Proverbs 11:9-31

For Reading and Meditation:     1 Peter 4:7-19

We continue focusing on the fact that many Christians are persecuted, not because of identifying with Christ, but because of their tactlessness and folly. This eighth Beatitude - "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" - does not apply to such people. Let us...

For Reading and Meditation:     Proverbs 11:16-31

Those who know how to be merciful are men and women to be envied. They get back what they give. Psychologists are always pointing out that our attitudes and emotions are contagious. Scripture puts the same truth in these words: "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly" (

For Reading and Meditation:     Luke 6:27-40

The fifth Beatitude - "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" - is quite different from the ones that precede it. In the first four, there is a contrast between the need and the fulfilment. The "poor in spirit" receive the kingdom; those "who mourn" are comforted; "the meek" inherit the earth; those who...

For Reading and Meditation:     Luke 10:25-37

We continue focusing our thoughts on what it means to be "merciful". One of the best ways to understand the word is to compare it with grace. Have you ever noticed, that the introduction to every one of Paul's epistles from Romans through to 2Thessalonians, includes the words: "Grace and peace to you from God our...

"The liberal soul shall be made fat." Proverbs 11:25

If I desire to flourish in soul, I must not hoard up my stores but must distribute to the poor. To be close is the world's way to prosperity, but it is not God's way, for He saith, "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." Faith's way of gaining is giving. I must try this again and again, and I may...

"He that watereth shall be watered also himself." Proverbs 11:25

If I carefully consider others, God will consider me, and in some way or other He will recompense me. Let me consider the poor, and the LORD will consider me. Let me look after little children, and the LORD will treat me as His child. Let me feed His flock, and He will feed me. Let me water His garden, and He will make a watered garden of my soul. This is the LORD's...

We are here taught the great lesson, that to get, we must give; that to accumulate, we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy, we must make others happy; and that in order to become spiritually vigorous, we must seek the spiritual good of others. In watering others, we are ourselves watered. How? Our efforts to be useful, bring out our powers for usefulness. We have latent talents and dormant faculties, which are brought to light by exercise. Our strength for labour is hidden even from...

The essential difference between the wise man and the fool in the book of Proverbs is that the wise man will hear and the fool won't.

It isn't a question of the fool's mental capacity. Actually he may have unusual intellectual ability. But he just cannot be told anything. He labors under the fatal delusion that his knowledge is infinite and his judgments are infallible. If his friends try to counsel him, they receive scorn for their efforts. They watch him trying to escape the...

The Bible is full of paradoxes, that is, truths that seem contrary to what we would normally suppose or truths that seem to contradict one another. G. K. Chesterton maintained that paradox is truth standing on its head to attract attention. Here are a few of the paradoxes trying to attract our attention.

We save our lives by losing them; we lose our lives by loving them (Mark 8:35).

We are strong when we are weak (

The Holy Spirit here lets us in on a delightful secret. It is contrary to all that we would expect and yet invariably true. The secret is this: the more you give, the more you have. The more you hoard, the less you have. Generosity multiplies itself. Stinginess breeds poverty. "What I gave, I have; what I spent, I had; what I kept, I lost."

It doesn't mean that you will reap the same coinage that you sow, that the faithful steward will become financially rich. He may sow dollars and...