SCRIP-BITS

Proverbs 9:9.     Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
 
Oh Friends, the ole fella’s in a rut this morning. I can’t come up with a rousing, inspiring intro to boost your spirits, to get your adrenalin truly flowing, so that your feet will be in a dancing mood, and your heart and mind wisely functioning on God’s wonderful wavelength of truth, justice, mercy, LOVE and forgiveness! Although, as usual, before starting to write, I asked the Lord for guidance and discernment to know and understand what He wants me to write, because I don’t want to write any wrong stuff, He’s yet to get me rolling. But as I keep saying, there’s method to the Lord’s madness, and we just have to persevere in His Word and His promises and eventually He’ll make all things right. That’s why I don’t doubt that this will be a ‘dynomite’ Bit! (smile) There we go Friends, the Spirit’s up and running! How can I then not LOVE the wonderful God we serve and worship eh mih people? For though He seems to leave us in the lurch longer than we desire, He’s promised to never leave nor forsake us, and that’s a promise I’m sincerely counting on and living by. One more thing Friends; the Lord’s NEVER LATE with His help! I speak thereof from hard experience. All of us would like His help now for now, but that’s not how He operates. He likes the just in time formula, which often gets us worried and frustrated. But be sure of this one thing: HE WILL SHOW UP ON TIME! Anyway, enough of my rambling. Here’s a quote from Joseph Addison (1672-1719) the English essayist and poet. He says: ‘There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.’ Gospel truth mih people, gospel truth! None of us take kindly to receiving advice, especially if it goes against what we think. And sometimes we get so indignant about advice that we go and do the exact opposite, although deep down we know that it’s right and true. Why is that eh? I guess there are basically two main reasons. First off is that the human animal doesn’t like to be told what to do. A sense of independence has been bred into his nature, no wonder colonized nations, at some stage in their development, also get all hyped up over their independence from the Mother countries. Advice also has a negative connotation to many of us. It makes us feel inferior, as though we’re unable to paddle our own canoe, shape our own destiny. And often, once we hear about advice, our suspicions and protective instincts immediately rise up and negativity fills our mind. The problem my people is that two kinds of basic advice exists; the good and bad kind. The goodness or badness often depends on the circumstances of a particular situation, as well as the people involved. In the long run though, others can only offer us advice, we still have to make the final decisions. So it’s possible to get good advice and yet make bad decisions, as well as vice versa. But thankfully Friends, our Bit today guides us along the right path. ‘Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.’ That’s oh so true my brethren! A wise man will heed good advice and thus get wiser. I guess because he’s already wise, he knows how to sift good advice from bad. But then too our Bit proclaims that if we teach a just man, that he will increase in learning. Why is that eh? Perhaps because the just man aspires to walk the straight and narrow path of God, he has a heightened sense of right and wrong, good and bad, thus he will seek to improve his mental faculties, instead of thinking he knows it all, which would only lead him down the proud and arrogant path to certain destruction. Hear what Cousin Sol says about the wise man at the very beginning of his thought provoking sayings: ‘A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain (inquire) unto wise counsels.’ (Prov.1:5) Yes Friends, that means he won’t depend solely on his own thinking, but will seek knowledge and advice from others who seem to be well acquainted with the pros and cons of his particular project. Remember though, that the final decision will still be his, but the important thing is that he is wise enough to seek out pertinent information that will assist him in making as good a decision as he can. Now how many of us do that eh? Obviously not enough, otherwise our world wouldn’t be suffering as much as it is from a host of bad decisions made by a host of supposed experts. Anyway brethren, we’re going to end here today, because it will get too long if I put in all I want to say, and I respect your time and attention span. (smile)  But tomorrow, God willing, we’ll continue this topic. In the meanwhile, please, let’s ponder our personal situations re the taking of advice, and make serious plans to improve our response to the subject in a wise manner. Much LOVE!…a wise man will hear…and follow good advice…while a fool will not…and therefore will wallow in his own folly…