Week 5 Recap (by Claudine Snyder, guest teacher on 7/25)

Greetings ladies! Here is the recap from Week 5. It's the handout that our guest teacher, Claudine Snyder, shared with the class. Read on and I pray it speaks to your heart and influences your life. Blessings, Stacy

Proverbs 14 – 17   has 129 pithy thoughts on how to live your life not only to please God but also to limit the amount of grief you bring on yourself.  Let’s face it……a lot of bad choices we make result in bad consequences.  This book speaks too much of the day-to-day circumstances we deal with IN ourselves as well as with others and the world we live in. 

WHY is Solomon repeatedly talking about some of these topics – and just in these 4 chapters he speaks to these topics A LOT!!!!!!!!!!

Proverbs related to the Tongue –  Gossip, lies, prideful/harsh/foolish speech.  Check your heart……with God!!!!!!!!

Proverbs 14: 3,5,25

Proverbs 15: 2,4,23,28 

Proverbs 16: 10,13,23,24,27,28,30                                                 

Proverbs 17:  4,7, 20, 27, 28

The tongue is following the heart.   What’s the heart following????

Proverbs related to Pride -  Talks about fools rejecting correction.  Wise are humble and therefore receive correction.  Pride rejects correction and can precipitate a fall/mistake/disaster.  “Ya ain’t all that……no one is – except Jesus.”

Proverbs 14: 3

Proverbs 15: 5, 10, 12, 25, 31,32,33  

Proverbs 16: 5,18,19           

Proverbs 17:10

Do we think a lot of ourselves because we are comparing ourselves to someone else?

What if we compared ourselves to God…..would we still be prideful.

Proverbs related to Emotions – Some anger is justified BUT you are still held accountable for your actions.  You should control them not vice versa

Proverbs 14:  16, 17,29

Proverbs 15:  1,13,17,18

Proverbs 16:  29,32

Proverbs 17:  1,14,27,28

*These proverbs always seem to center of 1 emotion – “anger”

**Anger is not always sin. There is a type of anger of which the Bible approves, often called “righteous indignation.” 

**Anger turns to sin when it is selfishly motivated

**Anger is to be controlled by us, not it controlling us.  When we give into anger we are probably focusing on “us”

Proverbs related to Planning Your Ways/Life/Day – Seek God’s plans for your life with Him and seasoned Christian men/women.  Check your motives for what you plan and dedicate you plans to Him.  Remember God’s ways are SOOOO different from what we would do.

***Please note -God will back you into a corner JUST to get glorified and show you how BIG He is. It’s that important to Him. Exodus 14 – Read it!!!!!!!!

Proverbs 14: 12,14,15

Proverbs 15: 22

Proverbs  16:1,2, 3, 9, 25                       

Mans ways seem right to him, but God’s ways are not man’s ways.  The Lord seems to have His own way of doing things that many times has a purpose of glorifying Him.  It may seem long, complicated, arduous, and even foolish but if God is glorified through it……mission accomplished. 

Read Exodus 14:10

God is not interested in our comfort or happiness……..He is most concerned with our character development and His glory through our lives.

                       

Proverbs related to Envy -  Breeds discontent.  Invades your heart like a virus in a host cell. 

Proverbs 14:30

Envy crawls into your spirit and births discontent or resentment very much like a virus invades it’s host and replicates itself.  What is going on in your heart??????

Proverbs related to Compare/Contrast Foolish and Wise/Prudent Person – “What Not to Do/Be” vs. “What To Do/Be”

Proverbs 14: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,11,14,15.16,18,22,24,29.33

Proverbs 15: 2, 5,6,7,8,9,14.20,21, 28

Proverbs 16:17

Proverbs 17:24

Perhaps that’s why the proverbs compare and contrast each other so much - To instruct you NOT to blend in.  TO STAND IN CONTRAST TO THE WORLD!!!!!!!

Proverbs related to deceit  - talks of lies, bribes, dishonest gains or knowledge thereof.

Proverbs 15:3 states:  “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”

Proverbs 14: 5,25

Proverbs 15: 27                                           

Proverbs 16: 8,11,19

Proverbs 17: 4,20,23

Just for the record……Proverbs 15:3 states:  “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”

It’s not good enough that you don’t ACTUALLY lie, cheat or steal.  You can’t even be associated with it. 

Focus on Scripture Resource (Week 4 recap)

Sunday night we changed up the teaching style a bit and welcomed four new ladies to our class! We missed a number of regulars and hope to see you next week.

If you've been reading along, you'll notice that from Chapter 10 forward (through Chapter 29) the layout of Proverbs changes considerably. From longer passages of Scripture that have a particular theme or focus (as seen in Ch. 1-9), we now get blips of wisdom on various topics. Many of these are repetitive subjects, which is great for utilizing in our Scripture resource (aka Scripture reference). Keep in mind we're now in the section of Proverbs called "The Wise Sayings of Solomon", hence the multi-subject blips. Not all of these sayings are specific promises, some are simply factual statements. As you are reading be sure to read each passage and pause to meditate on that one and it's theme or focus before moving to the next verse. I find that doing so helps me when I read these chapters. I can easily grasp the focus of that verse and jot down where I feel it best applies in my Scripture resource section of my journal. This comes in handy not just when I need it but also when I encounter someone going through a struggle. Knowing I can reference this resource to quickly find an applicable Scripture is wonderful. I hope you'll find someone this week you can minister to by referencing God's Word in this way.

For the next few weeks we will be sharing our topical references in class so as to encourage and admonish each other. This means your participation in class will be crucial. Your journal notes and Scripture reference entries will easily enable your participation and foster discussion during our large group class time. Please be sure to "be prepared" each week with something to share from your journal or reference.

This week we reviewed how the Scripture reference is laid out, various topics of wisdom and verses from our reading that related to those topics. As the group discussion was more in-depth, I'm going to simply record samples of the topics and a few verses so you can get a feel for how to lay out your reference if you have not started one already. For example, in the back of my journal I have designated a section for my reference (so it's all in one place, that's easier for me...you may wish to have a separate notebook for this and that's fine too). I have designated at least one front and back page of my journal to each of the various topics of wisdom. In class we shared our various topics and reviewed and discussed some of the verses we put in each topic. 

Some of the reference topics we came up with and corresponding verses were:

Righteous/Believers (Promises/Facts)
10:28, "hope vs perish"

Mouth (Practical)
10:19, "shut up"
10:31-32, "righteous"
11:13, "gossip
12:17, "speak truth"

Vocation
11:1, "integrity in sales"
12:11, "worker vs slacker"
12:14, "worker vs slacker"
13:4,  "worker vs slacker"

Family/Parenting
13:24, "discipline your kids"

Marital
12:4, "excellent wife"
12:16, "slow to anger"

Moral
11:17, "kindness"
13:14, "wisdom=life"

Financial
11:24, "generosity"
11:26, "don't withhold"
11:28, "don't trust wealth"

As we discussed in class, there are no "right and wrongs" per se...your topics may have different titles, which is fine. You may have chosen to put some verses under a different topic, which is also fine. So many verses are applicable to more than one topic. These are just some ideas to get you started. The descriptions beside the verses above are the ones I jotted down to jog my memory of the verse's point so I can easily reference it later. Your descriptions may be different...what ever makes sense to you as you'll be the one referencing your own resource in the future. I want to be sure this is something that will be of benefit to YOU so just lay it out as best suits you.  

Be sure to come Sunday for the review and discussion. Claudine Snyder will be leading the class in my absence. Be praying for her as she prepares and pray for me this week. Thank you ladies! 

**Remember to contact your accountability/small group members to encourage them this week too.**