In His Service

                                    The Christmas Story in Proverbs Proverbs 14:20-27 The story of Christmas is based around a young poor couple blessed by God to bear and raise the Christ-child. They had very little of the world’s riches yet were wealthy in the blessings of God over their lives. So I use the story of Joseph and Mary as the background for this selection of proverbs. So let’s read the first portion of the text. “The poor are despised even by their neighbors, while the rich have many “friends.” It is a sin to belittle one’s neighbor; blessed are those who help the poor. If you plan to do evil, you will be lost; if you plan to do good, you will receive unfailing love and faithfulness. Work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty! Wealth is a crown for the wise; the effort of fools yields only foolishness.” The favored couple of the Lord made their way through the angelic ann...

                                    La Historia de Navidad en Proverbios Proverbios 14:20-27 La historia de la Navidad se centra en una joven pareja pobre, bendecida por Dios para gestar y criar al niño Jesús. Poseían muy pocas de las riquezas del mundo, pero eran ricos gracias a las bendiciones de Dios sobre sus vidas. Por eso, utilizo la historia de José y María como contexto para esta selección de proverbios. Leamos la primera parte del texto. Los pobres son despreciados incluso por sus vecinos, mientras que los ricos tienen muchos amigos. Es pecado menospreciar al prójimo; dichosos los que ayudan a los pobres. Si planeas hacer el mal, estarás perdido; si te propones hacer el bien, recibirás amor y fidelidad inagotables. El trabajo trae ganancias, pero las meras palabras conducen a la pobreza. La riqueza es una corona para los sabios; el esfuerzo de los necios sólo produce necedad. La pareja...

  The Heart and Soul of the Matter Proverbs 14:10-18 It doesn’t take long in this life before the person feels the elation of joy or the pang of bitterness in their souls. For this world can go sideways very quickly, and if the heart of the person has set itself on a treasured event of this world they may be disillusioned when the end comes and the fulfillment of its elation is short-lived. Like a child on Christmas day when the battery-operated toy winds down and there are no more batteries to reenergize. The fluctuation of the moment steals into mixed emotions. Solomon understood these mixing ambivalence emotions from his writings in Ecclesiastes. He learned that the heart and soul of a person can only be truly fulfilled by the One who created it, God. “ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (Ecc.3:11 NLT) And David wrote in the f...