Tuesday, January
2, 2018
These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of
Israel. Their purpose is to teach people
wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live
disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and
fair. These proverbs will give insight
to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. Let the wise listen to these proverbs and
become even wiser. Let those with
understanding receive guidance by exploring the meaning in these
proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles. Fear of the Lord is the foundation
of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:1-7(NLT)
What is understood as wisdom and discipline in our culture reveals how genuine wisdom and discipline
are in short supply. Wisdom is seen as
the accumulation of facts and applications; discipline is perceived as the
ability to love oneself and therefore step-up your game to the next level of
excellence. From a Biblical/Godly
perspective, both pieces of that puzzle need to receive a restoration of
original meaning.
Wisdom is more than providing an answer; it is considering whether your
answer squares with the kind of answer God would give. If something is true (or as Solomon phrased it, doing what is right, just, and fair), then your answer is wise.
Discipline is the opposite of loving
self enough to ramp up your game; discipline is a matter of
learning to love God enough
to match your will with His will, which is found in His Word. That’s why Solomon wrote that the foundation
of true knowledge
(wisdom and the discipline to do right) is when you reverence God, your Creator.
So, by learning to reverence God the puzzle of life begins to make sense. And in the end that is what everyone is really trying to figure out;
we need a sense of purpose for breathing in and out every day.
It’s January again – a new year.
So, naturally our minds turn to that better diet and exercise thing we
told everyone was going to happen this time.
(Sorry, but this is probably going to hurt).
What
is the purpose for a better diet and all that exercise?
Is it really health…so you can live longer?
Is it really better stewardship of your earthly body so you can please
God with how wonderfully you use His creation?
Or is it really
to get back that smoking-hot body so when you wear that slinky dress that’s
been hanging in the closet forever, or you go to the gym and work-out, all the
eyes will be on what a smoking-hot body looks like?
Genuine wisdom figures out that drawing attention to oneself, whether it
is by developing a smoking-hot body, sporting a granite-like six-pack of
abdominal muscles, or a new expensive sports car, or a golf swing to die-for,
is a form of lust, and has the effect of creating lust in others. If you trace that thinking through both the
Old and New Testaments you’ll find no place where lust is ever considered a
Godly quality. In fact, lust is just the
opposite; it is the launch-pad for spiritual death:
Your desire
grows inside you until it results in sin. Then the sin grows bigger and bigger
and finally ends in death. James 1:15(ERV)
The key, then, when you recognize that wrong desire, or lust on the
inside of your heart and mind is to put wisdom to work …you commit yourself to
thinking of that lust in the same way God thinks about it…sin is something that
will bring forth death.
I have a beautiful example of that, and I see it in the mirror each day;
it’s the result of the radiation treatments on my throat. There was cancer there…the doctor said the
killer needed to be killed with strong medicine. The killing of the killer left a freckle the
size of a softball on my neck. It
reminds me that cancer was not my friend…ever.
For You
Today
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
