IS PROVERBS ABOUT "DOING" OR "RELATIONSHIP"?

Although most all of the world has no care about God, God’s great concern for us zeros in on our having a right and vibrant relationship with Him that shows forth the wonder of who He is. During my study this week of Lesson 2 in our study on Proverbs, I particularly noticed the strong emphasis on this book’s foundation being “a relationship with God.” I’m excited about this lesson for that very reason. During lunch today Mark read me a very interesting article that reminded me that the entire Bible from cover to cover faithfully teaches that our lives fail outside of living for the glory of God. A study in proverbs can easily become sidetracked into the teaching of morality. But, the real point is God’s glory and this can only be evident in our lives when we have a bond with God because He has forgiven us and made us His child. That beautiful alliance grows as we understand—from Proverbs and the rest of the Bible—how God wants us to live in order that He would be most honored. But He being honored must be the motivation behind a moral life.

Please plan to join us this Thursday morning as we discuss this exciting topic found in various verses throughout Proverbs.

THE UNIVERSAL DEEPEST NEED

"In these days of social unrest there are plenty of voices round us that proclaim other needs as being clamant, but, oh, they are all shallow and on the surface as compared with the deepest need of all: and the men that come round the sick-bed of humanity and say, ‘Ah, the patient is suffering from a lack of education,’ or ‘the patient is suffering from unfavorable environment,’ have diagnosed the disease superficially. There is something deeper the matter than that, and unless the physician has probed further into the wound than these surface appearances, I am afraid his remedy will go as short a way down as his conception of the evil goes.
Oh, brethren, there is something else the matter with us than ignorance or unfavorable conditions. ‘The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.’ The tap-root of all human miseries lies in the solemn fact of human transgression. That is a universal fact. Wide differences part us, but there is one thing that we have all in common: a conscience and a will that lifts itself against disliked good. Beneath all surface differences of garb there lies the same fact, the common sickness of sin. The king’s robe, the pauper’s uniform, the student’s gown, the mill-hand’s fustian, the naked savage’s brown skin, each cover a heart that is evil, and because it is evil, needs salvation from sickness and deliverance from danger... But on the Cross, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bore the weight of the world’s sin, yours and mine and every man’s. There is one security against the danger; and it is that He, fronting the incidence of the Divine law, says, as He said to His would-be captors in the garden, ‘If ye seek Me, let these go their way.’ And they go their way by the power of His atoning death.."  Alexander Maclaren

Oh, yes--good thoughts as we study together the incredible book of Jude this coming Thursday morning.  Plan to be present for our last time until fall and then join us at my house for lunch.  Bring along your favorite lunch item to share with everyone and we will enjoy a wonderful time together.