Category: Wisdom

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Planting Time Ends With Harvest Time

I am attaching a picture today of the garden we are planting. Take a look at the harvest that is coming to our lives.

I  want to encourage you to continue to grow by following these Scriptures.

“Great blessings belong to those who don’t listen to evil advice, who don’t live like sinners, and who don’t join those who make fun of God. 2 Instead, they love the Lord’s teachings and think about them day and night. 3 So they grow strong, like a tree planted by a stream— a tree that produces fruit when it should and has leaves that never fall. Everything they do is successful.” Psalm 1:1-3 ERV

“The man who is right and good will grow like the palm tree. He will grow like a tall tree in Lebanon. 13 Planted in the house of the Lord, they will grow well in the home of our God. ” Psalm 92:12-13NLV

“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. Then it gives peace. It is gentle and willing to obey. It is full of loving-kindness and of doing good. It has no doubts and does not pretend to be something it is not. 18 Those who plant seeds of peace will gather what is right and good.” James 3:17-18 NLV

“No, we will speak the truth with love. We will grow to be like Christ in every way. He is the head,  and the whole body depends on him. All the parts of the body are joined and held together, with each part doing its own work. This causes the whole body to grow and to be stronger in love.” Ephesians 4:15-16

These verses below are a prophecy about Jesus and the hope he would bring to the world. Look at the end, we are called trees, the Lord’s trees. He has planted us.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is on me. The Lord has chosen me to tell good news to the poor and to comfort those who are sad. He sent me to tell the captives and prisoners that they have been set free. 2 He sent me to announce that the time has come for the Lord to show his kindness, when our God will also punish evil people. He has sent me to comfort those who are sad, 3 those in Zion who mourn. I will take away the ashes on their head, and I will give them a crown. I will take away their sadness, and I will give them the oil of happiness. I will take away their sorrow, and I will give them celebration clothes. He sent me to name them ‘Good Trees’ and ‘The Lord’s Wonderful Plant.’” Isaiah 61:1-3 CEV

We are always to be in a place where we are growing. Growing in our knowledge and in the character that God wants us to develop.

“…Be careful that you do not fall from your strong faith. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Glory be to him, now and forever! Amen.” II Peter 3:17-18

We still have a few more days of planting ahead but I encourage you to search out the Scriptures and find verses, seeds, that you desire to see grow in your garden and get them planted.

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Got Your “Catchers” On?

I know you’ve experienced it – been on your cell with someone, telling them something that is really important to you and you realize they aren’t listening. When that happens I’ve been tempted to say “I was just stepped on by a huge green elephant” to which I know their reply would be something like “Oh really, that’s nice”. Yep, they’re not listening!

When the kids were little and we wanted them to pay attention to what we were saying we would tell them to “get your catchers on”. That meant we are about to say something you really need to listen to so catch every word we say.

I’ve been doing a lot of listening the last few days. People have needed to talk and they’ve needed someone who was willing to listen. Listening doesn’t mean giving answers or advice, it means listening. Yesterday afternoon, Dave came in and he was telling me something. I had been watching TV so I grabbed the remote, put the program on mute and asked him to repeat what he had said. I wanted to listen and not be distracted.

Just this morning while I was reading Proverbs 23 I came across 4 examples of Solomon giving instruction to listen.

“Listen to your teacher and learn all you can.” Verse 12 ERV

“Open your heart to teaching, and your ears to words of much learning.” Verse 12 NLV

“Listen to instruction and do your best to learn.” Verse 12 CEV

Three different translations saying the same thing – Listen!

Then there was this verse:

“So listen, my son, and be wise. Always be careful to follow the right path.” Verse 19 ERV

And this one:

“Listen to your father. Without him, you would never have been born. Respect your mother, even when she is old. 23 Truth, wisdom, learning, and understanding are worth paying money for. They are worth far too much to ever sell.” Verse 22 & 23

And finally,

“My son, pay close attention, and gladly follow my example.” Verse 26

You see that? Solomon was making sure we had our catchers on. Jesus did the same thing with his teaching. He gave his followers a head’s up during his sermons. It went something like this:

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 KJV

Repeating the phrase verily, verily was not a waste of words, it was spoken for emphasis and it meant I am telling you a great truth, listen up, pay attention. As you read through the Bible look for these clues. It’s ALL important and we can learn something from each Scripture we read but take to heart when the writer says listen.

When I was in high school I was on the speech team and loved going to competitions. I was assigned a topic once and needed to explain the difference between hearing and listening. We all hear, unless we are impaired but we don’t all listen.

“Hearing is simply the act of perceiving sound by the ear. If you are not hearing-impaired, hearing simply happens. Listening, however, is something you consciously choose to do. Listening requires concentration so that your brain processes meaning from words and sentences.” University of Minnesota, Duluth

The King James Bible is written in Old English and is filled with words like thee, thou, come hither, whithersoever, etc. and can be a little more difficult to understand but there is one phrase that I really like, “hearken diligently”. Simply put it means to listen up.

“Listen to and obey (hearken diligently) all the Laws I am telling you today. Love the Lord your God. Work for Him with all your heart and soul. If you do, 14 He will give the rain for your land at the right times, the early and late rain. So you may gather in your grain, your new wine and your oil. 15 He will give grass in your fields for your cattle. And you will eat and be filled. 16 Be careful not to let your hearts be fooled so you turn away and work for other gods and worship them.” Deuteronomy 11:13-16 NLV

God promises to bring blessings into our lives when we “hearken diligently” to His word. He has so many good things for us, we need to listen.

I’ve encouraged you in the past and will again, when you are reading the Bible don’t focus on how much you read, rather concentrate on the content. What you are reading is really God talking to you. Are you listening?

Get your catchers on!

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Discovering Hidden Treasure

Dave and I have always enjoyed finding “hidden treasure”! While we lived in Northern Idaho we spent nearly every weekend at farm and ranch auctions seeking lost treasure buried in barns or some old box. It was a wonderful time.

It also required an effort of time and finances. Sometimes we would travel into neighboring states, rarely was there anything within a couple hours drive. That was the fun of it; the drive, taking a picnic, setting a budget, going over the budget and then coming home with the truck laden down like a pirate’s ship. All of this was the image that came to mind this morning as I was reading Proverbs 2.

“My son, pay attention to what I say. Remember my commands. 2 Listen to wisdom, and do your best to understand. 3 Ask for good judgment. Cry out for understanding. 4 Look for wisdom like silver. Search for it like hidden treasure. 5 If you do this, you will understand what it means to respect the Lord, and you will come to know God.” Proverbs 2:1-5 ERV

Search for wisdom like hidden treasure.

Wisdom that comes from God is invaluable. Solomon is the one who wrote Proverbs and he is reported to have been the wealthiest and wisest man to have ever lived. He placed a greater value on wisdom than on riches. In fact, when God asked him what he wanted most this was his answer.

“While Solomon was at Gibeon, the Lord came to him at night in a dream. God said, “Solomon, ask me what you want me to give you.”

6 Solomon answered, “You were very kind and loyal to your servant, my father David. He was faithful to you and lived a good, honest life. And you showed him the greatest kindness when you let his son take his place as king. 7 Lord my God, you have made me the king in my father’s place, but I am like a small child. I don’t have the wisdom I need to do what I must do. 8 I am your servant here among your chosen people. There are so many that they cannot be counted. 9 So I ask you to give me the wisdom to rule and judge them well and to help me know the difference between right and wrong. Without such great wisdom, it would be impossible to rule this great nation.”

10 The Lord was happy that Solomon asked for wisdom. 11 So God said to him, “You did not ask for long life and riches for yourself. You did not ask for the death of your enemies. You asked for the wisdom to listen and make the right decisions. 12 So I will give you what you asked for. I will make you wise and intelligent. I will make you wiser than anyone who ever lived or ever will live. 13 And I will also give you what you did not ask for. You will have riches and honor all your life. There will be no other king in the world as great as you. 14 And I will give you a long life if you follow me and obey my laws and commands as your father David did.” I Kings 3:5-14 ERV

Time and again in the book of Proverbs Solomon refers to wisdom as a treasure.

“Good homes are built on wisdom and understanding. 4 Knowledge fills the rooms with rare and beautiful treasures.” Proverbs 24:3 ERV

“Profit that comes from wisdom is better than silver and even the finest gold. 15 Wisdom is worth more than fine jewels. Nothing you desire has more value. 16 With her right hand, Wisdom offers long life—with the other hand, riches and honor.” Proverbs 3:14-16 ERV

I’m sure you have noticed that there are 30 chapters in the book of Proverbs, one for each day of most months. What if we were to go on a daily treasure hunt? I know it would require time, just like it required a commitment of our time to travel to those auctions. Do you think if would be profitable for us to search out the treasure in each chapter? There is so much that we can glean from the practical teachings of this book.

One thing that Solomon teaches us is to trust God’s wisdom and not our own. We’re not to “lean on our own understanding”. This is probably one of the most difficult things for me to consistently follow. I’m constantly coming up with one “bright idea” after another and I have certainly had my fair share of failures. But those things that I have truly sought the Lord on and followed His wise plan have succeeded.

This is one of the gold nuggets that I found hidden in the book of Proverbs.

“Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 AMP

In the natural way of thinking it wasn’t good military strategy to have a nation of people march around a city for 7 days and then shout and blow on trumpets but that was God’s plan for taking the city of Jericho. Joshua followed it and defeated his enemy. Going after a giant with a sling shot and 5 smooth stones wasn’t King Saul’s plan but it was God’s, so when David was obedient success followed.

A widow woman had the plan to take her last bit of meal and oil, make a cake for her and her son and then they were going to starve. There was no other food and her countrymen had been dying all around her. It wasn’t her plan to make the cake and give to God’s prophet first but that’s what she did and with God’s plan in place the woman and her son never ran out of meal and oil during the famine.

We need to trust and follow His instruction. God will give us creative ideas if we ask Him.

“Learning respect for the Lord is good. It will last forever. The Lord’s judgments are right. They are completely fair. 10 His teachings are worth more than pure gold. They are sweeter than the best honey dripping from the honeycomb. 11 His teachings warn his servants, and good things come to those who obey them.” Psalm 19:9-11 ERV

So get out your metal detectors, your gold panning equipment and your treasure map. Dig into God’s word. Happy prospecting!

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Common Sense Isn’t so Common Anymore

We’ve discussed this before but there seems to be a lack of common sense and wisdom. Common sense isn’t so common anymore.

I used to read a chapter a day in Proverbs but the older I get I find that I need to break it down in smaller segments than that so I can really try to absorb what Solomon is saying. And after all these years, I am still finding new truths that I overlooked or didn’t see in the past.

I guess that’s wisdom!

“Good people think before they answer,
but the wicked speak evil without ever thinking.
29 The Lord never even hears the prayers of the wicked,
but he answers the prayers of all who obey him.
30 A friendly smile makes you happy,
and good news makes you feel strong.
31 Healthy correction is good, and if you accept it,
you will be wise.
32 You hurt only yourself by rejecting instruction,
but it makes good sense to accept it.
33 Showing respect to the Lord will make you wise,
and being humble will bring honor to you.”
Proverbs 15:28-33 CEV

1) It’s important that we give thought to the words we speak. Jesus said that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Words can have a mighty impact and so we should choose them well. A wise person will do that.

2) Take time to smile and bring good news. I make a conscious effort to keep a smile on my face. It improves my own outlook. A smile shared is a smile multiplied. (If you smile at someone they generally smile back and that’s multiplication).

3) Accept correction and good advice. It’s beneficial! We can learn from others. We don’t have all the answers or know everything about anything so accepting advice and correction is a step toward wisdom.

4) Giving the Lord his rightful place, a place of reverence, is wise. When we give the Father and His Word first place we are truly wise.

So smile today and be willing to accept instruction or correction and keep the Lord first…you’ll have a near perfect day!

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