Apicontent

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

The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly. (Proverbs 15:2)

The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:4)

The elementary school playground is hardly a repository for profundity, of this we can be sure. Between the jungle gym and the teeter-totter, we hear inane comments like, “I see Germany, I see France, I see Johnny’s underpants” or the utter falsehood, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Calculated to be the world’s most clever defense for name-calling and other types of verbal abuse, this puerile maxim declares a frighteningly misleading principle.

If there is anything we learn as we grow older, it is that words have serious consequences—wonderful or awful consequences. Many adults hold a self-perception formed by either the loving affirmation or the thoughtlessly cruel words of a parent. Try these: “You can do it!” “We believe in you!” “You are precious to us.” “We love you with all our hearts.”

Or try these: “I wish you hadn’t been born.” “You’re worthless and will never amount to anything.” “Can’t you do anything right?” “You stupid idiot!” Big difference in the impact. Hurtful words driven deep into a child’s heart and psyche contribute to adult depression, aggression, and even violent antisocial behavior.

In the three verses above taken from Proverbs 15, the benefits of well-chosen words are lauded. Gentle ones assuage other people’s anger. Wise words promote knowledge—more light than heat. Healing words feed life into the hearer.

When Jesus said that we would be held accountable for “every idle word,” I think he meant every idle word. To an all-hearing God, nothing is missed, and every word is measured. How wonderful it must be for God to hear His grace and wisdom gushing forth to benefit a world gone mad with evil-speaking.

Principle: The ultimate impact for good you make on others during your life may well be the result of the gentle, wise, healing words you speak.

If our good words can bless others, our hurtful words, even the “unintended ones,” are a curse to them. Solomon describes the consequences of stupid word choices, harsh speech, and deceitful language in the most awful terms. They cause dissension, spoiling unity, fellowship, and team effort. They stir anger in others, with highly unpleasant reactions. They suck the life out of others, draining the spiritual energy out of a family or workplace. They crush the human spirit of the hearers, often leaving them permanently impaired.

Principle: Only eternity will tell how many of the world’s lost and hopeless were pushed into those states of being by someone’s cruel words…including ours.

It seems that the lesson from Proverbs is that a severe physical beating would do less long-term damage to a person than our vicious verbal assaults. Sticks and stones do hurt…really hurt.

Principle: Destructive words are the nuclear “sticks and stones” that reduce human beings to rubble—with an extremely slow rate of fallout.

Watch your words.

[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. (Proverbs 6:6-8)

A godly family member has been successful in the lumber business in Nebraska. After taking over ownership of the family enterprise, he expanded the original location, opened a second lumberyard in a nearby city, and grew the business substantially. A young hire who demonstrated a rather pronounced aversion to hard work told the owner one day, “You sure are lucky.” In his inimitable, easygoing Nebraska style, he replied, “You know, I’ve found the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

I have found many both white-collar and blue-collar people among the hardest workers on the planet. The pressure, fierce competition, and breakneck pace of the American business culture makes the forty-hour workweek a mere fantasy for many, as they log fifty to seventy or more hours a week.

Then there are the “sluggards.” Though not a commonly used word, I like “sluggard”. It sounds like “slug” and “sluggish” and rather nicely por­trays the person whose “get up and go” apparently has gotten up and gone. Solomon and his colleagues hold up the non-sluggard ant as a model for human wisdom in work…in three dimensions.

First, the ant has no earthly boss to crack the whip to get it going. While it benefits from divine programming in its instincts, it is a self­-starter. I’ve met a lot of young people with dreams who spent literally decades waiting for the “big break” to come but not willing to work for it to come. They nearly starved.

I told one such sluggard, “You always have full-time employment­ working at a job or looking for one.” The second part of that equation had apparently escaped him. A gospel song declares, “Jesus was a working man.” He was… and is… and expects us to work hard as well.

Principle: A mark of God’s touch on fallen human beings is a love for and commitment to noble labor. Laziness is a major concession to sin and wreaks passive destruction.

Proverbs lauds the ant for its advanced planning and execution. Sluggards don’t make preparations for the future and implement them. Like lottery winners, they live by, “Hit it big, spend it big. Fall on hard times, end up penniless.” Many could have “Ready, fire, aim” as their life motto. They have no real goals or plans—dreams and fantasies, but no goals or plans—and no channeling of resources to pursue either.

Principle: Those who aim at nothing are guaranteed a direct hit. Those who set goals but focus no labor on achieving them are no better off than the goal-less ones.

Finally, the writers of Proverbs laud the ant’s productive labor. The ant harvests and it stores. Both are hard work! I heard once that if humans could carry loads proportionate to our size and weight as an ant, we could carry loaded railroad boxcars! How wonderful it is that those of us who are surrendered to God and trusting Him have supernatural power available to carry the sometimes overwhelming workloads of life.

Principle: No one can handle the heavy workloads of life with­out God’s strength. To try is an ungrateful reliance on prideful self.

[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]

Blessings crown the head of the righteous, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked. (Proverbs 10:6)

The wicked man earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward. (Proverbs 11:18)

Soon after my wife and I married, a securities dealer challenged us to invest in some over-the-counter stock. This, our first experience in “investing” a little of our hard-earned money turned out to be pain­fully unrewarding. Now that the pain is gone, we can laugh about the line the salesman used to get us to sign on the dotted line: “You can only make two mistakes—not buying any and not buying enough.” We made both mistakes! The twenty-dollar stock we eventually gave away at fifty cents a share.

Sometimes, I think we believers doubt the return on our investment in godliness—that maybe it isn’t that all that great. We see so many who scoff at God and seem to prosper. We say to ourselves, “I deny myself all of these worldly pleasures and opportunities, and what do I get? Pie in the sky in the sweet by and by?” Not if the book of Proverbs can be believed.

God has put in black and white the blessings He holds in store for the right-living person who makes wise choices…and the list is incredible. The verse above describes the blessings as crowning the head of the righteous. That means being blessed royally.

Principle: To doubt that the rewards God provides for trust and obedience in this life will be ample is to doubt God’s very character and the trustworthiness of His promises to us. It insults Him.

About those people who live like the devil and seem to prosper like gods…the Scriptures are not silent. Nowhere does God say that evil people won’t make out like bandits…for a while. Time is the arbiter of who really gets the rewards. Proverbs makes it clear that in the long run things will turn to blessing for the right-living person and to disaster for the evil person. The problem with this teaching for Americans is that we want it all now. God isn’t in the instant-winner business.

Principle: There is a good reason God has a time-delay factor in His reward system. It takes time for the really clever evil-doers and the talk-but-no-walk Christians to show their true colors, but for the righteous, God’s rewards are worth the wait.

The list of promises in Proverbs alone is impressive. Read this list of blessings: staying power in society (2:21), blessing on home and family (3:33), deliverance from death (10:2), protection from hunger (10:3), a legacy of honorable remembrance (10:7), wealth without the problems that come with ill-gotten gain (10:22), an inheritance to leave for children and grandchildren (13:22), and protection for home and family (14:11). Why, that’s better than Social Security and Medicare!

Principle: When the enemy whispers that the wise, righteous life is a losing proposition, shout at him that he must not have read the last chapter of the Book that describes the Award Ceremony.

[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed…In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:3, 9)

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. (Proverbs 15:22)

Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness. (Proverbs 14:22)

“Wanna give God a good laugh?” asks a friend of mine. “Tell Him your plans,” he says, and this answer is not making a mockery of planning. Let me explain.

I remember when my oldest son was a young boy, he was making a plan for sidewalk races in front of our house. We observed him laboring over a hand-lettered wooden sign he was making for the races. When he finally revealed it to us with pride, it said, “EVERYBODY’S STARTING AND FINISHING LINE.” We laughed…and still do.

There was nothing wrong with our son’s motivations, and his execution was impeccable. He just, at his age, lacked sufficient knowledge to realize that his well-planned sign wouldn’t work.

Sound familiar? Remember those times when you made what you thought were absolutely airtight plans only to discover that when launched they sank? Ouch!

The writer of Proverbs makes a powerful case for including God in all your planning, and His logic is impeccable: “Only the Lord can make a person’s plans come true.” As someone has said, “Remember, Noah’s ark was built by an amateur on God’s plans. The Titanic was built by professionals without them.”

Principle: Leaving God out of your planning is a fatal error. Only a fool would ignore omniscience in planning and omnipotence in execution, if available.

A former senior executive of a billion-dollar company tells of a high-level-management seminar sponsored for its honchos. In one exercise, each exec was asked to rank order a number of items to be included in a hypothetical trip back from the moon. Then gathered in small groups, the groups decided by consensus what the rank ordering should be. The exec tells how stunned everyone was to discover that the lowest group score was better than the highest individual score!

Proverbs nails it: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed.”

Principle: It is foolishly arrogant to make plans without consulting others, especially your spouse. It is in diversity of knowledge and experience that effective plans are established.

Finally, a crucial dimension of planning is the moral intent and methods in the plan. The Great Arbiter of the Universe polices human plans to assure that—in the long run—evil plans will be thwarted and good plans succeed.

Principle: It is better to make mediocre plans to achieve a noble end than to create excellent plans to do evil because the latter will face divine opposition and the former divine aid.

[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]

My Son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them… (Proverbs 1:10)

He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. (Proverbs 13:20)

He who keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father. (Proverbs 28:7)

There’s a fun country and western song written by Dewayne Blackwell and Bud Lee and sung by Garth Brooks that, without intending to, describes one of life’s riskiest entanglements. Called “Friends in Low Places,” the ballad proclaims:

‘Cause I’ve got friends in low places,
Where the whiskey drowns
And the beer chases my blues away.
And I’ll be okay.
I’m not big on social graces.
Think I’ll slip on down to the oasis.
Oh, I’ve got friends in low places.

While the mythical star in the song exults in his scuzzy companions, he’s in a very vulnerable situation. The biblical principle is that the friends we choose shape the character we’ll possess. Proverbs leads off in chapter one with an admonition to avoid the influence of those who would coax us into doing what is wrong.

Principle: Responding to cautions about unsavory companions with, ”I can handle ’em!” is not only naive, but it ignores the spiritual cross-pollination that occurs in relationships.

My grandmother, who had only a fifth-grade education, had a reservoir of wisdom wrapped in down-home proverbs. On friendship, she shared two memorable maxims: “Birds of a feather flock together” and “Water seeks its own level.” When I was a college president, I noted the validity of these proverbs in how quickly the new fresh­men who weren’t “with the program” spiritually found upperclassmen who shared their contempt for righteousness! They truly did “seek their own [moral and spiritual] level” and soon could be seen “flocking together.”

Principle: The associates we choose both reveal and feed the moral appetites of our souls.

My dad told me of the time some of his teenage schoolmates were going out on a Saturday evening of fun, when the leader of the group decided this was the night they would prove their manhood by patronizing a brothel. When my dad discovered this, he got out of the car and walked a number of miles home. Even though he did not know Jesus Christ at that time, that decision, among others, enabled him to marry my mom as a virgin.

Interesting that Solomon and his associates found that even fraternizing with gluttons—not just whoremongers, thieves, or liars—was a moral risk factor. Scary thought in a nation riddled with obesity.

Principle: Sin is extremely contagious and is commonly spread by the infected companions we choose.

So when choosing friends or, for that matter, determining which work associates we will spend our time with, it is best to pick only those who can elevate our moral and spiritual state…true friends in high (heavenly) places.

[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. (Proverbs 26:11)

A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again. (Proverbs 19:19)

The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. (Proverbs 22:3)

On more than one occasion, my wife and I have discussed a mutually held insight about human behavior. It is this: some people do not seem to possess a “consequence module” in their brains. We all do things without thinking and end up slapping our foreheads at our own lack of foresight. But my wife’s experience teaching middle schoolers and mine working in the entertainment industry have confirmed that many seem unable to link words and actions with their inevitable consequences…no matter how many times they are warned.

On two occasions, prominent men—one with seven marriages and one with four—told me, “I don’t do marriage well.” It is clear that they were unable to see the consequences of marrying the people they did, despite their previous painful failures. I’m willing to assume that someone warned them both about one or more of the brides they took…and, for that matter, warned the women of the men they were marrying.

Proverbs makes heeding warnings and learning from wrong decisions major factors in wisdom. Conversely, not learning from wrong decisions is at the heart of what the Bible calls “folly” (aka stupidity). In a rather grossly explicit passage, Solomon and his friends describe the scene in which a sick dog revisits the scene of his upchucking­ unthinkably dumb behavior, when you think of it. But—in the nature of dogs—a very predictable practice.

Principle: If they are learning experiences, bad decisions are building blocks to wisdom and good character. If not, they are not building blocks but wrecking balls.

Not only is repeating stupid decisions a mark of a fool, so is having repeated explosions of anger. Proverbs 19:19 comments on the person marked by such blowups—the “hot-tempered man.” The counsel is to let him suffer the full consequences of his explosions. Rescuing him from the consequences has two results. One, it keeps the angry person from effective-but-painful cures, and two, it draws the rescuer into an endless spiral of continuing rescues! The same counsel fits a number of other foolish behaviors. You’ll have to rescue again and again!

Principle: Breaking the chain of stupid behaviors is not only wise; it avoids the repeated agony of their consequences and protects relationships with those who love you enough to rescue you.

Neurologists say that repeating the same or similar act three times builds a synapse between nerve endings. This establishes habitual behavior, and habitual behaviors are more impulsive than rational. Repeating these behaviors still more turns the habits into either character traits or addictions. When the repeated behaviors are unwise ones, the result is bondage to folly, a bondage only divine help can break.

Principle: To avoid bondage to destructive behaviors, one must live by the principle “One stupid act is enough!” After three or more, only the Trinity can deliver you.

[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]

The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing. (Proverbs 10:28)

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Proverbs 26:12)

It is fascinating to me that both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama built their political campaigns on the theme of “hope.” Clinton’s 1992 nomination acceptance speech was titled “A Place Called Hope.” Obama’s Hope poster became a cultural phenomenon and, at one point, was selling for $2,000 to $3,000 on eBay. I saw the artwork reproduced on the side of a Washington DC, inner-city building.

Campaign strategists did both candidates a huge favor by setting this theme. Hope is a prime mover in human motivation and the fuel for about every vision of human beings. The athlete’s hope of the big leagues or the Olympics drives his endless training. The teenage girl’s hope of marriage has her subscribing to Brides magazine at sixteen. The entrepreneur’s hope for a fortune drives him to mortgage the farm to start his new business. The young actress’s hope of seeing herself on the red carpet at a Hollywood film premiere propels her to Hollywood and near starvation.

Contrariwise, hopelessness signals the end of life and motivation. The POW fights to keep hope alive, knowing that to lose it is to die. The married couple is divorced before the papers are filed when one spouse loses hope that the other spouse will change or things will improve.

Proverbs links hope fulfillment to righteousness. “The hopes of the wicked come to nothing” is the axiom. “Why?” you ask. For one simple reason. When people engage in evil to fulfill their hopes, they run cross current to the power of God. God is in the business of “frustrating the hopes of the wicked.”

Principle: The flow of hope fulfillment goes in the same direction as God’s moral Law. To challenge God’s Law is to launch your hopes upstream against an all-powerful current.

I learned of a professional woman who studied diligently for months to pass an incredibly hard licensing exam, one which only 30 percent typically pass. The passing score was 170. She scored 169. Imagine how heartsick she was. Now she faces studying more and taking a more difficult version. Her friend passed the test and faces it no more. One had hope dashed; the other had it fulfilled.

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “being sure of what we hope for.”

Principle: Trusting in the spiritual guidance and strength of a loving God radically enhances the probability of seeing your hopes fulfilled. In fact, in the end, He guarantees their fulfillment for the faith-filled person.

Then there are the arrogant who say, “There is no God!” who act as if they are gods themselves, and who live as if wisdom was born and will die with them. King Solomon said he’d place his money on the pure fool more than one like this who is “wise in his own eyes.”

Principle: A teachable attitude is the key to hope fulfillment because the unteachable won’t heed advice and adjust their life direction onto the righteous path that fulfills all hopes.

Looking for “a place called hope”? You’ll find it in the whole counsel of God…and nowhere else.

[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]

Wisdom Speaks: “But since you rejected me when I called, and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you—when calamity over­takes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and troubles overwhelm you. Then they will call to me, but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.” (Proverbs 1:24-28)

The rural farm family in which I grew up shared a lot of maxims, figures of speech, and proverbs that no doubt had been handed down for generations. “Stewing in your own juice” and “Having to lie in the bed you have made” were two which described the inevitability of having to live with the consequences of your own decisions. The point of these—and a host of similar ones—was to embed a sense of responsibility and to encourage the virtue of teachability. Note: I called this a virtue…and I believe that it is.

When I served with the Campus Crusade for Christ ministry, I often heard Dr. Bill Bright say that the only two requisites for staff were “a heart for God and a teachable attitude.” While the personnel department had expanded this list of qualifications significantly(!), Dr. Bright was on the mark. These two attributes are foundational to life and success.

The five verses above are part of a fourteen-verse (1:20-33) mini-es­say on the consequences of unteachability from Proverbs 1. In this passage, Wisdom—a personification of the knowledge and counsel of God—calls out to those who will listen…knowing that some won’t.

The operative phrases in this passage are “refused to listen,” “paid no attention,” “did not follow my advice,” and “did not want me to correct you”—all lethal responses when God speaks.

Principle: If refusal to listen to the wise counsel of peers is stupidity, refusal to listen to the counsel of God is to solicit judgment.

Years ago, Court TV (now TRU) channel launched a program for school students entitled Choices and Consequences. The curriculum was designed to expose teens to the destructive consequences of bad choices, the ones highlighted in the dreadful court cases chronicled on the TV channel. The zinger in the choices word is that passive nonresponse is also a “choice.” In management theory, this is called the “decision of no decision.” When one makes a decision not to decide, this is a powerful choice often bearing significant consequences. It is often motivated by the wishful notion that major issues not addressed will somehow vanish by themselves.

Principle: A yes or no decision is clearly the one most recognized as having effect, but choosing not to decide can create more impact than a yes or no.

The portion of the above passage beginning, “I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you” is terrifying! Taken out of context, this message makes God appear as a vengeful, sadistic ogre. To interpret it this way ignores the fact that the unteachable person has chosen his fate by ignoring law and wise counsel. Justice scorns those who choose their fate and then whine about it when it comes. The account of the kid who murdered his parents and then pled for mercy from the court because he was an orphan is dark humor. It is also laughable.

In 2006, a judge sentenced Paris Hilton to jail time for driving with a suspended license. As Paris and her friend were leaving the court, her friend was reported to have said of the judge, “He was so mean.”

Administering justice is never mean, and God isn’t mean when He scorns those who reject His law and counsel—especially when teach­able compliance is offered as a way of escape and a source of blessing. What would really be mean would be His winking at Hitler’s crimes or punishing Mother Theresa for them. Injustice is the ultimate offense…against God and its victims.

Principle: Refusing to heed God’s counsel is to volunteer for the dire consequences and to earn scorn from the Counselor you’ve rebuffed.

In the extreme, it can be said that nobody goes to hell without choosing to go there…by ignoring the warnings against it or the free offer of escape.

[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]

Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him. (Proverbs 24:17-18)

Scene 1: Word comes to the thugs in a Los Angeles street gang hideout that a police sting has just netted twenty-two members of a rival gang in a drug deal gone bad. Their bitter gang enemies appear to be headed for the slammer for some serious hard time. Rejoicing ensues at the news with beer-can toasts, high fives, and cheers…for a fate they themselves deserve.

Scene 2: A major volcanic eruption buries the capital city of a nation with whom America is in a bitter and protracted war…leaving thou­sands dead and wounded. We respond by… [multiple choice].

God has a strange-but-wonderful expectation of those who share in His redemption. It is contained in the little-known “Doctrine of Non-gloating.” Expressed in Proverbs 24, it is a directive not to “gloat when your enemy falls” or rejoice when he experiences misfortune.

This directive is rooted in the clear teaching of Scriptures that God doesn’t want us involved in bringing our enemies to judgment. “‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19 KJV). God not only wants us to stay out of the business of executing His justice; He wants us to be free from the emotional toll the injustice of evil-doers takes on us. The resentment and bitterness that often accompany enemy attacks are not only destructive; they are heavyweight sin.

Principle: The burdensome emotions and actions of bringing down our enemies is a weight God never intended us to bear, so He frees us by bearing these burdens Himself.

Fine, we decide that we will accept God’s generous provision of spiritual freedom and rest in His all-wise and all-powerful capacity to deal with those who do us wrong. We attain some measure of inner peace that He will fight our enemies for us and go merrily along until we learn that catastrophe has befallen them. Our immediate response is, “Whoopee! They got what they deserve!”

This response is unacceptable because it assumes that we are in a morally superior position to our foes and have the right to “pile on” (alongside God, no less) when they get their comeuppance. Wrong. In actuality, we all have received as much or more forgiveness as our enemies need. Thus, we should be able to wish for them this same unlimited grace.

Principle: To wish judgment for our enemies but mercy for ourselves is unfair. It exploits the forgiveness we have received and displeases the One who gave us undeserved grace.

When Jesus was in near-death agony at the hands of His torturers at Calvary, His expression was a stunning, “Father, forgive them…” This sentence became the hallmark of the supernaturally empowered life. Imagine if He had screamed at his persecutors, ”I’ll dance the day you fry in eternal hell!” Unthinkable. Could the Father not have been displeased and turned His back on such a hateful response?

Principle: To rejoice over our enemies’ troubles is to prompt the heavenly Father to turn His attention from giving them what they deserve to disciplining our ingratitude for the grace we didn’t deserve.

[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]

The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good. (Proverbs 15:3)

For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord, and He examines all his paths. (Proverbs 5:21)

In an event at Calvary Baptist Church in New York City—one focused on reaching the cities of the world for Christ—prominent evangelicals discussed why there is so much spiritual darkness in cities. Among the theories proffered, no one struck on one I think is key: in the urban masses, people think they can hide their sin.

In the small town in which I grew up, it was really difficult to hide your sin. Getting drunk? Being promiscuous? Doing drugs? Bashing mailboxes on the rural roads outside of town? It wasn’t uncommon to have your family know about your sin before you got home. Everybody knew you and knew what was going on. If you were homosexual, you kept it as secret as possible because it was inevitable that someone in the town would talk. In the city, a homosexual can frequent gay bars, be involved in gay events, and maybe even march in a gay pride parade and never see anyone who knows him…and might tell.

Thus, cities become dark harbors for sin-bearing ships of the night which slip in and out undetected…or not.

The Scriptures make it clear that no one—read that no one—hides anything from God. The Book declares that the “secret” things will be shouted from the housetops, or, as my mom used to warn, “Be sure your sins will find you out.”

Principle: Sin, once committed, is “posted on the cosmic Internet” where God and, eventually, others will see it. Bank on it.

My grad school French professor hated this teaching. He told how he hated the nuns at his Catholic school for making God “the Eye in the Sky” akin to the ubiquitous black helicopters of some oppressive and tyrannical regime.

But my prof completely misunderstood the benefits of this teaching. The reason injustice is rampant in society is that the evidence is hidden. A just society must have mechanisms for finding evidence of evil…so evildoers can be prosecuted.

Principle: Knowing that God sees and knows all we do is a powerful “sin-restraint mechanism” for those who believe it­ like a giant floodlight in an otherwise dark alley.

The “terror” of God’s omniscience is only for those with something to hide. We often miss the second part of the Proverbs 15:3 passage, “Watch on the evil and the good.” This refutes the axiom that “No good deed goes unpunished.” Every time we are convinced that our righteous acts and Christ-honoring actions are going unnoticed, we have this promise to encourage us.

Principle: God’s watchfulness over what we think and do is a marvelous blessing to those whose hearts are right and deeds are righteous. It means that no good deed will go unrewarded.

[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]