Wisdom Matters

Evangelism is never a wrong priority, but it can sometimes be considered a wrong practice. It's difficult to share our faith when people think of it as imposing our ideas on others. Yet, their opinion imposes their ideas on us.  Paul had a good way of taking the complicated and making it clear. He taught Christians that the most important point is not whether an idea is considered popular or e...

What are the “spiritual truths” that only a spiritual person can understand?  Sometimes Christians forget that they are “spiritual” beings. We are “born again” when we make Jesus the Lord and Savior of our lives. That is a spiritual truth only a spiritual person can understand. The Apostle Paul told the church in Corinth that his words to them weren’t his best ideas. Rather, they were the perfect...

We have all misjudged people at times, and other times God has provided us with his wise discernment. The Bible tells us not to “judge others,” and then the Apostle John tells us to “judge with right judgment.” What appears to be a contradiction is actually an important distinction.  In Scripture, judging someone or something from a human perspective is different from discerning with God’s wisdom....

God provides the things we are most likely to “enjoy.” That one thought puts everything we own in a different light. God intends for us to enjoy our lives. We shouldn’t be surprised when we are tempted to want more than we really need. Too many possessions complicate our lives and rob us of our ability to enjoy what God wants for us.  Paul described “the uncertainty of riches.” We buy cars that ev...

It has been said that the key to Psalm 23 is in the first few words, “The Lord is my shepherd.” The promises of the psalm belong to those who have chosen to make God their shepherd.  When the Lord is our shepherd, we know we are safe. He goes ahead of us to “lead us” to a place where he can “restore our souls.” He walks with us so that he can “comfort us” and guide us to stay on, or return to, his...

A unique quality of Scripture is found in the promise God made to the prophet Isaiah. Every week, preachers and teachers study and prepare in order to present God’s word to others. The focus of those lessons should be a biblical passage because those are the only words God has promised to bless.  God told Isaiah that his word, the words that come directly from God, don't return to him “empty.”...

We can add depth to our knowledge of God if we learn to study Scripture in light of what it meant to the people who first received these words.   Remember: those who lived during the days of the Old Testament didn’t have our scientific advances. But they knew that when the heart ceased to beat, a life had ended. They understood that in times of intense emotion or effort, the heart would beat more...

The Apostle John was an elderly man when he wrote the letter of 1 John. The first-century Christian church was established and growing by this time. The success the church was experiencing attracted some to be involved in the congregation for reasons other than the faith.  John wrote his letter to encourage the members to remember why the church was sacred and important and why the church should b...

We don’t always want to hear the truth, but we usually want to know we have it.  Sometimes God’s truth interferes with what we want to believe and often what others want us to believe. God’s truth can separate us from the opinions of others. That can be especially tough when those “others” are people we love.  How then does knowing the truth of God set us free?  Jesus spoke those words and we know...

God created us with the freedom to choose and, therefore, we like to be given choices. We enjoy a menu that offers a variety of options. We want to select our seats for a long movie or plane trip. We can’t imagine living in a culture that insists on “arranged” marriages.  But, sometimes a doctor has to tell a person surgery is their only option. When the polio vaccine was developed, people didn’t...

Our culture enjoys a good debate. It’s fascinating to watch intelligent people work through an issue, verbally making a case for their opinion or position. I enjoy a good debate about theology sometimes. There are some topics in Scripture that godly, educated people disagree about. Listening to their understanding of Scripture can broaden our own thinking.  A lot of our beliefs are accepted by fai...

The GPS system in our cars has to be one of the best inventions of our lifetime! If you are old enough, you remember the days of unfolding and then trying to refold the paper maps we needed just to determine where we were and how to get where we needed to be. All of us who took road trips that way knew what it meant to be completely lost at some point in the trip.  It isn’t as common for people to...

Speed limits exist to keep us safe, so why do we want to drive faster?  Most laws are written for the good of the many but might come at the expense of a few. One of the first things the Lord provided the Hebrew people after bringing them miraculously through the desert was a list of commandments to follow. Later, a lot more “rules” and practices were provided.  There was a day when only a few peo...

The Sermon on the Mount is the central teaching of Christ. The teaching in Matthew 5—7 has sometimes been called the “magna carta” of Christ. In chapter 6, Jesus taught that his followers should live in such a way that they store their treasure in heaven. He taught them not to be anxious about the things in this world and to trust the love and power of God to sustain. There are worries and trials...

Paul’s prayer for the church in Philippi was that their love would “abound more and more,” and he taught them how such abundant love could be their own. Paul said that “with knowledge and all discernment” we would be able to choose what is “excellent.”  The more we know God and seek his wisdom, the more we are filled with his perspective and his discernment. Paul was teaching the Phillipian church...

People have worshipped and praised God’s name “forever and ever.” People always will. Daniel said God is worthy of all praise because he is—and owns—all things. God owns and authors every word of wisdom this world will ever need. God is mighty and able to accomplish his will and his ultimate plan for this world.  Times change and, like the seasons, come and go. The “kings” of this world are allowe...

There will always be unsettling times in our world, in our nation, and in our personal lives. Israel experienced the worst of times when most of her people were taken captive and enslaved. People lost their land, their families, and their futures. Isaiah was a prophet to Israel during their worst times. He brought words of discipline and words of hope.  Isaiah taught God’s people that even though...

Because of God, Christians are “in Christ Jesus.” God “so loved” all of us, he gave us his Son (John 3:16). It's good to remind ourselves that the God of the universe loves us with a powerful, sacrificial love. God is always motivated by his love because God is love (1 John 4:8).  When we placed our faith in the Son of God, we received our salvation because of God’s great love and provision fo...

On average, a human being will have more than six thousand thoughts each day. Paul told Timothy to spend a lot of those thoughts focused on God. Almost everything we need for our lives is reachable from a computer keyboard. In many ways, the internet has replaced our need to think.  Our best decisions require more than information. We need to know what God wants us to do with what we know. Wisdom...

A short letter, 2 John is most likely addressed to a church with which the apostle John had a pastoral relationship. John describes himself as an “elder,” or overseer, and the church as an “elect lady,” a reference to them as God’s chosen people. The children would likely be the members of the congregation.  This church was loved by John and others who understood the “truth” of God. In John’s gree...

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...