To flee or take refuge?

Sound advice is often hard to come by. 

It seems that King David was given advice to 'flee like a bird to the mountains' (Psalm 11), but he wasn't too enamoured with that suggestion. It is possible that he was being attacked and pursued by his enemies, yet David didn't want to give into their demands and evil tactics. He wanted to make a stand. 

His statement of faith was this:

"In the Lord I take refuge!" (Psalm 11:1)

There are times when good people may give us very helpful advice, but we still need to place our trust in someone (something). David was willing to proclaim that God was his refuge. I am grateful that we can say the same thing.

Thought: What is the difference between having complete faith in God's protection or simply ignoring sound advice? Do you find that the line is a little blurred? 

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Mistakes and seeking advice

Writing is a strange thing. 

Sometimes my mind races ahead of my fingers and I end up typing words that I haven't meant to include. The same applies with silly mistakes - in my haste to finish the post, I often glance at my thoughts and mis-read my own writing. However, when I then re-read the blog post a day later, I am shocked at the mistakes I have made. I apologise for these. 

But, this did get me thinking...

Are there times in our lives where we proceed with actions (or the like) without noticing the potential mistakes? And if the answer is 'Yes', are we then willing to allow others to speak into our lives? The advice of a trusted friend is worth gold in times like these. 

Proverbs 12:15 - The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.

Proverbs 27:9 - Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.

Do you have someone in your life who is a trusted sounding board? 

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Last words

Coming to the end of his thoughts on life, wisdom and choices, Solomon gives us these profound words. Having read through the previous 12 chapters of Ecclesiastes they certainly sum up his sentiments neatly. 

"That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad." - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

This is the best advice we could pass onto the younger generation, and those who still need to hear this advice: 

Let us have a reverence for God (a holy fear) and be willing to follow God's ways. In the end, we will all be judged according to our actions and I am grateful that my life will be judged by one person only - The Lord.

"The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else." - Oswald Chambers

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Enjoy God

The final chapter of Ecclesiastes will help us to complete the circle of Solomon's rantings and advice given to the younger generation (and also to those of us older folk willing to listen) . He urges the youth to remember and honour God, even when they are young. Often people live their lives without any thought of God and then only turn to him later on in life - almost as a last resort. Solomon is impressing upon us all NOT to fall into that trap.

"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
“I find no pleasure in them”—
2 before the sun and the light
and the moon and the stars grow dark,
and the clouds return after the rain;" - Ecclesiastes 12:1-2 (NIV)

I love the way that The Message invites us to also 'enjoy' the Lord, as well as honour him. Many Christians understand the need to honour God and maybe even to fear him, but how often do we hear sermons where we are called to ENJOY the grace of God?

"Honour and enjoy your Creator while you’re still young,
Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes,
Before your vision dims and the world blurs
And the winter years keep you close to the fire." - Eugene Peterson 

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Succession

Making any plans for succession can be tricky. This can apply in all spheres of industry, business, church or family. As Solomon comes to the end of his reign he muses over what will become of his legacy and those who will succeed him.

"It is better to be a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who refuses all advice. Such a youth could rise from poverty and succeed. He might even become king, though he has been in prison. But then everyone rushes to the side of yet another youth who replaces him. Endless crowds stand around him, but then another generation grows up and rejects him, too. So it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind." - Ecclesiastes 4:13-16

Remember that Solomon uses a technique of comparisons in his reflections. He suggests that if you had two people standing alongside one another - a poor youth and an old king - the younger person is better off because he still has time to learn and become a better person. Even young people who start off with many disadvantages have more hope than an older person who doesn't want to change.

However, the reign of the young person will also come to an end at some point. People will then rush to the new 'flavour of the month' and forget the first youngster. This is confusing and meaningless to Solomon, because we so often chase after fame and recognition believing it will answer all our desires. He says IT WON'T!

It serves as a humbling reminder that our personal legacy will never outlive the lasting legacy of Jesus. 

"Humble beginnings can make the best teachers!" 

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Plans may fail...

According to Proverbs 15, our plans are doomed to fail if we don't get wise counsel from others.

"Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed." - Proverbs 15:22

I am so grateful for godly people in my life, who have offered me wise counsel during my seasons of tough decisions. It is true that when we ask others for help and advice, that they can steer us in the right direction. 

However, there are two things I want to add, as a way of clarifying this proverb. 

1. Even though it is important to seek counsel from many wise friends and family, we are still the ones who have to make the decisions in the end. If I follow someone's advice without truly believing it, then I am going to fall into the trap of blaming those people. 

2. If I consult too many people, I may find conflicting opinions and this can make me even more confused (just think of the President for an example of this). In seeking counsel we should place more weight on the opinions of those we trust the most. Those who love us, will want what is best for us.

What do you think?

"He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other." - Francis Bacon

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Wisdom's advice

In Proverbs 4 the writer urges the next generation to treat wisdom with the utmost respect. As a caring parent shares advice with their children, because they desire the best for them, so the author wants the readers to live a blessed life by listening to God-fearing wisdom. 

We are not told if the ‘parent’ in these verses has learnt these lessons the hardway, but there is every likelihood that this is true. Sometimes wise advice is most profound when it comes from our own school of broken dreams and real failures.

“Don’t turn your back on wisdom, for she will protect you.

Love her, and she will guard you.

Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do!

And whatever else you do, get good judgement.

If you prize wisdom, she will exalt you.

Embrace her and she will honour you.

She will place a lovely wreath around your head;

She will present you with a beautiful crown.” – Proverbs 4:6-9

Charles Spurgeon - "Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom."

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Don't Worry

Such valuable insight and advice for living in today's times - even though this was written for people living 2000 years ago.

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met." - Matthew 6:30-33 (The Message)

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Shake it off

I was listening to the radio this morning and a caller phoned in requesting a particular song. He said he had just had a hectic week and need to shake off some of the pessimism and issues he had been dealing with, so he asked for Taylor Swift's song Shake it off!

I thought is was a great idea for the start of a weekend and then remembered that Jesus had said something similar to his disciples, albeit in a different context. 

"If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet." - Matthew 10:14

Sometimes we let issues hang onto us for far too long and we just need to shake them off. By choosing to shake them free, we open ourselves up to the new blessings that God has in store for us.

What do you need to shake off today?

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Sound advice for living in today's world

As a young Jesuit priest, John O'Malley was given this insightful, down to earth advice, about living in a Christian community. I think this advice is great for everyone to hear today - if we can put this into practise, then that will be even better!

First, you are NOT God.
Second, this is NOT heaven.
Third, DON'T be an ass!

Can you imagine how much heartache we may be able to save ourselves if we understand these 3 things. This is my version of the 3 points:

We depend on the Grace of our loving Saviour, 
as we look towards Heaven, while daily serving in this world.
The more we love our neighbour, the less our actions make us look selfish and foolish.

"...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:2


Living in Grace
D3LM3

If I were you...

We can be very glib to offer advice to others, but would we be willing to take our own advice? We may even have said these words recently - "If I were you I would ..."
So, my question is this:
"Would we take our own advice?"

Often when we give good advice to other people, we aren't necessarily mixed up in the emotion of that decision, so we think about that unique situation in a different way. And besides this, it would be wrong to give people advice that we wouldn't be willing to follow ourselves.

Proverbs 12:26 -  "The godly give good advice to their friends; the wicked lead them astray."

"The best way to succeed in life is to act on the advice we would give to others." - Unknown

Living in Grace
D3LM3

What would you say?

Have you ever thought about having a conversation with a younger version of yourself? What I mean is this - if you had a chance to speak to a 'teenage you', what advice and wisdom would you pass onto that person, taking into consideration everything you have experienced up until now? If you are interested in reading what I wrote to a teenage Delme, then click here. Hope it makes sense.

God bless
D3LM3

Good advice

Good advice is hard to come by at times. Thankfully, Seneca gives us some good advice for today - the best advice lasts through the tests of time.

"Live among men as if God beheld you;
speak to God as if men were listening." - Seneca

1 Thessalonians 4:7 - For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

Colossians 1:10 - "...so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God."

Living in Grace
D3LM3
 

Lent #1 - Proverbs

It is important to remember that when we read the Bible that it was written in a particular context. When Solomon wrote his Proverbs he knew nothing of what the world would look like in 2015, and neither could he have understood the complexities of modern politics, economics, spirituality and education.

However, what Solomon knew plenty about was 'humanity!' He knew the frailty of his own life, as well as the sinfulness of his people. In truth, people have not really changed much. We are still filled with love, greed, pride, compassion, anger, selfishness, care, anxiety, stress, ambition and so many other emotions and character traits.

So, when he writes Proverbs , he reflects on how it would be good for us to listen to Godly advice and to gain wisdom for living holy lives. Yet, people still chose to go their own way and to turn their backs on God. To these people he wrote:

"They rejected my advice
    and paid no attention when I corrected them.
Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way,
    choking on their own schemes. 
 For simpletons turn away from me—to death.
    Fools are destroyed by their own complacency. 
 But all who listen to me will live in peace,
    untroubled by fear of harm.” - Proverbs 1:30-33

As I journey through LENT this year I hope to reflect on some of the wise words of Solomon and to ask myself what challenges he gives to me. I learnt from this first proverb that:

1. It is good to listen to godly advice.
2. Those who choose their own schemes will choke on the "bitter fruit" of those lies.
3. Complacency can be destructive.
4. If we listen to God we will find peace.

Be blessed today.

Living in Grace
D3LM3