Contemplative Bible Reading

Proverbs 24:17-18 (New Living Translation) 17 Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall; don’t be happy when they stumble. 18 For the Lord will be displeased with you and will turn his anger away from them. Are there any victories when we have enemies? It doesn’t appear to be so.

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Proverbs 25:21-22 (New Living Translation) 21 If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them water to drink. 22 You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads, and the Lord will reward you. A conversation: Mr. A: I hate you! You are terrible. I want you […]

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Proverbs 24:11-12  (New Living Translation) 11 Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death. 12 Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know.” For God understands all hearts, and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people as […]

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Proverbs 14:4 (New Living Translation) Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest. Start with the second statement: an ox is a useful and sometimes necessary tool for farming. Now to the first statement: if you don’t have an ox, you don’t have to shovel the manure […]

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Proverbs 11:24  (New Living Translation) Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything. These two lines are right from today’s “sharing economy.” Give your ideas away and everyone will come to you for help. And, by the way, they will pay you handsomely for your help. The source of all that new-found […]

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Proverbs 8:22 (New Living Translation) The Lord formed me (wisdom) from the beginning, before he created anything else. Proverbs 8 is about wisdom. This verse tells us that God created wisdom before creating anything else. I don’t know that I can understand that statement. Before the universe, there was wisdom. Wisdom has always existed. No, […]

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Proverbs 1:1-1 (New Living Translation) These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel. 2 Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. 3 Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, […]

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Proverbs 15:8 (New Living Translation) Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time! Do you want to be wonderful? Here is a simple recipe: say the right thing at the right time. Pretty simple. Now all I have to do is go out and do that.

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Proverbs 15:9 (New Living Translation) The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but he delights in the prayers of the upright. The LORD does not delight in the actions of the wicked as He does in the actions of the upright. Notice – the wicked offer sacrifices. By definition, that means the wicked give […]

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Proverbs 17:13 (New Living Translation) If you repay good with evil, evil will never leave your house. I read this verse as: You can’t give away all the evil. There will always be some left over. I could be wrong on this one, but that is my take. Evil seems to be that way. It […]

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