Morning Manna

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 30:18–20 and four mysterious paths that leave no visible trace: an eagle through the air, a serpent across a rock, a ship through the sea, and the way of a man with a maid. Agur then makes a disturbing turn to the adulterous woman who sins, wipes away the evidence, and declares, “I have done no wickedness.” The greatest...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 30:15–17 and Agur’s vivid picture of appetites that can never be satisfied. The horseleech cries, “Give, give,” while the grave, the barren womb, parched earth, and fire never say, “It is enough.” Agur turns these images into a mirror for the human heart: what appetite within us always demands more? The lesson then reve...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart continue their study of Proverbs 30:11–14, focusing on verses 13–14 and Agur’s portrait of a corrupt generation. What begins with self-righteousness becomes arrogance, and arrogance eventually becomes the exploitation of those who are weaker. Agur describes lofty eyes followed by “teeth as swords” devouring the poor and needy. The progr...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 30:10–12 and the dangerous difference between how we see ourselves and how God sees us. Agur warns against using power against those who cannot defend themselves, dishonoring our parents, and becoming “pure in our own eyes” while remaining unwashed from our sin. Self-deception is especially dangerous because the person...

Rick Wiles and Dr. Raymond Burkhart continue the Scarlet Thread Faith series with a man whose disqualification was not his background but his clock. Matthew and Mark record that both thieves reviled Christ — he arrived hostile, joined the abuse, and was converted while dying. He asked only to be remembered and was promised presence, in paradeisō, the Septuagint's word for Eden. One thief was saved...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine the remarkable prayer of Proverbs 30:7–9. Agur asks God for neither poverty nor riches, but for the portion God determines is sufficient. His concern is not financial comfort; it is spiritual faithfulness. He fears abundance could cause him to forget God, while poverty could tempt him to steal and dishonor God’s name. Even more...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 30:5–6 and one of Scripture’s strongest declarations about the reliability of God’s Word. “Every word of God is pure.” His Word has been tested like precious metal in the fire and found without impurity. Because God has spoken, we can trust Him completely and take refuge under His protection. Agur then gives a serious w...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart continue Agur’s remarkable words in Proverbs 30:3–4. Agur asks questions no ordinary man can answer: Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who controls the wind, the waters, and the earth? Then comes the remarkable question: “What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?” The Old Testament leaves the question s...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart begin Proverbs 30 and meet a new voice in the book: Agur, the son of Jakeh. Unlike Solomon, Agur begins his teaching with a startling confession: “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.” This is not false modesty. Agur has encountered the limits of human understanding and recognizes how little ma...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart conclude Proverbs 29 and the five-chapter collection preserved by the men of Hezekiah. Proverbs 29:27 ends with a sobering truth: “An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.” Biblical wisdom does not promise that living rightly will make us universally accepted. Sometimes...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 29:24–26 and the powerful grip the fear of man can have on our decisions. Solomon begins with a man who knows the truth but refuses to speak, then reveals what may be keeping him silent: “The fear of man bringeth a snare.” Fear of rejection, retaliation, or disapproval can trap our speech, compromise our obedience, and...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 29:21–23 and three patterns whose consequences often appear long after they begin: indulgence, anger, and pride. Solomon warns that sustained indulgence can produce entitlement rather than gratitude, while uncontrolled anger not only stirs up conflict but opens the door to further sin. The Septuagint adds a vivid pictur...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 29:18–20, beginning with one of the Bible’s most frequently misunderstood verses: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Solomon was not teaching the importance of mission statements, strategic plans, or ambitious dreams. The “vision” is God’s revealed Word, and when that Word is absent or rejected, people cast...

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 29:15–17 and the Bible’s teaching on correction, discipline, and the formation of wisdom. Solomon declares that “the rod and reproof give wisdom,” reminding parents that biblical discipline must combine consequences with instruction. Correction without explanation becomes punishment; words without consequences can becom...

In this Faith Friday edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart begin a new three-week series, Scarlet Thread Faith: The Faith of Unlikely People. The series opens with Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute living in a city marked for destruction. She had no covenant, no Scripture, no prophet, and no personal encounter with the God of Israel. She had only heard what God had done, yet she believ...

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles continues Proverbs 29 with verses 12 through 14, examining how a ruler’s appetite for falsehood can corrupt an entire administration and eventually shape the culture beneath it. Solomon warns that when a leader repeatedly listens to lies, those around him learn to reward flattery, suppress unwelcome truth, and tell the ruler what he wants to hear. Rick explains...

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles continues Proverbs 29 with verses 10 and 11, examining why the upright often attract hatred they did not provoke and why wisdom requires restraint in speech. Solomon contrasts the bloodthirsty, who hate the blameless, with the fool who releases everything in his mind without restraint. Rick explains that righteousness itself can provoke hostility because integr...

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles continues Proverbs 29 with verses 3 and 4, showing how quickly something that took years or generations to build can be destroyed. Solomon first contrasts the son who loves wisdom and brings joy to his father with the man who gives himself to sexual immorality and wastes his substance. Rick explains that the loss is greater than money—the prodigal can consume a...

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles begins Proverbs 29 with a sobering warning about what happens when repeated correction is continually refused. Solomon describes the person who is “often reproved” yet hardens his neck until destruction comes suddenly and without remedy. Like an ox resisting the yoke, the stiff-necked person becomes increasingly unwilling to listen, change, or respond to convic...

In this Faith Friday edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart continue the Desperate Faith series with blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10. Sitting beside the road as Jesus passed through Jericho, Bartimaeus had only one way to reach Him: his voice. When the people surrounding Jesus ordered him to be quiet, “he cried the more a great deal.” His desperate faith stopped Christ on the road to Je...

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart conclude Proverbs 28 with a powerful promise for believers living through difficult times. Solomon acknowledges the reality that “when the wicked rise, men hide themselves,” but he does not leave the righteous in hiding. The wicked also perish, and “the righteous increase.” This lesson explores why prudent withdrawal under genuine threat is not...

Rick Wiles and Dr. Raymond Burkhart take up two proverbs that look unrelated — one about self-trust, one about generosity — and show that both describe the same failure: a man managing what he is willing to see. Verse 26 calls trusting your own heart folly, not because the heart is worthless but because it is an interested party, being asked to rule on its own desires. Verse 27 locates the failure...

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 28:24–25 and two ways self-trust can corrupt our judgment. Solomon confronts the person who does wrong and then rationalizes it by saying, “It is no transgression.” He then exposes the proud heart that continually stirs up strife. This lesson examines how easily we can redefine our own wrongdoing, why pride produces conflict ev...

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 28:21–23 and three dangers that quietly corrupt judgment: partiality, the grasping pursuit of wealth, and flattery. Solomon warns that integrity is often sold for far less than we imagine, that the person consumed with getting rich can become blind to the poverty approaching him, and that honest correction will ultimately earn...

In this Faith Friday edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart begin a new series, Desperate Faith: Faith That Interrupts. We meet the woman of Mark 5 who had suffered for twelve years, spent everything she had, and only grew worse. Ceremonially unclean and accustomed to living at a distance, she pushed through the crowd believing that if she could only touch Jesus’ clothes, she would...