Category: Wisdom in the Bible

Teachability


Knowledge is a precious gift from ⠁⠃⠧⠒

Compromised with questions, wonders, and challenges.

Wisdom is a beautiful work of art:

A beautiful painting of colorful proverbs,

A breathtaking harmony that soothes the spirit,

And a poetic message whose words speak courageously.

Head knowledge is not but a filthy garment:

A garment which Satan pollutes with reverse ⠏⠎⠽⠡⠕⠇⠕⠛⠽⠂

And drowns in the mud of empty ⠔⠞⠑⠇⠇⠊⠛⠰⠑

That lives on a principle of scholarly pretense.

But, great is He whose teaching is spotless!

Like a rainfall in spring’s brightest hour,

divine revelation floods the surface of the land,

Delomishing the mountain of ignorance.

Turning away from the Bible?


Many people, it seems, are more than willing to turn their back on the Bible just because someone can make a case against its accuracy. But if you pick up a copy or two you will find that most translations do agree with each other. So why do we turn away from the book that has shaped civilization for at least the last five centuries?

Mostly it is due to our own idea of what Truth really means to us today. Some people who have turned 30 or even younger are turning away from the Bible and the churches that teach from it. Truth is not relative or individual. God’s Word is True and it is the Truth. Like it or not it was given to the Jewish people first but salvation comes through Jesus Christ and belief in Him alone. Each of us has to have faith to believe in Jesus and in the Truth of the Bible and God is the Author and Finisher of our faith but you won’t hear that from a church that doesn’t teach and preach from the Bible.

The refusal of people to believe God’s Word is a far more dangerous tone to take than what is happening in regard to our healthcare and the election too. God is not some fairy tale and His Word has been proven to be true. The prophecies have all come true except for the taking up of the church, those who believe in Jesus for their salvation. When that prophecy finally happens the whole world will know that God is real but whether the news will report the truth about it will be another “spin” which will hurt more people for eternity.

Why do I defend the Bible like this? Because if it isn’t true…then God is a liar and that is something that He cannot do. The life that is in the universe and that which we see every day on Earth could not be here if it weren’t for God and His Son keeping the little things and the big things in balance. There are so many documents which prove that the Torah and the Prophets are true and have been copied accurately down through the years. There are more than five thousand copies of most, if not all of the New Testament.

Please go to a Bible teaching church, pick up a copy of the Bible if you don’t already have one and begin reading it. So much of the Bible backs up the New Testament because Jesus and His disciples only had the Old Testament to read and go by. We benefit from Paul’s letters which were written mostly from prison due to his preaching about Jesus and His sacrifice for our salvation. In fact, Paul wrote almost half of the New Testament himself so if it weren’t for his letters we would have a much smaller New Testament and Bible.

I urge everyone who reads this to tell others about it especially if they don’t go to church or if they don’t know Jesus as their Savior. He came to give us eternity with Him and save us from an eternity in hell. Make sure of your salvation because not one of us is guaranteed to be here tomorrow.

Do you know God?


A strange question for sure but do you know Him? Many of us who attend church and claim to be Christians claim to know about God but knowing about Him is not enough. Even when you read it on a fairly regular schedule you will miss a lot if you aren’t praying your way through it. The Bible is a book and sometimes we tend to read it like a normal book and it is NOT a normal book. God’s Word, which is what our Bible is, is His love letter and a guidebook for a person to find out Who our Messiah really is!

Jesus is the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament and He is known by some other names too. Usually with the name capitalized such as the Commander of the Lord’s armies, or “a fourth man who looks like a Son of God” when He visited the three Hebrews when they were thrown into the fire. God makes His entrance into humanity’s life in many ways but when you read the Bible without prayer and an attitude of seeking Him, you miss out on the message contained within.

God is the true Author of the entire Bible because it was through His Spirit that all of the writers, from Moses to John, were inspired to write and were given the words to write down so others would be able to learn about Him. From the first mention of “the Seed of the woman” until we read about the birth of Jesus there are pictures in words of Who Jesus would be and what His mission would be as well. Every prophecy about Him was fulfilled during His ministry and His death, burial and resurrection. The only one which hasn’t come to pass is His return which will happen, likely in our lifetimes.

I pray that anyone who reads this will seek Him in the Bible not only to get to know God and His Son but also to be transformed by Him and then take His message of hope and salvation to those that you come into contact with. The time is growing short for us to get His message out, so don’t put it off. Seek Him while there is time to do so.

and three iron nails.

Profound wisdom


Don’t read the title and think that is how I feel about the words that God gives me because I really don’t feel that way. I just know that there is no way that I could come up with the words and the sermons that I preach at my little church without His input by the Holy Spirit. If that makes me a fanatic or a “crazy Christian” then I totally own that.

God created the Earth and the entire cosmos out of nothing and I do believe every word in His account of creation. Because God is the embodiment of Love which we can’t comprehend and everything which has breath praises Him in some way every day. My post today is not a very big one or even a very profound one but if you think about it…it makes sense.

God created man, Adam, from the ground and formed him with His hands. Then God blew the Breath of Life into Adam and he became a living soul. Look at two words, which I have found this by a friend of mine on Facebook: EARTH and HEART. Spelled with the same letters but only the H moves. Now here are two more words which God uses in the Bible to get us to “be still and know that I AM God”…LISTEN and SILENT, again same letters different arrangement.

God tells us to listen and be still (silent) to hear and know that He is God. The Earth is our home and it is the heart that God judges and looks at in order to know you. Simple but powerful wisdom contained in similar words with the same letters just arranged differently. How awesome is our God?

What makes you happy?


Have you found it yet or are you still looking for that person or something which will give you complete contentment? I can tell you for sure that there is nothing in this world which will make you happy. No person or amount of money or things that you own can bring lasting joy and happiness into your life. Depending upon which one of those gives you the most satisfaction, you may feel content or even happy for a while if you do have the love of your life or an amount of money which allows you to cast all of your anxiety and worry to the wind…but it will only last for a while. The stuff that you own only gives you a sense of power because you have something which someone else doesn’t. None of these will bring true happiness for very long.

Many of us do equate happiness with less stress in whatever area of life you feel that in. Whether it is through a satisfying relationship or having enough in your bank account that makes bill paying day easy and fairly stress free. But, could you have or feel happiness and contentment if, like Job, all of it was taken away? How would you feel then? Would you blame God for your troubles? Would you blame yourself?

Feeling discontent and depressed because your life isn’t working out the way that you had hoped it would is kinda natural. Most of us do feel that way from time to time. But blaming God for your trouble or even blaming yourself won’t really help the situation and could make it worse. So, what can you do constructively about the problems in your life? Particularly if the problems were brought on by something that you did or didn’t do. The first step is to admit that you had a hand or even both feet in making your problems worse. If you get that far, then seek out help from someone other than the one who caused the problem. Preferably seek out your answer in God’s Word.

It doesn’t matter if your problem is related to a lack of money or if it is a relationship problem, there is Wisdom found in God’s Word which will give you the right advice to move in the direction of fixing the problem. You have to take the advice to heart and act on it though, God doesn’t reach down and fix things as soon as you ask. He wants you to act on His advice and seek His guidance in whatever area of your life that you need it in. Truthfully, we should be seeking Him in every area of our lives before a problem arises. Not seeking His advice and His wisdom is what gets us in trouble in the first place.

A new day, a new year!


Sunrise-5 Do you know that God begins each day with a beautiful, glorious sunrise so that we can see His majesty? Oh, these beautiful sunrises may not happen where you are, but somewhere there is a painting that only God can create. We can see them in pictures on the Internet, or maybe on the news if the are breathtaking enough. God is in control of the universe and our world, yet many people don’t recognize this fact. God loves you and me and every person on this planet, whether they know Him or love Him or not.

We are all beginning a new year and the violence and news is already bearing that out. It seems that our world just can’t go one 24 hour period without some form of hatred and violence toward a person or group of people. Every day bears this out and it seems that nobody can figure out the problem or the solution. The Solution is Jesus and the problem is mostly from those who hate Him or those who serve Him. I know, there are crimes committed which don’t have anything to do with religion, but when you look at the news it sure doesn’t seem that way.

Life is imitating history every day because Christians have been hated and anyone who reads or serves God has been targeted in some way in the past two millennia. Even and especially if you are Jewish and Christian it all comes back to the Bible. It seems that few people can understand or even tolerate the absolute Truth found in its pages even when they know it is right! Our country and many of its Presidents in the past have acknowledged that “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”–George Washington “.

The world or our country needs God and the Bible and the wisdom contained in them. We, each of us, need the wisdom of God and the salvation that Jesus offers to us. It is something which we all need to understand and seek out for ourselves to make the rest of our lives more useful. Make this year one that you live for God and it will be the best of your life.

There is always a way which seems right…


You hear it many times on the television and radio that what someone in power is doing is the right thing to do. It may be at the time, it may be for that situation, but our leaders don’t seem to look toward the future anymore. Many of them don’t look much farther down the road of time than the next election or the end of their term in office. Then the “problem” becomes someone else’s responsibility and I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

In Proverbs 16:24-26 the Bible says: 24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. 25 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. 26 A worker’s appetite works for him, For his hunger urges him on.…

Many times in the past one hundred years out leaders, not just in America but all over the world, have made decisions which would have a lasting effect on many people for years and even decades to come. Some of those decisions were good, some not so much, and we are still paying the ransom for the bad decisions and our children and grandchildren and in some cases great-great-grandchildren will be paying for what has happened in our governments.

Many of these things can’t be undone by the next administration or even succeeding administrations for the next century…but at the time, “it was the right thing to do”. Is there a way for us to fix some of these deplorable conditions? Actually…NO! We can’t do it because human weakness and greed won’t allow it to be done!Politicians know this, that is how they make their fortunes! Once they have their future secured, their selfishness prompts them to finally “retire” on our tax dollars, for life and many of them could not care less.

Yes, I do rant about our country and its debt problem and I do apologize for that. As the verse above states, “there is a way that seems right” and many times that is what we do instead of consulting with our Creator on the best decision or action for us or our country. We as a people and a nation, as well as many all over the world itself, tend to follow our own wisdom thinking ourselves to be wise enough to do what is right.

For a time, that which we do may be right for a while but years down the road that may change. Wisdom and the idea that we are wise is like a two-sided coin. On one side there is your ideas and your wisdom that you have gained in your lifetime, on the other there is what should be done according to what is right in God’s wisdom and that comes from prayer, seeking His counsel and His wisdom. The world sees a three-sided object in this situation though and the third side would be “what’s in it for me?” What will I get out of the deal? Selfish so-called “wisdom” which does nobody any good except the one who gets the most out of the consequences.

I cannot give you the answer to the world’s problems or the answer to America’s problems. The answer lies with God in all cases and we all need to seek Him in our life and in all of our decisions, those which affect others and those which have an eternal effect on us in particular.

Seek Him first in all things, big or small, buying a house or finding your keys. He is there and with faith in Him comes understanding and wisdom. Don’t fall back on your wisdom or your teacher’s wisdom because we are all human and we fail, sometimes spectacularly and miserably. Seek out Him Who doesn’t fail, but Who works for the good in all things, that which glorifies the Kingdom of God. Amen!

The significance of the Word


You don’t just read a cookbook, you fix and eat the meal. It is the same way with the Bible, God’s Word, if you don’t assimilate it, no matter how much you appreciate it, what good is it? And with the Bible, it means that you are to take it into your mind, to thoroughly comprehend it, to use it as nourishment for your mind and heart and your eternal soul!

Just as with a cookbook, the words and the recipes don’t help you much by just reading them. Reading the recipe of a fabulous meal or dish is not very satisfying, you have to do something with the information that you have in front of you. It is the same with the Bible. Read it, of course, study it and think on what you have read…definitely, then you have to put it into practice. Just as the recipe won’t do you any good if you don’t put your hands to work and put it together and cook it, God’s Word won’t help you in your daily life unless you act on it and use it!

Our lives are complex and we meet people in all sorts of situations every day. In many of our situations, we don’t interact with too many of those that we meet very much, especially not today. We text, we tweet, we post on social media, occasionally we will call someone, but we rarely speak to each other. It is even more rare that we sit down and have an actual conversation about our lives and the things which make our lives meaningful!

Why have we moved away from the interaction that was once a daily activity just as walking or breathing? Too much stuff has gotten in the way I believe. Too much technology is interfering with our lives. Especially when it comes to family members and our friends, we turn to our phones and our computers more often than we do to our pastor or our next door neighbour.

God’s Word is alive and it has been with us for over two millennia, yet it is not a book which is out of date. It is fresh and new to all who read it. The wisdom which it contains is relevant to today in the twenty-first century just as it was when it was written. It seems that many people think that coming to church on Sunday or having a Bible in their house does the trick and makes their lives better. Coming to church can do that and the fellowship which we have there does help us, but don’t leave the teaching that you receive on the pew.

The Bible, like a cookbook, won’t do you any good at all unless you open it, read it and apply it to your life. Allowing it to collect dust in your home doesn’t help your spiritual life because you aren’t taking in any spiritual nourishment to help you to grow in your walk with God. He sent the Word to us through His prophets and scribes so that we could learn of His love for us and so that we can learn of His wisdom.

Don’t just read it like a history book or an interesting book but as the actual Word of God. It is Truth, it is also a Life-giving book and a book of truth and wisdom, not of mankind’s wisdom but from God Himself! Apply its wisdom and words to your life so that others will benefit from your walk with Jesus. After all, He is the Living Word made flesh which dwelt among men. Take Him with you in your heart and in your everyday life, because without Him nothing has any meaning or substance in all of Creation.

Peace in our time?


“Since its inception in the 7th century, Islam has used the sword to advance its territory. It goes on to this day. The goal is to bring the world into submission to Sharia law. This is what motivates all these “terrorist” groups. ISIS is getting a lot of attention, but what is going on with Boko Haram against the people of Nigeria today is just as horrible. This practice of using force to compel conversion is a distinctive to Islam compared to the world’s other major religions.” (borrowed from another site afa.net)

Our world here in America and elsewhere is becoming much more dangerous, especially to Christians. Why? Because we don’t believe the same as other religions. Yet, people in America want tolerance from Christians toward everyone else’s beliefs and their lifestyles, but they can’t stand our beliefs. Talk about a double standard!!

It seems that people can’t comprehend the reason that Christians believe the way that they do, and I don’t understand this at all. The Bible, which is our guidebook and our Holy Book, is available almost everywhere. Most of it is part of Jewish belief as well since their Torah and much of our Old Testament are the same. Even Islam recognizes the Book and the Patriarchs and Jesus, although they don’t give them the same reverence that we do.

Peace in our life-time has been a common theme that many have tried to bring about for many hundreds of years, yet it is something which is either fleeting in its brevity or almost impossible due to cultural and religious differences. Is it possible? Yes, but it cannot be done through force and it will not come at the hands of a man, it will come about when Jesus returns and rules from Jerusalem.

Why do I say it this way? Because it is a fact. God has prophesied it in His Word and therefore that is the way that it will be. There is no argument and there is no other way that it will happen. Many people will fight against it and they will fail in the end. Like it or not, that is the way the future will be.

Christianity is not forced upon you. You will and always have had a choice to follow Jesus or not, but peace on the Earth will only come when He is ruling from Jerusalem. I am not speaking of the Anti-Christ, but the real Messiah, Jesus.

Yes, I know, many who might read this will not agree with me which is fine. I don’t expect nor require anyone to agree. I am just stating something which is prophesied to happen and it is going to happen. Whether you believe that I am delusional or not really doesn’t matter at all, I have been called worse.

God knows the hearts of men, regardless of their religion or their doctrine, and it is He that will judge each of us according to our faith and that which we have done or not done in this life. The things which have been done for His Kingdom will last, anything other than this will be destroyed. Your possessions and your money are all part of this world and it doesn’t matter how much you have of either. When  you die, regardless of the manner of your death, your “stuff” will be here for someone else to sell or enjoy. You will be in eternity and your decisions in this life for or against Jesus will determine where that eternity will be. So make the right choice.

Understanding the Bible, is it possible?


The reason some of us don’t understand the Bible any more than we do is because we have not been living up to the light God has already given us! If you want to understand the part of the Bible you don’t understand, begin to obey the parts that you do understand and then you’ll understand what you didn’t understand. Understand?

I know, its kind of cryptic to put it that way, but it is only by reading a letter that we can understand what the author meant about the story. It is also the only way that we will ever know the end of the story or its beginning. Your lives and mine are products of our educational system, a system which was broken many years ago and has never been fixed. Broken because we chose to take out the wisdom which our forefathers knew were necessary for us and for our country.

God’s Word, the Bible, was the main educational book used at the beginning of our country. When people began printing the Bible in English so that the common man could read it and understand it, it took away the control from the “church” and gave it back to God and the people who were reading it. This was deemed heresy by the Catholic church and the church of England! Many believers were killed for their beliefs because the teaching found in the Bible were slightly different from the “church” at the time.

The Bible should be part of our educational system now, but it isn’t because of politics and because a small minority doesn’t want it there. They are afraid of the Truth that it contains because it exposes their own sins and the failures that school systems have heaped upon our children for decades. People who like the darkness don’t like it when a bright light is shined into that darkness, because it hurts and it exposes the lies and the inconsistent stories which have been used to make us and our children go along with the “status quo”.

God’s Word is His letter to us…His way of speaking to us and it has been that way for more than four thousand years. Jewish scholars have accurately copied the scrolls which have been passed down to them for generations and this is our “Old Testament”. The followers of Jesus have copied the letters, epistles, which the disciples wrote to the churches so that we would have the “New Testament”. When one part of the Bible validates the other, there is no doubt about where it came from or Who had a part in its writing. The Spirit of God inspired the writers from both “Testaments” so that the New would validate the Old and verify it as authentic and it does this perfectly.

How can you know for sure that it is the valid and truthful Word? First, the Holy Spirit inspired the writers to write down what they wrote. Second, the prophecies in the Old Testament are proven and validated in the New. Third, and this is the most important reason, because it is the Word of God! He doesn’t lie, He cannot lie! So the inspiration that was given to the prophets and disciples through the Holy Spirit has to be the Truth!

Many people today think that you can take parts of it as the truth, and others are just metaphors for something else and can mean whatever you interpret them to mean. The Word is Truth and the laws and the wisdom contained in it is the Truth, like it or not. You cannot pick and choose! Either you believe it as the Truth or you don’t, but that doesn’t change its Truth. The love of God for us and the Truth of His Word is shown throughout the Bible and in our everyday lives. Seek Him out, read His Word and learn of Him and His wisdom because it is life to you now and in eternity, if you ask Jesus into your life and your heart.