Say What?

POST-IT FROM THE PASTOR
06-01-2016

Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:8-10) 

Scripture has much to say about what we say and to whom. Contrary to current cultural wisdom, we have a duty to correct our friends and fellow believers when they wander from what God describes as good, but we should not expect unbelievers and those under the spell of this false world to heed God’s Word. Only those in awe of God’s holy power and gracious love can begin to understand the blessing of a rebuke in His name. So we speak God’s love to our lost culture, and save our caring words of correction for those wise to His ways.

“Father, thank You for giving us Your grace as a gift and Your words as a guide. Give us discernment to wisely share Your love with unbelievers, and lovingly share Your wisdom with believers, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

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REBUKES FROM A MORE ELOQUENT ERA:
"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; 
Bring a friend, if you have one." –George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill 

"Cannot possibly attend first night, I will attend second, if there is one."
- Winston Churchill, in response.
  
"Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease." 
--A Member of Parliament to Benjamin Disraeli 

"That depends, Sir, whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."
Benjamin Disraeli, in response.

"He had delusions of adequacy."
- Walter Kerr
 
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
- Winston Churchill
 
 "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."
- Clarence Darrow
 
 "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."
- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
 
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."
- Moses Hadas
 
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
- Mark Twain
 
"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." 
- Oscar Wilde
 
"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here."
- Stephen Bishop
 
"He is a self-made man and worships his creator."
- John Bright
 
"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."
- Irvin S. Cobb
 
"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others."
- Samuel Johnson
 
"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up."
- Paul Keating
 
"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily."
- Charles, Count Talleyrand
 
"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him."
- Forrest Tucker
 
"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?"
- Mark Twain
 
"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
- Mae West
 
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."
- Oscar Wilde
 
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... 
For support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang 
 
"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."
- Billy Wilder
 
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
- Groucho Marx.

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The Lord give you discernment in your words this week!

Pastor Kirk