JCSM's Weekly Devotions (click here to listen!)

"Accept Wise Rebuke"

Proverb 17:10  "Rebuke is more effective for a wise man than a hundred blows on a fool."

Proverb 25:12  "Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise rebuker to an obedient ear."

Proverb 27:5  "Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed."

Proverb 29:15  "The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother."

2 Timothy 4:2  "Preach the word!  Be ready in season and out of season.  Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching."

Luke 17:3-5  "Take heed to yourselves.  If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him."

Revelation 3:19  "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.  Therefore be zealous and repent."

Insight: Be ready and willing to allow believers in Christ to give you wise, spiritual rebuke.  God will speak through them to bless you and help you repent.  Wise people who are growing spiritually appreciate rebuke because it gives them a chance to draw closer to Christ.  Pray and plan now to avoid taking offense and to accept wise rebuke.

Prayer: "Dear Lord, bless us and make us like You.  Help us to accept wise rebuke.  Thank you for taking the time to rebuke us.  You are an awesome God.  Let us appreciate the time You take when you invest in us.  Help us to grow spiritually.  Help us to become more like You every day.  Give us boldness and courage to rebuke others, so they can repent and grow spiritually, too.  Prepare us for these things.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

Yale College 1701, was founded as the Collegiate School at Saybrook, Connecticut by ten Congregational ministers. It was moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and renamed for Elihu Yale (1649-1721), who was an American-born English merchant and governor of the East India Company. Elihu Yale donated books and goods from his fortune to the college in the amount of $2,800.

The primary goal, as outlined by the founders, stated:

"Every student shall consider the main end of his study to wit to know God in Jesus Christ and answerably to lead a Godly, sober life." - 1701, as stated by the founders. William C. Ringenberg, The Christian College: A History of Protestant Higher Education in America (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1984), p. 38. Gary DeMar, The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision, Inc., 1993), p. 42.

The Yale Charter of 1745 clarified the intention of the college:

"Which has received the favourable benefactions of many liberal [generous] and piously disposed persons, and under the blessing of Almighty God has trained up many worthy persons for the service of God in the state as well as in the church." - 1745, in the Yale Charter. Quoted in Richard Hofstader and Wilson Smith, eds., American Higher Education: A Documentary History (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1961), 1:49. Gary DeMar, The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision, Inc., 1993), p. 43-44.

Benjamin Silliman, a well known American science educator and editor, was a Yale faculty member during the era of Yale President Timothy Dwight, 1795-1817. He wrote concerning the atmosphere that existed on the Yale campus:

"It would delight your heart to see how the trophies of the cross are multiplied in this institution. Yale College is a little temple: prayer and praise seem to be the delight of the greater part of the students." - In a writing of Yale faculty member Benjamin Silliman. Henry M. Morris, Men of Science - Men of God (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, Creation Life Publishers, Inc., 1990), pp. 39.

Please click here for more on Yale.

If you'd like to have the citations for the footnotes above, please email us.  If you'd like to see more quotes from those who framed and founded America, please click here: http://jcsm.org/AmericasFounders/.

(This explanation came from "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained", by Dr. Jason Gastrich.  This book is on CD and gives over 4,000 answers to alleged Bible errors, regarding the entire Bible at http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.org.  There is also a 300 question workbook that accompanies the CD-ROM.)

Are you building and growing your faith?

God lets our faith be tested, so we can grow.

We need an everlasting foundation.

Prayer helps build your faith.

The church can't forget about lost souls.

Do you have the fear of God in your life?

If you don't discipline your children, you do them a disservice.

Are you concerned that some people you know may be headed to Hell?

Difficulties develop us in a way that nothing else can.

Solomon affirms that life is a gift from God.

Solomon has a proper perspective on joy and sorrow.

If you die with a good name, you cannot do anything to tarnish it.

Learning from mourning is easier than learning from feasting.

Man's purpose isn't to be happy, but to know God.

When we are rebuked, we tend to resent it, resist it, and return it.

The praise of a fool is temporary.

Value the rebuke of a wise man.

Fools stroke your ego as they consider how they'll strike you.

Listen carefully to those who love you and care to rebuke you.

Satan frontloads his good, then the rest is downhill.

The best days of a marriage aren't the early days.  The best days are the older, mature days when you know your spouse loves you in spite of your shortcomings.

Don't live in the past.

The good old days don't exist except in the minds of those who are forsaking the present.

Despite our recollection of the past, there were probably just as many problems and hardships, if not more, than there are now.

The repenting soul is the victorious soul.

In the valley, we find the glory of God.

God's plan is good, His purpose is good, but His program is mysterious.

What I know is far more important than what I can't figure out.

These quotes came from the Holy Spirit, me, Phillip Macintosh, and David Jeremiah.  If you'd like to read more quotes, we have thousands in our archive!  Visit http://quotes.jcsm.org.