Proverbs Part 1

Over the next week or so I'm going to post some of my thoughts as I'm preparing 3 sermons on Proverbs. (They won't necessarily be in any particular order - just as they come)

Where does wisdom start?

With Dr Phil? Navel gazing, or graduating from the school of hard knocks?

Proverbs 1:7 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But you will also notice in Ch 2:5 that the fear of the Lord is the goal of wisdom too.

The fear of the Lord?

In Exodus 20:20 the Israelites are faced with God in the cloud and lightning on top of the Mt. Understandably they are freaked out. But check what Moses tells them:

Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."

Don't be terrified of the Mt, this is God coming to you. Now that you are about to meet Him (i.e: you are about to recieve His words) you will be able to say no to sin if you fear Him. That is, if you respond to His word by faith in reverant awe.

We get the same picture in Mark 4 when the disciples are caught in the mother of all storms and fear that the waves will crush their boat into matchsticks. Jesus wakes up, instantly stops the storm (with a word) and now the disciples are afraid of Him. They ask, who is this man and what has he done?! How is this possible?! (I put it to you that you too would react in this way if you thought that God himself might be in your boat).

In order to unlock God's blueprint for life in his world, and to know how to live well in it, the starting point, the front door, is fear of the Lord. Responding to His word in faith with a healthy dose of reverant awe. (That's the bit that lets God be God and reminds you that you are not.)

This is the fence line within which we are able to graze freely in the pasture of wisdom.

More to come

Scott

Open Doors

Last night I made my way to Marike and Gordon's place - an older couple in our church who have decided they are sick of not knowing people at St James and so once a month have an afternoon tea and then a supper to get to know more people, and to help us get to know each other. Since they have begun, they have had over 100 people thru their house - well done guys.

But they also use the time to have a presentation for Open Doors - a Christian organisation that exists to help the persecuted church around the world by sending bibles, giving training as well as loving support. I know there are zillion of groups doing all sorts of good things for Christ, but these guys have got my attention.

To check out a bit more, click here

They try to serve 200 million Christians in the 66 closed countries who are persecuted in one way or another for their faith. If you go to the link, you can find out about 3 Indoensian women who spent almost 3 yrs in jail for running a sunday school club (evangelism is prohibited). Last night I also heard about Pastor Samuel Lamb in China who after spending 21 years in jail went straight back to his house church (he cramps 700 people into his place 4 times a week) and states quite forthrightly, 'Persecution good! More persecution, more growth!'

I was reminded last night that even if God has spared you persecution (for now) you still feel the affects of it. When one part of the body suffers, we all suffer. It's abut time that we started to listen to the aches and pains of our global body.

Check it out.
Scott

If you could ask God one question . . .

Can you remember when you were in high school?

Did you ever ask a question about the Bible, God or what you should do when faced with a tough choice? Well, I could use your help.

I'm putting together a book of questions and answers on some of the classic questions youth group kids ask about Christian things. Here are some of the classics already assembled:

• Where do the dinosaurs fit in?
• Who made God?
• Do babies who die go to heaven?
• Can Christians get tatoos?
• How far is too far?
• What's with predestination?
• If God loves everyone, why all the suffering?

In fact so far I have about 80 questions, but I would love to hear the ones that baked your noodle back in the day (maybe they still haven't been sorted).

Can you help?

Scott

This is not what I had in mind for the first post on my born again blog,
but it did make me laugh very hard.

Scott

The Dude Abides

It's been a long time between posts but as a friend of mine has observed, life comes before blogging.

I'm sitting here listening to Bruce croon out some anthems from Human Touch, a new pair of ug boots on my frozen feet and a tastey beverage close at hand.

My time away has not been wasted, so drop by soon and we'll get this party started.

Scott