Sirach 7:29-31

Fear the Lord with all your soul
And honor His priests.
Love Him who made you
And do not forsake His ministers.
Fear the Lord and honor His priests,
And give them their portion as commanded:
The firstfruits, the trespass offering,
The gift of the shoulder offering,
The sacrifice of sanctification,
And the firstfruits of the holy things.

Encouraging Words

We have been blessed throughout the history of the Church and the teachings of the scriptures to have a leadership model to follow. Our Church is hierarchical by design and has rigorous requirements for the selection of those in leadership and expectations for their duties and responsibilities. As members of the Church, we are expected to respect those who have been called to leadership over us and support them in their roles. We should make sure that they are taken care of since they dedicate their lives to the body of Christ. God created this order of leadership so that the Church would thrive and survive in a disordered world. Glory be to God!

Romans 2:1

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

Personal Challenge

There is only one who is able and has the right, to judge our hearts and actions. That is our Lord, the only Righteous Judge. There are many who proclaim Christ and believe that they have been given the authority to judge others. This becomes a dangerous ground to walk on because how we judge others becomes the ruler by which we will someday be judged. God does want us to be discerning. He wants us to assess the world around us and then to exercise our free will to make righteous and godly choices. The ultimate commandment that we have been given by our Lord is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. There is no room in there for judgment. This can be a challenge to practice in our lives, in my life, because it is so easy to take our eyes off of Jesus and start focusing on others around us in a comparative way. This always leads to judgment. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner and guide me toward loving and not judging those around me.

Sirach 7:20-21

Do not mistreat a servant who does his work in truth
Nor a hired worker who devotes himself to you.
Let your soul love an intelligent servant;
Do not deprive him of his freedom.

Personal Challenge

I do not own my own business, so I do not have hired workers. I also do not have servants that work for me. However, there is still much truth in this passage that I can learn from. There are many ways throughout my life where I have opportunities to treat those in my life who are doing something on my behalf with love and respect. I have coworkers that are a part of my team and who sometimes take direction from me. Do I mistreat them or deal with them in gruff and ungodly ways? I have loved ones in my life, my wife, my children, my grandchildren, friends and other family members. How do I treat them when I need them to do something for me? In my church activities where I am in different leadership roles, do I lord it over those whom I work with or do I treat them in the way that the scriptures expect me to. I have a responsibility to my Lord and my neighbor to treat everyone with love and respect. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Romans 1:20-21

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Encouraging Words

Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans that no one has an excuse for saying that there is no God. Everything is this world screams out in evidence that there is a God, a God that purposely and magnificently created everything that exists. People may try to logic this off to anything and everything that is not related to God, but the arguments always fall apart. Even down to the need for each of us to worship and glorify our creator and Savior we are impelled by a force within us to worship something greater than ourselves. This is manifested by those who reject God but still end up worshipping someone or something else, all to no avail. The beauty of our God is that He loves us so much that He is willing to let us choose for ourselves who or what we want to worship and submit our lives to. His desire is that we worship Him and live our lives in a relationship with Him, but He will never force us to do this. This is my choice. He is my choice! I believe in who He is and what He has done for His beloved creation and I desire to serve, worship and honor Him, all the remaining days of my life. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Sirach 7:1-3

Do no evil things,
And evil will never overtake you.
Stay away from wrongdoing,
And it will turn away from you.
My son, do not sow on the furrows of wrongdoing,
And you will not reap the same things sevenfold.

Encouraging Words

Sometimes the scriptures are so very crystal clear. Stay away from evil and evil things will not overtake you. Do not sow wrongdoing and you will not reap wrongdoing. Even with this clarity, we still choose far too often to dabble in evil and wrongdoing because it is attractive to our carnal bodies. The good news, the encouraging words, are that Jesus destroyed death and the power that sin holds over us so that we could follow in His footsteps and develop the ability in our lives to say “No!” to evil and wrongdoing. Glory be to God!

Romans 1:16-17

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

Personal Challenge

Our challenge is to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ so tightly that we are never ashamed or afraid to share it with those around of. This is becoming more difficult as the world that we live in becomes more hostile toward Jesus and anything that is tied to Him, however, this is where our righteousness both grows and is confirmed, by putting our faith and our lives, in Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Sirach 6:18-19

My son, from your youth up, choose instruction,
And you will find wisdom also into old age.
Come to her as one who plows and sows,
And wait expectantly for her good fruits;
For in her work you will labor a little while,
Then you will quickly eat of her fruit.

Personal Challenge

I am so thankful that I was blessed with the opportunity to not only grow up in the farming country but to also have been involved in many different aspects of the farming and animal husbandry part of that world. It has made it so much easier to understand many of the scriptures that use images based on farming. Wisdom, or Jesus, as the early church fathers determined wisdom to be, is someone that we must pursue aggressively and passionately throughout our lives. We do not get to know Him deeply by just reading another book or listening to another sermon or podcast. Getting to know Jesus and acquiring His wisdom is like planting and growing an orchard. It takes time to prepare the soil for deep-rooted trees, time to plant the seedlings and nurture them until they are ready to be grafted, time of pruning and nurturing the tree until it is ready to produce fruit, and then spending the remainder of the years continuing to work with the trees until they have run the full gambit of their life, This is what we must do with our own lives, our own hearts, and our own minds. Without this lifelong effort, we will never taste the good fruits of wisdom (Jesus). Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Acts 28:30-31

Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.

Encouraging Words

Paul is such a good example for all Christians to follow. Even though he was still imprisoned, he would not stop doing the very thing that got him there, proclaiming Jesus Christ and His kingdom. Paul never shied away from living openly for his Savior because he knew that he owed everything to Him and that everyone needed to hear the good news. May we all be encouraged and enabled to be Pauls in our lives. Glory be to God!

Sirach 6:14-17

A faithful friend is a strong shelter,
And he who finds one finds a treasure.
There is nothing that can take the place of a faithful friend,
And there is no way to measure his worth.
A faithful friend is a medicine of life,
And those who fear the Lord will find him.
He who fears the Lord guides his friendship rightly,
Because as he is, so also is his neighbor.

Personal Challenge

Our modern culture makes it difficult to find the faithful friend such as the one that is pointed out in this passage. We live in a very individualistic thinking society which makes it challenging to find a friend that is interested in investing in this kind of relationship. We also have the challenge of being a very mobile society in that many of us have moved enough that we no longer have friends around us that we have known for a long time or we live far enough apart that we do not get the chance to see each other often enough to build this kind of relationship. Maybe Sirach had the same problem when he said, “And he who finds one finds a treasure.” Nonetheless, it is still a worthy goal in life to seek to build relationships with others with the hope that one day a faithful friendship of this type will result. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!