Tiny Devotional for Tuesday, 5-25-2021

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, peanut butter remains a good choice.

Take away the impurities from the silver,
And there comes out a vessel for the smith;
Take away the wicked before the king,
And his throne will be established in righteousness.
Proverbs 25:4-5, NASB


I thought today’s verse was going to be 25:3, and reacted, “Oh, no! How am I going to write about that?” But then I realized that I HAD written about that, in January, and did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. Maybe I was inspired.

Removing impurities from silver is not accomplished with ease. There seem to be two methods, one primarily relying on high temperature, the second on temperature plus nitric acid, which wasn’t available at the time this proverb was written. Both methods will kill you dead, if you get careless. Remember that!

Why? Because trying to take the wicked away from before the king is just as lethal as fooling around with molten metal and the noxious gases given off in the process. The wicked don’t WANT to be separated from the king, because they want to have access to power.

Once the wicked have access to power, they will fight to keep from sharing it. In fact, that’s one way of defining wickedness, as a person or organization that refuses to share power. It seems to be a rule that as soon as a group attains power, they start to devote most of their efforts to keeping it. You find that with church committees, street gangs, political parties, and nations. 

Still, seek purification. Separate the wicked. Just be careful about getting burned.

Peace be on your household.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tiny Devotional for Wednesday, 06-21-2023

Image
A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, the Fairmount Pattersons are Papa-sitting this morning! It is better to live in a corner of a roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Proverbs 21:9, NASB Today is the 21st of the month; so, Proverbs 21. I have written about verses 1-8;  it’s verse 9’s turn. Thus, my selection of this verse has NOTHING to do with my wife, mother, sisters, or daughters! All of them are intelligent, confident, and assertive; they are NOT contentious. ‘Contentious’ does NOT mean ‘has a different opinion’!  A man who has lived with a contentious woman gives the definition by example: I was 20 years old, and stupid (those might be the same thing).  I thought our marriage would work because she was beautiful, and I was, too. It didn’t take long before I realized I was wrong about that. Most of the time, it didn’t matter what I did; I couldn’t please her. We were married for 3 years,
Read more

Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 08-20-2023

Image
A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, Piper doesn’t like her food. Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the Lord. Proverbs 20:10, NASB If this verse weren’t so important, I’d skip it, because I discovered it in a painful time. Others were involved, and their stories are not mine to tell. So, you get a parable: Stockman Bubba ran a cattle station, in partnership with his horse, Nancy. They worked hard together, and although they were not rich, they had achieved a degree of success. One day, a platypus stung Bubba, incapacitating him. Bubba tried to continue running the station, but after two years had passed, he realized it was time to retire. Nancy couldn’t adjust to this, and she left for life on her own. Three years later, Bubba realized Nancy was never coming back, and considered getting another horse. However, he was concerned that the other station owners would think bad
Read more

Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 07-23-2023

Image
 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, reach for the sky. Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the Lord always. Surely there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 23:17-18, NASB Today’s verse is 18, but I included 17, because I THINK they are a couplet. I wrote about verse 17 last month, and will try not to repeat myself. Our senses describe the present, our memory describes the past; the future is described by our hopes and our fears. In this little verse, we are given one of the strongest foundations for peace: yes, you DO have a future, and it’s a good one. Under most circumstances, we take the future for granted. If you have ever been forced to doubt that a future exists, you know how chilling that is. ‘No future’ is MUCH worse than ‘bad future.’ This verse draws us back away from the abyss of nothingness, and back into reality: yes, you DO have a future.  (If that
Read more