul seemed to get a special joy from the Philippian believers, and he thanked God for them. He was happy with how they were living out their faith.
The first reference we get to joy is in verse 4, and it’s because of the fellowship given in verse 5. The “first day” must have been the very beginning, when Paul preached and people believed. Paul enjoyed how these saints had the same desire for, and enjoyment of, the gospel that he did.
What is the gospel? The word “gospel” means “good news,” and we most often think of it referring to what God has done to save men’s souls. However, God’s good news goes farther than that. He is interested in not only saving our souls, but our lives and bodies, too. The Apostle wasn’t just rejoicing in salvation, but in all of God’s good news.
God had a work to do in us once we were saved; and it’s still going, for the day of the Lord is still future. We’re a work in progress! This refers to the salvation of our life. God wants us to be like Christ, and will transform us to His image as we submit to His work within us.
God is working IN us, but don’t forget that He wants to do work BY us as well. Look at the next chapter; Philippians 2:12-13. This again refers to the salvation of our life. Jesus worked for the salvation of our souls, now we need to work out that salvation in our behaviour, and work for others through service.
The Philippians lived in the days of the apostles, and it was the apostles who appointed the deacons and bishops. We don’t have deacons and bishops today because there are no apostles to appoint them. The work that they did still needs to be done, though, and we need to be sensitive to what part of it God wants us to do. May it be said that we let Him work through us! Philippians 2:5-8 speaks of Christ’s work for us, verses 12-14 speak of Christ’s work in us, and verses 15-16 speak of Christ’s work through us.
In verse 7 Paul says that He had the Philippians in his heart. We like to think of the Lord’s love for us, but we can also be knit together in love with the saints. We should go on in love and help each other. It’s easy to imagine Paul as a tough individual, but in reality he had a sensitive love for the saints. This love was appropriate because he had them in his heart; they were partakers of Paul’s grace, and he had a care and concern for them. This assembly was living out their faith well, and it gave the apostle joy and encouragement as he thought about them.
Hymn 169 — I claim for my own, a king on the throne
Prayer