Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”
Our Bible verse for today: “For learning what wisdom and discipline are; for understanding insightful sayings; for receiving wise instruction in righteousness, justice, and integrity; Proverbs 1:2-3 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Seek wisdom.”
There’s a lot of confusion about what true wisdom is. Many people associate the concept of wisdom with advanced learning in complex subjects. Therefore someone with multiple college degrees must surely be wise. Other people believe wisdom is in the hands of only certain special individuals who have managed to attain a higher level of consciousness. To those folks there’s almost a mystical Yoda-like quality to wisdom, as if the wise person has tapped into some profound mysteries of the universe. But real wisdom isn’t like that.
Wisdom is different from knowledge. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts. Wisdom is the ability to apply what we know in a smart and meaningful way that makes life better for us and for those around us. There are plenty of people who have accumulated lots of knowledge but who don’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain. But there are many others who, while maybe not having much formal education, are nonetheless very wise in the ways that matter.
The Old Testament book of Proverbs is one of the “wisdom” books of the Bible. Along with Psalms, the Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes, Proverbs is said to “provide heavenly wisdom for your earthly walk.” It gives us sound guidance for making practical decisions about the issues and choices involved in everyday life.
It’s customary when dining in a Chinese restaurant to end the meal by opening your fortune cookie. Inside the cookie is a slip of paper with some brief quip about people or life. Often it claims to predict the future of the reader. The object of the statement is not to explain everything about a subject but to get at the essence of it in a memorable way.
The Proverbs of the Bible are like that too, but God’s Proverbs are much better than fortune cookies. The Proverbs is a collection of Biblical nuggets of divine wisdom which are intended to give us common sense guidance on the everyday issues of life. They’re designed to make us stop and think, and then to redirect our lives if necessary. If we do what the Proverbs teach, we will end up being “wise” in the ways of God, and that is true wisdom.
Decisions have consequences. Therefore it’s essential that our decisions be good ones. When we learn and practice the wisdom of the Proverbs our decisions will be Biblically wise and we will be living well.
Each day over the course of the coming month we will walk through the Proverbs, pulling out and examining those nuggets of wisdom, and hopefully we will all end up the wiser for having done so. I look forward to exploring the Proverbs with you.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 