A Book of Wisdom

Someone once said, “knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing that you shouldn’t put them in a fruit salad.”
 
Beginning the second week of August, Pastor Jon and I will begin a new sermon series through the book of Proverbs. The most gripping aspect of Proverbs is that it gives wisdom. The book simply and decisively presents wisdom and the benefits of accepting wisdom. It also clearly presents the devastating effects of trading in wisdom for folly.
 
We all understand this from experience don’t we? Well the wise do anyway. I have ministered to literally hundreds of people over the past 21 years who have traded in wise and godly counsel to pursue sexual liaisons, greater wealth, fame and possessions, and power.  These can take so many forms and always lead ultimately to discontented, unhappy lives.
 
But God’s wisdom provides something different. It provides at the heart level a peace and contentedness that has very little to do with how much or how little we have. The life of the wise is evaluated by quietness, a general happiness and the love of those you live with.
 
Everyone is foolish to some degree but what the book of Proverbs calls us back to and instructs us in is how God made us to work best. He designed human beings to function a certain way. And when we forfeit God’s design, our sense of well-being unravels. So the call to the disobedient is to come back. The call to the immature is “start on a good path and keep at it.” And the call to the wise is to live in such a manner as to be an example.
 
The Lord Jesus isn’t mentioned in Proverbs. And yet He is the very personification of wisdom. He once declared, “I have come that they may have life and that they may have it to the full.” Christ saving us and paying the penalty for our sin is the power to see our lives for what they are and change where needed.  He is the One who changes hearts to make us desire wisdom instead of folly.
 
I have said many times, “anyone can make a mistake, but a fool keeps doing it over and over again.” Come to Christ and let the gospel correct and instruct you. Find the wisdom that He offers for your good and His glory. It all begins with a proper and healthy fear of God. Not dread, but fear. Only a fool would resist God’s invitation to listen and learn and live life to the fullest.
 
Growing with you,
Tim