THE CROWN
Suggested Reading: Proverbs 12
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
In Rome stands a national monument known as the Altar of the Fatherland, honouring Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy. On top you can see a work of art depicting the goddess Victoria riding in a chariot behind quadrigas (four horses abreast). In today’s key verse, God shows his care for animals. The horse is one of God’s magnificent creations.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verses: Proverbs 12:10
A righteous man regards the life of his animal,
But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
Being a married man means that husbands need to appreciate Proverbs 12:4a. According to these words, men, our wives are our crowns! And they are “excellent,” as the proverb says! I have a small icon that Ron put on my computer screen that says “Dictionary.” When I look up “excellent” it means outstanding, exceptional, marvellous, wonderful, magnificent, etc. etc. Need I say more? Men, let’s make sure our wives read the blog today. If we notice that our wives are a little more romantic for the next while, this may be the reason!!
Proverbs 12 deals with contrasts between several opposites — e.g. in the first verse, “knowledge” and “stupid.” The final contrast is shown between the truthful dealings of a righteous man and the deceit and lies of a wicked man. These paths are going in opposite directions. One leads to life and the other to death. The choice is ours to make as we stand at the crossroads of decision. Let us choose life!!!
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, I thank You for my spouse, the one with whom You made me one flesh. May I bless this special person every day in every way. I pray that I will learn valuable life lessons from the book of Proverbs. I ask for wisdom and knowledge in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen!!!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
I think that I’ve been on the verge of depression from time to time. The reason is a big heavy word, “ANXIETY!” According to Proverbs 12:25 this was caused, in my case, by my failure to trust God 100%! While depression can be caused by a disorder in my brain, which needs to be treated by a qualified professional, my near depression was lifted again and again by, as that verse says, “A good word which makes it, the heart, glad!”
I must confess that I had anxiety today. At one point in our travels to various Bible locations here in the Holy Land, I thought I’d lost one of our tour members somewhere. However, my excellent wife assured me that our charge was safely on the bus at the back. I figure that over the years we have brought at least 7,000 people to Israel in our tours. What a joy to get to know more people who love and appreciate the ministry of Crossroads Christian Communications Incorporated. God willing, we’ll do it again next November.
Yours for learning every day more and more of the ways of God,
David
P.S. Here are nine more of our faithful enthusiastic pilgrims in front the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. From left to right they are Bob & Judy from Calgary, Alberta – Barb from Calgary, Alberta – Elaine from Vegreville, Alberta – Foster from Aurora, Ontario – Marlyn from Palmerston, Ontario – Joanne from Millet, Alberta – Carol from Kitchener, Ontario – Lilian from Calgary, Alberta
I am standing in Bethlehem’s Manger Square as they prepare for the Christmas celebrations just over a month from now. The people of Bethlehem are helping me get into the Christmas spirit early this year. This is probably one of the tallest artificial Christmas trees in the world. They are just starting to decorate it.
David, I think you stated it wonderfully when you said “The choice is ours to make as we stand at the crossroad of decision.” Almost every moment of every day is a “decision” moment. How we speak, what we do and how we spend our time, money and resources will say a lot about our individual choices in life. Our anxieties are often self-induced as a result of not including God in our decision making process. This anxiety may be greatly reduced by learning something God’s wisdom through His Word and by following the subtle promptings of the Holy Spirit. God in His magnificent grace has given us freedom of choice; as we stand at our individual crossroads may we make wise decisions, that we might bring glory and honour to our Lord in all we do.
Thanks for sharing these nice pictures from the Israel tour and also thank you Reynold for your beautiful on-going contributions.
I ve been depressed for when my 6 daughters became adults and I retired , my life changed dramatically my life seem to lose meaning I volunteer a few hours a week butits a whole new lifestyle my husband has low confidence but at almost 76 he finds it hardto be around people because of hard to hear even with aides
So I pray instead of being around people to be with him a choice I made
Every one looks like they are enjoying ther visit
God bless all of you
In Jesus name Amen
The proverb reminded me of a woman in her 80’s who grew up on a farm and said, “When a man becomes a Christian, even his animals know it!” Thanks again for photos and notes from Israel.
Brenda….might it help to plan being around just one person or couple re. your husbands hearing problem? Sometimes daily walks together are very helpful for a persons mind and well-being.
that’s an excellent suggestion, Isabelle!
One of the commenters mentioned a few days ago that any good in the mental health profession is based on wisdom from the Holy Bible and that when those principles are abandoned the practises become harmful. I agree with this observation. I think the most important thing in that profession is just offering a caring and patient and trusted ear. The psychiatric profession has a lot of people who are scientists and not therapists. I once read that during Jesus time as flesh and blood, Jews believed that to cast out a demon the demon must be identified by name. Science does not even believe in demons. Therefore, it is blind to Satan. It denies the cause of mental illness. So, it tries to control everybody with drugs and other things. Even the recent history of it’s antics is horrifying: lobotomy, electroshock and even experimenting on people with LSD. Yet, in my twenties, I went to group therapy for a few sessions and it was very helpful just to talk about what was bothering me. That was all I needed. As a believe in Jesus, I know that it is spirit and mind that determines my mental health. The scientific community does not deal with these things. It thinks people are basically complex machines responding to chemical occurrences. This sounds crazy but that is the way science works. In Job, God asks about wisdom; the earth says we have heard of wisdom but it is not in us. Then, God says, to fear Him is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding.
At the end of the day, regardless of medication and/or therapy, it is comforting to know our Lord has seen us through and is there at all times.
He loves the broken hearted but hates the foolish and wicked master.
My wife is certainly a crown, whom I cherish dearly. It is encouraging to hear John Hull and David Shelley update us about our support in our matched contributions towards disaster relief in the Philippines. Looking forward to hearing more. Stay safe everyone on the tour. It looks like you are all enjoying the experience! Have a great day, to all!
Still eagerly following along and appreciating the wisdom of the blogs from Proverbs and personally. May God grant us all W…K…D…U. as we read this book. Enjoying all the photos and may God continue to bless your trip. We studied a while back in the Psalms that the Lord knows all our anxieties and I’m learning to share them with Him. Have a great day!
Thanks so much for this blog and your faithfulness to continue with it even in the midst of your tour. David, you look so good and I pray that God continues to strengthen you and manifest healing in your body.
It must be a delight to do a tour such as this, and God willing, I may be able to do this one day.
God bless all today. Have a great day in Jesus. I love to say, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
Dear God I humbly ask for your peace and comfort to replace any and all anxiety
that any one may be feeling because of regret or circumstances beyond control . Thank you father that we can come to you with our concerns. We praise you and we worship you.
M.
Hello, My dear biker friend brother in the Lord, (Randy and I rode with you in the Steele Horse Ride…that was something, wasn’t it 🙂 ) I had a thought about your anxiety over a possible lost traveler in the Holy Land. I thought back to Bible times past in the Holy Land when Mary and Joseph lost their child in a return trip home, and the anxiety they too experienced. Sure is comforting to me to know God has it all under control…then and now…have a wonderful time, you and your beautiful bride are so precious to Randy and I and are in my thoughts and prayers. Blessings from us, Edna
Thank you David M for your comments today. Wow! what a wealth in Proverbs 12. It and David’s words so encouraging. Among the many verses, vs.25 really spoke to my heart. “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up”. David says, ‘Sometimes he feels he is on the verge of depression” – I can identify with this. I am forced to get on my knees and go back again to Phil.4:4-8 – more recently after we achieved a victory – and great answer to prayer. “The thief was at our door” but we know who to run to for our victory. For others who are struggling periodically, it helps when others acknowledge they have their ‘moments’ – it encourages us. It acknowledges that we are in a battle. That we are not alone. That God is working out his perfect plan in our lives like the Potter completely his master plan. Again, yesterday, I was kneeling before the Lord, doing exactly what Rom 12:1-2 says, laying my ‘self’ on the altar. Bringing my ‘self’ to the foot of the cross to ‘Him’ who did it all – once and for all – laying down His life that we might have life – and have it more abundantly. I am so grateful for all the Lord accomplished on the Cross and through His resurrection for me and for all who call upon Him. Someone once said, ‘the heavy pressures of life..just pushes us down on our knees” whether we can knee or not, this little chorus is my prayer, “At Thy feet I bow adoring, bending lower and lower still; giving up my all to follow just to do my Master’s Will – giving up my all to follow – just to do….my Master’s Will.” That’s what I have been doing. Thank you David M. Thank you all the bloggers for your comments and requests for prayer. How wonderful to know that while the Holy Spirit is with me ‘here’, the Holy Spirit is with ‘you’ – ‘there’ – and, in a special way, ‘with David’ in his health battle, in his ministry every day on this blog and as he & his team lead the 100 people ‘walking where Jesus walked’. Blessings to all. Samuel
Thank God for Brad and his words of wisdom. I was 47, diagnosed as bi-polar.went on lithium for 22 years, had to stop because of possible liver problems…had the problem of psychiatrics who were scientists more than therapists. one day the Lord send the top psyc to our area and he was both of the above and was TERRIFIC! His beliefs were to look after the “whole person” and wouldn’t you know it, the elected leaders of the day got rid of him and have not had anyone since. I have prayed all my life for a way to cope. The Lord has provided many ways and through an accident I learned to swim and that has helped me immensely! my chemical imbalance is tied into the phases of the full moon, God helped me to understand that i have to make sure anything i needed to do has to be done before the full moon. altogether i have about 12 days of turbulence. From the fall equinox (Sept 21) until the winter equinox (Dec 21) I am not a morning person. I had to come to terms with that aspect and I had to plan my life around that issue. I lean on the Lord all the time. i live alone and no family and the friends i had have died or moved or?
I am thankful for the prayer lines..i use them regularly. I enjoy Bible studies and good songs and i have asked the Lord to give me boldness and talk very openly about my chemical imbalance because I realized that the devil wanted me to keep quiet and he was succeeding until one day the Lord spoke so clearly and loudly and said “my dear child, speak up because you’ve come along way with coping skills and there are thousands of people who need to hear that and I AM WITH YOU ALL THE WAY! I know what you have been through, i’ve heard the horrible remarks and i am aware of the suicidal thoughts BUT you kept on fighting and you have risen above all that negative stuff..you have learned to forgive and move forward. you don’t keep track of the past. you love to laugh and you share just about every detail with ME!” the Lord continued to speak to me for about another half hour and all I could say was “thank you Lord, thank you for understanding me and for everything you have provided me. thank you for daily forgiveness and Your continuing love, grace and mercy” today is NOv 23 and the imbalance is starting to wind down and i am going swimming. I pray that by sharing others may be encouraged and speak up and petition our leaders to understand mental illness from the youth to the seniors and we don’t make this up! I could not work very much and I only have a small pension and we need to let the leaders know that Seniors need $1900.00 a month just to make ends meet in todays’ ecomomy! I know I am not judged by God, He speaks the truth always, and He sees, hears and knows all. We need to pray and support each other; we need to pray that our leaders will follow God’s instructions and that is to :look after children, the elderly and those who cannot look afer themselves.
I pray that someone may glean something from my comment. I eally enjoy this blog. THank you Mr. Mainse and may God continue to bless your ministry.
God’s continued blessings to you, Sah! Amen!
Thank you for sharing your heart and we pray for God s blessings in your life 😉
Thank you for sharing Sah. May the
Lord continue to bless you, heal you
And make you a blessing to many as
you share with others how God has
helped you deal with your chemical
imbalance. I agree…swimming is
good exercise and therapy.
Joy and peace to you!!!
Faith
Thanks Sah.
It is encouraging to read the testimonies of God’s goodness and faithfulness
as each of you share what He has done…Praise His Holy Name, Jesus our all in all!!!
I am asking for prayer for healing in my right ear…there seems to be a blockage of some sort…as I speak, the sound in my head feels hollow, and my hearing is dull in that ear.
God Bless you all
Irene
Dear Irene,
Thank you for sharing your burden,
Ear issues can be very painful.
I am praying for you that our Lord
God, Jehovah Rapha will touch
your ear and heal the problem.
We know that God knows your
pain, He cares and loves you.
Blessings In believing together
for this need.
Faith