Tag: Andy Cisneros

Watch Your Words

Proverbs 26 – Friday 

Prov 26-18-19 (1)

18 Like a maniac who shoots deadly firebrands and arrows,

19 so is one who deceives a neighbor

   and says, “I am only joking!”

Proverbs 26:18-19

There’s a popular show on HBO called Game of Thrones.  And whether you’ve ever seen it or not, it has become a meme factory.  And there’s one line that is currently making the rounds on social media: “When enough people make false promises, words stop meaning anything and then there are no more answers.  Only better and better lies.”  

Like the boy who cried wolf, this proverb is a warning that words are powerful.  Although we want to believe that only sticks and stones can break our bones, words can often cripple us in a way that no wound ever could.  I think it is probably fairly rare that we intentionally fire hurtful words at those around us (although when tempers flare I have unfortunately found a sharper tongue than I ever expected in my mouth).  What is really dangerous are the words we throw at someone else veiled in jest.

I learned this from Andy Cisneros, but in every piece of sarcasm there’s a little nugget of truth.  Something real about the thing we’re pretending to say but really meaning.  While we may find them easy to move past at times, sarcastic words erode away at us like water through a canyon.  They’re poison pills wrapped in sweetness and given in bitterness.  

We may not consider ourselves to be con men – deceiving our neighbor intentionally – but we deceive ourselves and shoot arrows at our neighbor when we pretend that the words we say don’t have weight to them.  This proverb encourages us to become people who use our words wisely, to mean what we say, and to engage with each other genuinely so we can build a better community together.

-Graysen Pack

The Right Path – Proverbs 16

Prov 16-22

Part 2

How do you find the right path?  According to the Proverbs its the word.  Whose word?  God’s word. 
 
20 He who gives attention to the word will find good,
And blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.
Okay, great!  You now recognize God’s word as wisdom.  What now?
Applying God’s wisdom.  It does not help you to know where the source of wisdom is from if you don’t apply it.  Chapter 16 seems to be pointing us to application of God’s word.  Look at a few of these verses:
18 Pride goes before destruction,
    a haughty spirit before a fall.

20 Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,
    and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.

21 The wise in heart are called discerning,
    and gracious words promote instruction.

23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent,
    and their lips promote instruction.

28 A perverse person stirs up conflict,
    and a gossip separates close friends.

 

I picked a few verses from chapter 16 to show you that these verses only work if you apply them.  If you put it into practice.  That’s why I like what the writer put in verse 31. 

31 Gray hair is a crown of splendor;
    it is attained in the way of righteousness.

I like this verse because 1.  I have a lot of grey hair 🙂 but more than that I think what he is saying is that when you continue to apply wisdom consistently (day after day, year after year) you can look back at your path and see the pitfalls that you missed because you chose wisdom over folly.  What a joy it is to have walked the right path, to have rallied right and to be able to look back and say thank you God for protecting me.  I have been married 19 years to an amazing woman.  I love her more today than I did when we first got married because we have stacked together great accomplishments in those years.  We have a bond through good times and bad times and have trust and love that only comes through time.  That’s what I want for you.  Apply wisdom.  See it work in your life.  be consistent and see that God’s way is better than man’s.  God bless and I am praying for you.

Pastor Andy

Rally Right – Proverbs 16

Part 1

Prov 16-3
I was watching the news this morning.  How depressing, so I switched to Facebook.  Not much better.  If you are like me you don’t need negativity in your life, you want something positive to cling to.  I choose to not find my joy in the news of today but in the wisdom of God.  Proverbs 16 really spoke to me today because of a few verses that really caught my eye.
Proverbs 16:1-4
The plans of the heart belong to man,
But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight,
But the Lord weighs the motives.
3 Commit your works to the Lord
And your plans will be established.
4 The Lord has made everything for its own purpose,
Even the wicked for the day of evil.
 
What really spoke to me about these verses is
1.  In verse 1 it says “the plans of the heart belong to man but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD”  What this tells me is human responsibility is always subject to God’s absolute sovereignty
2.  Verse 2-While man can be self deceived God determines his true motives.
3.  Verse 3-In the sense of both total trust and submission to the will of God, He will fulfill a person’s righteous plans.
4.  Verse 4-The wicked will bring glory to God in the day of their judgment and punishment.
 
Do you see a pattern here?  The pattern is that you have a responsibility to find the right path and walk in it.  God will direct you to it.  If you choose to ignore it you will be corrected.
 
33 The lot is cast into the lap,
But its every decision is from the Lord.
 
Are you making a choice?  Don’t let someone make it for you.  Rally right! 
God bless!
I am praying for you.
Pastor Andy Cisneros

Just Start – Proverbs 15

Proverbs_15-3

Today’s devotion is on Proverbs 15.  When I look through all of these verses I think wow this chapter has a lot of verses (33 to be exact).  Sometimes our ‘want to’ apply wisdom is met with an overwhelming fear of where do I start?  What do I do?  If you are reading this devotion you have started in a good place.  its always good to start with the word of God.  You can’t go wrong with Proverbs (the book of wisdom). 

But do these verses apply to you today?  They do.  Here’s how you can get the most out of Proverbs.

1.  There is the setting in which they were spoken; this is largely the context of the young men in the royal court of the king.

2.  There is the setting of the book as a whole and how its teachings are to be understood in light of the rest of Scripture. For example, there is much to be gained by comparing the wisdom Solomon taught with the wisdom Christ personified.

3.  There is the historical context in which the principles and truths draw on illustrations from their own day.

A final area of challenge comes in understanding that proverbs are divine guidelines and wise observations, i.e., teaching underlying principles (15:27) which are not always inflexible laws or absolute promises. These expressions of general truth (15:22) generally do have “exceptions,” due to the uncertainty of life and unpredictable behavior of fallen men. God does not guarantee uniform outcome or application for each proverb, but in studying them and applying them, one comes to contemplate the mind of God, His character, His attributes, His works, and His blessings. All of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge expressed in Proverbs are hidden in Christ (Col.2:3).

When you study the proverbs in this way it really helps you understand just what God is trying to say to you.  But more than that which verses resonate with you?  Where are you lacking?  Remember a timely word is delightful (15:23).  I hope these verses meet you where you are at this week.  God bless and I am praying for you.

Pastor Andy

Recognizing Wisdom – Proverbs 14

Prov 14-12 corrected
Have you ever found it easier to see the right thing for someone else to do than for yourself?  There is a reason for that.  We often times can tell someone what to do but can’t seem to do it for ourselves.
For example:
25 A truthful witness saves lives,
But he who utters lies is treacherous
 
In this proverb we see that lying only brings destruction.  We ourselves hate being lied to.  We hate seeing people live a lie. We know how much damage it can do.  We know this but I bet if I asked if you have ever lied or lived a lie you would probably say yes.  I bet if I asked you if you knew how to correct that in someone else’s life you would have an answer almost immediately.  It is so easy to see the foolishness in someone else.  Its easy to know what to do to correct their wrong behavior.  But I bet it is harder to correct in yourself.  Why can we see the answer to foolishness in others easily but have such a difficult time correcting it in our own lives? 
   The answer is we have no emotional ties to their sin.  We won’t have to deal with the consequences of trying to correct our behavior.  I can tell you how to correct your behavior all day long because I don’t have to do it.  I don’t have to deal with the mess.  But if I have to correct a sin I know what that will take, and often times I don’t want to deal with the pain and hurt that comes with going back and fixing issues like lying bring about.
Read Proverbs 14 and see if you can see any foolishness in your life that you need to correct.  Are their verses in this chapter that really resonate with you?  Can you see the foolishness in those verses?  Can you recognize the wisdom it takes to realize that some of these verses apply to you.  Are you willing to recognize the wise thing to do and apply it to your life?  Your foolish ways become harder and harder to stop the longer you wait. 
The very first verse illustrates this perfectly:
The wise woman builds her house,
But the foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.
 
Are you tearing your life apart by not recognizing wisdom?
I’m praying for you.
Andy Cisneros

Who Are You Walking With?

Proverbs 13

He who walkswith the wisegrows wise,but a companionof foolssuffers harm.Proverbs 13-20

The recurring promise of Proverbs is that generally the wise (the righteous who obey God) live longer (9:11), prosper (2:20–22), experience joy (3:13–18) and the goodness of God temporally (12:21), while fools suffer shame (3:35) and death (10:21). On the other hand, it must be remembered that this general principle is balanced by the reality that the wicked sometimes prosper (Ps. 73:3, 12), though only temporarily (Ps. 73:17–19). Job illustrates that there are occasions when the godly wise are struck with disaster and suffering.
So if the two major themes which are interwoven and overlapping throughout Proverbs are wisdom and folly. Wisdom, which includes knowledge, understanding, instruction, discretion, and obedience, is built on the fear of the Lord and the Word of God. Then folly is everything opposite to wisdom.

The portrait of the fool emerges as a contrast to the one who seeks the wisdom of YHWH.

  • In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly. 13.16

The fool is an undisciplined scoffer of God and His wisdom. The fool in his folly is reckless in his anger — worse than a Momma bear on the prowl for her cubs! Even worse, he is proud of his foolishness, wearing it as a badge of honor, unaware that the cycle of folly is destroying him each time he returns to it.

Contrast this with the 60+ references to “the wise” in Proverbs alone. Again, this is far from an exhaustive list, but the character of the wise emerges with even a quick look from Proverbs 13.  When you read Proverbs 13 you will see fools and wise in the context of money, parenting, friends, the list goes on like a warning sign or a blaring horn warning you of danger.  Take a look at some of the examples:

  • 11 Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles,
    But the one who gathers by labor increases it.
  • A wise son accepts his father’s discipline,
    But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
  • 20 He who walks with wise men will be wise,
    But the companion of fools will suffer harm.
  • 14 The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life,
    To turn aside from the snares of death.
    15 Good understanding produces favor,
    But the way of the treacherous is hard.

The wise man exercises discernment and self-control, a distinct alternative to the reckless behavior of the fool. Wisdom is also the measured way of life, guarding against impulsiveness by counting the cost of one’s actions. He who is wise seeks counsel, is quick to listen, and is thoughful in his speech.

Which one are you?

Read Proverbs 13 and decide for yourself who you are walking with.

-Andy Cisneros