We Need to be Reading our Bibles

 In the past 2 weeks, I have had a chance to share the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs on social media. Once, I was having a comment battle with someone about politicians and religion. They were very riled up and being, in my opinion, ignorant about so many civil issues. I didn't have the energy to argue with them so I just fired off verses from Proverbs. (There really is so much compact wisdom in that book.) Later I was on Twitter - where I rarely go - just tweeting verse after verse. 

After watching a YouTube video the other day (an American Greed episode), I made a comment and then had some responses to comment on.

Click the pic or 
read my typed version below

My comment that started the thread

 I cannot believe how many of my Christian brethren fall for the "God wants you to be rich" line. The Bible discourages us from pursuing wealth. I don't know when that message got twisted into the whole "prosperity gospel" shtick. And listening to their pastors and bishops like they are more than human. Sometimes they are just wolves... I won't badmouth or name names but... SMH 

One person responds

 I will- Eddie Long, Joel Osteen Joyce Meyer, John Hagee and the worship state of Israel scam, anyone on TV- you don't get on "Christian TV" w/o being zionist. 

My response to the above

 As a Christian - follower of Jesus CHRIST, a Jew, I am a zionist (zionist: a supporter of Zionism; a person who believes in the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel.) So there's that. 

 Another person responds 

So you’re saying it is God’s desire for us to be poor? 

My response to the above

It's God's desire for us to be saved. Having money is not the problem; pursuit of money is. We were never promised material wealth. How many of the apostles were rich? I don't need to be rich to be saved. And I am not counting on wealth in this life because I could so easily go broke tomorrow. (Who am I kidding? I'm broke as I type this! LOL) Seriously though, if we worried as much about depending on God for our needs and being thankful for what we have as we do trying to get rich... (Because typed comments don't always convey true intent, I want you to know that I say all this in love and fellowship, not being snarky or judgmental. This is just what I believe.) 

I felt okay about the comments from folks. We were at least engaging in a civil way. Before I even watched the video, someone else mentioned that they "just stay home and worship". I feel that way myself but I know that we are supposed to engage in fellowship. It's just hard to find fellowship these days. The kind o fellowship that is about Christ and being Christians. I always find that churches are too politicized and involved in social issues that draw us apart as a Christian family instead of encouraging us to draw others towards the Gospel. This situation has gotten so much worse in the past few years. 

So I guess I just hope that we all get back to studying what the Bible says about things. We need to be in prayer and looking to the Lord for guidance instead of getting caught up with which candidate we support. Satan is crafty and he finds all sorts of ways to distract us from the Gospel and our salvation.

Stay prayerful people. Keep your noses in your Bibles as much as you do Facebook or someone else's business! LOL

Peace

--Free

P.S. - While reading Proverbs in the eSword app, I discovered the Easy Read Version of the Bible. I prefer the NASB, ESV, and KJV for serious study, but the ERV would be great for a person who wants to be introduced to daily Bible reading - or who has trouble reading. I like to read the ERV when I am just reading to be reading. I haven't seen many U.S. copies on the usual big box sites but there seem to be some on specific Bible seller sites. 

Here is a snippet I copped from a Got Questions article on the ERV:

John 1:1, 14 – “Before the world began, the Word was there. The Word was there with God. The Word was God. The Word became a man and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father. The Word was full of grace (kindness) and truth.”

Power of Words/Temper (Topical Bible)

My husband and I tend to have one weakness in our relationship: We are headstrong, so we argue. A lot. Constantly it seems. Since we started praying together every morning and evening, we seem to be under attack from the Enemy. Before, it would at least take one of us being in a less than ideal mood to start an argument. Lately, it doesn't take but one word to start us up.

Today, we had another argument over - as usual - something minor, petty. I prayed about it and, of course, went to the Bible to seek some answers. I used a topical search that I found at Open Bible. I looked up "power of words" (because I felt that my husband had said some hurtful things, and I KNOW I said some). I also looked up "temper"(as in Tim's temper).

Wow.

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Matthew 12:34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Whoa...

I had to stop and really shake myself. In Bible study last night, we briefly touched on the subject of "words have power," and those verses brought it right to the front door of my own heart.

I called Tim and read through some of the verses right then. It stopped him too. I think we both felt the way we should when God chastises us: convicted and in need of repentance. Tonight we are planning to pray about how we use our words and how the Enemy uses our temper against us and others.

Mainly, I wanted to do this post to alert you all to the existence of this search site. My own Bible does not have a very extended concordance, so a topical search this thorough is going to be really helpful to my study of the Word. I hope it is a blessing to you all as well.

An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. Prov. 18:15

Peace
--Free