Category Archives: Life

Wisdom to Spare

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Intelligence has a dark side.  The mad scientist, the evil tyrant, the devious-but-brainy bad guys that our favorite super heroes destroy – these illustrate the fact that intellectual abilty can be used for wicked purposes. 

The ability to put whatever knowledge we have to good use is known in the Bible as wisdom.  It’s an acquired skill – the capacity to live life well.  Wisdom helps people stay happily married and to do OK financially.  It helps us raise our children in such a way that they appreciate us more and more as they get older.  Wisdom finds the solution to unexpected problems and makes us a blessing to our friends – and even our enemies when needed. 

Wisdom begins with the fear of God:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
                                               – Proverbs 9:10 (NKJV)

That’s where it starts, but it can’t end there.  Life is just complicated enough that we often need more wisdom than we ever figured.  So how do we get all we need?  We pray for it, ask God for it, and feel free to keep asking.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”   – James 1:5 (NKJV)

And we can know God’s wisdom as we get it, because it tends to look like this:

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”  – James 3:17 (NKJV)

Something That Lasts

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Let’s face it. Everything we do in this world is plagued by impermanence. Our own mortality – that nagging, irritating, upcoming appointment with death – can bring a sad sense of dissatisfaction to anything we hope will endure. “All flesh is grass,” says the prophet. “The people are grass.” That’s us.  

The voice said, ‘Cry out!’
And he said, ‘What shall I cry?’
‘All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.'”
          – Isaiah 40:6-8 (NKJV)

Because we mortals cannot keep going, the best we can hope for is to latch onto something that will outlast us – something like the Word of God. The Bible; let’s devote ourselves to it. The Scriptures; let’s keep them ever before our eyes. God’s thoughts, God’s words; let’s fill our minds with them…

Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because

    ‘All flesh is as grass,
    And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
    The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
    But the word of the Lord endures forever.'”
          – 1 Peter 1:23-25 (NKJV)

The God Who Keeps On Giving

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I need a lot of God’s grace, His unmerited favor, those unearned blessings that He gives and keeps on giving.  There are times I think I’ve nearly drained the limit of His supply.  Those are the times He gently reminds me of the cross.

The cross of Jesus Christ illustrates just how far God will go on our behalf.  Once we’ve accepted it, the floodgates of grace are now open.  We can’t touch the ceiling; if it’s good He will give it.  We can’t find the edge.  Once we’re inside, having entered through Jesus Christ the Door, the boundaries of His love are unsearchable.  And if there is a need He is readly, willing and able to meet it. 

Let’s give Him the honor and show Him the respect of taking Him at His word.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
                                                – Romans 8:31-32 (NKJV)

A Well-Placed Trust

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One of the great lessons of the Bible is that our circumstances need not be the big deal that we tend to make them.  If we insist that our circumstances be perfect, we will normally be disappointed.  Perfect circumstances are rare in this life.  Unpleasant circumstances can even serve as the springboard from which we leap into the arms of God – a very good, or even pleasant, place to be. 

A nice illustration is found in the steady flow of water in a river compared to the daily fluctuations observed in rainfall.    In extreme cases, such as those found in Egypt, the contrast is even better.  Egypt gets very little rain at all, yet has a long history of agriculture.  The Nile provides a constant source of water.  The secret? The water comes from rainy areas of central Africa rather than the regions of the Sahara closer to the Nile’s mouth. 

If we make it a point to trust in the Lord regardless of circumstances, we’ll be like trees planted near the water of that river.  Our lives can be very fruitful even in the consistent absence of rain. 

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord. 
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.”
          – Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NKJV)