18 Like a madman shooting
firebrands or deadly arrows

19 is a man who deceives his neighbor
and says, “I was only joking!”

20 Without wood a fire goes out;
without gossip a quarrel dies down.

– Proverbs 26: 18-20

The last verse goes along with this post well.

I appreciate your articles, too, Christian. You should post more often!

I’ve been noticing lately . . . you know how you can hold a mirror up to another mirror, and you’ll see a tunnel of mirrors that goes on forever? That’s what the Bible is like. It’s nice enough just on the surface . . . and then you start digging and it goes on forever! Amazing book.

“Christianity is the only religion that has at its heart the humiliation of its God.”

When will the followers of that God be ready for any and all humiliation for His sake? When we defend ourselves we forsake Him.

“25 How painful are honest words!
But what do your arguments prove?

26 Do you mean to correct what I say,
and treat the words of a despairing man as wind?”

-Job 6: 25-26

My associate pastor preached today on controlling one’s tongue, but he used this Scripture and I thought it was interesting because I’d never really heard it before. I thought it really went along well with this post. Being honest and right all the time isn’t always the best, especially when the person you are arguing with, as the verse puts it, is “despairing” . . . whether just having a bad day or going through a crisis. Again, it comes down to grace and patience.

On a different note, the pastor also used Jesus’ quote from Matthew 5 — “let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’, and anything beyond that comes from the devil.” I think it just goes along with the posts on this site lately in general, in light of the seemingly endless arguments that have been going on the past couple of weeks. There are several different sides to this verse, but I think it could mean that we should just state our sides of the argument and move on. Drawing things out on and on, and trying to be right or “win” or whatever really is from the devil.

It’s been interesting to me that recently the things I’ve been reading in the Bible on my own time, the things that have happened to me, the things I’ve been learning in church, in small group, on the internet, etc, have all connected somehow and have all been pretty much the same lessons. Complete coincidence? . . . Maybe not . . .

Seems to be the case more often than not for me. I’m working on it. Good post–more like this one would be great. Very encouraging.

I wonder though if we don’t have degrees to which are willing to show grace. For instance, I think everybody would excuse Merry’s minister given the circumstances, but would we excuse or show grace to somebody for something a lot less severe or even less obvious? Maybe they are depressed, or maybe it’s been a series of small things over a long period of time, or maybe they haven’t slept in days. We cannot know these things, and so the onus is placed on us to be patient.

Another thought I just had is do we show grace only after we know the reasons for their attitude, or do we show grace in the midst of their attitude? I think showing grace in the midst is one of those sublte acts of bearing with one another’s burdens that we lose sight of.

Just some more thoughts.

Maybe I was right and he was the one being inconsiderate, but that wasn’t the point. He needed a lot of grace and kindness that day. It was a reminder to always be patient with everyone, because you don’t always realize the whole story until later. I only hope his sister will be okay.

Amen. Thanks for that word. It is amazing (though it shouldn’t be) that when we actually do what Jesus said we ought to do we often find Him. And grace happens.

peace,
Chad