Happy Father's Day part 3

Friday, June 19, 2015

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)

We’ve been considering the wisdom of building Christian homes.  Yesterday we looked at hearing wisdom; today we want to hold it and heed it:

Holding Wisdom – Invest In Christian Values

True wisdom does things to strengthen the ability to live within Christian values.  

How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!            Proverbs 16.16 (NIV). 

Investing in your Christian values takes two postures:

A. Avoid the harmful stuff like the plague.  

If something tempts you, stay away from it.  Change your lifestyle.  If the lake house calls too often, keeping your family out of church, sell the lake house.  If pornography is your lure, stay away from the bookstore, or the Jiffy Mart.  Whatever it takes, short-circuit the temptation.

B. Be pro-active with helpful stuff.  

Feed whatever nourishes the strength of your Christian values. 

If you make a mistake, confess it and begin again right away.   God isn't interested in keeping score over your fallen condition.  He already knows you are a sinner.  What he really wants is for you to re-establish contact and fellowship. 

If you find yourself falling into sins, enlist some help.  You have a pastor.  You have brothers in the Lord.  Become accountable to someone else you can trust.  In the family it is no different.  Whatever measures you need to employ to invest in your Christian values, I suggest you take them early, and review them often.  Remember, if you plan to build strong Christian values in your family, you must set them up as your family's targets. 

Many people want wisdom.  Fewer are willing to do the hard work of identifying and investing in the Christian values that form wisdom.  The third part is critical....

Heed Wisdom – Be Inflexible in Christian Values

Inflexibility is a bad word in our pluralistic, everybody-does-his-own-thing society.  We are supposed to be very flexible, very accommodating to other peoples' ideas and ways.  The problem is, God didn't make the "Ten Suggestions" -- rather He gave us commandments!

The Bible clearly says that it is only a fool (moron) who says 'in his heart that there is no God.  Fools build their houses on the sands of opinion, self-indulgent pleasure and greed.  Those who say God does not exist are not only fools – they're not even honest; for everyone knows in his heart that God is real. 

What they are really saying is, "I don't want to live that way."  They know that building the house of their life on God's rock will require living for God, and in His ways.  Refusing is their choice, not their conviction.

For You Today

Would you have a house built on the rock of wisdom?  Then hear, hold and heed this:

     The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.  Proverbs 9:10

Happy Father’s Day to all

Happy Father's Day part 2

Thursday, June 18, 2015

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 Investigation of How We Can Build Our Homes with Wisdom

Building a home with wisdom can be organized into three disciplines, hearing, holding, and heeding...we will look at “hearing” today…the other two tomorrow.

Hearing Wisdom; Identify Christian Values for your home

In the Bible to hear means more than auditory ability.  It means to listen closely, evaluate and understand.  The Proverb writer put it this way: 

I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw."  Proverbs 24.32 (NIV). 

Hearing, or learning our lessons has to do with investigating what life has to offer, and then identifying Christian values within that which we see. 

It has been said that if you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.  Identifying Christian values means you are determining from God's Word what your targets are in life. 

Some of the more obvious Christian values are:  the sanctity of life, honesty, and fidelity.  In short, the Ten Commandments! 

To "hear" wisdom is to study, understand, and accept God's way. 

Today is my Dad’s birthday.  One of the things I remember every Father’s Day is the lesson I learned about honesty and fidelity – doing truth faithfully, no matter who’s watching.

Dad had told us boys to stay close to the house one hot Sunday afternoon.  We couldn’t stand not being able to go to the swimming pond, so we took off when nobody was looking.

I will never forget the look in Dad’s eyes when we were dragging back to the house late that afternoon.  (I will also remember till my dying day the meeting of the rod of correction with my seat of knowledge)!

My Dad understood hearing the wisdom of being honest and faithful; he taught us!

And, for the lifetime of that wisdom impressed literally (on my backside), and more importantly on my soul and spirit – thanks Dad.

For You Today

Take some time to go over in your mind the bits of “hearing” the ones who raised you must have done as they tried to impart the wisdom of values into your life.

Thank God for those who gave you that wisdom.

Happy Father's Day - Part 1

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

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:                             

"Imagine it!  All these relatives -- and not a single friend."[1]

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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[1]Nan Smith, The Reader's Digest