The Fruit of Wisdom

Since man and woman were created they have sought wisdom.  According to Dictionary.com wisdom is the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.  In Genesis 3: 1-7 we read:

“ ¹ Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden ‘?”  ² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. ³ But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die. ‘ “   ⁴ “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate [it]; she also gave [some] to her husband, [who was] with her, and he ate [it]. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.’

Now Adam and Eve had received previous instruction from God, himself, about the tree in the garden and its fruit.  Yet Eve conversed with the snake and took its advice instead.  She decided by what it said that the fruit off that tree would make her wise.  You might say she went to the world for her wisdom, when in reality she had received the best connection to wisdom anyone could have had, God.  Then Adam gave in to the faulty world’s wisdom.

There is nothing wrong with desiring wisdom.  It is where we get our wisdom that can be all wrong.  The world’s wisdom will never really be good wisdom.  Only God’s wisdom through His Word and His Spirit’s guidance will be true wisdom that will benefit us.  Think about Adam and Eve.  As a result of their sin to seek wisdom and disobey God, they lost the benefit of walking with God in the garden and enjoying his fellowship and wisdom with ease.  Their lives became difficult and nothing was easy anymore.  So their new found wisdom truly did not pay off, because it was wisdom without God’s blessing.  So seek after God’s wisdom and be blessed.

The Best Investment We Can Make

People good with their money will usually take some of their money and invest it in safe investments to earn some interest on their money.  They may buy land or stocks.  Of course as many of us have seen over the last few years some of the things we thought were safe and sound investments have turned in to major losses.  There is something else we can invest in that is even more important.  As good parents we should be investing in our children emotionally, physically and spiritually.  We should be spending time with them physically.  We should be encouraging them emotionally and teaching them spiritually.  The Bible takes this investing a step further.  Read Proverbs 13:22:

A good man leaves an inheritance to his grandchildren, but the sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.

All of us love our kids, even when they drive us nuts.  So why not after we have spent years investing in them to help them have a good life as they grow up shouldn’t we be leaving them an inheritance to remember us by and help them out in the future when we are gone?  It just makes good common sense that when you love someone that you would want to help them in any way you can.  It’s interesting to note that this scripture makes the point leaving an inheritance helps to define us as a good parent or grandparent.  This inheritance can be in a variety of forms.  Maybe it is the obvious, money.  Maybe it is some land.  Maybe it is some prized possession or family heirlooms.  Maybe it is book that you have written full of the wisdom you learned living your life.  Maybe it is family history outline and photographs.  Even these sentimental things are a wonderful inheritance.  Not everyone has money that they can leave behind.  Things happen in life to destroy excess money.  However, we can leave something special to our children and grandchildren that will either help them in life physically, emotionally or spiritually.  The important thing is that they see through this inheritance gift your love and a reminder of what you were to them in their lives.  So start now thinking about how you can invest in your children and grandchildren after you are gone with an inheritance you have left for them.

Words of Satisfaction

Remember that song, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”? Not the best lyrics, but it is trying to make the point that the man tries all these different things and can’t get any satisfaction out of them.  This song represents a very sad way to live.  Yet, God has made us to live our lives in ways that are more than just satisfying; our lives were to be fulfilling.  Jesus came that we might have an abundant life.  One of the ways that God teaches in His Word to get satisfaction is through the words we speak and share with others.  Read Proverbs 12:14.

A man will be satisfied with good by the words of his mouth, and the work of a man’s hands will reward him.

Many times we don’t really realize how important our words are.  We carelessly speak words, thinking it doesn’t really matter.  We say to ourselves, “What does it matter what I said.  They will forget what I said anyways.”  However, in reality, once you have said something you can’t take it back.  You can try to apologize or delete that post from Facebook, but if someone has seen or heard your words you cannot erase them from their minds.  Rash, foolish or angry words will end up bringing us bad things.  We will get no satisfaction out of them.  Good, kind, helpful, loving, wise words will reap all kinds of benefits.  We will gain satisfaction from them.  Basically this is the concept of “reaping what you sowing”.  What an encouragement to know that God will bless us for the good words we use. If you plant good seed, you will get good plants.  So think of your words seeds and maybe you will see great rewards grow out of them.

 

Opportunity to Go and Do the Same

In the LA Times back in 2004 there was a story about a man who risked his life to protect someone else.  In the article it said, “The night Studio City resident Rene Navarro went to the aid of his neighbor, actress Anna Nicole Smith, he had hoped to persuade the man trying to enter her house to leave. Instead, Smith’s 6-foot-5, 230-pound former boyfriend turned stalker punched, kicked and threatened to kill Navarro. Though the assault left Navarro, 59, with broken fingers, head injuries and other wounds, his willingness to intervene convinced L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley to make him one of three recipients of the Courageous Citizen Awards in a ceremony Wednesday at the Pasadena Hilton.”  When Navarro went in to the situation he knew that he would be at risk for interfering.  It did not stop him.  He showed compassion and care for his neighbor.  However, later Navarro was recognized for his courageous act.  Although recognition for compassionate acts does not always occur, it is a great encouragement when they do.  Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan to give recognition to the fact that God appreciates and recognizes self-sacrificing acts of compassion to others.  Read Luke 10: 30 – 37.

30 Jesus took up [the question] and said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw [the man], he had compassion. 34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

Jesus told the expert in the law and the others who were listening that they needed to go and do the same.  Although the good Samaritan sacrificed time and money and was not publicly recognized for his good deed, Jesus shows us that God is pleased when we respond to opportunity to help others.  What an encouragement to know that God is watching and is pleased by our choice to respond to these type of opportunities to help others.

 

Never Pass Up God’s Opportunity

There are several shows on TV that deal with buying storage units and then going through them hoping to find something of value buried in them.  It’s a risky proposition.  You can spend money on something that just holds junk that you need to get rid of.  It’s also a lot of work.  You have to lift, dig, shove, move, re-pack, refinish, research, find buyers and sell it all.  So the question is, “Is it worth the effort and money?”  Or should you pass up the opportunity?  One time according to Trutv.com “In 2000, the actor Nicholas Cage filed a police report claiming that an extremely rare comic book, Action Comics #1, (valued at more than a million dollars) had been stolen from his Los Angeles home. More than 10 years later, a collectibles expert was contacted by an anonymous man who found the book after discovering it in a purchased storage locker. The collectibles expert contacted a comic book expert who happened to be the same man who had originally sold the book to Cage in 1994. Despite having received insurance money for the comic, the actor was eager to settle up with the insurance company and retrieve his property.”  This is just one of many examples where the work was worth the effort.  This was definitely an opportunity that shouldn’t have been passed up.  Jesus tells a parable that teaches this concept in Luke 10: 30 – 35.

30 Jesus took up [the question] and said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw [the man], he had compassion. 34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

We don’t really know why the two religious men passed up the man who had been robbed.  Perhaps they didn’t want to be inconvenienced or they knew it would cost them time and money.  Whatever the case the Samaritan stopped and took care of the man.  He gave up time and money to help.  It may not seem like an opportunity to help someone in need, but God sees it as an opportunity to share Him with others.  He gives us everything we have.  He gives us health, time, and money.  He expects to give of what we have to serve Him and others.   Every time to serve God is a great opportunity.  It’s opportunity that should not be passed up for our own selfish reasons.  If God shows us the opportunity and we know it is from Him, then we need to respond to the opportunity.  It is just common sense to not pass up God’s opportunities.  He will bless us for honoring Him and representing Him to others.  What we might spend in time and money will not compare to what we gain from God.  It’s like the great reward these storage unit buyers find.  

Here are some great opportunity quotes by some successful men:

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” Charles Swindoll

“Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.” Alexander Graham Bell

 

 

Seeing the Opportunity

Have you heard the expression, “If it had been a snake, it would have bit you.” or “It’s staring at you right in your face.”?  I laugh because I say these types of things to certain family members who can’t seem to find things they are looking for.  Sometimes we are so involved in what we are doing or have spent so much time looking we just don’t see clearly any more.  What is obvious becomes unobvious to us.  It’s the same with opportunities in our lives.  We may have been looking for work for a long time and as rejections pile up and time passes by we may not even see a job opportunity that someone has told us about as a job opportunity.  We see it as another rejection or as a hopeless cause to pursue.  We miss the opportunity that God may have opened up for us.  Look at the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10: 30 -35.

 30 Jesus took up [the question] and said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw [the man], he had compassion. 34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

The first two men who came across the man who lay in the street wounded and robbed were supposed to be godly men.  One was a priest, the other a Levite.  Yet each one of them looked at the man and continued on their way.  Perhaps they figured he was going to die and it wasn’t their responsibility or their fault this had happened.  Perhaps they figured he deserved it.  Perhaps they figured he was just a robber lying in wait.  Perhaps they thought someone else would take care of him.  Perhaps they thought they had too much on their plate already serving God or meeting family needs.  Whatever the case they missed an opportunity to minister to someone in need.  They didn’t even stop to examine him to see what his needs were and see if they could help.  They missed an opportunity to be a witness for God.

We need to take instruction from these two men.  Take time to see things as opportunities.  Even a trial that comes upon us is an opportunity to serve God or witness for Him.  God always brings things in to our life for a reason.  We may think it will cost us too much time or money.  We may think it will over stress us.  We may think we don’t have the skill.  What we are forgetting is that God has placed many opportunities in to our life and expects us to respond.  He always provides the resources to respond appropriately.  If He is leading us, then we must respond.  We must not just walk on past the opportunity.  Follow God’s instruction to see the opportunities he lays in our path.

Wisdom’s Opportunity

How many teachers have you heard say, “There is no dumb question”?  Or they say,  “Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  Someone else in class may be wondering the same thing.”  It is true that you cannot learn unless you start listening to what you are being taught and then asking questions in the spots you don’t understand.  Yet so many will still sit back in class and be afraid to ask because they don’t want to appear dumb.  It’s not that you are dumb; it is just that you haven’t learned that subject yet.  No human being born as a baby comes out knowing everything.  It is a process.  We miss opportunities to learn by being embarrassed, scared or stubborn.  Without learning certain things we are probably missing further opportunities that would come because of our knowledge.  The next step to learning is the stage of wisdom.  Wisdom comes when we gain knowledge and then apply it and learn further through the experience.  There is nothing sadder than to first not seek knowledge or worse yet not to use that knowledge once it is learned.  We gain no wisdom and use no wisdom in our lives when we do that.  Once such example is found in Luke 10: 25 – 29.

25 Just then an expert in the law stood up to test Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  26 “What is written in the law?” He asked him. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.  28 “You’ve answered correctly,” He told him. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

This gentleman was expert in the law of the Lord and he saw Jesus as a teacher.  He saw the opportunity to confirm that he was going to have eternal life.  Jesus tested his knowledge with a question.  The gentleman correctly answered.  He had learned well.  Jesus, however, saw down in to his heart.  He knew that knowledge was not being applied.  The man then wanted to try to prove he was good to go by asking Jesus a question.  Jesus told him the parable of the good Samaritan.  At the end Jesus shared some wisdom with him.  He told him to do the same as the good Samaritan.  In other words, Jesus knew that the man was not applying his knowledge and that he lacked wisdom.  With Jesus’ command the man was given the opportunity to gain wisdom. 

It was good the man appeared to be seeking Jesus’ wisdom with his question, but more important would be that he did not pass up the opportunity to apply the wisdom.  We need to do the same.  We need to spend time with Jesus in the Word and prayer and then actually apply what we learn.  Too many times we go to church and hear a message and return home to re-enter our same routines and never applying what we learn.  Remember to take the opportunity to seek wisdom and to apply it.

 

It’s Like Apples and Oranges

You can get on the internet and type in to a search engine the word “compare” and it will bring up websites that will let you compare anything from computers to phones to grocery stores and on and on.  You can’t run out of websites that will help you compare items.  We always want the best product or the best buy and love shopping around.  When it comes to gods to choose from, there really is no comparison.  Some gods are dead. They were just humans that taught good ideas and then died.  Some gods were just carved images in stone and wood.  They could never even come up with a good idea.  Some gods are just things we find in nature.  They don’t even think on the same level as we do.  It is interesting to look back over the history of mankind and see all the “gods” that man has created to worship and hope in.  How futile these efforts are.  Our own basic intelligence should naturally lead us to realize that for a god to be our god, it must be more intelligent, more powerful, more loving, more wise, and live longer than us.  The God of the Bible is the only god that has ever met all those requirements and more.  He is the only one who is alive and loves us deeply.  He is the only one who has taught us wisdom and given us knowledge that is unsurpassable.  He even reminds us in Isaiah 40: 25-26 that nothing will ever compare to Him:

“25 “Who will you compare Me to, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.  26 Look up and see:  who created these? He brings out the starry host by number; He calls all of them by name. Because of His great power and strength, not one of them is missing.”

When looking for a god to serve, worship and love, all we have to do is but look up and see that the God of the Bible is the one.  Comparing other gods with Him is like apples and oranges being compared.  There really is nothing in common but that they are fruits.  There is nothing really in common between God and other gods we could chose to worship, except that they are all just lumped in to man’s choices for their gods.  Just like apples and oranges are all lumped in to the category of fruits.  Wisdom should tell us after looking at the stars and other parts of God’s creation that they could have only come from one source, the one true God and that nothing compares to Him.  He is above all and all comes from Him.

Behaving Wisely Keeps the Enemy at Bay

There is no question that no matter how nice of a person we are in this life, that we will face at some point or another in our life a person we will consider an enemy.  They may disagree with us and make their opinion known very loudly to us and others.  They may not want to speak to us and may yell at us.  They may not want to help us when we need it.  They may even do things out of jealousy towards us.  David, as we have seen previously, love the Lord and behaved wisely; yet still he had enemies.  Read I Samuel 18: 15 and 16 –

“15 Therefore, when Saul saw that he behaved very wisely, he was afraid of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.”

King Saul saw that David was a mighty man and well loved.  He was extremely jealous of him.  King Saul sought many times to kill David because of his jealousy.  Saul could see that because David behaved so wisely that there was no way to honestly take him out of the picture.  As a result, King Saul became afraid of him.

When we behave wisely, we keep our enemies at bay.  As a result, like King Saul, our enemies will take steps to do wrong, to be rid of us, their threat.  The things they do will in the end be their un-doing.  They may be eaten up inside mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  They may be taken out by their enemies or even by God’s justice.  Bad never leads to good, but good only leads to good spiritually.  Behaving wisely only makes common sense.  Don’t give your enemies ammunition.

Behaving Wisely Has Its Rewards

David, the man after God’s own heart, was such a great example for us. His humanness and love for the Lord always showed. His life gives us hope that we can make it through anything. It gives us hope that God will continue loving us no matter what sin we commit. He is our example of how to praise the Lord no matter what is going on in our lives. Last, but not least, he was our example on how important it is to behave wisely. In I Samuel 18 we read:

“5 So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.”

As a result of David behaving wisely, he is rewarded. King Saul sets him a position of leadership and all the people accepted him. David could be trusted. His behavior, words and decisions were deemed wise and gave him respect. People prefer to follow leaders who behave wisely. No one respects a fool or follows a fool. If they do, it is for a very short time. We see this all the time when watching famous people who mouth off or do stupid things. In the end that person will only be rewarded with being remembered for that foolish word or action they did. Whereas, someone like David is remembered for being a man after God’s own heart who behaved wisely. Which way would you rather be remembered? Show great wisdom and be rewarded for behaving wisely.