The Wise Man According to Proverbs

I have recently been reading lots of Proverbs and Psalms, which are full of encouragement and wisdom. I read them when exhausted and discouraged.(pretty often recently...) I encountered a very good resource in my study Bible (NIV) that I believe is worth typing up and sharing. It is an outline of Proverbs and provides a good way to navigate through it.

As I read through this outline, I noticed many things I personally need to work on. In my Bible I placed a little check mark next to them to remind myself to work on those. Use this resource as you want. :-)

Click here for more on Proverbs 

Summit post is still coming up, probably in 2weeks! (after Finals).

Stay in Christ. Be blessed!

Proverbs Outline:

• His Character
• He Is Teachable, Not Intractable
1. He receives and loves instruction (18:15; 19:20)
2. He grows in wisdom (1:5; 9:9; 10:14)
• He Is Righteous, Not Wicked
1. He fears the Lord (1:7; 14:16; see below under relationship to the Lord)
2. He hates what is false (13:5)
3. He shuns evil (3:7; 14:16; 16:6)
4. He does what is righteous (2:20)
5. He speaks the truth (22:21)
• He Is Humble, Not Proud (15:33)
• He Is Self-controlled, Not Rash
1. His temperament
1. He is self-controlled (29:11)
2. He has a calm spirit (17:27)
3. He is slow to become angry (29:8,11)
2. 2. His actions
1. He is cautious, not hasty (19:2)
2. He thinks before he acts (13:16; 14:8)
3. He thinks before he speaks (12:23; 15:2)
• He Is Forgiving, Not Vindictive
1. He is patient (19:11)
2. He is concerned about goodwill/peace (14:9)
3. He forgives those who wrong him (10:12; 17:9)
4. He is not vindictive (20:22; 24:29)
• His Relationships
• To the Lord
1. He fears the Lord (9:10; 14:16; 15:33)
2. He trusts in the Lord (3:5; 16:3,20)
3. He is ever mindful of the Lord (3:6)
4. He chooses the Lord’s way/wisdom (8:10-11; 17:24)
5. He submits to the Lord’s discipline (1:2-3; 3:11)
6. He confesses his sin (28:13)
• To His Family
1. To his parents
1. Respects them (17:6; contrast 30:17)
2. Listens to them (23:22; cf. 1:8; 4:1)
3. Seeks to bring them honor and joy
1. By being wise (10:1; 15:20; 29:3)
2. By being righteous (23:24)
3. By being diligent (10:5)
2. To his wife
1. He appreciates her
1. As a gift from the Lord (18:22; 19:14)
2. As his crowning glory (12:4; 31:10-31)
2. He praises her (31:28)
3. He trusts her (31:11)
4. He is faithful to her (5:15-20)
3. To his children
1. He loves them (3:12; 13:24)
2. He is concerned about them (1:8-9:18)
3. He trains them (22:6)
1. Reasons for training them
1. Own peace of mind and joy (29:17)
2. Child’s honor and well-being (1:8-9; 4:9; 19:18; 23:13-14)
2. By teaching/instructing them (1:10; chs. 5-7; 28:7; cf. 4:1-9)
3. By disciplining them
1. By verbal correction (13:1)
2. By physical discipline (13:24; 23:13-14)
4. He provides for their
1. Physical needs (21:20; cf. 27:23-27)
2. Spiritual heritage (14:26; 20:7)
• To His Friends and Neighbors
1. To his friends
1. He values them (27:10)
2. He is constant to them (17:17; 18:24)
3. He gives them counsel (27:9,17; cf. 27:6; 28:23)
2. To his neighbors
1. He fulfills his obligations (3:27-28)
2. He strives for peace (3:29-30)
3. He does not outstay his welcome (25:17)
4. He does not deceive or mislead them (16:29; 26:18-19)
• His Words
• The Power of His Words
1. Their power
1. The power of life and death (12:6; 13:14; 15:4; 18:21)
2. The power to heal or to wound (11:9,11; 12:18; 15:4,30; 16:24)
2. Their limitation
1. No substitute for deeds (14:23)
2. Cannot alter the facts (26:23-26)
3. Cannot compel response (29:19)
• The Character of His Words
1. They are honest, not false (12:22; 16:13)
2. They are few, not many (10:19)
1. Not boastful (27:2)
2. Not argumentative (17:14)
3. Not contentious (29:9)
4. Not a gossip
1. Revealing secrets (11:13; 20:19)
2. Spreading slander (10:18; 26:20-22)
3. They are calm, not emotional
1. Rational (15:28; 17:27)
2. Gentle and peaceable (15:1,18)
3. Yet persuasive (25:15)
4. They are apt, not untimely (15:23; 25:11)
• The Source of His Words
1. His heart/character (compare 4:23 with Mt 12:33-35)
1. Positively, he is righteous (cf. 10:11; 13:14)
2. Negatively, he is not
1. Proud (13:10; cf. 6:16-19)
2. Hateful (26:24,28)
2. His companions (13:20; 27:17)
3. Reflections (15:28)

Thoughts on Life

Every time I slow down to think about my life my thoughts run wild...there is so much going on everyday, every moment at the same time, its overwhelming to think about the purpose of everything.

I have had more than one situation in my life where my life was on the line of life and death... It not until was  not after it has happened I have come to realize that God has, and is intervening and protecting me every time. He knows every detail of my life, and has led me thus far, but I still at times, I struggle to trust Him in certain areas of my life. Life is a Journey, I know God is working in me, and He will complete what He has started.
Verses about Trusting God: (only few of the many) 
Trust in the Lord with all your heart  and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.                  Proverbs 3:5-6

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.             Isaiah 40:28-31

God calls us to trust in him with every aspect of our lives. We are His children, and like a child runs to a father, we run to God. Not only in times of need, but both is in the good and the tough. He is Lord of all. Constant and never changing.When I think about this concept I am overwhelmed. We serve the God of the universe, He created everything...You, me, the world and everything within. There is over seven billion people on earth and God of the universe wants a relationship with me?!

Life gets complicated...and many things sometimes distract us from the ultimate goal. Life is a marathon. Spiriting a marathon will not get you far before you get exhausted and overwhelmed. (I have experienced this!)We press on toward the goal with perseverance. This comes day by day. Be the best you can be today. Give your worries to God and let him be Lord of your life!

I thought of a interesting analogy (though it has its flaws): Life is like a puzzle. All the pieces are there, but we may not know where they go together, until other pieces start to reveal it. God wants us to trust Him, He will reveal in due time certain things about our life- our purpose, job, significant other, every detail he knows ahead of time. Picture will be complete in the end. There are many things that we have no control over. Let go, and give these things to God.  Ask for wisdom for the things that you can control.

When you want truth, you need to go to the source. Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life. (John 4:16)
He is the only way to God because we are sinful that opposes the very nature of God. Jesus intervened and took our place on the cross to give us life.

Know the truth. Know life and live with joy that Christ has set us free!

thanks for reading,


SUMMIT POST COMING NEXT!  I had a great privilege to journey to Mt.Whitney with a good friend. Truly a blessed experience.

Daniel  near "cables" around 13,500 feet. Elevation definitely was having it's affect.

Not of us

 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.  Galatians 5:1-6

Brothers and sisters, Christianity is not of our own works. We are answering God's calling, and it is HIS Spirit that is at work in our lives that produces fruit. Our boast should be in him. Not of what we have or what we do. 

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."  Ephesians 2:8,9

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14

This is what Paul is talking about in Galatians 5. The Jewish people that were trying keep all the laws and boasted that they were circumcised, Paul writes that circumcision is of no value to them unless they keep all the laws. Being born in a sinful nature, we are all sinners, God's word says there is no one righteous, not even one. God wants us to be obedient to Him and do good works but that it is a result of His Spirit working through us. Through Christ's sacrifice, death and resurrection we are a new creation in Christ. Only through his blood, our slate can be made clean. Not our works. They a result of his working through us.

Christ died to fulfill the law. Imagine you are in a court room and you are guilty for committing crime A,B,C, whatever it be. The judge presents the evidence and we are clearly guilty. We have broken God's law and now stand in judgement before God Almighty. The penalty of sin is death. (Romans 6:23). There really is no way out. We committed sin that has separated us far from God. God is Holy, that his nature, He created us in his image, but we have abandoned his word, and sinned- contrary to what he created us to be.But then in the biggest love act in all of  history of the world, Jesus Christ radically took our place for us. We deserved death. He took our place at the cross where he suffered and died so we can have life through Him. While we were still sinners, he still loved us unconditionally. Now When the judge looks at the case, he no longer sees the death sentence anymore because the penalty has been payed. He looks and sees the blood of His Son, who is pure, and he sets us free to go.

That is essentially the Gospel.

It is a free gift given for all who accept it. Because of Christ we are a new creation, (2 Cor 5:17) our nature has been renewed and we live a life radically different than a unbeliever.

Christianity is a way of life, letting God's Spirit work us. Our character and attitude changes to be that of Christ.