Keep the Heart

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit, where you can listen to a chapter of Proverbs in about five minutes. This is a habit that pays in the currency of godly wisdom, which the Bible calls "the principal thing (Prov. 4:7). If you've ever wondered why it seems like divisiveness is increasing, there is an answer to that question in Proverbs 29:27: "An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and h...

Prideful thoughts sound like these: Who do they think they are? She/he thinks her/his way is the only way to do things. Why do they get praised for doing the same work that I do? I should get recognition for this. I'm not bragging, but... Welcome to a Bible Study segment from the series, ICU: In Christ Unconditionally-Heart Conditions . This week's episode is a study of "The Proud Heart." This is...

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit! This week, Proverbs 15 opens the chapter with a lesson on the "soft answer." We need this lesson. When people speak to us harshly, it's human nature to want to respond the same way. Our carnal nature is not interested in godliness. It is human to have a classic case of "how dare they speak to me like that."  When we tell someone off and imagine that it will...

When I had a heart procedure done a few years ago, I was told that I would be feeling great afterwards. This was not my experience! Instead, shortly after going home I was taken right back to the ER with overwhelming pains that were shooting through my body. The heart procedure had damaged some nerves at the point of entry for the surgery. These nerves went crazy and sent lightning bolts of pain t...

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit! One of the greatest habits you can develop for the health of your soul is to feed it daily from the Word of God. Just as the physical body needs nourishment, so does the soul. The 3rd chapter of Proverbs is full of instructions that guide and direct us in our daily living. In fact, the first two verses point us to the importance of remembering God's Word and...

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit, where you can listen to a chapter of Proverbs in five minutes or less. The habit of feeding your soul from the Bible daily is like the habit of providing nourishment for the physical body. Just as junk food doesn't build strength, filling the mind with everything but the Bible leads to spiritual weaknesses. Building a daily Bible habit will build your wisdom...

Have you ever had a problem that you could not figure out? That's like asking if you have a pulse. It is part of life to face things that are hard to understand, let alone solve. That's a good time to pray at least three words: "Give me understanding." The words, "give me understanding" appear five times in Psalm 119. This episode briefly covers those five verses, all of which make excellent praye...

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit, with episodes that take you through a chapter of Proverbs in under 5 minutes. Proverbs chapter 12 covers a broad range of life topics, from righeous living to the hazards of laziness. Applying the instructions from Proverbs leads to better relationships and wiser decisions. Daily Bible reading is a habit that makes life better! "Whoso loveth instruction love...

Welcome to Replay Friday, where you'll hear some of the most popular episodes from previous seasons! This week's episode, "Are You a Drama Mama," was played and replayed and shared thousands of times. It is easy to become a Drama Mama. All a person needs is an attitude. A bad attitude. This replay covers five marks of a Drama Mama. This episode is like a self-exam. Sometimes we need to check our b...

Family gatherings have the potential to put people together who have strong disagreements over their philosophies of life, as well as other topics. One simple statement can start an argument that turns what was supposed to be a joyous time into an event-ending conflict. Sometimes this can feel like walking into a trap! The holiday season in particular is the time when people often get together aft...

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit! When we're in the Word, we grow "fat" in a good way: we become well fed with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. The book of Proverbs is filled with instructions on how to live in this world, even when times are loud and confusing. God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33), and He has left us with clear directions that enrich our lives and improve...

Welcome to Replay Friday! This episode had thousands of downloads when it first aired in 2021, and maybe that's partly because people like to hear about how others blew it! Ha! "Dumb Things I Did as a Newlywed" is not just for brand new wives. It's for married women of all stages. The problem with doing things incorrectly is that it may become habit-forming, persisting into the later years of marr...

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit, where you can listen to a daily chapter from the book of Proverbs in about five minutes. A Bible reading habit becomes a Bible study habit, leading to a closer relationship with God while increasing your wisdom and knowledge. God wants us to know how to live, so He gave us His Word, placing Proverbs right in the middle. Never underestimate the value of God's...

When someone says or does something that irritates you, what comes out of your mouth? Unfiltered speech that stings, or carefully chosen words spoken according to the "law of kindness"? We are at great risk of picking up the infections of the culture, including the tendency to open the mouth with unedited harshness. If your companions, electronic or "in real life" are mouthy and careless, you will...

Welcome to Replay Thursday, where we play the most popular episodes from the previous season! This episode, "When Plans Change," was recorded after I was released from the hospital following a health emergency. I had to cancel a trip, was grounded from flying for over a month, and had to make several other unplanned changes on my calendar and in my life. This was hard, but people face much harder...

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit. In less than 5 minutes, you'll complete a chapter of Proverbs while equipping yourself with valuable daily living instructions for handling daily matters wisely. Here's a gold nugget from chapter 17: "He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends." (Proverbs 17:9) Disagreements grow in size when shared...

According to various online sites, "self-care" is a term that became popular within the medical community in the 1950's. Regardless of its origin, the definition of the phrase is flawed. It's missing the soul: "Self-care means taking the time to do things that help you live well and improve both your physical health and mental health. This can help you manage stress, lower your risk of illness, an...

Welcome to Replay Saturday! Today's episode, "Courage Steps for Handling Challenges," takes a snake story and transforms it into a how-to session on handling things that cause fear. You may not have to face a real snake in your life, but things that make a person afraid are part of the human experience. There are steps we can take to break fears down into steps that bring the challenges down to si...

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit, where listening to a chapter of Proverbs helps you to develop the habit of daily Bible reading. To build a Bible habit, simply begin and keep it up. Over time, Bible reading leads to Bible study, and God does the rest. With an audio Bible, you only need to press "play" and listen. Simple. Soon, your life is improved by increased wisdom and understanding. A t...

Welcome to BAM: Your Bible Application Moment. Today's application comes from Proverbs 23:9, which tells us what not to do: "Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words." (Proverbs 23:9) So why do we disobey this scripture so often and so boldly? Did you know that when we're disregarding scripture while trying to correct someone else, we will be totally ineffective...

Welcome to Replay Thursday, where we play the most popular episodes from the previous season.  Have you ever almost side-swiped a car because they were in your blind spot? We often "side swipe" people in our daily lives for the same reason: they were in our blind spot. When new cars added the Blind Spot Warning System to vehicles, it really helped drivers to know when someone was in that zone. The...

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit, where you can listen to a chapter of Proverbs in about five minutes! "Little is much, when God is in it." If you need a way to develop a daily Bible reading habit, this will help. Invite a friend to do the same, and you can compare notes on what you've learned from each chapter. Why does it seem like people are becoming cruder, ruder, and lacking in basic co...

Have you ever had negative thoughts replaying in your mind, and you felt powerless to stop them? This merry-go-round that you never asked to get on is taking you in circles inside your head. And what’s worse about it, is these thoughts are indicators of the condition of our hearts. Why is that? Because thoughts come from the heart. This episode title, “Managing Our Thoughts” is carefully worded. N...

Welcome back to Build Your Bible Habit, a series designed to help you develop a habit of daily Bible reading. Proverbs 31 is where we read about the "Proverbs 31 woman," also known as the "virtuous woman," but this chapter has wisdom for men and women.  Here's a verse that is good for all of us: "She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness." (Proverbs 31:26) Words s...

Disagreements with people are nothing new, but we are seeing an increase in the contentious nature of the disagreements. This is mainly because our culture is promoting a mentality that you must agree with only one line of thinking or you are automatically wrong and therefore intolerant. That’s a two-way street. Expecting people to agree with us 100% of the time is unrealistic. How did we get here...