PROVERBS

By Gary Batchelder

Sin is the misuse of God-given faculties.

Feelings are victimized by a multitude of variables,

But God's Word is always right.

Cold fingers hurt from anything touched;

 

A cold heart is easily offended.

Quality of decision

is determined

by spiritual condition.

Righteousness is loving God more.

Real praise is the expression of excitement about God,

not excitement about excitement.

God's blessings are a test of our determination

to keep Him in the center.

A board of elders can be

God's brigade

or Satan's blockade.

Whoever indulges in sin to forget their troubles

hides under a tree

to escape the lightening.

There are two kinds of time;

God controlled

and wasted.

Those who refuse to learn

tune their instrument

to its echo.

Dust without water

is helpless in the wind,

but error moves not those

who are saturated in the Word.

Life's greatest discovery

Is the Door to Life.

All real hope exists

because of God's mercy.

Faith is the sense

to perceive God.

There are many ways to die

but only one way to live.

A sin justified is a fool's license.

Heaven leaves nothing to be desired.

Time is the greatest preacher,

for it will show

the whole of God's Word

to be true.

The highest of thoughts,

and the noblest of endeavors

of the unregenerate

shall be rendered meaningless

by their own eternal hindsight.

The simplicity of the Gospel

makes it horrid to the high-minded,

but honey to the hungry-hearted.

God has been misunderstood

but never overestimated.

All of God's miracles speak of Him;

the big ones show the wonder of His power,

the small ones the wonder of His concern.

A baptism certificate doesn't mean you're saved,

an ordination certificate doesn't make you God's preacher.

All roads lead to God.

The narrow road ends there,

All others continue to Hell.

"Be yourself!" says the World,

as it tries to draw you into its Godlessness,

away from who you are.

Reality is God's understanding.

Being at the mercy of God is

the dread of those that hate Him,

and the peace of the redeemed.

The farther out in eternity you stand,

looking back,

the shorter you life will appear.

The winds of trial

and the winds of blessing

are opposites,

but both try our ability to stand upright.

A fool's conception of the value of life

is like a child with a rare coin collection

in an arcade.

A pastor is God's trophy tender.

The messenger of Hell,

and the emissary of Heaven,

may both have the face of a friend.

Eternity's Headline:

God's Irresistible Benevolence

Defeats

Satan's Irrational Malevolence!

It's easier to find fault

with someone who dislikes you

than to love your best friend.

Truth is eternal.

GOD IS.

The slightest nod of God's head is better

than man's standing ovation.

Giving is to love

what measurement is to distance.

Sin has as much value to life

as a pebble in the eye.

One soars in the Spirit

on the wings of the Word.

A stiff neck is normally accompanied

by bend-less knees.

Only those who receive Life

before they die,

will enjoy Life

after they die.

The glory of the Godless

is that of a picked flower.

Yielding to Omnipotence

is the wisest use of weakness.

The glory of the grain's maturity is displayed

not as it waves in the wind,

but as it dies in the ground.

The Word better suits

the stomach of a soldier,

than the tongue of the gourmet.

The Lord passes over a multitude

of the skilled and pre-occupied,

to use one feeble and available.

Sin has the least value at the greatest expense.

The thing of greatest value is free.

Satan leads men to Hell

with a trail of crumbs.

Poison is still poison

though served in a golden challis;

so is a false religion which is supported

by statements of truth.

Only the laborer can turn a ripened field

into a harvest.

Those who serve the Lord whole-heartedly

have no need of a justifiable excuse;

those who do otherwise can find none.

Sin is not overcome by passive trusting,

but by flexing a God-strengthened will.

A passion for souls is the best gauge

of spiritual health.

God's light cannot be collected,

but can be reflected,

by those who will be affected.

Christians see life as a prelude

to a glorious eternal symphony,

atheists see it as a short finale.

Satan gives a sense of control

in return for actual control.

A self-righteous man is infinitely less Godly,

than a trained dog is human.

Integrity is better than counting sheep.

The player of religious games never wins.

Those who look within themselves for reality

have much in common with Mother Hubbard.

Prayer is to faith what water is to life.

Faith is not the abandonment of reason,

it is trusting in God's higher reasoning.

Believing in God's love is the backbone of faith.

Whoever self-examines by comparing to other people

exchanges one illusion for another.

The ultimate wisdom is to desire God

as much as you need Him.

Whoever turns from God

stumbles in the darkness

of their own shadow.

God is rightfully impressed only by that

which reflects His influence.

The ability to love

is the greatest expression of freedom.

The narrow way has the widest possibilities.

Whoever uses the flesh of man as their example

climbs a rotten rope.

One is either searching for,

or exploring,

Life.

One who doesn't acknowledge God

in his search for meaning,

is unsuccessfully scouring the forest

in search of trees.

Hell's depot is serviced by evil trains of thought.

The fish in the pond and the goat that comes to drink

both have a relationship with the water.

When the fire comes, the fish dives deep and is safe,

the goat faces destruction.

Some live on the Word, some live in the Word.

More lost will be found if more are tract.

God's creations should be appreciated,

God should be served.

Tin is weak, but mixed with copper becomes bronze;

so is one who bows to God's will.

A body cannot function unless each part

communicates with the Head.

Only God can raise Hell.

(Revelation 20: 11-14)

Those who really live it up

don't have to live it down.

Men mistake God's patience

for His lack of existence.

A Carpenter left His nails and wood for the ministry,

but returned to them for His greatest work.

The truth in a false religion is like

the fuel in an airplane

which takes it high

and then runs out.

A lukewarm Christian is like one

who rides the rope in a tug of war.

A lukewarm Christian is like a farmer

who uses his harvest sickle as a wall decoration.

Why a Christian's heart is full of joy

and why the tomb of Jesus Christ is empty

have the same answer.

A phony preacher

is a broken compass.

The world's greatest liars

wear the robes of religion.

All people share the destiny

of taking God seriously.

You can be equipped with tongues

and still be a loafer.

"As I feel led" can be a weapon's scope sight

or its welded-to-on safety.

Rebellion is pride in action.

Every word is heard.

Those who claim to have peace without God

are being damned by their imagination.

The unrepentant hide behind anything

to escape the inescapable Light.

The Holy Bible is the only book which affords every reader

the opportunity of access to constant personal explanation

by the Author.

Those who are offended at the Gospel smell their own filthy rags.

Four weapons for the battle:

JESUS is my Lord!

Jesus IS my Lord!

Jesus is MY Lord!

Jesus is my LORD!

If God's power is not seen

it is not for lack of outlets,

but of willing appliances.

To ignore your children

as you strive for recognition

is to starve

in a barn full of grain.

Parents too busy for their children

are taking adulthood too seriously.

One of low intelligence

who leans on the Lord's understanding

comes to wiser conclusions than a consensus

of the world's greatest minds.

One is most affected by his name

not by how many know it

or by what it is associated with

but by where it is written.

The ways of a culture become

paralyzing traditions

when mistaken for the ways of God.

A counselor who spreads

that which was confessed in confidence

is throwing an explosive boomerang.

To give loving attention to your children

is to build fortresses of refuge in them

against the wars to come.

The love of a child is a treasure of simplicity.

Children are great teachers,

reflecting back to us the true impression

of our influence.

Humans have always wanted what God has

which is given to those who

want what God wants.

That God would use you

is not an indication of your greatness

but of God's desperate love

for the lost.

To sacrifice the truth for the sake of unity

is to destroy the seed

to make room for the harvest.

Every accusation against God

is a result of man reading into God

his own depravity.

Indifference is implied consent.

Abortion:

capital punishment for the crime

of being too young and defenseless.

To acknowledge that anything exists

is to recognize the Eternal Creator

or believe that something can come from nothing.

Atheism requires determination

to remain oblivious to the obvious.

Humanity is benefited by name-only Christians

like bees are by plastic flowers.

The positive thoughts of the unsaved

are like happy dreams on death row.

Adding to God's Word is like painting a mirror.

Man is victimized or blessed

by that which he believes to be true.

Yielding to sin because of its pleasure

is like petting a bear because his fur is soft.

The maps of the world leave out the narrow road.

Whoever keeps the Light under a bushel

is an accomplice to that

which is done in the darkness.

It is easier to read in absolute darkness

than to understand people without loving them.

Carpenters and Christians

are not demonstratively so

by their tool collections.

Men have many opinions,

God has one:

the truth.

Like the pain caused by heat on frost-bitten fingers

is the embarrassment folks feel

when you speak favorably of Jesus Christ.

Sin to the sinner

is what sea water is

to the thirsty.

A Christian who limits his soul winning activity

to waiting for the unsaved to come to church

is like a recruiter

who never leaves his office

in the boot camp barracks.

The wise are proud of God and always learning.

The foolish are proud of their knowledge of God

and cease to grow.

A poison tongue is most lethal to its owner.

The measuring stick of greatness is in Heaven.

Some just get.

Some give to get.

Some give to get to give.

Some people's idea of wisdom

is how to be a Christian

without having to act like one.

Experience has no value

unless interpreted and applied by God.

Honesty is to prayer what volume is to sound.