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Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Family Ties in the Social Distance #43: Proverbs 16:2–The Universal Standard

My husband, Glenn, is sharing these daily lessons for our West Huntsville family as we are necessarily (because of the virus) spending less time physically together in worship, study and fellowship. We may be “socially distanced,” but  we’re a close-knit family and we want to keep it that way! One way to stay on track together, spiritually, is to think about a common passage and make applications for our lives together even when we are unable to assemble as frequently. I’m sharing these daily family lessons here for those in other places, whose families (or even congregations) might benefit from a common study in these uncommon days of semi-quarantine. There are Family Bible Time guides included, as well. You can adapt, shorten or lengthen them according to the ages of kids (and adults) in your family. Blessings.

From Glenn:

My Favorite Proverbs: Proverb 16:2 

“All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits.”

This proverb implies God has an objective, absolute standard for man’s behavior.  Here is the account of two-gun Crowley which I learned when I was younger.  I assume it to be true. It reads like a newspaper report and appeared in one of Dale Carnegie’s books:

On May 7, 1931, New York City witnessed the most sensational man-hunt the old town had ever known. After weeks of searching, “Two Gun” Crowley—the killer–the gunman who didn’t smoke or drink—was  trapped in his sweetheart’s apartment on West End Avenue.  One-hundred-fifty policemen and detectives laid siege to his top-floor hideaway.  Chopping holes in the roof, they tried to smoke out Crowley, the “cop killer,” with tear gas.  Then they mounted their machine guns on surrounding buildings, and for more than an hour, one of New York’s fine residential sections reverberated with the crack of pistol fire and the rat-tat-tat of machine guns. Crowley, crouching behind an overstuffed chair, fired incessantly at the police.  Ten thousand excited people watched the battle. Nothing like it had ever been seen on the sidewalks of New York.  

When Crowley was captured, Police Commissioner Mulrooney declared that the two-gun desperado was one of the most dangerous criminals ever encountered in the history of New York.  “He will kill,” said the commissioner, “at the drop of a feather.”  

But how did “Two Gun” Crowley regard himself?  We know, because while the police were firing into his apartment, he wrote a letter addressed “To whom it may concern.” And, as he wrote, the blood flowing from his wounds left a crimson trail on the paper.  In this letter Crowley said: “Under my coat is a weary heart, but a kind one—one that would do nobody any harm.”

Only a short time before this writing, Crowley had been with a woman on a country road out on Long Island.  Suddenly a policeman walked up to the parked car and said:  “Let me see your license.”

Without saying a word, Crowley drew his gun, and cut the policemen down with a shower of lead.  As the dying officer fell,  Crowley leaped out of the car, grabbed the officer’s revolver, and fired another bullet into the prostrate body.  That was the killer who said, “Under my coat is a weary heart, but a kind one—one that would do nobody any harm.”

Crowley was sentenced to the electric chair.  When he arrived at the death house at Sing Sing, did he say, “This is what I get for killing people?”  No, he said, “This is what I get for defending myself.”  The point of the story is this:  “Two Gun” Crowley never blamed himself for any of his heinous crimes.

This brief account of the life and death of a killer, combined with our proverb for today emphasize the fact that all people must be guided by a higher standard than their own momentary preferences.  Standards are vitally important, especially in view of man’s propensity to justify his actions, no matter how sinful they are. Every wrong done can be excused by rationalization. But, the Bible is universal, absolute truth, and God’s ways will always be higher than our ways (Isa. 55:9).

Spend a few minutes today meditating on today’s proverb and the advice King David gave to his son Solomon. Make application to your life and the lives of your children:

As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever” (1 Chronicles 28:9).

Family Bible Time with Glenn and Cindy:

Before we complete our time of studying serving Jesus by serving others, let’s detour tonight to another passage that teaches us the concept of selflessness and sharing our bounty with others. We call this account the parable of The Rich Fool. Read or tell it to your children from Luke 12:15-21.

  1. A man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things he possesses. Challenge your kids to think of the richest (in material wealth) person they know. Then ask them to think about it and see if this person is the happiest one they know. Draw from this exercise that happiness in life is not in wealth.
  2. Now read the paragraph from Scripture again in which the rich man thinks about what he will do with his goods. Have them count how many times he uses the pronoun I. Is this man a self-centered man? Do we know anyone, or can we think of anyone in a story, who focuses on themselves?  (Maybe they might think of  someone like Gaston in Beauty and the Beast or the Wicked Queen in Snow White.) Is this the kind of person we’d love to be around? Is this person really happy?
  3. Make sure your children know what happens to all our material possessions when we die. Have older  children find the question Jesus asked about these material things upon a man’s death (from the passage in Luke 12).
  4. Have a conversation with any small children about what Jesus taught about sharing from this passage. Is he pleased when we want to keep everything for ourselves while others around us need or want things we could give them?
  5. See if your children can remember people in the Bible who were great at sharing. They might think of many among which may be these: Abraham shared with Lot (Genesis 13), Joseph shared with his brothers (Genesis 42:25), Boaz shared with Ruth (Ruth 2), the widow of Zarephath shared with Elijah (1 Kings 17), the Shunemite woman shared with Elisha (2 Kings 4), the little boy shared the five loaves and two fishes (John 6). If you have more than one child thinking, make it a little contest to see who can list the most “sharing” stories in the Bible. (Little prizes are great at any age)
  6. Finally, read to your children the Aesop fable “A Dog and His Bone.” You can find this in many places online. Here’s one: http://read.gov/aesop/026.html. How was the dog like the rich fool? Elicit from your kids that, in both cases, the prized possession was gone at the end, because of selfishness. Make sure you note that Aesop was just illustrating a truth taught by Jesus and the Word of God…that all truth about right and wrong comes from God.
  7. Pray with your kids.

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

FAMILY TIES IN THE SOCIAL DISTANCE #16: PROVERBS 6:19–A False Witness who Speaks Lies

My husband, Glenn, is sharing these daily lessons  for our West Huntsville family as we are necessarily (because of the virus) spending less time physically together in worship, study and fellowship. We may be “socially distanced,” but  we’re a close-knit family and we want to keep it that way! One way to stay on track together, spiritually, is to think about a common passage and make applications for our lives together even when we are unable to assemble as frequently. I’m sharing these daily family lessons here for those in other places, whose families (or even congregations) might benefit from a common study in these uncommon days of semi-quarantine. There are Family Bible Time guides included, as well. You can adapt, shorten or lengthen them according to the ages of kids (and adults) in your family. Blessings.

From Glenn:

My Favorite Proverbs: A False Witness who Speaks Lies (Proverbs 6:19)

Proverbs 6:16-19

These six things the Lord hates, 

Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

A proud look,

A lying tongue,

Hands that shed innocent blood,

A heart that devises wicked plans,

Feet that are swift in running to evil,

A false witness who speaks lies,

And one who sows discord among brethren.

Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard so badly he could taste it.  I’ve stood and preached at the Jezreel valley where Naboth once cultivated this piece of ground, and today it is a beautiful, albeit empty, valley. The evidence of Naboth’s work has disappeared with the passing years, Ahab’s palace is reduced to a memory, and the people who then lived have been in their graves for centuries.  But there was a day when things like a vineyard which adjoined his palace meant a great deal to King Ahab.  His wicked wife Jezebel employed a couple of men who would lie for money, and that’s what they did. Their false testimony cost Naboth his life (1 Kings 21).  God hated what was done on that day because He loved truth and justice.

Few of us will sit in a court of law in which our testimony will be heard, but we all often produce judgments of people. You can hear a sermon about Jesus’ teaching on judging on our website and learn more about this common form of false testimony: https://westhuntsville.org/sermons/ f

For today, consider God’s teaching of commitment to justice, and let the inescapable fact of His universal truthfulness thrill your heart. 

“He loves righteousness and justice;

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord” (Psa. 33:5)

 

“For the Lord loves justice,

And does not forsake His saints;

They are preserved forever,

But the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off” (Psa. 37:28).

 

“To do righteousness and justice

Is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice” (Prov. 21:3).

 

“These are the things you shall do:

Speak each man the truth to his neighbor;

Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace” (Zech. 8:16).

One day God moved aside to allow the injustice of evil men time enough to deliver His Son to be crucified (Rom. 8:32), and, as Isaiah wrote of Jesus, “In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth” (Acts 8:33).

Story Time from Glenn and Cindy:  Genesis 50

1. At the close of Genesis 49 Scripture describes Jacob’s death in these words: “He drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.”

The same was said about the death of his grandfather Abraham (Gen. 25:8); that he was gathered to his people. Discuss with your children that Jacob’s body wasn’t taken back to Canaan, where his fleshly relatives were buried, at this time. That wasn’t the meaning of these words.  This rather has reference to our spiritual family.  “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named” (Eph. 3:14-15).  The most important people in my life are those who are Christians and they are my family in the best sense. We are family. 

Have your children think of the things they love to do with their family at West Huntsville or your congregation; things that they can’t wait to be able to do again. Sing this song with your younger children, to the tune of “Mary had a Little Lamb” 

Family is in the Lord

In the Lord

In the Lord

Family is in the Lord

The people that I love. 

 

I can’t wait to be with them

Be with them

Be with them

I can’t wait to be with them

The people that I love. 

2.  As chapter fifty begins, Jacob’s funeral is described. Read verse 1-3.  Explain mourning, and embalming, and funerals in an age-appropriate way with your children. If they have never attended a funeral, this discussion, once again,  could be good preparation.  Answer their questions in a gentle and thoughtful way. Death will probably steal some people they love and create painful days to come in their young lives. Remind them that the only important question when someone dies is “Did he/she obey God?”

3.  Impress your children with the truth that some sins have a lingering effect in your mind. Joseph had shown great kindness and forgiveness to his brothers, and yet, after their Dad died, the Bible says this:  

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.”

So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph:I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you.’Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him” (Gen. 50:15-17).

Discuss the concept of a guilty conscience, and how that some sins create more strain against the conscience than others. Have older children talk about sins that might really hurt the conscience later on. Have they experienced this? Why is this true? 

Then talk about forgiveness through Christ.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1: 7-9). Explain to older children that the cleansing in 1John 1:7 is a continual action; that, if we are Christians, the blood keeps on cleansing us. Use the example of a thermostat which detects a need to work in your house and how it automatically “kicks in” when needed. That’s how the blood is, only infinitely more accurate and powerful.  It activates whenever we sin, if we are doing our best to walk in His light. 

Tomorrow night we will finish up the narrative of the life of Joseph with a quiz game. We will see which family member knows the most about Joseph. 

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Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: This Takes the Cake (…or Pudding).

I was at a meal in another city. The food was being served to the grieving family following a funeral (Yes. we do  those in the South), when someone told me that the banana pudding on the dessert table was “the best in the world.” No one has to tell me that twice. So there I was in that line before you could say “that’ll be 50 Weight Watcher points.” 

When I finally made it to that bowl of banana pudding that obviously was not your Cool Whip and Vanilla Wafer variety, but really probably was the best in the world, this woman came rushing up behind me, saying in her “outside” voice, “Hurry Fred! She’s gonna’ get it all.” Then she continued, to no one at all, but still in her “outside” voice “There’s got to be two more servings to come from that bowl.” 

Now, I have been in some situations in which people were…well, rude, but I believe this one takes the cake  (or the pudding, in her case). 

This was rude because: 

  1. I had just as much right to a spoonful of that banana pudding as she did ( more, really, because I was in front of her in that line.)
  2. Who was going to even enjoy the “best banana pudding in the world” if your blood pressure was going up to 180/92 BEFORE you even ingest the sugar? 
  3. Such concern for a serving of pudding when people all around you have just walked away from a newly made grave is something of which I didn’t even know civilized people were capable. 
  4. Fred was surely embarrassed. Wouldn’t you be? 
  5. It was child-like selfishness and “me-firstness” to the max. 

I do not know this person. Perhaps she does not have all of her wits. Perhaps she doesn’t have the food she needs now or maybe she went hungry as a child. I did feel sad for her. But several passages came to my mind…

“Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s well-being” (I Corinthians 10:24).

“Many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first” (Mark 10:31). 

“…Forbearing one another in love…” (Ephesians 4:3).

“As you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).

And then there’s this. It’s not exactly, word for word, in the Bible, but I think it applies: 

“Whosoever would be chief among you, let her have your serving.”