Stevemidkiff's Blog

The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious,

but the lips of a fool shall swallow him up.

Ecclesiastes 10:12

Medieval royal courts employed a jester, or fool, to entertain the monarch

These courtiers used tricks, jokes, and songs or recitations making fun of those in high position.

Because no one took the fool seriously, his words and actions were allowed

to slip past the court censors.

In the book of Proverbs, the fool had a moral, not a comic, dimension.

The fool is used more than thirty times in Proverbs as the opposite of the wise man or woman.

But the wise man fears God,

the fool did not.

the fool was the epitome of a person who was “right in his own eyes”

Proverbs 12:15

he was a person who failed to learn from experience.

Eventually, most people learn that barbs, sarcasm, arguments, put-downs,

and distasteful humor are not acceptable.

They get the message and change their speech.

But a fool doesn’t learn.

The fool continues sowing seeds of speech that produce a harvest of destruction:

“The lips of a fool shall swallow him up.”

Lord help us be wise and gracious in our speech.

Keep us from being consumed by the errors of a foolish tongue.

Show us how The heart is the metal of the bell, the tongue but is the clapper.

Adapted from George Swinnock

“There is no comfort in anything apart from enjoying thee and being engaged in thy service;

Thou art All in all, and all enjoyments are what to me thou makest them, and no more.

I am well pleased with thy will, whatever it is, or should be in all respects,

And if thou bidst me decide for myself in any affair,

I would choose to refer all to thee,

for thou art infinitely wise and cannot do amiss, as I am in danger of doing.

I rejoice to think that all things are at thy disposal, and it delights me to leave them there.

Then prayer turns wholly into praise, and all I can do is to adore and bless thee.

What shall I give thee for all thy benefits?

I am in a strait betwixt two, knowing not what to do;

I long to make some return, but have nothing to offer, and can only rejoice that thou doest all,

that none in heaven or on earth shares thy honour;

I can of myself do nothing to glorify thy blessed name,

but I can through grace cheerfully surrender soul and body to thee,

I know that thou art the author and finisher of faith,

that the whole work of redemption is thine alone,

that every good work or thought found in me is the effect of thy power and grace,

that thy sole motive in working in me to will and to do is for thy good pleasure.

O God, it is amazing that men can talk so much about man’s creaturely power and goodness,

when, if thou didst not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate.

This, by bitter experience, thou hast taught me concerning myself.”

Valley Of Vision

Prayer causes things to happen that do not happen if the prayers don’t.

Jesus asks us all: Do You Love Me?

Jesus said do you love me more than these?”

We say: Yes, Master, you know we love You

Jesus said: Feed My lambs.

Jesus asked a second time:

Do you love Me?

Yes, Master we say, You know we love You.

Jesus said, “Shepherd My sheep.”

Jesus said it a third time:

Do you love Me?”

We easily get upset that Jesus asks us over and over,

Do you love Me?

We plead: Master,

You know everything there is to know.

You’ve got to know that I love You.

Jesus says again, Feed My sheep.

I’m telling you the very truth now:

When you were young you dressed yourself

and went wherever you wished,

Now your getting older and older.

Soon others will help us get dressed

Soon others will take us where we don’t want to go.

Getting feeble and old isn’t easy.

Aging gracefully and glorify God is our focus and what we strive to do.

Jesus says we are to Follow Him

and keep building up others in His beautiful Word

John 21:13-19 Personalized

We wrestle not against human impossibilities but against demons

Never pray for an easier life—pray to be a stronger person!

Never pray for tasks equal to your power—pray for power equal to your tasks.

Then doing your work will be no miracle—you will be the miracle.

Phillips Brooks

We must remember that Christ will not lead us to greatness through an easy or self-indulgent life.

An easy life does not lift us up but only takes us down.

Heaven is always above us, and we must continually be looking toward it.

Some people always avoid things that are costly,

Others avoid things that require self-denial, self-restraint, and self-sacrifice.

Yet it is hard work and difficulties that ultimately lead us to greatness,

for greatness is not found by walking the moss-covered path laid out for us through the meadow.

It is found by being sent to carve out our own path with our own hands.

Are we willing to sacrifice to reach the glorious mountain peaks of God’s purpose for us?

selected

Be strong!

We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;

We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.

Shun not the struggle; face it.

It's God's gift.

Be strong!

Say not the days are evil—Who’s to blame?

Or fold your hands, as in defeat—O shame!

Stand up, speak out, and bravely,

In God's name.

Be strong!

It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,

How hard the battle goes, the day how long,

Faint not, fight on!

Tomorrow comes the song.

Unknown

The reeking stench of death

When my first son was born in the mid 1970’s,
I worked for Standard Oil driving a tanker truck.

The various farms & ranches had fuel tanks & my task was delivering fuel.

On some days I would deliver diesel fuel. On other days I’d deliver gas.

My body would reek of fuel fumes by the end of the day.
I did this day after day in 100 degree weather and I became relaxed in
the stench.

When I’d come home, my pregnant wife would become nauseated from the toxic fumes.

It wouldn’t scrub out. It was as if it was exuding out of every pore of my body.

But there was a worse stench to me that I never became comfortable around.
I delivered fuel to 3 different pig ranches.
I delivered to chicken farms.
I delivered to slaughter houses.
Occasionally I’d arrive when an open bed rendering truck was loading dead bloated rotting carcasses into their truck with a front loader.

In the stifling heat of summer the foul putrefy factor was stifling.

There was no escape. The closer you got to the pig ranch the worse the stench.
The nearer I was to the rendering service dump service trucks the grosser it was.

I finally got a better job. I was hired by a hospital lab.
My duties there were to perform tests on body fluids. I also assisted in autopsies.

All these jobs left some gross memories etched on my mind.

We all deal with the stench of death on some level.

It’s reeking aroma chokes us.

Our world is full of festering decaying things.
Death and sorrows are colliding all around us.
We’re caught in the stench of a sinful dying world.
There are situations and ruff conditions of excruciating death everywhere.

Our perfect garden paradise is enclosed by sin.
And the wages of sin is death and death is stifling.

Sin is dreadfully ugly.

Sin is pernicious.

Sin is hideous.

Sin is destructive.

It’s stench just lingers on and it’s aftermath is horrendous.

We long for good solutions. We ache for perfection.

Invariably our solutions are only mediocre. Things go from bad to worse as a result from our proposals.

Sin is too sinful to allow perfection.
Every relationship is devastated and rocked with sins results.
Recovery is not easy.
So people give up in divorce.
Why? Because sin is messy.

Sin surrounds us with stink.
Sin leaves in its wake bloated rotting carcasses.

I asked my barista the other day at Starbucks if he was going to college.
I asked him what he was studying.
He said he was taking courses in undertaking and embalming.
The latte he gave me suddenly had a vivid taint to it.

So how is it we all deal with it?

Some redefine sin changing the goal posts for a more achievable result.

Some embrace sin.

Some blame and accuse others for sin.

Why?

Because sin is so sinful, and the stink lingers as the aftermath destroys life.

There us only one solution.
There is only one healer to the messy condition.

Jesus!

Jesus is the good news and I’m most proud to proclaim,

this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan

to rescue everyone who receives and trusts in Christ.

Jesus is the only salvation for everyone!

God’s makes people right in Christ.

He is how we get a right standing before God by trusting in His death for sins and His resurrection for our new life in Him.

God weighs the mountains of our grief in scales

He measures the hills of our tribulation in balances.

Everything is ordained by His wisdom

And nothing is left to blind chance?

No; He knows the end from the beginning.

He sees in its appointed place,

not merely the corner-stone which He has laid

in fair colors, in the blood of His dear Son,

but He beholds in their ordained position

each of the chosen stones

taken out of the quarry of nature,

and polished by His grace;

He sees the whole from corner to cornice,

from base to roof, from foundation to pinnacle.

He has in his mind a clear knowledge of every stone

which shall be laid in its prepared space,

and how vast the edifice will be,

and when the top-stone will be brought forth

with shoutings of “Grace! Grace! unto it.”

At the last it will be clearly seen

that in every chosen vessel of mercy,

the Lord did as He willed with his own;

and that in every part of the work of grace

He accomplished His purpose,

and glorified His own name.

Spurgeon

Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,
sometimes where Eden’s flowers bloom,

by waters calm, o’er troubled sea,
still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.

Lord, I would clasp thy hand in mine,
nor ever murmur nor repine;

content, whatever lot I see,
since ’tis my God that leadeth me.

And when my task on earth is done,
when, by thy grace, the victory’s won,

e’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,
since God through Jordan leadeth me.

Be merciful to us, O God, be merciful to us: for our soul trusts in You:

Yes, in the shadow of Your wings (Under Your perfect protection)

We will make our refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

Make all of these ugly scary storms blow over!

We feel surrounded and attacked by an all encompassing wild fire of menacing destruction.

we cry to You God. You are the most high; You are above everyone.

We rest in the reality that every Official, every Judge, every policeman and all legal powers are not in control.

But instead You are in control. You are the Most High.
You are the highest authority.

Why are You Scarring us? Why are You letting people threaten us?

Why does everything and everybody seem out of control and against us?

To You God we cry. You perform all things for us.

You’ve promised You are for us.

You’ve promised that since You are for us

You’ve promised that nothing will every be against us.

Help us relax in You and trust in You.

We are terrified and weak.

Give us Your strength.

Give us Your faith.

Give us unwavering confidence no matter how extreme our personal raging fire becomes.

Please Lord Jesus; You promised You will send from heaven,

You’ve promised you’ll save us from the reproach of him that would swallow us up.

I beg of You. Do that now.

God You’ve said You are committed to us.

You’ve guaranteed that You will send forth Your mercy and Your truth.

Based on this great promise; do this now.

We need Your help.
We need Your mercy.
We need Your truth right away.
We need You constantly.

We are easily terrified.

Depression and discouragement is swallowing us alive.

We are vulnerable.

We are weak and in intense pain emotionally, physically and mentally.

We feel beat up and exhausted.

Please release us from this anguish. Please deliver us.

Ps 57:1-3 paraphrase

RECOVERY IS HUMILITY, GRACE & GRATITUDE

We show humility by expressing gratitude for undeserved grace

It’s been observed that:

Recovery is a process of returning to a former healthy state

and gratitude should be the result.

Receiving a life-giving gift, we don’t deserve is the central theme of the Word.

The process of recovery usually begins with a spiritual awakening.

We start by believing that there is a power outside of ourselves

that can give us the strength and ability to overcome the destructive

behaviors we can’t overcome on our own.

We need God to save us from ourselves.

He gives us new strength which develops in us gratefulness.

The challenge is when we start to grumble and complain that life,

people, and God aren’t treating us right

When we say life is not fair then our ability to receive God’s grace

through humility is diminished.

Jesus gives us life abundantly. John 10.10

We can measure whether or not we are in recovery by simply checking

our level of gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude and humility is the key to receiv­ing God’s

restoring power.

His grace usually comes through those who invest themselves in us

when we don’t deserve it.

They see something valuable in us, which is how God sees us.

Faith, humility, and gratitude are a daily battle.

Gratitude is simply realizing who is really in control.

We all need recovery & we all need others who will share the

grace God has poured out to them.

Michael Dye points out:

“God pours out His free gift of recovery to all unconditionally,

but what changes us is simply our ability to receive it.

Humility gives us the ability to ask for help whereas pride says,

I can do it myself.

God says:

go for it I’ll be there when you come to the end of yourself.

God gives grace to the humble and opposes the proud.”

Albert Schweitzer writes;

“At times our own light goes out

We’re rekindled by a spark from another person.

Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude

of those who have lighted the flame within us.”