630. Bill & Judy Kelley's Monthly Ministry Update (#18) - August 30, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:21] God, we thank you for this day that you have made and we will rejoice and be glad in it. We thank you Lord that you sent your Holy Spirit and that he dwells in us and leads and guides us each day.

[00:00:34] Thank you Lord for all your provision and for keeping us daily and showing us the path to take. In Jesus name, Amen.

[00:00:44] This is Proverb 30 beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:49] The words of Agur, the son of Jaiki, his utterance.

[00:00:53] This man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ukal,

[00:00:58] Surely I am more stupid than any man and do not have the understanding of a man.

[00:01:06] I neither learned wisdom nor have knowledge of the Holy One.

[00:01:10] Who has ascended into heaven or descended?

[00:01:14] Who has gathered the wind in his fists?

[00:01:18] Who has bound the waters in a garment?

[00:01:21] Who has established all the ends of the earth?

[00:01:24] What is his name?

[00:01:26] And what is his son's name, if you know?

[00:01:29] Every word of God is pure.

[00:01:32] He is a shield to those who put their trust in him.

[00:01:35] Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

[00:01:42] Two things I request of you.

[00:01:44] Deprive me not before I die.

[00:01:47] Remove falsehood and lies far from me.

[00:01:51] Give me neither poverty nor riches.

[00:01:54] Feed me with the food allotted to me, lest I be full and deny you.

[00:02:00] And say, Who is the Lord?

[00:02:03] Or, lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

[00:02:09] Do not malign a servant to his master, lest he curse you and you be found guilty.

[00:02:16] There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother.

[00:02:23] There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness.

[00:02:29] There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes, and their eyelids are lifted up.

[00:02:36] There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and whose fangs are like knives.

[00:02:43] To devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

[00:02:47] The leech has two daughters, give and give.

[00:02:52] There are three things that are never satisfied.

[00:02:56] Four never say enough.

[00:02:58] The grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water, and the fire never says enough.

[00:03:07] The eye that mocks his father, and scorns obedience to his mother.

[00:03:13] The ravens of the valley will pick it out, and the young eagles will eat it.

[00:03:18] There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yet four which I do not understand.

[00:03:24] The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock,

[00:03:29] the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a virgin.

[00:03:34] This is the way of an adulterous woman.

[00:03:38] She eats and wipes her mouth and says,

[00:03:41] I have done no wickedness.

[00:03:43] For three things the earth is perturbed.

[00:03:46] Yes, for four it cannot bear up.

[00:03:50] For a servant when he reigns, a fool when he is filled with food,

[00:03:55] a hateful woman when she is married, and a maid servant who succeeds her mistress.

[00:04:01] There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise.

[00:04:08] The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer.

[00:04:13] The rock badgers are a feeble folk, yet they make their homes in the crags.

[00:04:19] The locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks.

[00:04:24] The spider skillfully grasps with its hands, and it is in king's palaces.

[00:04:31] There are three things which are majestic in pace.

[00:04:35] Yes, four which are stately in walk.

[00:04:39] A lion which is mighty among beasts and does not turn away from any.

[00:04:45] A greyhound, a male goat also, and a king whose troops are with him.

[00:04:51] If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you had devised evil, put your hand on your mouth.

[00:04:59] For as the churning of milk produces butter, and wringing the nose produces blood,

[00:05:05] so the forcing of wrath produces strife.

[00:05:10] Well Bill, what verse spoke to you today?

[00:05:12] Well you know, I was thinking about the very ending of that proverb.

[00:05:16] Verses 32 and 33 tell us that if you have been foolish in exalting yourself,

[00:05:23] or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth.

[00:05:29] For as the churning of milk produces butter, and weighing of the nose produces blood,

[00:05:35] so the forcing of wrath produces strife.

[00:05:39] Now yesterday I published a podcast that will be coming out two weeks from yesterday,

[00:05:47] and we went over Proverbs 15, 1, and we talked about a soft answer,

[00:05:52] and that it turns away wrath.

[00:05:55] But a harsh word stirs up anger.

[00:05:58] And friends, these verses are very, they're like opposites.

[00:06:03] We can be angry, and we can try to bring up wrath or strife whenever we have conversations,

[00:06:11] or engage with other people.

[00:06:14] Or we can be soft in the way we speak.

[00:06:17] We can be loving and kind as Jesus would be.

[00:06:21] Hun, do you have anything to add to that?

[00:06:24] Yes, I definitely agree that it's better to not say anything really,

[00:06:30] and to give time and space to prepare a response and to think about it,

[00:06:38] and to pray about it, and to be led by the Holy Spirit.

[00:06:41] Because sometimes we just have knee-jerk reactions to things,

[00:06:44] and that gets us in a lot of trouble.

[00:06:46] You know, that's right.

[00:06:48] You know, and last time we met, we met,

[00:06:52] and we mentioned that we had been to Europe for 19 days,

[00:06:55] and I mentioned that we would probably bring that up the next couple months

[00:07:00] and talk about some of the things we did.

[00:07:02] Because we were gone 19 days.

[00:07:04] There's a lot of stuff that we did, a lot of stuff we saw,

[00:07:08] a lot of stuff we can talk about.

[00:07:10] And so what I'd like to do is talk about the country of Slovenia.

[00:07:15] And Hun, if you remember, we were staying at a country club,

[00:07:19] and we were literally within one kilometer of the border of Slovenia.

[00:07:24] And so one day we went, and I was excited because I got to play golf.

[00:07:29] I thought that was wonderful.

[00:07:31] But if you would, what do you remember about Slovenia

[00:07:35] that you would like to share with the audience?

[00:07:37] Well, I just remember the beautiful countryside.

[00:07:39] That's really what I remember the most about it.

[00:07:42] Beautiful, beautiful country and lots of vineyards and hilly.

[00:07:48] Just very, very beautiful.

[00:07:50] And that's where we ate at that really nice restaurant called Jerusalem.

[00:07:56] Not spelled with an S, but with a Z.

[00:07:59] And it was just, it was a great restaurant to go to.

[00:08:03] And also just a beautiful, beautiful place.

[00:08:06] It really was.

[00:08:07] And I was hoping that you would remember that we went to that restaurant in Slovenia.

[00:08:12] And, you know, it was such a beautiful restaurant.

[00:08:15] And we ate out on the deck and we were looking at the beautiful vineyards.

[00:08:19] It was absolutely awesome.

[00:08:21] It was a gorgeous day and there was hardly any wind.

[00:08:24] And it was just, just absolutely gorgeous.

[00:08:26] And, and almost everywhere we went was gorgeous.

[00:08:29] And it just reminded me of how precious that God is and everything that he creates is just so beautiful.

[00:08:37] So, hun, what I'd like to do is talk a little bit about prayer.

[00:08:42] And I had mentioned to you earlier yesterday, and I remember you praying.

[00:08:49] And, you know, and you said you didn't remember.

[00:08:52] And, you know, I think, guys, that's how it works.

[00:08:54] If you guys actually get in a habit of praying for people, sometimes we forget even praying for people.

[00:09:01] But you had prayed for a young woman and her mother, she said her mother was not feeling well and she was ill.

[00:09:07] And you just said, hey, you know, let us pray about that right now.

[00:09:11] And you prayed a beautiful prayer.

[00:09:14] You know, did you want to mention anything about that?

[00:09:18] Well, like, like you said, I was not really having a recall of doing that.

[00:09:23] But that's just kind of the way I am.

[00:09:25] I like to just on the spot, if I hear a problem, I like to say, would you mind if I pray with you right now about that?

[00:09:32] Because we have a tendency to get busy in our lives and we forget and we go on our way and we just, we lose that opportunity, really.

[00:09:43] And God really loves our prayers.

[00:09:46] He loves us to be able to look to him for the answer and to rest in him and know that with assurance that he's going to answer.

[00:09:53] I just thought about yesterday, I didn't say this to Bill yet, but I've been thinking lately about all the homeless people we have around here.

[00:10:02] And I know a lot of people don't like to give them money because they think it will go for drugs and things like that.

[00:10:08] And I guess you'd have to be, you know, careful and cautious about that.

[00:10:14] But yesterday I felt like I was supposed to stop.

[00:10:17] There was an elderly lady and she was sitting out and I just stopped and I said, I need to go to her.

[00:10:25] And I went to her and gave her something.

[00:10:27] But I asked her, I said, is there anything I can pray with you about before I leave?

[00:10:31] And then she told me, you know, she has a, she needs a home.

[00:10:36] Her son's handicapped and, you know, all this and that.

[00:10:39] And so I just, I was able to pray for her right there.

[00:10:41] I just think that that's what we can offer people the most is just more than money or anything,

[00:10:48] just offering a prayer and speaking into their lives and being an encouragement to people.

[00:10:54] And just let them know that they're seen because so many people feel invisible.

[00:10:59] They don't feel love.

[00:11:01] They don't feel that anyone cares about them.

[00:11:03] And, you know, if you just stop and interact with them, say a prayer, ask them what you can do for them.

[00:11:11] They're seen and they feel that.

[00:11:14] You know, it's so important.

[00:11:16] And I'm going to go to the book of James in chapter five and such a powerful verse.

[00:11:21] And it says, the prayers of a righteous man availeth much.

[00:11:26] And think about the depth of that verse.

[00:11:30] God wants us to pray to him.

[00:11:33] And I don't believe any prayer is going to be overlooked by God if you sincerely pray to God about any need that you have.

[00:11:43] And I think a lot of times, son, I think it's even more important to God if we pray about other people instead of ourselves.

[00:11:52] Your thoughts on that?

[00:11:53] Well, I was just reading in Chronicles today.

[00:11:55] It's talking about Jabez, who the prayer of Jabez.

[00:11:59] Many of you know it and how he asked God to bless him.

[00:12:01] And sometimes I think we are we think, oh, I have everything or, you know, I don't need to ask God for anything.

[00:12:09] But Jabez, he didn't feel that way.

[00:12:12] And God honored it.

[00:12:13] God honored him for that and did bless him.

[00:12:16] He asked for God's blessing.

[00:12:18] And I think we can say to God, bless me.

[00:12:22] And Lord, show me your love today.

[00:12:25] Those are OK to pray.

[00:12:26] And not only for ourselves, but for other people.

[00:12:29] You know, and I'm going back to the book of James, as I often do.

[00:12:33] And in the fourth chapter, it says you have not because you ask not.

[00:12:37] And I believe what James is referring to here is prayer.

[00:12:42] When he says you ask not, I think what James is telling us, go to God in prayer.

[00:12:49] Let him know what it is you have need of.

[00:12:52] And if you are interceding for someone else, what they might have need of.

[00:12:58] Now, John, it's the time of year when the kids are going back to school.

[00:13:02] So what I'd like for you to do is talk about your daughter's grandkids.

[00:13:07] There's four of them.

[00:13:08] And if you would talk about each one individually and what grade they're getting ready to go into.

[00:13:13] Well, we have one in the seventh grade, one in third grade and one in kindergarten and a third three year old who is attending daycare.

[00:13:25] They are very happy.

[00:13:27] School got started with a bang.

[00:13:30] They like where they're going.

[00:13:32] And I am very, very happy about it because the three kids in school are going to a Christian school and they are memorizing scriptures every week.

[00:13:44] They have a verse there to memorize.

[00:13:47] And that to me is just really a blessing because I think about, you know, it says,

[00:13:53] Thy word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

[00:13:57] These scriptures get inside of their heart and they won't forget it.

[00:14:01] When you're old, you won't depart from it.

[00:14:03] And I just believe that that's what's going to be.

[00:14:05] You know, and I'm going to add something to that because, you know, when you memorize something, you go over it and over it and over it and over it.

[00:14:16] And I know sometimes on my daily podcast, I mentioned the fact that it has to get out of your head.

[00:14:23] It has to not be head knowledge, but it needs to settle in to your heart.

[00:14:28] And if you are memorizing something over and over and going over it again and again, it's going to eventually settle into your heart and it's going to become part of who you are.

[00:14:41] Now, I'm going to briefly mention my daughter.

[00:14:43] And of course, my daughter is older than yours.

[00:14:45] She's six years older and her kids are older than your daughter's kids.

[00:14:50] So anyway, this is a big year because our oldest granddaughter, she's now 19 years old.

[00:14:57] And she, a matter of fact, I just got done contacting my daughter and they are presently on their way to Pensacola and bringing our oldest granddaughter to West Florida, which is in Pensacola.

[00:15:11] And that's got to be an emotional day.

[00:15:13] I still remember when we brought, you know, our daughter to school when she was going to college for the first time.

[00:15:22] And, you know, it's always going to bring a few tears.

[00:15:25] Absolutely.

[00:15:26] And then after that, our 17 year old will be starting his senior year and he's going to actually be homeschooled.

[00:15:33] So basically, I'm not sure exactly how that's going to work, but he's looking forward to it.

[00:15:38] And then her youngest is going to be going into sixth grade.

[00:15:43] She's finally entering middle school and she's excited about that.

[00:15:46] But, you know, it's always an opportunity when you begin a new school year to start fresh.

[00:15:52] And, you know, we want to say a prayer over them that, you know, they have a successful school year.

[00:15:58] But what I'd like to do is to just mention the fact that we had two of the grandkids over this week.

[00:16:05] And it was funny because we had one, one night, we had a granddaughter.

[00:16:11] That's our actually our fifth.

[00:16:12] And she came over.

[00:16:14] So if you would mention what we did when she came and then the next night we had the three year old over.

[00:16:20] And it's always loads of fun when he comes over.

[00:16:23] But if you would just mention briefly those two nights and what we did with them.

[00:16:27] Well, it's always fun to have them over because they love to be here.

[00:16:32] And that makes you feel really good, too.

[00:16:34] So we always, well, the one had to go to school the next day.

[00:16:39] So we couldn't stay up very late.

[00:16:41] We needed to get things accomplished, have dinner, get ready for bed and all that.

[00:16:46] And Bill always reads the Bible every night.

[00:16:49] So we read the Bible and then usually we watch like a short movie or something and just spend a few minutes together before she goes off to bed.

[00:16:59] They love to sleep in our room, too, right next to our bed, which is which is cute and won't always be.

[00:17:06] But it's very cute right now.

[00:17:07] And then the three year old, the next day we went out, bought shoes for him and just played and had a good time.

[00:17:15] And of course, he spent the night, too.

[00:17:16] He always loves to come over.

[00:17:18] So that's that's a lot of fun.

[00:17:20] You know, I want to just bring something up because when we talk about the three year old, he always has a smile on his face and he always comes in.

[00:17:28] And, you know, I'll be on the couch watching TV and he'll just snuggle up next to me and you look up at me and say,

[00:17:34] Pa Bill, I love you.

[00:17:36] And he's just absolutely adorable.

[00:17:39] But one of the things that I really like the most about him is when he gets something and he's not sure exactly what it is,

[00:17:49] the smile kind of goes off his face and you kind of see his eyebrows go up and you're sitting there thinking,

[00:17:55] Hmm, what's he thinking is going on?

[00:17:58] And it's so neat because whenever he does that, you know, his mind is just going 100 miles an hour and he's trying to figure things out.

[00:18:08] I just think it's awesome when we do that.

[00:18:10] Yeah, I think that when I have the grandkids over, when we're around them, it just reminds you so much of how God feels about us.

[00:18:18] When, when Bill said that he looks up at him and said, says, Pa Bill, I love you.

[00:18:24] He does that to me too.

[00:18:25] And it's so precious.

[00:18:27] And it just reminds me of how God must love it when we do that to him.

[00:18:32] When we just look up and say, God, I love you.

[00:18:34] Thank you.

[00:18:35] And being grateful.

[00:18:37] It just brings him pleasure.

[00:18:39] And he, you know, I just, I get a kick out of just watching what he does.

[00:18:44] He's fun.

[00:18:44] It's all of them.

[00:18:45] They're entertaining.

[00:18:46] And I thought, that's the way God feels about us.

[00:18:49] He sees what we're doing through our work, through our play, through our interactions with people.

[00:18:55] And I think, you know, he just, he enjoys looking at his children.

[00:18:58] You know, I'm going to add something further because I know many of you may be saying, well, you know, that's all good and stuff.

[00:19:08] But, you know, you know, but I'm older.

[00:19:10] I'm 30 years old or I'm 55 years old or I'm 70 year old.

[00:19:15] And I, I can't ask God for simple things.

[00:19:18] Friends, listen to me and listen to me well.

[00:19:21] God is concerned about every small detail in your life.

[00:19:26] When you hear that verse that every hair, hair on your head is numbered.

[00:19:34] Right.

[00:19:34] He knows that if you get a haircut and you have 9,000 hairs come off your head, he is registering.

[00:19:42] I mean, I can almost see like a calculator.

[00:19:46] Okay.

[00:19:47] He lost 18 hair.

[00:19:48] He's aware of everything.

[00:19:50] So friends, don't be afraid.

[00:19:51] Even if you're 70 years old, try to crawl up on the lap of Jesus.

[00:19:56] And ask him what you have need.

[00:19:59] I guarantee you, he will listen to you and he will smile down upon you.

[00:20:04] Mm hmm.

[00:20:05] Good.

[00:20:06] Well, I was just thinking about, you know, we talked about Bill's scripture for the day,

[00:20:12] but I was thinking mine is five Proverbs 35.

[00:20:16] And it says every word of God is pure.

[00:20:19] He is a shield to those who put their trust in him.

[00:20:22] I love that.

[00:20:23] You know, when we do like he said, crawl up in his lap and ask him, we put our trust.

[00:20:29] We rest in him.

[00:20:30] He will never, never, ever fail.

[00:20:33] You know, and that's so good.

[00:20:35] And you know, we're, we're rolling along on this podcast.

[00:20:37] We don't have a great deal of time left on, but what I would like is, uh, what has Lord

[00:20:43] been telling you now?

[00:20:44] I know you've been reading scripture quite a bit lately in the morning.

[00:20:48] You mentioned you were in second Chronicles, but if you would through your reading over

[00:20:53] the last week or two, what has God been dealing with you about reading scripture?

[00:20:59] Well, starting with Chronicles, it's a lot of history and a lot of names and everything.

[00:21:04] But today when I was reading and had that scripture about Jabez, that, that again, reminded

[00:21:10] me of how much we just need to just ask God for what we want.

[00:21:15] He says, bless me.

[00:21:17] And God did bless him and rest.

[00:21:20] And I think that that's one thing I've been thinking about.

[00:21:22] I was listening to some, um, to the healing conference that they had at Keras for this

[00:21:27] year.

[00:21:27] And one of the teachers, Daniel, Daniel M.

[00:21:31] Stutz, he was talking about rest is your weapon and how resting in what the Lord has

[00:21:40] already done, his finished work.

[00:21:43] That is really showing trust and faith when we can just snuggle up and rest in him and not

[00:21:49] be worried about what's going on around us.

[00:21:52] You know, and I'm going to just throw this out there because God told us at the very beginning

[00:21:57] after the sixth day and he had finished completing, completing creation, he rested on the seventh day.

[00:22:05] And I friends, I don't think we can overemphasize the importance of rest.

[00:22:09] God wants us to rest.

[00:22:12] So I don't know what day that is for you.

[00:22:15] I know many people work on weekends and it might not be a Saturday or a Sunday, but you guys need to take some time alone where you can spend time with your spouse, with your kids, just go out and just rest and just enjoy life.

[00:22:30] Because life is more than just going to school, just then, then working all.

[00:22:36] It's more important than that.

[00:22:38] And family time is just so precious.

[00:22:41] So you mentioned that I'm just going to go over briefly some of the things that have been going on with me.

[00:22:48] You know, I've just finished over 550 verses, publishing them on my YouTube channel.

[00:22:55] And for those of you just tuning in for the first time may not know this.

[00:22:59] I do have a YouTube channel with the same name as this wisdom today with Bill Kelly, K E L L E Y.

[00:23:08] And what I'd like to do is just tell you about what is going to be coming up this next month.

[00:23:15] OK, I have a daily podcast Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

[00:23:19] And right now I'm in the book of Hosea.

[00:23:22] It's one of my favorite books.

[00:23:24] It really is.

[00:23:25] It's a book about grace.

[00:23:27] And I'll be honest with you, the Holy Spirit is dealing with me because I started this two weeks ago.

[00:23:33] And as I'm sitting there giving this lesson and talking on the computer, I broke down and cried.

[00:23:39] And I had to stop the computer.

[00:23:41] I am so touched by the book of Hosea.

[00:23:45] It's an absolutely awesome book.

[00:23:47] And, you know, I invite anyone to just check that out.

[00:23:50] Tuesdays is testimony days.

[00:23:52] And I just kind of want to just give everybody a heads up.

[00:23:55] During the month of September, before we meet again, I'm going to be having Doug and Don Thomas on,

[00:24:01] a wonderful couple from our church, Roger Kelly, a recent third year graduate from Karis Bible College,

[00:24:08] Stan Stolman, who also goes to our church and he's really big into apologetics,

[00:24:15] and Andrea Edmond.

[00:24:16] And she just recently graduated from third year ministry school at Karis.

[00:24:21] And each one of these testimonies, I'm telling you, they're worth listening to, guys.

[00:24:25] And then on Saturday, I am going through the book of Psalms.

[00:24:30] And I have gone all the way from one through 65.

[00:24:33] And those are worth checking out.

[00:24:35] So, friends, I just invite you, you know, if you enjoy this podcast.

[00:24:39] And Judy, of course, just joins me just on the last Friday of every month.

[00:24:44] But, you know, hon, I didn't, you know, thank you for coming on today.

[00:24:48] But I always enjoy this podcast more than any other one I do during the month because you're just special.

[00:24:54] And I know you always have good things to add.

[00:24:57] And I just appreciate you and love you so much.

[00:25:01] Thank you.

[00:25:01] I love you, too.

[00:25:02] So if you would, just give us any final thoughts and close us in prayer.

[00:25:09] Like I said before, we just need to put our trust in the Lord.

[00:25:15] And that's where we're going to find our rest is putting our trust in him.

[00:25:21] And I want to say if you have not ever done that, if you are just trying to do it on your own, he wants to help you.

[00:25:29] It's not easy navigating life.

[00:25:31] And if you would just simply say a simple prayer, Father God, I want to thank you for sending Jesus, your son, to die on the cross for me.

[00:25:41] I ask you to forgive my sins, come into my life, and I make you the Lord of my life from this day forward in Jesus name.

[00:25:49] That simple prayer, that's all you need to do, saying it from your heart and believing that he is going to be with you.

[00:25:57] He will.

[00:25:58] He will be with you to the end.

[00:25:59] Thank you so much, hon.

[00:26:01] You always have wonderful wisdom to dispense.

[00:26:05] And I'm going to close with a blessing.

[00:26:07] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:26:11] The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:26:15] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

[00:26:20] Friends, we'll be back with you on four weeks from today, September 27th.

[00:26:25] Until then, please rejoin me on Monday as we further explore wisdom today.

[00:26:33] Thank you.