50 DAYS OF WISDOM - DAY 35 "WISDOM THROUGH DAILY DIFFICULTY" PROVERBS 17:1-14

SALT WATER

It is not all sunshine and palm trees all the time. Here is a photo of us taking a long walk on the beach on a very windy cloudy day. I love the beach like this because it’s uncrowded!

CLEAN WATER

Our long term vision is to fund 100 panel water farms through grant writing in California, El Salvador and Pakistan as a way to model and teach young people how to solve this problem. This will cost about $1,000,000 total. I am working on having these water farms funded and operational by 2030 so we can teach an train young people through Beach House at these sites.

LIVING WATER

Been having church at Sur Coffee for 4 years now. Nicko grew up in Indonesia and lives in Malibu and now he is acting as a catalytic leader as we gather monthly at the different Sur Coffee shops (San Diego, San Clemente and Huntington Beach) to teach simple disciple making and church planting

WISDOM THROUGH DAILY DIFFICULTY - PROVERBS 17:1-14

Dr. Ryan here. Today I want to talk to you out of Proverbs chapter 17 from our series in Daily Wisdom. I want to remind you to subscribe and to share. This helps us get God's word out and share all the beautiful things that God's doing through his word and through the ministry here at Ocean Water. I appreciate it.

Chapter 17 verse 1 says, better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. And so it's better to have less things and to have more peace than to have more things and less peace. That is a really great message for those of us who live in cultures where materialism defines a large portion of the society.

So verse 2 says, a prudent servant will rule over a disgraceful son and will share the inheritance as one of the family. So last time we talked about prudence really being in self-discipline being your apex asset as a person. And Solomon follows it up here by saying that the prudent servant will rule. The prudent servant will rule because the prudent and disciplined servant is trusted more by the gatekeepers or the power centers. And so when they're looking for people to trust, to run and be responsible, they're looking for people that are prudent and self-discipline.

Verse 3 says, the crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart. God will test our heart all the time through challenges, through temptations, through trials, through difficulty. God will test our heart. And he does this because the Bible says that the eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the earth looking to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are completely his. So view your difficulty as a heart test.

Verse 4, a wicked person listens to deceitful lips. A liar pays attention to a destructive tongue. Wicked people and liars are drawn to lying and deception. There's like the fruit of the spirit that's talked about in Galatians chapter 5. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The fruit, the unfruitfulness of the spirit is defined by deceit, lying, envy, lust, rage, et cetera.

Verse 5, whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker. Whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished. We're not supposed to cheer when things go poorly for people that we don't agree with everything that they think or teach or in the ways that they behave. We're not to gloat at other people's misfortunes. And we're not supposed to mock the poor because we don't have a proper understanding of their context. You claim to know all knowledge when you're mocking someone's place in society.

Now verse 6, this is a great one, personal for me. Everyone's children are a crown of the aged and parents are the pride of their children. So this speaks of being a grandparent, which I am, and nothing brings me more joy than my granddaughter. She's amazing. So there's a greater joy the older that you get in your relationship to kids.

Verse 7, eloquent lips are unsuited to a godless fool. How much worse lying lips to a ruler? The writer is saying here that foolish people don't really deserve to have eloquence because it's leading them to misuse their influence.

Verse 8, a bribe is seen as a charm by the one who gives it. They think success will come at every turn. The older you get, the more you realize that bribery is actually quite common. I've surfed many times in Mexico and in order to surf certain spots, you have to sort of bribe your way in. The Bible doesn't teach to bribe and to flatter. It teaches honest scales and truth telling.

Verse 9, whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. So when you have conflict and you have disagreement, you don't help that situation by repeating it and telling it to others. The nature of peacekeeping is to overlook wrongs with forgiveness, kindness, and love because the Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins.

Verse 10, a rebuke impresses a discerning person more than a hundred lashes a fool. A rebuke is when someone thinks a certain way and acts a certain way and you tell them and you confront them that they need to quit doing it. That's a rebuke. Rebukes are really fun. Evil doers foster rebellion against God. The messenger of death will be sent against them. This is a great example of why it's important to actually read the Bible and actually teach every part of the Bible. Look at what this says. Evil doers foster rebellion against God. What's God's response? The messenger of death will be sent against them. We tend to think that we can do whatever we want, say whatever we want, and act however we want and then we all end up in heaven. The Bible does not teach that. The Bible teaches that if you mock God, well according to this scripture, the messenger of death will be sent against them. Now it could mean literal physical death. It could also mean death to certain parts of your life or death to some of your perspective, but there is always a loss when you mock God in some way, shape or form.

Verse 12, better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool bent on folly.

Now this may seem counterintuitive. I mean being confronted by a bear that isn't connected to its offspring would seem terrifying to me. I've seen the movie The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio and bears are portrayed as terrifying. They actually assault them in that movie. So the Bible is actually saying it would be better for you to be mauled by a bear than to be a foolish person. So again, we want to be drawn to wisdom, not foolishness.

Verse 13, evil will never leave the house of one who pays back evil for good. Vengeance is God's. Retribution is the Lord's. You want to obey this scripture to protect yourself, to protect your own home.

Verse 14, starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam. So drop the matter before a dispute breaks out. If you've seen a dam, water is filled up into the back of the structure. It's released a little at a time. What it's saying here is when you start fighting with someone and you start a disagreement with someone, things quickly escalate and the outcome of the initial disagreement ends up being exponentially worse. And so in order to avoid situations and escalations, you want to stop disagreements and disputes before they start. And then lastly, acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent, the Lord detests them both. So God, in the justice system, we're not supposed to let people off who are guilty. We're not supposed to condemn those who are innocent. The Lord teaches justice. Now, sometimes justice is distributed perfectly and accurately here on earth. Many times it isn't, but the Lord detest accurate, honest judgments.

Thanks so much for joining me today. There are so many wonderful gems in this book. Until next time, I hope you have a beautiful day.