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Sometimes the KJV is just great. When you want to talk about laziness, what are better comparisons than a sloth or a slug? I am looking to put together a study on laziness through the Proverbs and I jotted down my initial thoughts. Full length study yet to be released.

Laziness

Proverbs 6:6-11: It’s not all about the here and now. Investment must become personal not policed.

10:26: Ignorance of import. Other people’s feelings can be more important than yours.

12:24: All men are created equal but they don’t all end up that way.

12:27: Wasteface.

13:4: Good intentions are not good enough.

15:19: Obedience obliterates obstacles. Sloth sows sorrows.

18:9: Paucity of purpose stifles stewardship.

19:24: King sedentary.

20:4: Good excuses are not good enough. Neither are bad ones!

21:25-26: The exacerbated entitlement life. I deserve this for no apparent reason and all my expectations should be met or exceeded or life’s not worth living.  

22:13/26:13: Justification. Every vice can be made a virtue if you are smart enough.

24:30-34: A lot of little equals a lot.

26:14: A lack of blanket victory. A life lived by not living. We have such a short time to prepare for such a long time!

26:15: Neglect of the necessities.

26:16: Since I can’t do everything I won’t do anything. Someone else will get to it. Stupid idea. There are a lot of people better than me who can do that. That’s not my ___. Am I my brother’s keeper? She wouldn’t do that for me. Etc…

I would think that most of us have trouble keeping our mind focused while in prayer. It can become frustrating and even disheartening to want to give your whole heart, mind, and soul to God one moment, and then be struggling with a sinful imagination the next. Here is a very helpful bit of wisdom from Brother Lawrence on how to combat that struggle.

“One way to re-collect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and to preserve it more in tranquility, is not to let it wander too far at other times. You should keep your thoughts strictly in the presence of God. And being accustomed to think of Him often, you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its wanderings.”

Here is a great testimony from a man named Jason Helopoulos. I hope that our youth ministry can provide the same simple witness!

Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Loving one another in the body of Christ has many benefits. Two that regularly come to mind are the glory it gives to God and the way it affects the church. However, one of the primary benefits of loving one another is what it declares before a watching world. One of our most potent instruments we have for effective evangelism is Christians loving each other well.  I am “living” proof.

As a freshman college student and self-declared atheist, I attended a campus Christian fellowship to fulfill a promise to a Christian friend. I only had the intention to go once. It was merely duty and upholding my word, nothing more. I went begrudgingly, but I went. My life was never the same.

I walked into a room full of Christians and was struck by what I observed. Here was a diverse group. They were from every walk of life. I remember scanning the room and labeling people in my mind, “There is a jock, over there is a geek, and walking in the door is a boy scout.” But what struck me was that they were together. They weren’t just together in the same room, they were together in every sense of the word. They were actually talking with each other and genuinely seemed happy to be together. There didn’t seem to be division. Even in my atheist mind, I knew what I was seeing: they loved one another.

I had no categories for this, so I kept returning to find out why they had love like this for one another. Over the course of a few months I found the answer, or more accurately stated, the answer found me.

One of the best evangelism programs you can start at your church is to pursue loving one another well. At some point they will have to hear the gospel proclaimed from your lips or the pulpit, but that “strange love” will set the table before them. People will know that you are His disciples, because it is a shocking love. It has a gravitational attraction, because it is a love that is foreign to this world. A love that the inquirer, if seeking an answer, will find comes from heaven.

The Agony by F.W. Faber

First read Mt. 26:36-46 and Luke 22:39-46

O soul of Jesus! Sick to death!; Thy blood and prayer together plead,
My sins have bowed Thee to the ground; As the storm bows the feeble reed.

Midnight—and still the oppressive load; Upon Thy tortured heart does lie,
Still the abhorred procession winds; Before Thy spirit’s quailing eye.

Deep waters have come in, O Lord!; All darkly on Thy human soul,
And clouds of supernatural gloom; Around Thee are allowed to roll.

The weight of the eternal wrath; Drives over Thee with pressure dread,
And, forced upon the olive roots; In deathlike sadness droops Thy head.

Thy Spirit weighs the sins of men; Thy science fathoms all their guilt,
Thou sickenest heavily at Thy heart; And the pores open, blood is spilt.

And Thou hast struggled with it, Lord!; Even to the limit of Thy strength,
While hours, whose minutes were as years; Slowly fulfilled their weary length.

And Thou hast shuddered at each act; And shrunk with an astonished fear,
As if Thou could not bear to see; The loathsomeness of sin so near.

Sin and the Father’s anger! they; Have made Thy lower nature faint.
All, save the love within Thy heart; Seemed for the moment to be spent.

My God! My God! and can it be; That I should sin so lightly now,
And think no more of evil thoughts; Than of the wind that waves the bough?

I sin—and heaven and earth go round; As if no dreadful deed were done,
As if God’s blood had never flowed; To hinder sin, or to atone.

I walk the earth with lightsome step; Smile at the sunshine, breathe the air,
Do my own will, nor ever heed; Gethsemane and Thy long prayer.

Shall it be always thus, O Lord?; Wilt Thou not work this hour in me,
The grace Thy passion merited; Hatred of self, and love of Thee?

Oh by the pains of Thy pure love; Grant me the gift of holy fear,
And give me of Thy bloody sweat; To wash my guilty conscience clear!

Even when tempted, to make me see; Beneath the olive’s moon-pierced shade,
My God, alone, outstretched, and bruised; And bleeding, on the earth He made.

And make me feel it was my sin; As though no other sin were there;
That was to Him who bears the world; A load that He could scarcely bear.