No Wisdom in the Age of Information

In this generation of overwhelming information, where is wisdom? We have 24 hours a day TV, internet, and cell phones; knowledge is readily available on any subject. Wisdom, on the other hand, is hard to find.
Many people think wisdom and knowledge are one in the same. But wisdom is the correct use of knowledge. Knowledge has to do with gaining information, but wisdom has to so with how that information is used. People in generations past may have been more ignorant about more things and they may not have been able to understand the things we understand today, but they were way ahead in wisdom! They knew how to put what knowledge they had to good use!
A person can be very educated, very knowledgeable and well informed and still be extremely unwise. I believe we should prize wisdom above sheer knowledge. What good is information if you are too unwise to know what to do with it?! Look around; everywhere you look you can see the effects of valuing information above wisdom. From the White House to the house next door, very crazy things are being done by very well informed and educated people! They know all kinds of things, they just don't have the wisdom to put it all to practical use!
The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. People know about quantum physics, but they don't have enough wisdom to fear the God of all creation! People know how to operate a computer, an airplane, a space shuttle..., but they don't have the wisdom to worship the one true God who made them!

Too Far

I saw a tee-shirt the other day that read "Jesus is my homey". Jesus is our Lord, our Savior, our King and many other wonderful things, but He is not our "homey"! I have always said that God has made a way for us to come to Him and that's what He wants us to do; He wants our company! He wants us to sit at His feet and worship Him, love Him and spend time with Him. He wants our hearts! He adopted us into His family so that we could come into His presence anytime we needed to or wanted to. I don't think God expects all the "thee's and thou's" and all the ritualistic traditions that man has contrived over the centuries. He is our Father and we are His children and that's the way He wants it; Family time!
But there is such a thing as getting too familiar! We can take it all too far! "Homey" is not a respectful way to address one's Savior! God is the most wonderful, amazing, mind-blowing and dangerous person (for lack of a better term) there is or ever was or ever will be! "Homey", "buddy" and "mighty peep" are not respectful ways to speak of Him.

Theocracy

A wise man once said that God will always give you a say, but He will never give you a vote. God is the supreme ruler over everything, everywhere, all the time. And while He loves us and wants us to come talk with Him and express our desires, wants and needs, He makes all the decisions. Isn't strange how we come to God and ask for something and then proceed to tell Him how we want it done?
We live in the USA and since this is a democracy and democracy is good, we tend to forget that Heaven is not a democracy; God is not our president! God is our King! He is our supreme ruler and He rules over creation with righteousness, power and perfect wisdom. We don't have a vote in how things are done! We put our trust in the fact that our Sovereign God will always do what is right and good according to His perfect will!
I love the USA and I like the fact that I have a vote in how things go. But the only reason we need a democracy is because human rulers are not perfect; you can't trust them to be fair, impartial and righteous. Human beings are tempted with greed and lust and the more power they have, the stronger the temptations are. Since our King is not human, we can trust that He can't be tempted with these things (or anything) and therefore we are safe in His care.
I don't want a vote in the way the universes are run! I mess up my own little life enough already! I am glad that God is in charge and I trust Him with everything. I don't always understand what He does and sometimes I don't even like what He does, but His workings always turn out for my best!

Two Sons - Two Wrong Ways of Thinking

Remember the story of the prodigal son? Actually, it's the story of the lost son. I think it's even more the story of the two sons. Each son in the story had his own set of problems! It wasn't just the one who left that was messed up!
Everyone concentrates on the "prodigal" son, but I think the other son was further off track. The younger son learned the hard lessons that "there's no place like home" and "you don't miss the water 'till the well runs dry", but I'm not sure the older son learned his lesson at all! Sure the younger son messed up royally, but he "came to his senses" and came home to apologize and asked forgiveness. The older son stayed and worked for his father, but it wasn't out of love; He was working for an inheritance! When the younger son returned, he didn't rejoice with his father because he didn't want his brother returning for any of what was his!
Both sons failed to understand one important thing: being a son is about relationship! The younger son came home to ask his father to hire him as a servant. He didn't understand that when you're a son, you're always a son! You were born a son and the only way to stop being a son is to die! As long as he lived, he was his father's son! No matter what he did or didn't do, he was still his father's son. The older son thought that he had to work hard and earn his inheritance and his father's love and respect. He was just as wrong as his younger brother! His father loved him whether he worked 7 days a week, 24 hours a day or didn't work at all! Their father wasn't worried about money and things; He was worried about his sons!
Sometimes we take our Heavenly Father for granted and we run around wasting our time on frivolous stuff, as if our lives were our own! And sometimes we start thinking that we have to work ourselves silly to make our Father love us. Both ways of thinking are equally wrong! It's about relationship!
We are God's sons and daughters. He chose us. He saved us. He loves us. He made a way for us to be adopted into His family. This was all His idea! This story was told to us so that we could learn the lesson the easy way: from their experience! We don't have to learn it the hard way!

Fathers Hearts

I just took my son off to college and I am missing him something awful. It has only been two days, but it feels like a month. The old saying is that you don't miss the water 'til the well runs dry and that works just as well with people. Your family is around you all the time and it's easy to take their constant presence for granted. When they're off somewhere for awhile, you really start to miss their company. You don't realize how wonderful they make you feel until they're hundreds of miles away. I miss my son.
I know that I'm a human and God is supernatural and perfect, but I can only imagine how He feels when we let our prayer lives deteriorate; When we gradually stop spending time with Him like we used to. I believe we have feelings and emotions because our Heavenly Father hsa them. The difference, of course, is that we allow ourselves to ruled by them and He does not. But, I believe it breaks His heart when we abandon Him for other things or other people. I believe He grieves when we don't pay Him attention. I believe He misses us.
Yes, God is omnipresent, He is everywhere, all the time, I know. But He gives us our space and free will even when that means He has to let us move away from Him. I think I understand God's love for me better today than I did yesterday. I think I understand more about how He feels when I'm not around Him in prayer. I don't want Him to miss me. My son is 125 miles away and I can't see him just any time I want. But, I am just a head-bow and a prayer from my Heavenly Father and I can speak with Him anytime I want or need to. And I intend to spend much more time with Him from now on.

Prime Time Evil

For it is shameful even to mention what is done by these disobedient people in secret. Eph 5.12

Have you noticed how many TV shows there are nowadays that feature human beings doing the most shameful things? Shows like Cops, Jerry Springer, etc. have ratings that are through the roof! People can't seem to get enough of seeing other people degrading themselves and exposing their ungodliness! Any TV program that shows people cussing, fighting and abusing themselves or others is an instant hit! The more debased the behavior, the higher the ratings.The very things we should be the most ashamed of are now the things we celebrate!
The Bible says that it is shameful to even mention what these people are doing and here we are as a nation of TV viewers gawking and laughing at these filthy goings on! The Bible says "How horrible it will be for those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness into light and light into darkness, who turn what is bitter into something sweet and what is sweet into something bitter.". We have allowed evil to be called good and good to be called evil in this country and we will pay a hefty price for it!
As Americans, we should denounce this type of "entertainment"! If no one was watching, the TV execs wouldn't put it on the air. As Christians, we should be flooding the FCC offices and TV
execs offices and our Congressmen's offices with our disapproval of this garbage!

Agree to Disagree

"My dear friends, as a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ, I beg you to get along with each other. Don't take sides. Always try to agree in what you think." 1Cor 1.10 CEV

If the Apostle Paul was unhappy with the people of the Church at Corinth back then, what on earth would he think of us today?! Can you even imagine the scathing letters he would be writing to us?! Actually, he probably wouldn't even write letters, he would more likely just jump a jet and head over here to talk to us face to face!
Why, oh why can't we learn to love each other? Why can't we agree to disagree? I can love you without agreeing with everything you say! I can love you if I don't agree with anything you say! As a matter of fact, it's not my choice whether I love you or not, I am commanded to do so! We are to love all people. Jesus said that would be how people could really know we are his!
And what's more, if you believe that Jesus is the son of God and that He died for your sins, you are my brother! How can I expect anything from God my Father if I don't love my brother?! How can we say we love a Father we haven't seen when we can't love our brother whom we can see? And why would anyone I witness to want what I have when I can't even get along with my Christian family?
Maybe we need a modern day Paul to chew us out really good now and then! We should be ashamed of ourselves! What a poor light we are shining upon the name of Jesus when we bicker and fight among ourselves.

The Truth in Love

Ever know anyone who says something that hurts someone else's feelings and then justifies it by saying "Well, it was the truth!"; Or maybe they talk about how "the truth" sets you free; Or maybe use the old, "the truth will stand when the world's on fire" southern saying?
The Bible teaches us to "speak the truth in love". Just because something is true doesn't mean you have to say it! If it is hurtful, or demeaning or debasing, keep it to yourself! Paul talks about "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy" as being what we should be thinking and saying. If it isn't constructive and edifying, don't let it out of your mouth!
Christians don't have the luxury of opening their mouths and speaking whatever is on their minds! The Bible says that "a fool speaks his whole mind". Some people say "I just say whatever is on my mind!". The Bible says those folks are foolish!
We are supposed to speak the truth, but only in a loving, gentle and constructive way. Anything more is sinful.

Absolute Truth (like it or not!)

Don't criticize them for having beliefs that are different from yours. Some think it is all right to eat anything, while those whose faith is weak will eat only vegetables. But you should not criticize others for eating or for not eating. After all, God welcomes everyone. What right do you have to criticize someone else's servants? Only their Lord can decide if they are doing right, and the Lord will make sure that they do right. ~ Romans 14.1-4 CEV

Man.... how many Christian's toes do those verses step on! Don't criticize others just because they don't believe like you believe; Don't criticize someone else's servant; That pretty much condemns the great majority of us! We don't like it when other Christians don't see the scriptures EXACTLY like we see them. We think they think they know more than us! And what about this not criticizing another's servant?... isn't EVERY Christian God's servant and not ours? So why can't we seem to keep our mouths off them?!
I love the Bible for telling it straight, like it or not! I like knowing where I stand (or fall!). There's nothing wishy-washy about the word of God, it's the absolute truth, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!... for EVERYBODY!