A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong
through good sense. Through knowledge
its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables. Proverbs
24:3-4
(NLT)
If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove
it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes
from wisdom. But if
you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t
cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind
of wisdom. Such things are earthly,
unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish
ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every
kind. But the wisdom from above is first
of all pure. It is also peace loving,
gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good
deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. James
3:13-17(NLT)
An elderly grandmother's view of her family's reunion,
which boasted 40 aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and cousins by
the dozens was:
This Sunday is Father’s Day, a day to recognize a very
important cog in the wheel of God’s plan for the Christian home. We will take the next three days to look at
what it means to be a Christian father on mission – building-up his wife, children
and the Kingdom of God.
The writer of Proverbs knew what it takes to make a
house a home.
By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is
established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful
treasures. Prov 24.3,4.
The margin between healthy and sickly homes is the
dividing line of wisdom and foolishness.
A home is strong when it is built with wisdom. A home will falter when foolishness reigns. The Bible word for "fool" is
moros. It is the word from which we derive
our words moral and moron. A moral moron
(fool) is one who is devoid of Godliness.
The fool says in his heart, there is no God. Psalm
14.1 (NIV). We sing the
children's song that says "The wise
man built his house upon the rock."
That same song declares that the foolish
(moros, moronic) man built his house upon the sand.
Now, if each of us were asked, "Upon which would you prefer to build your house?"
the answer would invariably be "wisdom". In order to do that we must understand and
apply wisdom, rejecting foolishness.
The
Difference Between Wisdom and Foolishness
Foolishness exhibits itself in many ways. In the interest of brevity, note the Apostle
James' insight:
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds
done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do
not boast about it or deny the truth.
Such 'wisdom' does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition,
there you find disorder and every evil practice. James
3.13-16. (NIV)
A quick or sharp tongue, anger and maliciousness
towards anyone is the essence of foolishness.
It has destruction as its destiny, and Satan for its source.
Wisdom also exhibits itself in many ways. It is more than knowledge; rather it is
knowing how to apply knowledge. It is
always the opposite of foolishness. An
old saying fits here: Knowledge
is knowing how to pull the trigger of a gun.
Wisdom is knowing which way to point the gun."
Wisdom has much less to do with knowing, than
being. Remembering that foolishness has
to do with a lack of Godliness (being a moral moron), wisdom exhibited is what
we call "Christ-likeness".
Tomorrow and Friday we will look at building our homes
with wisdom.
For You Today
The Dads you know…some are good, some may have a lot
of rough edges God is working on. But
all of them are human and in need of prayer.
That’s YOUR job!
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