In a past article I suggested that some forms of healthcare could be spiritually harmful to Christians but did not explain nor name names. Though I will again avoid name calling, I do want to encourage and equip Christians with this article in regard to discerning which healthcare practices might contradict their profession of Biblical…
Anyone who more than glances at Sanctuary Functional Medicine’s website will notice something peculiar: the blatant Christian nature of what we profess. This bluntness has provoked both explicit, to-my-face comments and rumors that I only hear second hand. Speaking in generalities, more than 9 in 10 have been glad or grateful to have a clinic…
Proverbs 14:24 ESV The crown of the wise is their wealth, but the folly of fools brings folly. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A24&version=ESV] Nuclear bombs and foolishness have something in common: they are, barring divine intervention, self-perpetuating phenomenon, at least until the side effects blow the whole thing to smithereens. See, that’s another way they’re alike. Nuclear bombs…
Proverbs 14:23 ESV In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A23&version=ESV] It’s an unfortunate reality of life that when we try to get our jobs done by talking about getting them done, nothing really happens. At some point, you have to sit down, buckle up, and get to…
Proverbs 14:22 ESV Do they not go astray who devise evil? Those who devise good meet steadfast love and faithfulness. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A22&version=ESV] The fine art of misinterpreting the Bible is an old and honored profession, a favorite of prelate, king, and common man alike. The early Christians anticipated the destruction of Jerusalem by getting rid…
Proverbs 14:21 ESV Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A21&version=ESV] Today’s verse is the moral counterbalance to last week’s realism. Last week, we got the realpolitik of the situation, the way things are whether we like it or not: people like people who…
Proverbs 14:20 ESV The poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A20&version=ESV] ‘Unpleasant but true’ is a fittingly unpleasant commonality. Today’s proverb fits that category well, pointing out as it does the human tendency to align our affections to petty, selfish reasons. We like powerful people, the ones…
Proverbs 14:19 ESV The evil bow down before the good, the wicked at the gates of the righteous. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A19&version=ESV] Aside from its translation using one of my favorite rhetorical devices, zeugma, this verse also promises to the righteous what we so often find difficult to hope for, much less expect: victory, true and abiding.…
Proverbs 14:18 ESV The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A18&version=ESV] Preparation is the nine-tenths success, the saying goes. Making bread is significantly easier if you have the flour, the eggs, the clear space on your kitchen counter, and an idea of what exactly making bread involves. None of us,…
Proverbs 14:17 ESV A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A17&version=ESV] ‘Evil devices’ may, if you’re of a particularly fanciful bent, conjure up images of techno-contraptions, Bond villain death traps, and printers that never work right. That’s not really what it means, though, as a quick comparison…