Understanding Fear & Finding Knowledge

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

- Proverbs 2:1-5

So it comes down to this...

If -- then. Cause and effect. It's not so difficult. But it is.

There's a song...

Lord, You are more precious than silver
Lord, You are more costly than gold
Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds
And nothing I desire compares with You.

Make it so, Lord...make it so!

Selah.

All Fall Down

Humility and brokenness are interesting things.

You can bow willingly under the mighty hand of God in this life in preparation for the next. This is the scriptural prerequisite for living a blessed and full life.

Or, you can be broken by sin and disobedience, get slammed by the judgment of a holy God and this fallen world. Ouch.

One way or another, we will all fall down.

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

- James 4:1-10

Adulterous people...Is that really too harsh for us?

Not when you consider that marital infidelity and adultery is running rampant in the church. I just heard of another pastor that has been carrying on...wink, wink -- nudge, nudge. Lovely wife and family and still he felt the need to "fool around." But the cat's been let out of the bag and the weeping and sorrow is filtering through our community. If it was just his family that's been defiled -- that's bad enough. But it's an entire church congregation. That trusted him. Trusted he was rightly dividing the Word, rather than dividing his affections.

Don't worry... I am well aware of my own propensity to drift and wander. God help me to stay the course, to honor my wife and family, to be committed to my vows, even if I'm the only one who has the nerve to hold on.

(BTW, I know I'm not the ONLY one. But we are beginning to look more like a remnant than a strong army of warriors.)

And it's not just adultery that we're facing. It's idolatry, gluttony, lukewarmness, pride, lust, greed, etc. All are traps. All are possibilities. All are sin.

We will all fall down. Choose you this day when your humbling will occur. Do it today!

Selah.

You've Got To Be Kidding...

"I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image. "

- Stephen Hawking




This quote from the one of the most brilliant people on the planet appeared on my homepage this morning. I had to read it twice to make sure I was understanding what Mr. Hawking was suggesting... What is he thinking?

I feel sorry for this genius trapped in a humbled, broken body. His halting vocal communications via computer are equally fascinating and painful to behold. He has a view of the universe that makes most mere mortals shrink back to the rudiments of simple arithmetic and basic syllogisms. His writings really do reflect the magnificence of the Creator that he is too intelligent to believe in. Yep! He's an atheist.

Yet, even this quote reflects a certain longing for a Creator/creature type of worldview. A computer virus -- life? Even a common virus -- Is it life worthy of dignity and redemption?

I'm pulling out two books to re-read during the holiday break. The first is "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. I know, I know... why read a horror story during the holiday season? If you've never read it, then I challenge you to pick it up and discover that the true horror of this story is theological in nature -- a creature trying to be reconciled with it's creator. Sound familiar?

The second is an older and more difficult tome to find from R.C. Sproul entitled "In Search Of Dignity." Sproul is a theologian and writes about the human condition from a more reformed theological perspective, BUT it is a powerful treatise on why life is so precious, unique, God-created, and worthy of dignity.

If you haven't ever read them, I encourage you to give them a go. If you have trouble finding them, the links below will get you there.

Lord, help us to stay far away from the description of man in Romans 1:22 -- "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools."

Selah.