Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1:20)
Wisdom cries aloud in the street… (Proverbs 1:20)
...Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:24)
The thoughts we think, the perceptions we carry and the beliefs that have formed determine the emotions we feel, the choices we make and the actions we take. In other words; how we live our lives! Selah
The wisdom books, especially Proverbs, often categorize people as wise or foolish. In either case, wisdom or foolishness determines the course and the quality of life.
Many factors have shaped our personal beliefs. Our life-perceptions have been formed by our family of origin, culture, local community, significant life events (both bad and good), peers, the media and more. We may or may not even be aware of “why we are the way we are”. We just know “we are”.
At different times and different stages of our lives we are faced with certain persistent questions. I call them the BIG questions of life:
Who am I? (identity)
Why am I here? (purpose)
Does my life have meaning? (what gives or determines my worth/value or significance)
Again, how we answer these questions determines the course of our lives. We need Wisdom!
In the Proverbs verse mentioned above wisdom is personified as one “crying in the street”. Wisdom can be discovered!
But, we must be aware that there are other voices “crying in the streets” through the various and measureless means of “the media”; formal, social and otherwise. Paul, in the first verse above, reveals that God defines the “world’s wisdom” as foolishness. Foolishness has a voice too!
Wisdom, similar to hope, peace and truth that I mentioned in my three previous blogs is not something we determine for ourselves. Wisdom is revealed by Another, received by faith and acted upon by our very lives. At that point we are becoming wise.
A.W. Tozer makes the simple yet profound statement:
We shall not seek to understand in order that we may believe, but to believe in order that we may understand. Hence we shall not seek proof that God is wise. The unbelieving mind would not be convinced by any proof and the worshipping heart needs none!
Jesus, His words and presence, are not only wise — they are life-giving, they carry the power to have what the scriptures call “life indeed” (1 Timothy 6:19). He not only brings words of Life but is intimately involved in being the life we live (Galatians 2:20).
In Christ we discover power, peace, truth, hope and wisdom. Outside of Christ is the foolishness of the world system in which we find ourselves inundated. We have choices to make!
One strongly worded statement that I read as part of the introduction to Colossians says this:
Any teaching which detracts from the centrality of Christ under the pretense of leading men to maturity and perfection is a perversion of the faith.
Jesus concluded the greatest sermon ever (the Sermon on the Mount), Matthew chapter 7, by comparing a wise life versus a foolish life. The difference was the Rock solid Truth and presence of Jesus on which the wise life was founded versus the shifting sands of unstable worldly foolishness. The final verses of that chapter say the people “marveled” because He spoke with authority!
Wisdom has a name!
rayandhisramblings 