A Soft Answer Turns Away Anger

But Grievous Words Stir Up Anger

Chapter 1

Here is Proverbs chapter 15 from the Holy Bible, Hoehn Version.

___Proverbs chapter 15

1 A soft answer turns away anger, but grievous words stir up anger.

2 The tongue of the wise uses knowledge right, but the mouth of fools pours out foolishness.

3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, seeing the evil and the good.

4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it is a breach in the spirit.

5 A fool despises his father's instruction, but he that pays attention to reproof is prudent.

6 In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.

7 The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, but the heart of the foolish doesn't.

8 The sacrifice of the wicked is a dirty thing to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

9 The way of the wicked is a dirty thing to the Lord, but he loves him that pursues righteousness.

10 Correction is grievous to him that forsakes the way, and he that hates reproof shall die.

11 Hell and destruction are before the Lord, how much more then the hearts of the children of men?

12 A scorner doesn't love someone that reproves him, nor will he go to the wise.

13 A merry heart makes a cheerful facial expression, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

14 The heart of him that has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.

15 All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart has a continual feast.

16 Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.

17 Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is, than an ox raised in the stall and hatred with it.

18 A angry man stirs up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeases strife.

19 The way of the slothful man is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain.

20 A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother.

21 Foolishness is joy to him that has no wisdom, but a man of understanding walks uprightly.

22 Without advice purposes are disappointed, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.

23 A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it is!

24 The way of life is above to the wise, so he'll depart from hell beneath.

25 The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but he'll establish the border of the widow.

26 The thoughts of the wicked are a dirty thing to the Lord, but the words of the pure are pleasant words.

27 He that is greedy of gain troubles his own house, but he that hates bribes shall live.

28 The heart of the righteous studies to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.

29 The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

30 The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and a good report makes the bones fat.

31 The ear that hears the reproof of life lives among the wise.

32 He that refuses instruction despises his own soul, but he that hears reproof gets understanding.

33 The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and humility goes before honor.

Chapter 2

Notice in verse 1, "A soft answer turns away anger, but grievous words stir up anger."

There was a case there in the Bible where a battle had been fought and won, and after the battle, another group of Israelite soldiers, perhaps another tribe, angrily asked, "Why didn't you call us to come and help you in the battle?"

The leader answered with wisdom and a soft answer, "Well, all we did was thus and so, but what were we able to do compared to you who have whipped the Moabites (or whomever it was)."

Immediately, there was peace. The soft answer had caused the anger to instantly evaporate.

As I left the building yesterday, a neighbor man was also leaving the building. He's also a writer, and asked if I were on my way to the library.

I was, and we walked together. We talked about the Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris. That's the magazine that apparently published a cartoon that Muslims found disrespectful to Muhammad.

I said that I didn't think it was appropriate to make fun of Muhammad.

Another scripture says, "As the churning of milk produces butter, so the wringing of the nose produces blood.

"Grievous words stir up anger," says Prov 15:1, above.

But someone might point out that in one of my recent books, I said that Muhammad went to hell.

Yes, but when I said that, I wasn't making fun of Muhammad, I was just stating a fact.

Someone might say, "Maybe that was a fact that didn't need stating."

No, I think it did need stating. You see, I'm a Christian. An Evangelical Christian.

So the Lord expects me to tell people when I see that they're on the road to hell.

Muslims, whose religion is Islam, are on their way to hell, not heaven.

And in hell, there's crying and gnashing of teeth, where their worms don't die, and where the fire is never quenched, says Jesus.

No, if you want to avoid hell and go to heaven you have to become a born again Christian, as per Romans 10:9,10--

"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you're saved. For with the heart man believes for righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made for salvation."

Now the Muslims say that Jesus is one of their Prophets.

But if they really believed that Jesus is a Prophet, wouldn't they want to make the effort to find out everything that God has said to us through the Prophet Jesus?

But the Muslims are very much ignorant of the words of Jesus because they read the wrong book. They read the Koran (or, Quran).

No, if you want to get all the words of Jesus, you get them through the Holy Bible. Or, listen to some Christian preaching or teaching the Bible.

There was a big uproar recently after this movie, "The Interview" from Sony Pictures was released.

A fictitious story, it's theme is the assassination of the head of state of North Korea.

After its release, I guess it was someone in North Korea called the release of the movie "An Act of War."

I don't think it's fair to call it an act of war, but I do think that Sony Pictures was very insensitive to make a movie with that theme.

Just because we have freedom of speech doesn't mean we ought to go around shooting off our mouths with very provocative words.

Let's pray the prayer that David prayed, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips."

When a movie studio wants to make another movie, they have a multitude of choices.

Screen writers are always sending them scripts. Screen writers have agents pushing those scripts.

You can make a movie out of a book. Have a screen writer convert the book to a script.

Couldn't they have made a movie about a shepherd and his sheep and his sheep dogs?

Couldn't they have made a cops and robbers movie?

Couldn't they have made a Whodunnit?

Couldn't they have done a biographical movie?

Couldn't they have done a movie about world hunger?

Couldn't they have done a move about the Ebola crisis?

Of all the movies that they could have made, why would they choose to make a movie that deliberately pokes a finger in the eyes of a neighbor nation?

Another scripture says, "The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."

I get the impression that the people who run Sony Pictures don't read the Bible much.

Hosea 4:6 says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

What you don't know can hurt you.

Ignorance of the Bible can kill you.

Ignorance of the Bible can send you to the fiery hell that Jesus says is ready and waiting for those who don't get right with God during their lives on earth.

I once heard a man say, "Well, if I'm going to hell, I'll have a lot of friends there."

Yes, probably because of his and their lifestyles, many of his friends will join him in hell.

But what the man doesn't understand is that when he and his friends arrive in hell, they won't be his friends anymore.

They'll be accusing him, and he'll be accusing them for their being in hell.

There's no friendship in hell. Only insanity, pain, fire, worms, torment, crying, gnashing of teeth. And hell lasts forever.

But get born again in this life, and you'll avoid hell, and go to heaven.

___James chapter 1

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are dispersed around, greetings.

2 My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations,

3 Knowing this, that the testing of your faith works patience.

4 But let patience have its perfect work, so you'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives to all men liberally, and won't find fault, and it shall be given to him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.

7 For let that man not think that he'll receive anything from the Lord.

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted,

10 But the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he'll pass away.

11 For the sun has no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower of it falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for after he's been tested, he'll receive the crown of life, that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man,

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust has conceived, it produces sin, and sin when it's finished, produces death.

16 Do not err, my beloved brothers.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.

18 He chose to father us with the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

19 So, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger,

20 For the anger of man doesn't accomplish the righteousness of God.

21 So, lay apart all filthiness and the unnecessary naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man seeing his natural face in a mirror,

24 For he sees himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

25 But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26 If any man among you seems to be religious, and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is for nothing.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

___James chapter 2

1 My brothers, don't have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

2 For if a man with a gold ring comes to your assembly in fancy clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes comes in also,

3 And you have respect to him that wears the fancy clothes, and say to him, "Sit here in a good place," and say to the poor, "Stand there, or sit here under my footstool,"

4 Aren't you then partial in yourselves, and have become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my beloved brothers, hasn't God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

6 But you have despised the poor. Don't rich men oppress you, and bring you before the judgment seats?

7 Don't they blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called?

8 If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor like yourself," you do well,

9 But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as sinners.

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11 For he that said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not kill." Now if you don't commit adultery, yet if you kill, you've become a breaker of the law.

12 Speak in such a way, and do, as those who'll be judged by the law of liberty.

13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has shown no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment.

14 What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and doesn't have works? Can faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister needs clothes, and lacks daily food,

16 And one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you don't give them the things that are needed for the body, what good is that?

17 Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead, being alone.

18 Yes, a man could say, "You have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works."

19 You believe that there is one God, you do well, the devils also believe, and tremble.

20 But don't you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar?

22 Do you see how faith worked with his deeds, and by works faith was made perfect?

23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."

24 You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

25 Likewise also wasn't Rahab the prostitute justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

26 For like the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

___James chapter 3

1 My brothers, don't be many masters, knowing that we'll receive the greater condemnation.

2 For in many things we offend all. If any man doesn't offend in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

3 See, we put bits in the horses' mouths, so they'll obey us, and we turn around their whole bodies.

4 Look also at the ships, which though they're so large, and are driven by fierce winds, yet they're turned around by a very small helm, wherever the captain wants.

5 Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. See how great a matter a little fire kindles!

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of sin, so is the tongue among our members that it makes dirty the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.

7 For every kind of animals, and of birds, and of snakes, and of things in the sea, gets tamed, and has been tamed by mankind,

8 But no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With it we bless God, the Father, and with it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God.

10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be.

11 Does a fountain send out at the same place sweet water and bitter?

12 Can the fig tree, my brothers, produce olive berries? Or a vine, figs? So no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.

13 Who is a wise man, possessing knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good lifestyle his works with meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, don't glory, and don't lie against the truth.

15 This wisdom doesn't descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be reasoned with, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is planted in peace by those who make peace.

___James chapter 4

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don't they come from your lusts that war in your members?

2 You lust, and don't have, you kill, and desire to have, and can't obtain, you fight and war, yet you don't have, because you don't ask.

3 You ask, and don't receive, because you ask wrongly, so you can consume it on your lusts.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.

5 Do you think that the scripture says for nothing, "The spirit that lives in us lusts to envy?"

6 But he gives more grace. So he says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he'll run away from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and cry, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up.

11 Don't speak evil about each other, brothers. He that speaks evil about his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil about the law, and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, who are you that judges someone else?

13 Go on now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we'll go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and make a profit,"

14 Actually, you don't know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is a puff of steam, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say, "Lord willing, we'll live, and do this, or that."

16 But now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.

17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.

___James chapter 5

1 Go on now, you rich men, cry and howl for your miseries that shall come on you.

2 Your riches are corrupted, and your clothes are moth eaten.

3 Your gold and silver are rusted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You've heaped treasure together for the last days.

4 See, the wages of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which you've kept back by fraud, shouts, and the shouts of those who've reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.

5 You've lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, you've nourished your hearts, like in a day of slaughter.

6 You've condemned and killed the just, and he doesn't resist you.

7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain.

8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is getting near.

9 Don't grudge against each other, brothers, so you won't be condemned, see, the judge stands at the door.

10 Take, my brothers, the prophets, who've spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

11 See, we count them happy that endure. You've heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

12 But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, not by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, so that you don't fall into condemnation.

13 Is anyone among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is anyone merry? Let him sing psalms.

14 Is anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven.

16 Confess your faults to each other, and pray for each other so you'll be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man is does a lot of good.

17 Elijah was a man subject to the same kind of passions that we are, and he prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

19 Brothers, if any of you strays from the truth, and someone converts him,

20 Let him know, that he that converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.