Proverbs 28:16-28

"You may have already won $100,000!" With this and similar come-ons, we are constantly barraged by the temptation to participate in some form of gambling. The housewife shopping in the supermarket is enticed by the latest sweepstakes. The average citizen is encouraged to send his name (together with a subscription for a magazine) to participate in an upcoming lottery involving millions. Or it may be a bingo contest in which you are almost assured of being a winner.

Then, of course,...

Self-confidence, self-reliance, pride of character, sense of power, consciousness of strength, self-possession, - these make a man great in the eyes of the world, and a fool in the sight of God. For strength is in the consciousness of weakness, not in the consciousness of strength. Wisdom is in the consciousness of ignorance; and true confidence is in the utter mistrust of self. Man by himself is a fragment. He is the sport of circumstances, - the foot-ball of time. Yea, though he have...

He who trusts in his own heart is a fool.Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. § Concerning the works of men, by the word of Your lips, I have kept away from the paths of the destroyer.If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, … saying, “Let us go after other gods”—which you have not known—“and let us serve them,” you shall not listen to the words of that prophet … for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your...

He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. § Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.”Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was...