Tag Archives: Knowledge
But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. -Luke 2:19, KJV
The song “Mary, Did You Know” asks several questions about what Mary knew about her newborn Son before He grew up.
For most of those questions, the answer is basically “yes.” She may not have understood the full depth of things nor known of the specifics of how it would happen, but she thought about it.
She and Joseph wondered at shepherds and wealthy foreigners coming to visit this baby of hers. She heard prophecies about this boy growing up to bring peace and healing to faithful people of God, taking over the government, and suffering for the sins of the world.
And what does she do hearing all of this?
. . . but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. -Luke 2:51b
May we be a people who treasure God’s Word in our hearts and minds, pondering them and sharing the good news that Jesus has come to take away our sins, as prophesied, and is prophesied to come again for the full redemption of His faithful servants.
Lord Jesus, give us a love for Your Word, teaching us to memorize Scripture and share Your love and forgiveness, as well as Your immanent return.
1 Comment | tags: Advent, Affection, Christmas, Christmas Hope, Coming, devotion, Heart, Jesus, Joseph, Knowledge, Mary, Mary Did You Know, Mother, Ponder, Pondered, Second Coming, treasure, Word, Word of the Lord | posted in affection, Knowledge
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. -Matthew 3:7-9, KJV
It is not enough to come from a Christian (or Jewish) home.
With Jesus’ first Advent, it was mostly the religious leaders who refused to change, because they “knew it all” about faith.
As we await Jesus’ second Advent, it is not enough to have grown up in church or attend church regularly. It takes repentance and a willingness to actually listen to the teachings and commands of Jesus, to show love and compassion to others and commitment to God’s truth.
Do not trust in your ancestry or upbringing. Do not rely on the faith of your parents, siblings, or friends. Turn to Jesus for yourself, and believe.
Saving God, do not let me rely on my own knowledge, skills, or history. Give me a passion for You, Your Word, and Your Church.
1 Comment | tags: Advent, Christ, Christmas, Coming, faith, Faithfulness, Family, Jesus, Knowledge, Ownership, Path, paths of life, Repent, Repentance, Second Coming, truth, Vipers | posted in Jesus, Knowledge, Paths of Life, Truth
Human beings sure are smart!
Bob and I went over to the church to see if we could help our assistant pastor and some friends who were busting up the concrete getting ready to put in a new parking area by the daycare center. Kevin, who is also a farmer, had brought in his own Bobcat and was adroitly ripping up the ground and dumping it into the truck. Bob and I are always so impressed by this guy’s expertise in all things concerning the practical working of dirt.
I’m also pretty amazed at how people invented and manufactured the Bobcat. Or the concrete it busts up for that matter! Or how about Apollo 13? A popular movie from years ago, I just admire at the ingenuity of bringing them back home safely—with slide rules. Continue reading
Leave a comment | tags: asking, Common sense, Fear of the Lord, God, humility, James 1:5, Jesus, Knowledge, Pride, proverbs, Wisdom | posted in Uncategorized, Wisdom
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. -Proverbs 29:18, ESV
A prophet declares the word of the Lord. In that sense, pastors and evangelists are prophets!
But we tend to hear the word “prophetic” and think “telling the future.” There certainly is an element of this, but we must remember the the other part of prophecy: revealing what is hidden … not just the future, but in our lives.
Most importantly, prophecy reveals God’s expectations.
Therefore, a good pastor and evangelist remind people that God has set His expectation for how we are to live (summed up in the Ten Commandments, which are summed up as “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself”), and that we will one day be judged by how we have done. More specifically, we will be judged by whether or not we followed God’s Son, Jesus.
The prophetic vision we have is that God has a standard, as modeled in Jssus, and He will be coming back to the earth in judgment.
If we neglect to teach and remind this world of this, people will throw off restraint and wantonly sin, either because they see no need for a Savior (“We’re basically good!”), or because they see grace giving them license (“We can do whatever we want, because God forgives!”)
We are either going to be judged guilty by how we rejected Christ or how we defiled Christ.
Only by believing in and emulating Christ’s sacrificial work – allowing His cleansing blood to cover us with forgiveness and grace to live a life of forgiveness, grace, and love – will we be ready for His imminent return.
Leave a comment | tags: Book of Proverbs, God's Word, Judge, judgement, judgment, justice, Knowledge, Law, paths of life, prophecy, Prophetic, Prophets, Second Coming, Ten Commandments, truth, Vision, Warning | posted in Justice, Knowledge, Paths of Life, Warnings
He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. -Proverbs 28:26, KJV
We live in a world today that frequently tells us to “just follow your heart, it will lead you true.” And many people rely on their reason even knowing they know very little of our reality.
That second point is striking. The most optimistic scientists say we may know 6% of everything there is to know about the Universe. Yet, atheists will argue there is no evidence for God. But there is at least 94% that we don’t even know about!
However, we can trust our heart, right?
God tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
In our fallen, sinful state, we cannot trust our heart. We are selfish and want to believe what feels good, not necessarily what is true and good.
It affects our emotions, thoughts, and reason.
The wise person realizes that there is a God, who has a standard and has revealed it and Himself to His Creation – through the written Scriptures and the incarnation of Jesus.
Trusting our own heart and reason may lead us deep into sin.
Trusting the God revealed in the Bible and through the Son will deliver us from sin.
Leave a comment | tags: Book of Proverbs, Delivered, Heart, Knowledge, Mind, salvation, Saved, Sin, trust, Wisdom | posted in Knowledge, Wisdom
Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. -Proverbs 27:1, KJV
As I write this, it is the day before this posts online.
That seems rather presumptuous of me to assume that you are reading this the next day (or farther in the future).
The thing is, I am not sure anyone is reading this. For all I know, before anyone gets the chance, the Lord has returned and brought the world as we know it to an end.
However, this is scheduled for a Sunday. Therefore I continue this by encouraging you to get to your local church and worship God through song, hearing the preached and taught Word, and enjoying fellowship with other Christians. (If you went on Saturday, cool.)
In terms of being confident you are reading these words, though, I explain my presumption.
Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
James 4:13-15, KJV
Do you not see that James and Solomon were in agreement? But James explains Proverbs 27:1 in more detail.
To explain, I presume people are reading these words because I trust that God is in control. At the very least, I have obeyed His command to expound on scripture. At best, I have done so to your benefit in Christ.
Maybe no one is reading these words, but, if the Lord will, you are.
I do not boast in any skill I have or that I know you are reading this.
No, I boast that the Lord has spoken, has sacrificed Himself for me and for you, and He has risen to glory. And He is in control.
And I shall continue as long as it is called Today. For Tomorrow (capital “T”) shall be with the Lord, and all boasting shall cease, for He is fully present with us and all sin and rebellion and fear is gone.
Lord willing, you are there, too.
Leave a comment | tags: Boasting, Book of Proverbs, faith, Faithful Witness, Faithfulness, God's Will, God's Word, Knowledge, Lord, Lord Willing, Presume, Presumption, Promise, promises, Return, Today, Tomorrow, Will, Willing | posted in Faithfulness, Knowledge, Promises, Word of the Lord
He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage. –Proverbs 26:6, KJV
The past two entries from Michael and me covered answering the fool in various ways. The next one after this from Dawn does a great job unifying Proverbs 26:4-5.
For this, I will look at how we can play the fool and be played by the fool with proverbs.
Playing the Fool
We may be very godly, have Scripture memorized (or be very quick looking up passages in our Bible apps on our phones 😉), and we have the right verse to respond to everyone.
But sometimes, people don’t need the Bible verse. Either they are adamantly opposed to our messageor they simply needed a hug and a listening ear, and our perfect verse led to a tantrum or to their brain shutting down and stop listening to us. Or worse, they lash out at others or injure themselves.
Played by the Fool
This second point is more prevalent in our world. This is the person who knows just enough about religion or academics or life in general to be dangerous.
This is the person who takes a Bibke verse out of context to prove you wrong, uses a blend of world religions’ teachings to show how much more about the world they know (but misapply much of it due to contradicting the Bible), or tries to help make the world better without accounting for human sin (while pointing out the sins of humanity).
This person speaks without knowledge and hurts others more by driving them away from God (see Jeremiah 10).
Avoiding the Cup of Wrath
What we all fail to realize – whether playing or getting played by the fool – is that we are setting each other up to drink damage, from the ultimate damage, God’s cup of wrath.
But there is a relief. We can allow the Holy Spirit to guide us (and help us keep our mouths shut).
But only if we repent and believe in the One who drank that cup for us (Isaiah 51:17, Jeremiah 25:15, Habakkuk 2:15–16, Matthew 20:20–23) are we able to receive the Holy Spirit.
Anyone who uses wise-sounding or even scriptural words to cause division or lead others away from Jesus Christ is only cutting them off at the feet so they stumble straight into eternal destruction.
Leave a comment | tags: Book of Proverbs, Christ, Damage, Destruction, Eternal destruction, Fool, Jesus, Knowledge, Mouth, Proverb, Wisdom | posted in Fools, Knowledge, Wisdom
The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.
Proverbs 25:3, KJV
There are three ways to understand this verse, I think:
- Very few throughout all of history can understand the pressures, stresses, and rewards of leading a people as ruler or even elected official. Some of us may get an inkling of some idea, but without doing it we will never have a full understanding. (Consider the presidents and prime ministers who enter office with dark hair that turns gray during one term.)
- God, the Creator of all of space and the Earth as well as our Eternal King, can never be fully understood. How can finite creatures understand that much power and majesty or that this God would want to save people who willfully rebel against Him? It will never happen.
- As I mentioned the other day, Christians are are a royal priesthood following our King of kings and High Priest. Unbelievers will try to understand all of space and our Earth, but they may never understand how we can believe in the One who made it all. They will barely if at all attempt to search out our heart for our King.
Most of us will never understand leading a nation, and none of us will ever comprehend the fullness of God.
If we are wise, we will seek out God and contemplate His truths and all He has done for us. We may not understand all He has done, but diving into those unsearchable truths will only bring us closer to and more like that God.
Leave a comment | tags: Book of Proverbs, Cosmos, Creator, Earth, God, God's kingdom, Heart, King, Kingdoms, Knowledge, Leaders, leadership, President, Prime Minister, relationships, Searching, Universe, Unsearchable | posted in Knowledge, Relationships
Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. -Proverbs 23:12, KJV
People wonder why our Western culture is slipping deeper into chaos and hatred.
The short answer is that we largely have given up on listening to instruction and seeking knowledge. We have promoted an individualistic approach to life, that we are each special and can make our own truth. If we just look I side ourselves, they say, we can find real truth.
It has even infiltrated the Church.
In truth, God’s Word tells us that we are all sinners in need of repentance (changing our way of living and thinking), and we need a Savior to help us … according to His standard, not our own.
If you do not have knowledge of the Savior, seek out a friend (like a pastor or another devout Christian) who can show you Christ.
If you do not follow the instructions laid out in the Bible for godly living, you need to repent.
If you are unsure of what the instructions mean – or even what they are – start by going to church. We learn to listen to others without injecting our own truth and to interact with others meaningfully.
In fact, go to church. Knowledge grows in community. And God is all about community.
Leave a comment | tags: Book of Proverbs, Church, Community, instruction, Knowledge, relationships | posted in Instruction, Knowledge, Relationships
The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord , searching all the inward parts of the belly. -Proverbs 20:27, KJV
In Matthew 5, Jesus said we Christians are the light of the world who should let that light shine by doing good works that bring others to the Lord.
Now, many people attempt to do good works without bothering to include God, both Christians and non-Christians.
Isaiah was the one who reminded us that our works done apart from God are … *ahem* … dirty rags. (64:6. Ask your pastor if you do not know the full meaning of “dirty rags”.)
What does all of this have to do with Proverbs 20:27?
The light within us is God, the one who sustains our lives, even when we are living apart from His ways. In both Jeremiah (31:33) and Hebrews we are told that in these last days God has written His Law on our minds and hearts.
One way of looking at this is that He has seared our conscience with what is right. We “instinctively know” what is right and wrong.
Yet, when we do not live in accordance with His Spirit, even our best intentions are tainted by our selfish, sinful desires and actions.
It is when you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach that something is not right. So, when God searches our “inward parts of the belly” (i.e. our hearts), He can see our selfish, sinful leanings.
But He also regenerates our hearts and minds by His Spirit to do truly good, God-honoring and glorifying works.
Leave a comment | tags: Book of Proverbs, conscience, Knowledge, Light, Light of the World, paths of life, Regeneration, Works | posted in Knowledge, Paths of Life, Work
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Proverbial Thought 