Wisdom Matters

Psalm 51 is one of the most powerful passages in Scripture. King David wrote it after he had sinned with Bethsheba. It has been said that David’s sin with Bathsheba broke every one of the Ten Commandments. King David had every reason to expect God’s wrath, but he asked for God’s forgiveness and restoration. The psalm begins, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to...

The psalmist was calling out to God, asking him to send out his light and his truth. It’s so important to remember that if God has led the way, opened a door, or spoken a word, we can know that it's truth. God cannot act apart from his holiness.  If something is only partially true, it’s not fully God. When something compromises our character, it’s not God. When something must be accomplished...

Jesus taught his followers the key to living a faithful life. He said, “abide in my word” and you will be my disciples. To abide in the word means “to accept or act in accordance with” all that Jesus taught. We are truly a disciple of Christ when we live in line with our Lord’s teaching.  The word disciple describes a person who was a student of a specific rabbi or teacher. We have many teachers i...

Paul wrote the letter we know as 2 Timothy while confined to a prison he knew would likely lead to his death. These last words to Timothy, his protégé, have always been especially poignant. Paul was writing to Timothy about what he should expect in the “last days” from people who were godless. Paul described them as “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (3:7). He t...

G. K. Chesterton was a gifted author known for his depth of thinking. He wrote about the difference between our perception of progress and true growth in an article titled “The Romance of Rhyme,” saying, “The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.”  Chesterton’s words speak to our culture...

I used to teach second grade, which was the year we introduced story or word problems into the math curriculum. Let’s just say those lessons were not a favorite for my students or their teacher! They had to learn to read a few sentences and pick out the math equation to solve. I taught my second graders to look for the word sum in those questions. When they saw the word sum, they would know they s...

Paul told the church in Ephesus, “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10–11a). It’s always been a challenge and a choice for God’s people to live according to his truth rather than our own.  God’s word is the wisdom and discernment we need to make our daily choices. Scripture is our armor, our personal protection against the ideas and...

My dad worked for IBM, and, as a young girl, I would occasionally visit his office. He always let us peek into the enormous room filled with giant machines that generated a lot of noise and heat. Dad said those machines were called “computers.” Today, the cell phone I carry in my purse has far more capacity for information than the entire room my dad showed me as a child.  We live in a culture flo...

Christians are children of the great “I Am.” Sometimes we need to step away from all the other titles, roles, and identities the world uses to define us. We are only those things for a time or a season. When God became your Father, you received your eternal identity. You were adopted into God’s family and you are his child, an heir to his kingdom. The New International Version translation of 1 Joh...

We spend our lives learning, evolving, and aging. Each decade brings change. History is fascinating because it reveals how people have adapted their lives and their thinking throughout centuries of changing times and technologies. God told Moses, “I am who I am.” The completeness of our eternal God is difficult for us to comprehend. We worship the same God Moses knew. God’s words to Moses are stil...

It's normal to assign God human attributes, but people are made in his image; God isn’t made in ours. “God is not man.” We misunderstand or limit God when we think of him with human standards. We don’t own the vocabulary needed to define the fullness of God. Human words and understanding will always fall short. We don’t compare ourselves with God because he is incomparable. God is not human, b...

Is there anything better than the first cup of your favorite coffee in the morning? Unless, of course, you don’t like coffee. Some people enjoy a green smoothie with lots of protein, kale, and fruit. I used to cringe when my parents enjoyed their order of fried liver. And we laugh at the funny faces a baby makes when first tasting real food. I remember trying coffee for the first time, thinking it...

We shield our eyes from the glare of the sun. The windshield protects the people riding in the car. We have redefined the word shield in modern days, but in ancient times a shield was a soldier’s most important defensive weapon. Proverbs 30:5 tells us that God and his word will be our shield, our most important defense in the world today. The key is knowing we must first take refuge in him. If the...

God is the only source of pure and complete forgiveness. Forgiveness is a rare and powerful gift from God. The key to receiving God’s forgiveness is found at the beginning of 1 John 1:9. The small word if can also be translated as when. Either way, the forgiveness of God is our gift that, like the gift of salvation, must be received. God wants to forgive us and wants to rid our lives of everything...

The angel told Mary that she, a virgin, would have a son and he would be the holy Son of God. The angel also told Mary that her elderly and barren relative, Elizabeth, would have a son too. Neither of those babies should have been possible, but both babies were born just as the angel foretold. Luke 1:37 is truth, but that truth can cause mixed feelings for most of us. On the one hand, we are overw...

People have always created gods, but only one God created people. Every generation has fashioned gods they wanted, but only one God should be wanted. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no other god that compares. And the only God we need is the One who is able to be our rock, our solid and safe place of truth, where we can stand. The gods people create only have the power they are given....

People of every generation have placed their faith in God. Even the least faithful generation in history had a man named Noah. Faith in God extends back to the days when Adam and Eve walked with him in the Garden of Eden. Our God is the God of the ages, and there have always been people who knew him and worshiped him as God. Why then are there still people who don’t believe in God? He has kept his...

It would be hard to trust a financial adviser if you thought that person didn’t really like you. It would be difficult to take advice from someone you believed would do you harm. We expect a few people might make our lives difficult at times, but it’s hard on our faith when God allows us to suffer. One of the tallest hurdles we face with God is learning to trust him when our circumstances don’t fe...

All of us have made decisions we are proud of and others we regret. Sometimes even our best efforts fall short. One of the best lessons I ever learned about the nature of God was a study of his perfection. God’s perfection renders him incapable of error. He can’t make a mistake (although sloths, spiders, and slithery things might cause a few doubts). The psalmist wrote that all of God’s work is do...

The Apostle John is referred to as the “beloved” disciple. In many ways, he was the follower of Christ who most understood what it meant to love the Lord. One of the best pictures of John’s love for the Lord is seen at the foot of the cross. John was the only disciple with Christ that day. John is also the disciple Jesus chose to visit with the prophetic words of Revelation. John loved Jesus even...

Every human being experiences God through his creation. Paul said that no one has an excuse to walk through life ignoring the fact that there is a higher power at work in our world. Nature reveals the infinite greatness of God. Human nature is a consistent revelation that all people have limits. Everything created has a Creator. The most convinced atheist has seen God’s eternal power and divine na...

Every generation has marveled at a sunrise and sunset. Everyone has been startled by a loud clap of thunder. We pause to look at the beauty and wonder in nature because God created all of us with the desire to know him and his unfathomable greatness. There is a difference between the things people create and the things only God could create. God’s creation is infinite and beyond human ability. God...

From the beginning of time, people have worshiped Jehovah God, but there will never be a time when all people will choose to walk in his ways. Adam and Eve’s unbelieving son killed his brother, who had been faithful. Some of King David’s sons worshiped God and others did not. Judas betrayed Jesus, God’s one and only Son. God is perfect and his word proves true. Those who don’t understand or disagr...

The guards at Buckingham Palace stand watch regardless of weather, crowds, or other distractions. They are a picture of the word steadfast. James said that God’s children are blessed when they remain steadfast in their faith. Job’s faith wasn’t perfect, but it was steadfast. He endured loss, illness, grief, and abandonment, yet he remained faithful to his God. Job understood that God’s purpose is...

Have you ever been in a worship service when someone unexpected or important enters the room? It doesn’t take long for the buzz of the crowd to make everyone aware that a notable person is in their presence. We know from Scripture that “where two or three are gathered” in the name of Jesus, he has promised to be among them (Matthew 18:20). One of the most important moments of worship is to recogni...