Accentuate The Positive Series

The sagas counsel their students not to simply endorse the status quo but to choose wise and effective means when it needs to be changed. Where kings are concerned, we may counsel, but we cannot command. [Mays, James. Harper & Row, Publishers. Society of Biblical Literature: Harper's Bible Commentary. San Francisco, 1988, S. Pr 26:1.]

Although Beverly Sklover stands only 4 feet 10 inches tall, she is described as a "towering presence on the telephone." She advertises in a local newspaper as "THE NUDGE LADY," after the Yiddish word that sounds like "noodge" and stands for a chronic and persistent nag or badgerer.

For $50 the first hour, and $40 each additional hour, she'll make call after call after call to right a wrong or get someone a refund. How does she do it? The lawyer and former New York City planner says 5 years in business have taught her that yelling gets you nowhere. "I always speak in the softest voice possible," she says. "Then people have to listen."

[The Nudge Lady reminds me a little of Abigail. Her family and servants were headed for disaster (1 Sam. 25). David and his soldiers had been insulted by her husband. Faced with a crisis, Abigail became a woman of initiative. With grace and courage she appealed to David's sense of mercy. By gentleness and humility she calmed his anger, and her household was saved.]

The Lord doesn't expect us to overlook all wrongs done to us. Nor does He want us to confront others with anger and insults. His Spirit can help us to be like Abigail: gentle and courageous. Gentleness helps us make a point without making an enemy. [MRD II. Our Daily Bread]

IV. AVOID EXCESSIVE SPEECH, 16-17.

[Proverbs 25:16-17 teach that excessively indulging in tasty or good things is to be avoided. Proverbs 25:16 show another area, our appetites, which calls for self-control. "Have you found honey? Eat only what you need, that you not have it in excess and vomit it. (17) "Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor's house, or he will become weary of you and hate you" (NASV).

Honey is a symbol of something good and desirable. Which is why we are warned against excess. Just as eating too much honey can cause a problem (vv. 27; 27:7), so visiting a neighbor too often may cause him to hate the frequent visitor. Overdoing anything can be a problem. Seldom is literally, "make precious, " that is, "make it valuable" by its rarity. A person should refrain from frequently visiting his neighbor, to avoid being a nuisance, but he should visit enough so that his visits are valued.

While the possibility exists that we can overstay the welcome of our friends, Jesus is a Friend whose patience we can never exhaust, whose door is always open, whose desire is not that we drop in for a visit, but that we take up residence in Him. [Courson, S. 256]

[Each day the news from South Carolina became more bizarre concerning the scam by televangelist JIM BAKER. Media had uncovered a scam. He was overselling shares in a resort hotel, Heritage USA theme park. There was not way all the people investing in the resort could use its facilities. [He also was caught funneling $265,000 in hush money to his church secretary Jessica Hahn, in order to cover up their adulterous affair.]