PROVERBS

What a wonderful day we had yesterday at Church!  How God met with us and blessed.  Souls were saved, people were baptized (7) and a family joined the church.  We had a packed out auditorium and God blessed throughout in all the ministries and it was exciting.  God has been so very good to us.  I'm reading in Proverbs this morning, and here are some truths I want to expound on a little: 1) HE TAUGHT ME- Proverbs is Solomon writing to his son who will be king one day, Rehoboam.  But Solomon tells us that his father, King David, taught him to have a love for wisdom.  In chapter four, Solomon tells us all of the things that his father taught him.  He says in verse 4:  "He taught me..."  We too should teach our children, and our children's' children. 2) WISDOM PERSONIFIED- In Chapter eight, we see that wisdom is speaking.  When something acts like a human, it is said to be "personified" or "acting like a person".  Wisdom is talking like a man would talk in verse eight and speaking about itself.  Throughout Proverbs, we see so much said about wisdom, but only in chapter eight do we see wisdom speaking for itself.  Verse one says:  "Doth not wisdom cry?  and understanding put forth her voice?"  Verse four says:  "Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice to the sons of man."  Verse 12 says:  "I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions."  3) THE LOT- In Proverbs 16:33, it says:  "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD."  In times gone by, decisions were made by casting lots.  Just as someone might roll a dice.  A stone might have a man's name upon it and put into a pile of other stones.  When a stone was chosen out of the pile, it was thought that God chose this man to take the job that was needed.  So they felt that putting their name in the pile was their job, and having their stone chosen was God's job.  God directed the right stone for the task to be taken.  So... this verse now makes sense.  But, since we do not do that anymore, let us look at the broader sense of the verse.  It means that you do what you should be doing, and God will take care of the outcome!  This is what the verse means.  I hope you realize that if we do our part, God will do His part!  We can trust Him and rely on Him completely.  This is all I will share today.  Tonight we have Dr. Jack Schaap preaching for us today and tomorrow.  He is flying from Chicago and I will pick him up this afternoon.  He pastors the First Baptist Church of Hammond, which is now the 12th largest Church in America.  It will be a blessing to have him and to host other pastors throughout the Northwest as well.  May God bless you! Dr. Mike Mutchler, Pastor