Tag Archives: wisdom

Wisdom starts with God, November 5, 2018

Today’s Podcast

I ran across this question today in my devotions: If knowing God is the beginning of wisdom, can a person who does not know God be wise?

In today’s culture we would probably get an overwhelming number of responses to that question that answers in the affirmative. The argument would be to look at all the accomplishment we have made as a collection of all mankind’s minds. Certainly, the discoveries we have made, the inventive and creative mind of man, the impressive body of knowledge around us means that we are wise with or without God, right?

It is certainly convenient to think we are as smart as God and we wisdom, but I’m inclined to believe the Book that contains the wisdom of the Ages. Off and on, I have attempted to read one chapter of Proverbs a day each month continuously. I’ll have to admit, I’m not very good at it. There are 31 chapters, so it makes for a good goal to just pick up the book and read today’s chapter and see what it says.

I’m releasing this podcast on Monday, November 5th. That chapter in Proverbs gives warning from a father to his son concerning adultery. Nothing good comes from it. In fact, only bad things can come from adultery. There might be moments of pleasure, but in the end, those pleasures disappear and you are left with a disastrous marri age, ruined relationship both within and outside the family, a reputation that says you cannot be trusted since your spouse could not trust you.

If we would just live by the precepts the writers of Proverbs gave us more than 3,000 years ago, we could avoid so many of the problems we bring on ourselves. Those wise men give us lots of advice about the practical things of life. Loving God and pursuing him. Learning, studying, and obeying God’s laws. Family relationships. Parenting. Finances. Work ethics. The consequences of not following their advice in these areas of life.

And you know what? As I reach toward the back half of my sixth decade of life, I’m finding their advice and their knowledge of the consequences of not following their advice is absolutely true. I only wish I had followed everything they had to say. I didn’t. I don’t know very many people who have. We are pretty stubborn and selfish and most of us have a pretty healthy opinion of ourselves. We think we know the answers to life better than God. We don’t.

All we have to do is look around our world and see just how awful a job we do at following the wisdom of those writers. As humans, we fail in almost everything those authors told us. We mess up relationships because we are more interested in what we want than in caring for those we are supposed to love. We have messed up finances in every country because again we are selfish. The haves and the have nots plague our world. One percent of the world’s population owns well over 99% of its wealth. I don’t think God meant for us to live that way.

With that statement, I’m not suggesting we move to a socialist or communist society because governments have proven many times over that those countries do not fare very well. And, oh by the way, they have their one or two percent that own 95% or more of their countries wealth. Those governments never work because people are selfish and greedy by nature. Those with the wealth don’t want to give it up because if they give away some of their wealth, they won’t have it. Not that they need all of it, but they won’t have it and that’s the point. We are selfish and greedy with humongous egos.

We think we have knowledge. So did Thomas Jefferson’s generation. In the mid 1800’s the current philosophy was that there was nothing else to be learned. We knew it all. Except that today we double our knowledge base about every 12 months according to IBM and with the full build of the internet, knowledge is expected to increase every 12 hours before too many years pass. Just think of that, All the knowledge that ever was doubling every year in today’s communication systems. That blows my mind. But knowledge isn’t wisdom.

I know a lot of people with a lot of knowledge, but they can’t control their household. They are hopelessly in debt. They seem to destroy every relationship they have with their supposed knowledge. They are a total mess even though they know a lot of things. Knowledge is not wisdom.

You see, wisdom is how you use the knowledge you have. It has more to do with having peace in a chaotic world. It has to do with more than surviving or being what the world might deem as successful in life. It has to do with making from this life to the next and having an eternal reward instead of an eternal punishment. It has to do with living in community with others. Wisdom is recognizing we don’t know everything, but that’s okay. It means we recognize our limitations. We understand we need others and we especially need God.

Having wisdom is so much better than having property or money or any physical assets of any kind. With wisdom, you understand the importance of the intangibles of life. These are the things that last. The physical assets that so many run after can be taken away in a moment. Ask the people who lived through the hyperinflation years in places like Argentina when all the stores just dropped the last three zeroes in the price because 1000% inflation every few months meant a loaf of bread cost nearly thousands of pesos. Even today, now that inflation is under control, a meal for two in a mid-range restaurant will run AR 800$.

The same could happen here. Assets in stocks or property or in the bank or anything tangible can lose value overnight. Look at the housing bubble that caused property to climb unreasonably fast and fall just as fast. We watched one of the most powerful manufacturing cities in the country, Detroit, crumble and whole neighborhoods in foreclosure and houses selling for as little as $400-500. Seems unbelievable, doesn’t it? Just spend some time around Wall Street and you’ll see fortunes won and lost in hours. Nothing tangible survives.

The Pharaohs thought they could take their wealth into the afterlife with them. We know they didn’t as tomb after tomb gave up its golden treasures to grave robbers. Nothing went with those mummies that lay in those sarcophage. Everything placed in those tombs stayed there until someone took them. But their reputations survived through decades and centuries. Their histories still peak our interest. We still know something of some of their reigns. But all the things that survived them are intangible. What made the treasures of interest was the stories that go with them.

Wisdom provides the stories. Wisdom gives us the use of knowledge that brings good to others. Wisdom advances relationships and brings peace to chaotic situations. Wisdom springs from the heart of God. Wisdom knows when justice or mercy or grace is the proper response to those who wrong us. Wisdom befriends the broken, but doesn’t condone the actions that caused their brokenness. Wisdom listens like, talks like, acts like, lives like, worships like, strives to be like Christ. Knowing him is the beginning of wisdom. Without him, we are fooling ourselves thinking we are able to adequately apply any amount of knowledge in a worthy manner.

So to be wise, know him so you will know more.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

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What to do about Christmas, December 25, 2017

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Bible Reading Plan – www.Bible-Reading.com

We are taking a short break from The Story for Advent and Christmas season. We’ll be back into The Story next week. We’re taking this one more week from the consecutive schedule so that our readings at Easter coincide with the events as recorded in The Story. This is our third and last week away from that study, but rest assured we will go back to it next week and then finish our journey exploring God’s plan to bring us back into a face to face relationship with Him.

You may or may not be listening to this podcast as it is being released, but it was released at 5:00 am Christmas morning. Growing up, that was the about as late as my mom could stand it. She would wake all of us up (if we weren’t already awake). We’d rush down the hall to the living room and get stopped in the hallway until dad could set up the camera. Then we would rush into the living room to see what Santa left under the tree. The next ten or thirty minutes were spent oohing and aahing over that magical thing that appeared under the tree from the night before.

Next, we would open all the other presents under the tree that belonged to our family. As the family grew, with five kids, it took a little while for all of them to get opened, chaos to subside and all the wrappings to be gathered and trashed. Once the unwrapping was done we got to pick one thing to take with us to granny’s house where all who could came for breakfast. Granny’s husband died when my father was only five and remained a widow the rest of her life, so most of her kids came home every Christmas to join her for breakfast. Many of the grandkids also stopped by, so it wasn’t unusual to have forty or fifty people trying to run shifts at the table or sofa or just find some standing room in her tiny two bedroom house.

But one thing that always happened at Granny’s house was that someone read the Christmas story from Luke Chapter 2 after breakfast. Then we would shower her with gifts. She never wanted anything and after she moved into an assisted living facility, they found many of those gifts unused in closets, under beds, stuffed away wherever she could find a spot because she just didn’t know how to receive gifts very well and didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by taking anything back or regifting as is common today.

Granny made sure everyone knew what Christmas was about. It wasn’t about presents and decorations and shopping and the hustle and bustle we seem to make it so many times today. Granny made sure we knew it was about Jesus’ birth. She even made Him a birthday cake that all us grandkids enjoyed every year on Christmas day for lunch. She always made Him the center of everything that day and made it clear to the family we were celebrating His coming.

Granny would tell me when I was growing up that her call in life was to raise a Christian family. Of the 96 family members at her funeral when she died, a fourth were in full-time Christian ministry. Many served as Sunday School teachers, sang in choirs, served on church boards and committees, and gave their time and energy in myriad ways to their local church. You could count on one hand the number that weren’t in church regularly. And by regularly, I mean every service. Then it meant Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. Granny raised a family committed to Christ.

We live in a highly mobile society and kids and grandkids no longer live close enough to do what Granny’s family did every Christmas. We were only an hour or so away the whole time I was growing up. When Carole and I had kids, we were half a world away from their grandparents. Unfortunately, that’s the way with a huge portion of the population now. We can’t spend time with family like we did in days gone by.

But we can still remember Jesus on Christmas. We can still embrace the importance of community and reach out to those around us. To build a family of friends, not to replace our flesh and blood kin, but to share the love of Christ and the importance of this special day. Does that mean we have to prepare big meals with ham and turkey and lots of side dishes and desserts and spend half the day in the kitchen for a 20 minute meal? No.

At Granny’s we had biscuits, eggs, bacon, sausage, and that’s about it. All of us pitched in to help cook so the meal was pretty simple, quick and easy and it wasn’t the food we went for anyway. We went for the fellowship. It can be the same with any gathering. We don’t need to impress anyone with preparations to enjoy their company. If you have to do that, then those are the wrong people to invite. Invite the ones that don’t care if pillows are out of place or dishes don’t match. The ones that will get their own beverages after you show them where they are the first time.

Spend Christmas in community with people you love. Just sharing Jesus’ love with those around you will make a big difference in your life and theirs. Remember those two commands Jesus gave us that wraps all the others together? Love God and love people. When we do that, something incredible happens. We share the grace and mercy we’ve been given to others in the same way God has give His grace and mercy to us. We learn to give cheerfully from a heart full of love. Those around us see Jesus in our actions when we truly love with His love.

I don’t know what kind of traditions you have in your family. Ours have changed through the years because of experiences we had through our military travels that took us far from family and even sometimes separated us. We made accommodations to what use to be long held traditions because of things that change around us with health and age and place and time. But through it all, there is still one constant.

Jesus is the center of our celebration. We recognize there would be no Christmas without Christ. He is the reason we have the holiday. He is the reason we gather together. He is why we laugh and cry and live and breathe. Jesus is why.

If we lose the real reason for Christmas we lose it all. Whatever you do this day or this season, don’t forget why we celebrate in the first place. Don’t lose the centerpiece of all that happens in this season named for the one to whom it truly belongs. Keep Christ, not just at Christmas, but all year long.

Next week we will return to our study of The Story, God’s plan to restore a face to face relationship with us. We finished chapter 14 before our short break. Next week we will begin reading chapter 15.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more about The Story and our part in it. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

Who you gonna call when you need advice? – December 4, 2017

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Bible Reading Plan – www.Bible-Reading.com; The Story, Chapter 14; You Version Bible app Engaging God’s Story Reading Plan Days 92 through 98

This week we read the story of Rehoboam. When we think about this young king, we think about what a tragic story and how God must have messed this one up. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, took the throne after his father. Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s advisors and military leaders came to the new king and recommended the heavy tax burden and labor force Solomon had levied on the kingdom be lightened. The people were about to revolt because of all Solomon had demanded of them during his reign.

You see, Solomon lost sight of what he had promised God. Instead of God being the most important thing in Solomon’s life and service to his kingdom being his most important task, Solomon decided the kingdom belonged to him and was from his pleasure. He needed a lot of stuff to support those 1,000 wives and all those guests that kept coming to visit. Take a look at the list of what it took just to feed that crowd every day and you’ll begin to understand just why Jeroboam asked the new king to ease up.

Well, Rehoboam does a smart thing as a new king. He goes to his father’s council and asks their opinion of Jeroboam’s plan. The council agrees. They tell Rehoboam if he will do as Jeroboam asks, the people will honor him and follow him as king. The twelve tribes will remain loyal without question. But Rehoboam decides he will ask his friends that grew up with him in the palace. Remember those 1,000 wives? They had a lot of children. I can imagine Rehoboam and all his palace friends had just about anything they wanted with a father who knew no limits to his wealth. Solomon had anything he wanted. Silver was like stones on the ground it was so common in Jerusalem. Solomon owned tons of gold. Rehoboam was the spoiled king’s son and all his friends didn’t want that free ride to end.

Their advice…tell everyone if they thought his father was harsh and had heavy taxes, just wait until you see what he has in store for them. Rehoboam liked the rich kid syndrome and took the young friends’ advice. Jeroboam took his followers and revolted. Ten tribes left the kingdom. Only Judah and Benjamin remained under the reign of Solomon’s son. Rehoboam was partly paying for Solomon’s failures. Remember he failed to follow God’s laws by marrying all those foreign wives and allowing idol worship into the kingdom. He took his eyes off of what was important and began thinking riches were more important than God. So God took most of the kingdom away from Solomon’s son. Consequences of our sins never affect just us.

But just when you think God’s upper story has crashed, take a look again. Rehoboam gets the smallest portion of the kingdom because of Solomon’s failure. Rehoboam sees the rebellion and civil war rip apart a great nation because he took the wrong advice. Israel is divided. How can God’s upper story possibly survive such disastrous character flaws like we see in Solomon and Rehoboam? Well, we can only see the immediate. We can’t see around the bend. We’re limited in our view of reality because we aren’t God and don’t understand His view from His upper story.

But Rehoboam is one of those unlikely characters through whom God acts. The nation is split, but Judah stays loyal to the Rehoboam, a descendant of David. And guess who come from the line of David. Jesus. Judah’s tribe. Rehoboam’s bloodline. This rebellious young king who wouldn’t take good advice is one of those in the line of Mary and Joseph. Unlikely characters become part of God’s great plan.

So what does that tell you and me? First, it tells me we can’t stop God’s plan. He will make His ultimate will happen no matter what we might try to do to stop it. Second, we can choose to follow Him or not, but there are consequences that come with our choice. When we follow Him, we avoid the natural consequences that follow evil behavior. The law that we reap what we sow happens. Third, the consequences of our choices are not limited to just us. What I do affects my family and all those whose lives I touch. And again, I can’t influence the consequence, only the choices that I make. The consequences are natural results of the choices.

We will all make some choice we would like to redo. We have all probably take advice from someone that wasn’t as wise as we thought they were. We have probably all listened to the wrong group of friends at one time or another and now live with some of those consequences we wish we could redo.

God knows all about those. But He also made a way to forgive us and help us be a part of His plan. He made a way for we imperfect, mistake ridden, broken people to participate in His upper story so that we can join Him in His perfect garden one day. He wants us to have that face-to-face relationship we once enjoyed with Him in the Garden of Eden. He has put a plan in place to do that. It’s His upper story and in His time and in His way, He will bring all who follow Him together again into His paradise.

So here we are. We have choices to make every day and we often need to get advice from those around us. Can I suggest we look for the wise among us to find the best advice, not necessarily the popular or the smart or those filled with what the world thinks is knowledge. Rehoboam paid a high price for taking foolish advice that benefitted him instead of the kingdom. Take a hard look at the advice you get and who benefits from the advice you get. Remember we are to be servants not the served. That’s what Jesus taught us by example. Living with His philosophy of life makes those choices a lot less difficult to discern. Give it a try.

What do you wish for? – November 27, 2017

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Bible Reading Plan – www.Bible-Reading.com; The Story, Chapter 13; You Version Bible app Engaging God’s Story Reading Plan Days 85 through 91

Some of you might be old enough to remember getting the Sears and Roebuck catalog about this time of year growing up. We would eagerly await its arrival and mom and dad would try to point us to the clothing sections to get us to point out what we wanted for Christmas, our fingers would always turn to those dozens of pages in the back with all the toys. Board games, cowboy outfits and toy guns, bicycles and skateboards (the simple ones with metal roller skate wheels on the bottom of a flat board, back then. Pogo sticks. Basketballs and footballs. Or maybe it was the dolls and dollhouses, baby carriages and things the girls like to browse through. I’m not sure what those pages held because I always skipped over them to get to the adventure stuff.

We would circle what we wanted and earmark the pages hoping someone would get the hint of what we really wanted. Most of the time, it wasn’t practical and was too expensive, but it was fun to dream. We would spend hours looking through those catalogs every year. Kids today miss out a lot by not having catalogs. Yeah, they can find anything they want on the Internet, but it’s just not the same. You lose that tactile experience of flipping through the pages, circling that long awaited treasure, and leaving the breadcrumb trail for mom and dad to discover your deepest desire in the pages of the giant Sears book.

David’s son, Solomon didn’t have a Sears and Roebuck catalog, but not long after his coronation, God came to him in a dream and asked him what he wanted most of all. Just name it and it’s yours. If you were a young man in the prime of life and just given the keys to the kingdom, literally, what would you ask for? I bet most of us would at least ask for the bills to be paid off. Maybe a new car or a better job. Money would top most people’s most wanted list.

But Solomon didn’t ask for a big house or more friends or a better job or a lot of money. He didn’t ask for the things most of us would ask for if given a blank check to have anything we wanted. Solomon said these words: “Lord my God, you have now made me king. You have put me in the place of my father David. But I’m only a little child. I don’t know how to carry out my duties. I’m here among the people you have chosen. They are a great nation. They are more than anyone can count. So give me a heart that understands. Then I can rule over your people. I can tell the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Who can possibly rule over this great nation of yours?”

The Bible says, “God was pleased that Solomon had asked for that. So God said to him, ‘You have not asked to live for a long time. You have not asked to be wealthy. You have not even asked to have your enemies killed. Instead, you have asked for understanding. You want to do what is right and fair when you judge people. Because that is what you have asked for, I will give it to you. I will give you a wise and understanding heart. So here is what will be true of you. There has never been anyone like you. And there never will be.

“And that is not all. I will give you what you have not asked for. I will give you riches and honor. As long as you live, no other king will be as great as you are. Live the way I want you to. Obey my laws and commands, just as your father David did. Then I will let you live for a long time.”

Did God grant Solomon’s request? You bet. We have a sampling of his one line tools for successful living in the proverbs attributed to him. If we would live by those one-liners he gave us, we wouldn’t have near the trouble we cause ourselves in life. Our problem is we just don’t pay attention to all those good rules Solomon gives us. Simple things like: “Riches that are gained by sinning aren’t worth anything. But doing what is right saves you from death.” or “Hands that don’t want to work make you poor. But hands that work hard bring wealth to you.” or “A wise heart accepts commands. But foolish cattering destroys you.” Or one we really need to hear today, “Hate stirs up fights. But love erases all sins by forgiving them.”

No one was wiser than Solomon. Kings, queens, and leaders from all over the world came to sit at his feet and listen to him and were astounded by his wisdom. They showered him with tremendous gifts from their kingdoms to honor him and the wisdom he shared with them as they came to visit. Solomon became renowned throughout history for his understanding and the magnificence of his kingdom. Why did he receive all of this? Because he humbly asked for something greater than himself. He genuinely pleaded for a gift that would benefit others more than it would him. He asked for the wisdom to rule. As one of David’s youngest sons in a family filled with jealousy, turmoil, and internal rebellion to determine who would sit on the throne, Solomon would need all the wisdom he could get to keep the kingdom intact.

Solomon knew what was important. Unfortunately, he didn’t keep the commandments as he promised he would. He soon started marrying the daughters of some of those visiting kings to form treaties with neighboring kingdoms. God’s laws said don’t marry outsiders so they wouldn’t tempt the Israelites to worship their foreign gods. Solomon didn’t pay attention and it wasn’t long before those 1,000 wives brought their idols into the palace and the kingdom started following their example. If only…

Like many of those unlikely characters in the Bible, God still used Solomon. He also teaches us a thing or two by letting us see the good, the bad, and the ugly based on the decisions we make. Solomon didn’t live by his own proverbs later in life and watched his kingdom begin to crumble from the inside because the people in the kingdom failed to follow God the same way he failed to follow God. He let power and fame and riches and wealth become more important to him than living by the precepts his father David taught him.

Jesus reminds us of some of those same philosophies 1000 years later when he told those around him on the hillside during the Sermon on the Mount. “Put away riches for yourself in heaven. There, moths and rust do not destroy them. There, thieves do not break in a d steal them. Your heart will be where your riches are.” If we could grab hold of what Solomon and Jesus told us, really believe it, and live it from day to day, we would not buy into the lies the world tells us and live so much better off than we do in trying to grab that golden ring the world says we need.

Solomon was really smart man. Jesus was smarter. We can trust the pearls of wisdom they left behind for us. Just believe them and live them and you’ll be amazed at how much better you days go. You’ll be shocked at how the stress falls away and days seem to be filled with more joy and happiness. You see it’s not things that bring happiness. It’s the relationship with God and with people that make the difference in whether life is enjoyable or not. Give the ancient king’s words of wisdom a try. You’ll like them.

Give a fish or teach to fish, what does that have to do with Jesus? (John 4:8-20), January 24, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I’m sure you’ve heard that saying many times. That old piece of wisdom popped into my head as I read Jesus’ words today. Let me tell you why.
Scripture
1. John 4:8-18
2. Jesus: Would you draw water, and give Me a drink?

Woman: I cannot believe that You, a Jew, would associate with me, a Samaritan woman; much less ask me to give You a drink.

Jews, you see, have no dealings with Samaritans.

Jesus: You don’t know the gift of God or who is asking you for a drink of this water from Jacob’s well. Because if you did, you would have asked Him for something greater; and He would have given you the living water.

Woman: Sir, You sit by this deep well a thirsty man without a bucket in sight. Where does this living water come from? Are You claiming superiority to our father Jacob who labored long and hard to dig and maintain this well so that he could share clean water with his sons, grandchildren, and cattle?

Jesus: Drink this water, and your thirst is quenched only for a moment. You must return to this well again and again. I offer water that will become a wellspring within you that gives life throughout eternity. You will never be thirsty again.

Woman: Please, Sir, give me some of this water, so I’ll never be thirsty and never again have to make the trip to this well.

Jesus: Then bring your husband to Me.

Woman: I do not have a husband.

Jesus: Technically you are telling the truth. But you have had five husbands and are currently living with a man you are not married to.

Devotional
1. So, you’ve heard the old sage’s wisdom many times in your lifetime, I’m sure. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
  1. Simple logic when you think about it
  2. Fill his belly once yourself or teach him to fill it every day on his own
  3. Too many times we are satisfied with giving someone a fish instead of teaching him to fish
2. Why is it so easy to feed instead of teach?
  1. Takes much more time
  2. Must invest yourself in the person’s life
  3. Must understand their strengths and limitations
  4. You must know how to do it in the first place
3. Why would Jesus’ words bring me to these thoughts today?
  1. God-sized hole in each of us
  2. Easy to try to fill it with worldly pleasure; like giving a person a fish, it doesn’t last
  3. Jesus wants us to dig deep into His word
  4. Study what He tells us
  5. Put it into practice
  6. Learning from God how to fill that God-sized hole His way satisfies for eternity
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

The wisdom of heaven (Luke 10:21-24) October 27, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Ecclesiastes 1-2

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 10:21-24
Jesus: Thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Thank You for hiding Your mysteries from the wise and intellectual, instead revealing them to little children. Your ways are truly gracious. My Father has given Me everything. No one knows the full identity of the Son except the Father, and nobody knows the full identity of the Father except the Son, and the Son fully reveals the Father to whomever He wishes. (then almost in a whisper to the disciples) How blessed are your eyes to see what you see! Many prophets and kings dreamed of seeing what you see, but they never got a glimpse. They dreamed of hearing what you hear, but they never heard it.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth saying again. Children and the elderly are too often, the throwaways in society, especially in ours. We have a tendency to think our parents don’t know anything. Because technology keeps advancing so quickly and each generation has so much technology at their fingertips, each successive generation begins to discard the older generations because they don’t use the latest game platforms or want to know information instead of looking it up on their smartphone – if they even have one. We forget Solomon’s words really are true, there is nothing new under the sun. Things come in different packaging, but because we haven’t changed in how we think, what we desire, how we relate to one another, there is really nothing new under heaven.

We would do well to listen to the wisdom of our elders and learn from their lessons so we don’t make the same mistakes they made. We could make it through like a lot better if we would pay attention to the simple rules our parents learned through their experiences and then applied them to our lives so we would succeed in some of the areas in which they failed. But because we too often believe our parents just don’t know anything, we end up making the same mistakes and we seem to never learn the life lessons that would help us if we would just pay attention and learn from them.

But what I really want to point out today is what we do with children. We could really learn a lot from them if we would. It isn’t until we start training them with our bad habits that they learn to distrust and hate and assume others are lesser or greater than they are. Just watch a room full of young children. They will usually play well together at a young age. Yes, they show tendencies of selfishness, they aren’t good at sharing their favorite toy and they often want their way. But it doesn’t take long for a group to figure out how to play together and none of the things that seem to bother adults get in the way of children.

Children don’t care about race. The color of a person’s skin doesn’t matter to them. They will ask questions of each other about why one is brown and one is tan and one is yellow, but they all play together without prejudice. To them, color of skin is about as important as color of hair. They just don’t care until we adults teach them something different.

They don’t care about socioeconomic status. How much money is in a banking account or what size house you live in or what kind of car they arrived in just doesn’t matter. They just see each other as someone to enjoy playing with on the playground. None of that material stuff matters to them. Until we adults teach them that stuff is important and they need to pay attention to it.

Physical therapists will tell you that if you moved like a child does when you bend or squat or lift things, the way they just do things naturally, you’d never be overweight and you’d never hurt yourself by lifting or moving the wrong way. But we learn bad habits early and move in ways our bodies were not intended to move and do things our bodies weren’t supposed to do. We can learn a lot from children.

If you listen to children, they will also tell you some pretty incredible things about God. They will tell you about His love and about trust and grace and forgiveness. They will show you many of His characteristics before we teach them how to cover up the better qualities He help them display as children. We can learn to laugh from them. We can learn to cry from children. We can learn to care about other people. We can even love them for no reason except they are people.

God hides His mysteries from the wise and intellectuals and reveals them to little children. Be careful that you don’t discard those children next door or down the street or in your house. God might be wanting to teach you His mysteries through them. If you think you are wise, you can bet He won’t entrust His wisdom to you. So keep your eyes on those kids out there. You might just learn something about the wisdom of the heaven from them.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

The words (Matthew 22:42-45), May 24, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 2 Samuel 20-24

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 22:42-45
Jesus: What do you think about the Anointed One? Whose Son is He?
Pharisees: But, of course, He is the Son of David.
Jesus: Then how is it that David—whose words were surely shaped by the Spirit—calls Him “Lord”? For in his psalms David writes,
The Master said to my master
“Sit here at My right hand,
in the place of honor and power,
And I will gather Your enemies together,
lead them in on hands and knees,
and You will rest Your feet on their backs.”
How can David call his own Son “Lord”?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus has thwarted all the religious leaders. He saw through all their tricks. He avoided all their traps. He turned their words against them when they tried to trip Him with their rules and regulations. They tried to point to infractions of the law of Moses, but didn’t understand Jesus was there when the Law was given to Moses. In fact, He wrote the words on the tablets of stone. He was and is God. They thought they knew the word of God, but He was the Word of God.

Those religious leaders didn’t have a chance against Him. They wanted to make the people turn against Jesus. They wanted to cause the crowds to think He was corrupt and evil, a son of the devil. But every time they tried, Jesus only proved again that He was the Son of God. He confounded them over and over. So they had run out of questions. Their attempts failed. They couldn’t trick Him into doing wrong or misstating the facts or changing His mind. They just couldn’t match His wisdom and understanding.

So what do we learn from this?

I hear so many “intellectuals” try to debate the existence of God, the rightness of any religion as long as you’re sincere, or the rightness of no religion. I hear so many who want to discount the reality of the Creator. But that’s okay. They can try their best, but in the end, Jesus will have the final word. If you are one of those who fight against Him, you will find yourself on the losing side of the battle. You’ll admit one day that you’re just not smarter than God no matter how much you think you are.

There are those who wish to think there is no God because they want to wish away His commands. They want to think His laws do not apply. If they acknowledge He exists, they must acknowledge He has sovereign over all things and there will be a final reckoning for all we have done in this life. When you acknowledge the existence of God you must accept the whole package. Jesus talked about heaven and hell, a final battle of good and evil, a final judgment at which those who follow Him will be ushered into the presence of God and rewarded with eternal life with Him.

You can’t ignore the parts you want and just pick and choose the words you like leaving the rest behind. God’s word is God’s word. Either all of it is true or none of it. We take it or leave it. It’s still our choice, but that’s the only two choices. No discarding the parts we don’t like. That’s no a choice on the test.

So Jesus used scriptures those religious leaders knew well to show them how little they really knew about God and His word. They tried their best to use scripture to cause Jesus to stumble. But it was they who fell on their face when they tripped over it. Jesus used the scriptures against these religious leaders just like He used scriptures against Satan and with the rich man who went away sorrowfully and all who choose their own way instead of God’s way.

God doesn’t keep secrets from us. It’s all there in His word. We just need to remember how to use it. God’s word is not a place to just find your favorite verses and skip the rest. It’s not a place to read a few words every once in a while when you feel like it. God’s word is the place to get to know Him, His plan for this world and for your life. It’s the place where He left His instructions for life. If we would listen to Him in it and obey it, it’s amazing how much better life happens day by day. Circumstances don’t rock us. We find joy and peace as we listen to His voice in the beauty of His words.

Those without faith in Jesus stumbled over the law. Those with faith in Him find peace in those same words. When you try to defeat Him, you’ll discover you only defeat yourself.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Why is He so smart? (John 7:12-20) December 20, 2015

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – John 7:12-20

Set – John 7

Go! – John 7-8

John 7:12-20
¹² The crowds would talk in groups: some favored Jesus and thought He was a good man; others disliked Him and thought He was leading people astray. ¹³ All of these conversations took place in whispers. No one was willing to speak openly about Jesus for fear of the religious leaders.
¹⁴ In the middle of the festival, Jesus marched directly into the temple and started to teach. ¹⁵ Some of the Jews who heard Him were amazed at Jesus’ ability, and people questioned repeatedly:
Jews: How can this man be so wise about the Hebrew Scriptures? He has never had a formal education.
Jesus: ¹⁶ I do not claim ownership of My words; they are a gift from the One who sent Me. ¹⁷ If anyone is willing to act according to His purposes and is open to hearing truth, he will know the source of My teaching. Does it come from God or from Me? ¹⁸ If a man speaks his own words, constantly quoting himself, he is after adulation. But I chase only after glory for the One who sent Me. My intention is authentic and true. You’ll find no wrong motives in Me.
¹⁹ Moses gave you the law, didn’t he? Then how can you blatantly ignore the law and look for an opportunity to murder Me?
Crowd: ²⁰ You must be possessed with a demon! Who is trying to kill You?

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

During My time on earth, many questioned how I could be so wise about the Hebrew Scriptures without a formal eduation. I spoke about concepts within the law that amazed the people and confounded the scholars. I turned the Pharisees’ arguments upside down on them when they tried to trap Me in their traditions and opened the laws to catch them in their own traps. So many questioned My abilities and My understanding, My sources and authority.

It would be easy to say all of it came from the God side of Me, but that is only half the story. I was completely God, but also completely Man. My mother, Mary, and My earthly father, Joseph, made sure I knew My real heritage from an early age and made sure the scriptures were available to Me. Joseph would read to Me often from the Law and the Prophets before I could read and Mary would help Me memorize long passages of scripture as a young boy.

I would spend time meditating on what those scriptures meant and because of knowing the story of My birth, I could see the prophecies within those scriptures that pertained to Me throughout My life. I saw the truth of My birth in Bethlehem, yet being called a Nazarene living in the town of Nazareth. I understood the cries of mothers since all the boys My age were killed by Herod. My parents fled to Egypt and called out of Rahmah. I knew the story and the scriptures.

Throughout My life I made the scriptures part of My life and they awakened every day as My human life unfolded around Me. But you can use the scriptures the same way, you know. They are about Me, but when you let Me into your life, you can understand the scriptures with authority because of My Spirit in you and confound those around you.

The issue most have in understanding the scripture is they fail to do what I did when I was young and continued to do throughout My life. I made the scriptures part of Me. I learned them. I studied them. I let them speak to Me and through Me. I didn’t try to twist them to suit My desires, but rather made sure My desires fit the scriptures. That’s hugely different from what I hear in a lot of pulpits today. The scriptures haven’t changed. Neither have men and women. The truths contained in My word are as old as creation and I gave them to you to help guide you through life so you might enjoy more abundant living.

In America, statistics tell you high school graduates read less than one book per year after graduation. What a dismal indictment and waste of your education. But certainly you should at least read My book. How else will you understand how to live? I gave you a manual to live by. Proverbs is full of short lessons that if followed will keep you out of trouble financially, in your relationships, with your boss, in almost every area of life. Read a chapter of Proverbs every day and you’ll read it once every month. It’s not hard, but it will change your life.

The book is only 1500 pages in most translations. If you read an hour and a half a day, you can read it in 52 days. About fifteen minutes a day and you’ve read it in a year. Can’t you afford that much time to learn about Me and what My plan for this world and for you might entail? Can’t you spend just fifteen minutes a day in My word to better understand the precepts by which I will judge you at the end of time? Don’t you think if you’re going to have a test over you life it makes sense to read the rule book? It’s there for you.

How did I speak with such understanding and knowledge? I made the scriptures a significant part of My human life every single day…without exception. The Father’s words given to humankind are the most important words you can read each day. I understood that from an early age and lived it throughout My life with you. Make them a part of your daily life, too. You won’t regret it.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Why do you go to church? (1 Corinthians 3:10-23), November 8, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 1 Corinthians 3:10-23

Set – Job 33; 1 Corinthians 3

Go! – Job 34-37; 1 Corithians 1-3

1 Corinthians 3:10-23
¹⁰ Like a skilled architect and master builder, I laid a foundation based upon God’s grace given to me. Now others will come along to build on the foundation. Each serves in a different way and is to build upon it with great care. ¹¹ There is, in fact, only one foundation, and no one can lay any foundation other than Jesus the Anointed. ¹² As others build on the foundation (whether with gold, silver, gemstones, wood, hay, or straw), ¹³ the quality of each person’s work will be revealed in time as it is tested by fire. ¹⁴ If a man’s work stands the test of fire, he will be rewarded. ¹⁵ If a man’s work is consumed by the fire, his reward will be lost but he will be spared, rescued from the fire. ¹⁶ Don’t you understand that together you form a temple to the living God and His Spirit lives among you? ¹⁷ If someone comes along to corrupt, vandalize, and destroy the temple of God, you can be sure that God will see to it that he meets destruction because the temple of God is sacred. You, together, are His temple.
¹⁸ Don’t let anyone deceive himself. If any one of you thinks he is wise in matters pertaining to this world, he is going to be really disappointed. In fact, one must be deemed a fool by worldly standards in order to become truly wise ¹⁹ because the wisdom of this rebellious and broken world looks like foolishness when put next to God. So it stands in Scripture, “He catches the wise in their deceitful plotting.”²⁰ And the Scriptures add, “The Lord knows the highest thoughts of the wise, and they are worthless.” ²¹ So there is no reason for anyone to boast in human leaders. You already have it all. ²² So whether it is Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life or death, the present or the future—it all belongs to you. ²³ You belong to the Anointed One, and the Anointed One belongs to God.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Why do you go to church? Is it to hear the message of the preacher? Is it to hear the music present by the choir or choral group? Is it to study under a particular teacher? Just why do you attend where you attend? It really is an important question to ask yourself every once in a while. If you only go because of the pastor or the music or the studies presented or some particular program, you’re there for the wrong reason. You’re even there for the wrong reason if it’s because you think they have the doctrine that fits the way you believe.

So why do you go to church? The only acceptable answer is to worship Me. Any other answer makes the church a social club. You might as well go to the Elks Lodge or the local Lions’ Club. Find yourself another place that does good things for people and go there. If your goal when you come through the door of the sanctuary of your church isn’t to meet with Me in worship, then you’ve missed the reason for coming together as brothers and sisters.

All the physical ministries of the church can be carried out by other organizations in your community and probably are. The Food Bank collects and distributes more food to the hungry than you’ll ever feed in a lifetime at your church. The Red Cross provides shelter for the homeless in disasters worldwide and does it better than a church could ever think about doing it. Doctors without Borders provides health and healing for the sick and injured in ways your local church could not begin to approach. And the list goes on.

Sure, you do some things in your community, but so do other organizations and they probably do it better, so why do you come to church? Search your heart. Do you come expecting to see Me every Sunday? Do you even come every Sunday? Do you prepare yourself to visit with Me when you arrive? Have you prayed and met with Me through the week so that when you join your brothers and sisters you’re ready to celebrate My coming together with you in worship?

Some of those Paul wrote to in Corinth forgot why they came together. They began to follow people instead of Me. They came together to do good things instead of coming together to meet with Me. They thought they could reach Me by ministering to others. They got it backwards, though. Reach out to Me first and I will help you reach out to others. Your ministries will never succeed until you worship Me first. Until you follow the path I lay before you, your efforts will be in vain. Your wisdom is meaningless compared to Mine.

So ask yourself again today, why do you come to church? Do you know the answer? There will be a test. I want you to pass. Make sure you have the right answer when I return.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

God never fails (Daniel 2:24-44) September 11, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Daniel 2:24-44

Set -Daniel 2; Revelation 16

Go! – Daniel 1-2; Revelation 16

Daniel 2:24-44
²⁴ So Daniel went back to Arioch, the officer charged with rounding up and executing all the wise men in Babylon, and tried to stop him.
Daniel: Stop what you are doing. It is not necessary to execute the wise men of Babylon. Instead, take me to the king, and I will tell him what the dream means.
²⁵ Arioch did not waste any time in bringing Daniel before the king.
Arioch (to Nebuchadnezzar): Mighty king, I have found a man from among the exiles from Judah who says he is able to tell the king what the dream means.
²⁶ The king turned to Daniel, who you remember had been given the Babylonian name, Belteshazzar.
Nebuchadnezzar: So, Belteshazzar, are you able to tell me what I dreamed and what it all means?
Daniel: ²⁷ The Chaldeans were correct. There are no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or sorcerers in all the world who are able to reveal the mystery the king requested. ²⁸ But there is a God in heaven who can reveal such mysteries. The dream you dreamed and the visions you saw, King Nebuchadnezzar, unveil the future and disclose what will happen at the end of the age. Now I will tell you what you dreamed and the visions you saw as you slept in your bed.
²⁹ Good king, as you lay in your bed that night, thoughts about the future sprang up in your mind, and the revealer of all mysteries unveiled to you what is going to happen. ³⁰ I am here today, not because I have greater wisdom than any other in the land, but because God in His wisdom has revealed this mystery to me. It is God’s plan that the king knows the meaning of this dream and understands the thoughts that raced through your mind.
Daniel: ³¹ In your dream, you were looking, O king, and suddenly a great statue of what appeared to be a man stood before you. It was enormous in size, shining bright as the sun at midday. Its appearance was frightening. ³² The head of the statue was fashioned of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its trunk and thighs of bronze, ³³ its calves of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴ As you were watching, a special stone was quarried and cut, but not by human hands. The divinely hewn stone began to move; it struck the statue on its iron and clay feet and smashed them to pieces. ³⁵ Suddenly the entire statue collapsed—its iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were all broken into pieces and turned to dust, like the chaff carried away by the wind from the threshing floors in summer. Soon not a trace of the statue was left. But the divinely hewn stone that struck the statue became a mountain that filled the whole earth. ³⁶ That, good king, was your dream.
If you allow, we will now tell you what it all means. ³⁷ You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has conferred upon you the kingdom you now rule, along with the power and strength and glory to subdue it. ³⁸ He has placed all people everywhere and all the beasts that roam the fields and all the birds that fly in the sky under your control. He has made you ruler over them all: you are the head of gold. ³⁹ After your reign is over, another kingdom will rise, but its glory will never match yours. This lesser kingdom is the chest and arms of silver. When that kingdom has come and gone, a third and even less majestic empire will rise, which will rule over the whole earth. This kingdom is the trunk and thighs of bronze. ⁴⁰ Then, when those days are past, a fourth kingdom will come to power with the strength of iron, though lacking in grandeur. Just as iron breaks and shatters everything, so this kingdom will break and shatter all these former realms. ^41-42 But as you saw in your vision, this kingdom will be divided, with feet and toes made of both clay and iron. The strength of iron runs through it, but as the toes are made partly of iron and partly of clay, the kingdom, too, will be partly strong and partly fragile. ⁴³ Your dream envisions that this kingdom of iron mixed with clay will be of peoples mixed but not united, the kingdoms joined in the bonds of marriage but not true allies, for iron and clay form no alloy.
⁴⁴ In the days when these kings of iron and clay reign, the God of heaven will set up another kingdom, a kingdom that can never be destroyed, a kingdom that will never be ruled by others. It will crush all the other kingdoms and bring them to an end. This kingdom will last forever.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. I gave it to him to tell him what the future held for him and his descendants. I also used it to let him know wisdom doesn’t lie within the hearts and heads of men, but within Me. When Daniel came to Nebuchadnezzar with the knowledge of the dream and its interpretation, Nebuchadnezzar assumed the knowledge came from within Daniel. Daniel set him straight.

He said, “There is a God in heaven…” Daniel knew Me and knew My wisdom. He had relied on Me before. Daniel knew I wouldn’t fail him. I won’t fail you either if you will tune your ears and your mind to Mine. Get into My word and listen to My voice. Then obey My commands and you will find I won’t fail you when you need Me.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.