4/27/12

Beating stupidity


In the early 70's I worked for Norton Co. as a quality control supervisor on the overnight shift.  My area of supervision was the cloth finishing department.  You know, Emery cloth and the like.  It was a difficult job and at times very, very stressful, but it did have  its upside.  The people I worked with were an unusual bunch of peculiar people.  The MOST MEMORABLE of which was a man named Mike.  He had a odd way of mixing the most outlandish behavior with genuine insight and profound wisdom. He would say things like: "You can say anything you like as long as it is the truth and you smile a little too much" or "Never tell an idiot that he is an idiot, all you are going to do is remind him and that will make him mad."  When I saw this saying of Mark Twain (who also had a memorable sense of humor) I thought of this verse from the book of Proverbs....

Proverbs 15:1
1 A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

There are so many people who don't think before they talk or act that you will encounter them; probably on a weekly basis at least.  When this happens the worst thing you can do is match their volume and anger level.  The softer you speak (if at all), the better.  There is a right way to handle (idiots, stupid, obnoxious, foolish or arrogant aggressive) them and Proverbs has the answer.  You might also want to listen to Mark Twain and even somebody like my friend (yes, he was my friend) Mike.  Wisdom comes in packages of all shapes and sizes, so listen, somebody may actually teach you something.  And smile, the bigger and more exaggerated the better!!!!!








Apr. 27 Deuteronomy 9, 10


Apr. 27
Deuteronomy 9, 10

Deu 9:1 Hear, Israel: you are to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky,
Deu 9:2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, Who can stand before the sons of Anak?
Deu 9:3 Know therefore this day, that Yahweh your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire; he will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you: so you shall drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you.
Deu 9:4 Don't say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land; whereas for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh does drive them out from before you.
Deu 9:5 Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Deu 9:6 Know therefore, that Yahweh your God doesn't give you this good land to possess it for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.
Deu 9:7 Remember, don't forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that you went forth out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh.
Deu 9:8 Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you.
Deu 9:9 When I was gone up onto the mountain to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water.
Deu 9:10 Yahweh delivered to me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
Deu 9:11 It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.
Deu 9:12 Yahweh said to me, Arise, get down quickly from hence; for your people whom you have brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they have quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.
Deu 9:13 Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people:
Deu 9:14 let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.
Deu 9:15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.
Deu 9:16 I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God; you had made yourselves a molten calf: you had turned aside quickly out of the way which Yahweh had commanded you.
Deu 9:17 I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.
Deu 9:18 I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water; because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.
Deu 9:19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also.
Deu 9:20 Yahweh was very angry with Aaron to destroy him: and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
Deu 9:21 I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain.
Deu 9:22 At Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah, you provoked Yahweh to wrath.
Deu 9:23 When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn't believe him, nor listen to his voice.
Deu 9:24 You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you.
Deu 9:25 So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you.
Deu 9:26 I prayed to Yahweh, and said, Lord Yahweh, don't destroy your people and your inheritance, that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Deu 9:27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; don't look to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin,
Deu 9:28 lest the land whence you brought us out say, Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.
Deu 9:29 Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.
Deu 10:1 At that time Yahweh said to me, Cut two tables of stone like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood.
Deu 10:2 I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.
Deu 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tables of stone like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tables in my hand.
Deu 10:4 He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and Yahweh gave them to me.
Deu 10:5 I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are as Yahweh commanded me.
Deu 10:6 (The children of Israel traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his place.
Deu 10:7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water.
Deu 10:8 At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day.
Deu 10:9 Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, according as Yahweh your God spoke to him.)
Deu 10:10 I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights: and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh would not destroy you.
Deu 10:11 Yahweh said to me, Arise, take your journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give to them.
Deu 10:12 Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
Deu 10:13 to keep the commandments of Yahweh, and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good?
Deu 10:14 Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein.
Deu 10:15 Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day.
Deu 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
Deu 10:17 For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn't regard persons, nor takes reward.
Deu 10:18 He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing.
Deu 10:19 Therefore love the foreigner; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
Deu 10:20 You shall fear Yahweh your God; you shall serve him; and you shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name.
Deu 10:21 He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which your eyes have seen.
Deu 10:22 Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.

"THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW" Chapter Nine by Mark Copeland

                        "THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW"

                              Chapter Nine

Back in Capernaum, Jesus’ ministry in Galilee continued with both
forgiving and healing a paralytic (1-8).  Matthew the tax collector was
called to be a disciple, who invited Jesus to his home where He was
questioned by the Pharisees and disciples of John (9-17).   Asked by a
ruler to go and raise his dead daughter, Jesus did so, healing a woman
with a flow along the way (18-26).  Afterward Jesus healed two blind men
and a man who was both mute and demon-possessed (27-34).   He then went
about the region, teaching and healing, moved with compassion for the
multitudes that came to Him (35-38).

POINTS TO PONDER

   *  Jesus’ power to forgive sins

   *  His willingness to eat with sinners

   *  His compassion for the lost

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1) What are the main points of this chapter?
   - Five miracles in Capernaum of Galilee - Mt 9:1-8,18-34
   - The call of Matthew and the questions at his house - Mt 9:9-17
   - The itinerant teaching and healing in cities and villages - Mt
     9:35-38

2) List the five miracles recorded in this chapter (1-8,18-34)
   - Jesus forgives and heals a paralytic
   - Jesus heals a woman with a flow of blood
   - Jesus restores a ruler’s daughter to life
   - Jesus heals two blind men
   - Jesus heals a man mute and demon-possessed

3) How did Jesus demonstrate His power to forgive sins? (6)
   - By healing a paralytic

4) Who was called to be a disciple and then gave a feast at his house?
   (9-10)
   - Matthew, also known as Levi, author of this gospel (cf. Lk 5:27-29)

5) What two groups confronted Jesus regarding what two issues? (11-17)
   - The Pharisees, concerning eating with sinners
   - The disciples of John, concerning fasting

6) What explanation did Pharisees give for Jesus’ ability to exorcise
   demons? (34)
   - "He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons."

7) What moved Jesus to call for prayer for more laborers? (36-38)
   - Compassion for the multitudes who were like sheep without a
     shepherd