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Proverbs 31 New Living Translation
Proverbs 31New Living Translation
The Sayings of King Lemuel
31 The sayings of King Lemuel contain this message,[a] which his mother taught him.
2 O my son, O son of my womb,
O son of my vows,
3 do not waste your strength on women,
on those who ruin kings.
4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, to guzzle wine.
Rulers should not crave alcohol.
5 For if they drink, they may forget the law
and not give justice to the oppressed.
6 Alcohol is for the dying,
and wine for those in bitter distress.
7 Let them drink to forget their poverty
and remember their troubles no more.
8 Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
ensure justice for those being crushed.
9 Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,
and see that they get justice.
A Wife of Noble Character
10 [b]Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?
She is more precious than rubies.
11 Her husband can trust her,
and she will greatly enrich his life.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She finds wool and flax
and busily spins it.
14 She is like a merchant’s ship,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household
and plan the day’s work for her servant girls.
16 She goes to inspect a field and buys it;
with her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She is energetic and strong,
a hard worker.
18 She makes sure her dealings are profitable;
her lamp burns late into the night.
19 Her hands are busy spinning thread,
her fingers twisting fiber.
20 She extends a helping hand to the poor
and opens her arms to the needy.
21 She has no fear of winter for her household,
for everyone has warm[c] clothes.
22 She makes her own bedspreads.
She dresses in fine linen and purple gowns.
23 Her husband is well known at the city gates,
where he sits with the other civic leaders.
24 She makes belted linen garments
and sashes to sell to the merchants.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future.
26 When she speaks, her words are wise,
and she gives instructions with kindness.
27 She carefully watches everything in her household
and suffers nothing from laziness.
28 Her children stand and bless her.
Her husband praises her:
29 “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world,
but you surpass them all!”
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;
but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
31 Reward her for all she has done.
Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.
Bill Elliff
Proverbs 31 DEFENDING THE DEFENSELESS
May 14, 2020
Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights the afflicted and needy. (Proverbs 31:8-9)
It is a tendency born out of our natural self-centeredness. If not careful, we tend to make decisions based merely on how it will help us—advance our cause or comfort. We do this as individuals and we can do it as nations.
Tragically, the most vulnerable are those who cannot defend themselves, such as children. The most helpless, as we have discovered, are the unborn. In 2019, over 850,000 babies were aborted in the United States and somewhere between 40 and 50 million worldwide. That equates to 125,000 babies every single day.
OUR SELF-ABSORBED RATIONALE
No nation has been this pagan and cruel and survived. We have found a way to rationalize this in our own minds. “It’s in the best interest of the mother” is our usual excuse. But there is nowhere else in human relationships that such a horrific answer would stand. “Well, my parents are old and it’s hard for me to take care of them, so I’ll kill them so it won’t inconvenience me.” We shudder at such logic, yet it is identical to our thinking regarding the killing of defenseless babies in the womb.
Another sad justification is the idea that the baby is not really a life. It’s why the word “fetus” is used by some, never “child.” The baby is never spoken of as “one made in the image of God.” Or, “my new son or grandson,” or, the “child who will grow to adulthood and make a massive influence in the lives of those around them.” Such descriptions would move this sin from the impersonal to the personal.
The foundation of all of these excuses if that we want to be God. Sometimes even unconciously, we decide that we are wiser than God and we usurp His throne. We were never meant to take that authority from His hands. And the results are always disastrous.
OUR HOPE
Thankfully there are millions across America that are obeying this verse in Proverbs 31—a chapter that also praises the virtues of godly women. People by the millions are rising up to defend the rights of the unborn. In recent years the number of abortions has decreased. But we should not cease until we have completely eradicated this scourge from our land.
Until then, we must “open our mouths for the mute and for the rights of all the unfortunate.” To fail to do so would ignore one of our most important tasks.
Father, forgive us for justifying such sin in our midst. And forgive us for our silence. Help us open our mouths and never cease until this wrong is corrected. And Lord, move the hearts of millions in our land to see this for what it really is and help us repent.
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ailed on 7-17-16)
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Mark Henry, teaching pastor Fellowship Bible Church, Little Rock, AR
Hugh and brother Keith with their parents
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July 10, 2016
Hugh Hefner
Playboy Mansion
10236 Charing Cross Road
Los Angeles, CA 90024-1815
Dear Mr. Hefner,
Today at FELLOWSHIP BIBLE CHURCH our teaching pastor Mark Henry taught on I Corinthians 13 which is known as the love chapter.
In your interview with R. Couri Hay which is on You Tube at the 10 min mark you asserted:
There is no correlation between age and being a bunny at all. There is however something called BUNNY IMAGE. We do pick the girls on the basis of their attractiveness. Attractiveness does begin to change with age.
Also in the last few years you asserted, “The best part of any relationship is the beginning.” You can see how I thought of you when I recently saw the movie UP on DVD. The beginning of the movie showed the 70 years that Carl and Ellie spent together in a 4 minute summary and it contrasted in my mind with your words. It is clear that their love GREW over the years and did not diminish.
Then I thought of an article by Darryl Dash on Ecclesiastes called Living With Adversity (Ecclesiastes 6:10-7:14) March 06, 2011:
A couple of years ago I took my son to see the Pixar animated movie Up about the last adventure of a 78-year-old balloon salesman named Carl Fredricksen. I thought I was going to see a fun story. I wasn’t prepared for one poignant, four-minute scene.
The scene is wordless. The vignette starts with a brief glimpse of Carl and Ellie’s wedding day, and then moves to their first home and first jobs. The couple race up a grassy hill together, then look up at the sky and imagine pictures forming in the clouds. Then the clouds are all shaped like babies, and then Carl and Ellie are painting a nursery together. It’s an idyllic look at young love and marriage.
But this isn’t an idyllic life. The scene shifts to Carl and Ellie in a hospital room with pre-natal diagrams on the walls. A doctor is talking and gesturing. Ellie is weeping into her hands. Next, Carl comforts his wife by reminding her of an old dream they shared when they were children—traveling to a place called Paradise Falls together. Rejuvenated, Ellie creates a dream jar labeled “Paradise Falls,” and into the jar goes all of the young couple’s spare money.
Again, however, life happens. First their car pops a tire. Then Carl visits the hospital. Then a tree falls and damages the roof of their home. Each of these inconveniences necessitates the dream jar be smashed and the money spent. Soon, Carl and Ellie have gray in their hair. And in a flash they become elderly.
Near the end of the vignette, Carl remembers their dream of visiting Paradise Falls, and he purchases two tickets from a travel agency. But Ellie collapses on her way back up the grassy hill from their youth. We see her in a hospital bed, with Carl holding her hand and kissing her forehead. Then we see Carl sitting alone at the front of a church. He holds a solitary balloon in his hand. The vignette closes as Carl carries the balloon into his house, which has turned cold and gray. The balloon is a lone spot of color against the gloom, and then everything fades to black. In four minutes you see a lifetime come and go.
_________________
The main point that I wanted to make from the film UP is that Carl and Ellie’s love grew over the decades. I think you are really missing the point about love and what it means.
In his sermon LOVE IS GREATER Mark Henry used a married couple in our church as an example of true love. Lloyd Menning and his wife Dorothy have been married for 69 years. Dorothy had a stroke six years ago and Lloyd had to quit his job so he could take care of her, but she still comes to a weekly Bible Study at the church. Lloyd pushes her to the church every week and then he spends a couple of hours filling the vending machines in the church. Lloyd has demonstrated a love that “bears all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” A 4 minute video showing these events was shown at the close of the service today and in the background Lloyd was reading I Corinthians 13. (Lloyd actually reads the Bible to Dorothy everyday.) Below are the words:
1 Corinthians 13 English Standard Version (ESV)
The Way of Love
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith,so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
HUGH lets examine your words again:
There is no correlation between age and being a bunny at all. There is however something called BUNNY IMAGE. We do pick the girls on the basis of their attractiveness. Attractiveness does begin to change with age.
WHAT IS TRUE BEAUTY? Proverbs shows what a beautiful wife looks like and it has nothing to do with the outward appearance and everything to do with the inward appearance of the heart!!!
Proverbs 31:10-31 English Standard Version (ESV)
The Woman Who Fears the Lord
10 [a] An excellent wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
14 She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar.
15 She rises while it is yet night
and provides food for her household
and portions for her maidens.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
17 She dresses herself[b] with strength
and makes her arms strong.
18 She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
19 She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
20 She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of snow for her household,
for all her household are clothed in scarlet.[c]
22 She makes bed coverings for herself;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them;
she delivers sashes to the merchant.
25 Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
26 She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27 She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.
HUGH, grace is always available to anyone who asks. Your mother’s name was Grace and if she was here right now she would be thrilled if you took the time to see what the Bible says about salvation and forgiveness. It can be summed up in FOUR SPIRITUAL LAWS.
The Four Spiritual Laws
They are:
- God loves you:
- “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:16).
- Man is sinful and separated from God.
- “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Rom. 3:23). “For the wages of sin is death,” (Rom. 6:23). “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,” (Isaiah 59:2).
- Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin.
- We must individually receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
- “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,” (John 1:12). “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved,” (Rom. 10:9). “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,” (Eph. 2:8).
The spiritual answers your heart is seeking can be found in putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The Bible is true from cover to cover and can be trusted.
Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Everette Hatcher, everettehatcher@gmail.com, http://www.thedailyhatch.org, cell ph 501-920-5733, Box 23416, LittleRock, AR 72221
PS: This is the 42nd letter I have written to you and again I have taken an aspect of your life and responded with what the Bible has to say on that subject.
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Francis Schaeffer has rightly noted concerning Hugh Hefner that Hefner’s goal with the “playboy mentality is just to smash the puritanical ethnic.” I have made the comparison throughout this series of blog posts between Hefner and King Solomon (the author of the BOOK of ECCLESIASTES). I have noticed that many preachers who have delivered sermons on Ecclesiastes have also mentioned Hefner as a modern day example of King Solomon especially because they both tried to find sexual satisfaction through the volume of women you could slept with in a lifetime.
Ecclesiastes 2:8-10 The Message (MSG)
I piled up silver and gold,
loot from kings and kingdoms.
I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song,
and—most exquisite of all pleasures—
voluptuous maidens for my bed.
9-10 Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors in Jerusalem far behind, left them behind in the dust. What’s more, I kept a clear head through it all. Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day’s work!
1 Kings 11:1-3 English Standard Version (ESV)
11 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
Francis Schaeffer observed concerning Solomon, “You can not know woman by knowing 1000 women.”
Eric winkler
Featured artist is Eric Winkler
Eric Winkler was born in 1981 in Livingston, New Jersey, and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. An illustrator and comic artist, Winkler often renders in drawings his friend and collaborator Bryan Zanisnik’s outlandish stories of the art world. Self-deprecating and playful, Winkler’s comics are hand-drawn in black ink and invite viewers to consider the sometimes bizarre nature of the real world.
Links:
Artist’s website
Artist on Facebook
@davidboring on Instagram
@IDreamofWinkler on Twitter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joLa6aqu1Us
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The Daily Hatch 