Pastor leads his family in considering vv15-20 of -the Proverb of the day.- God has given marriage many good purposes, so we must guard against threats to marriage. Once married, fostering that relationship protects us against the sins that threaten us and our marriages.

Christians view being humbled, and serving, and sacrificing, and suffering-like Christ and for Christ-as a great privilege

Over-against the harmfulness of loose teaching and living, genuine Christian love -truths- its brothers and sisters. Christ, the Source and Pattern of our love, has expressed it in -truthing- us, with the effect that to love one another is to -truth- one another- receiving the truth together, believing the truth together, speaking the truth together, and living the truth together. And the result is that we grow up into Christ together in love.

The Lord employs several means at once to bring Jacob to an awareness of God's goodness and of his own unworthiness of that goodness. As those who seek to grow in awareness of the same things, we learn some of the means by which God does this for us, and find ourselves ultimately pointed to Christ

Not only is -And whatever we ask, we receive from Him- a real promise- it is an even better promise than you had previously thought-

The Lord has given us a weekly day to be renewed in Him. We are to remember what the day is for and devote the day entirely to that purpose.

The only true and lasting privilege is to receive everything as a gift from, and an assignment for, the Lord. Desire for more than that, or employing it in any other way, is a prescription for disappointment, disaster, and destruction.

Jesus Christ is at the top of the chain of command of civil government. The only reason that we are to obey anyone is because we are to obey Him. If government is wicked, we will often have to disobey in order to obey Jesus. -Rebellion- must always come out of an obedient spirit unto Christ, not a contrarian spirit against men-and in this way can be done out of love rather than fear.----A lesser magistrate will often have to countermand the directive or action of someone above him, in order properly to fulfill the authority and care entrusted to him by the One at the head of the chain and command. If we love our neighbors, we ought to be training up men to be in the positions of these lesser magistrates by whom Christ's appointed good in the civil magistrate may be done.----Only Christ's law can determine what is good and evil, a law that is written on men's hearts and observable in creation and providence, but is most plainly and fully detailed in the Scriptures.

Pastor leads his family in two verses of -today's- Proverb, 27-17-18. Because we are often forgetful that we are before His face, God uses our brother's face to sharpen ours. And God, who has planted us in whatever role we find ourselves, grants to us that if patiently and cheerfully labor in our calling, then in due season we will reap-whether we are farmers or slaves, and ultimately as His own children and servants.

Prayer is an act of worship in which we call upon God in Christ, laying hold of Him as He has revealed Himself in His Word. This Scripture teaches us that, in confessing our sins, we lay hold of and magnify the perfections of His faithfulness and justice, especially in the actions of His forgiving -justification- and cleansing -sanctification- sinners.