Wisdom

The Bible has a lot to say about wisdom.  I believe that wisdom is the most important thing (aside from Jesus Christ) that we should be asking for when we pray.  When God grants you wisdom, everything else seems to fall into place.  When is the last time you prayed for wisdom?  For me, it has been too long.  

If you've gone to church any in your lifetime, you've probably heard the story of Solomon.  In a dream, God asks Solomon "What shall I give you?"(1 Kings 3:5).  Solomon requests an understanding heart to discern between good and evil (3:9).  God is pleased with this request and goes above and beyond giving him wisdom.  The Bible says that Solomon was the wisest and richest man ever.  If you want to look deeper into the word "ever", it means EVER.  No man before or after Solomon has been richer or wiser.  Bill Gates? Chump change.  Sigmund Freud? Yawn.  

The Bible says that "all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart" (10:24).  Solomon is on top of a mountain.  Everyone wants to know him.  He has the world at his fingertips.  Check out the beginning of chapter 11.  "BUT, King Solomon loved many foreign women".  Solomon had a weakness.  His wisdom could not keep him from these foreign women and their foreign gods.  The LORD ends up getting angry at Solomon and tearing his kingdom away from him.  It seems to me that Solomon applied his wisdom to his kingdom and to foreigners, but forgot to apply it on himself.  If anyone has any insight into this, please let me know, because I am perplexed by this passage.  

One other passage worth mentioning is 1 Kings 12:8.  King Rehoboam consulted his elders, who were with his father Solomon and blatantly rejected their advice on a matter.  Verse 8 tells us "But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him".  When I read this passage, I thought about how stupid Rehoboam was.  Who would take the advice of peers instead of the wiser elders.  Then I realized the answer to that question....me.  How many times have I sought the advice from my friends without even considering a wiser option (no offense guys)? My friends, though they may bring a different perspective to the table, know just about as much as I know about any given subject.  Wouldn't it be more worthwhile to seek an older, more mature, Godly example?  God has provided me with plenty options, and I'm sure you can think of some as well.  Well you can probably predict the ending of this story.  Isreal rebelled against Rehoboam and he fled from his kingdom.  

I recently read the verse in Matthew where Jesus says "ask and it will be given to you".  How many times do we take advantage of this promise?  I want to challenge you to earnestly pray for wisdom right now.  See what God has in store for you! I'll quit this post abruptly so you can pray!

Enjoy!

This weekend, I learned something about myself that is life-changing.  I learned that I have been approaching the Bible all wrong.  In the past, I would read the Bible out of obligation, I would read to feel guilty about myself, or I would read because I wanted God to reveal something to me.  These are all terrible reasons to pick up the Word of God.  This weekend, I was invited to actually try to enjoy the Bible.  The concept of reading for enjoyment is Greek to me, so this was a very hard step to take.  I have made an effort to no longer look at the Bible as a textbook I have to read, a get out of guilt free pass, or a way to make my life better.  I simply want to enjoy the Word of God.  

Let me be the first to tell you that this is entirely possible! I am starting to look forward to my daily quiet time.  Its not a chore anymore.  I am hopeful that this attitude will lead to a deeper and longer devotional time as time goes on.  I cannot explain the reasons behind my sudden change in attitude, I can only point to Jesus, because this is what I've been praying for for a long, long time.  

I am super excited to share with you all what I learned the other day.  I don't know why I never learned this in Sunday School growing up, but it is one of the coolest things that I have learned about the Bible.  If you have a Bible, go get it! Turn to Genesis 5.  No really, I'll wait for you...

...

...

Is this chapter familiar to you? Of course not! Who wants to read a bunch of boring genealogies? What could God possibly teach me in this chapter? If you are like me, then you would have bypassed this whole chapter and went right to the story of Noah.  But lets take a look at the line of men from Adam to Noah.  Bible scholars that are a lot smarter than me figured out the meanings of each man's name in their culture and time, and here is the result.

Adam-Man

Seth-Is Appointed

Enosh-Mortal

Cainan-Sorrow

Now pay attention, this is where it gets fun.

Mahalalel-The Blessed God

Jared-Shall Come Down

Enoch-Teaching

Methuselah-His Death Shall Bring

Lamech-The Despairing

Noah-Comfort

"The blessed God shall come down teaching his death shall bring the despairing comfort."

What? Are you telling me that the genealogy from Adam to Noah points directly to Jesus Christ?  It is fun to read the Bible when you know that every story, every word points to Jesus somehow, and why shouldn't it be? In John 5:39, Jesus says, "You search the Scriptures (old testament), for in them you think you have eternal life: and these are they which testify of me".  That means that the old testament has Jesus written all over it! I invite you to search with me.

Well, I have began a new regimen for reading and would like to invite you to join me if you have no previous direction or method of reading the Bible.  Right now, I am reading two chapters a day of the old testament, new testament and Psalms/Proverbs.  That's six chapters a day.  It takes a slow reader like myself about twenty minutes to do this.  

I pray that you, too, will start enjoying your Bible more.  God knows you inside and out, and like I said in a previous post, He wrote it for you! He wrote it for your enjoyment.  Please pray for me as I am fearful that this enjoyment will dwindle away like many other Christian experiences that I have had.  I want this to be permanent! 

Be efficient!

A few years ago, I took a management class that was about making good decisions. One thing I remember from this class is a lesson having to do with the productivity of separate systems. I hope I can explain this well enough for everyone to understand, so bear with me.

This lesson centered around combining separate systems and figuring out how efficient these combinations could be. Say you had three systems that you needed to bring together (for example cutting french fries, frying french fries, and salting french fries). Let's say each one of these systems operates at 90% efficiency. Sounds pretty good right? However, we learned that the combination of these systems is not going to create 90% efficiency, but 72.9% efficiency. You calculate this by multiplying all of the efficency percentages together (0.9 x 0.9 x 0.9). So what sounds like a good system, because it has fairly efficient parts, turns out to be pretty crappy. You wouldn't want 27% of all of your french fries to be inedible would you?

Hopefully I did a decent job at explaining this because I do have a purpose for telling you all of this. Let's say a friend is telling you about a sermon that he once heard. How much of this will be what God has in store for you? The friend, who may have been paying attention 75% of the time listens to a sermon, written by a preacher who is giving a message from God, but is still human (so lets give him a 96%), now tells you, which your listening skills aren't the best either (80%). Lets put this in our handy equation to get a (.75 x .96 x .8) 57.6% chance that you will receive what God has in store for you.

When we read the Bible, it is 100% efficient. It is God's direct line to you! We do not have to worry about mistakes or wrong information. The Bible is 100% true and written directly for me and you. One of the biggest mistakes that I make is replacing the Bible with other things. These other things are usually good, maybe even great things; a sermon, an inspirational video, a friend's testimony, worship songs, but these are not 100% efficent like the Bible. When I replace my quiet time reading the Bible with anything else, I am lowering the probability that God will speak to me. Yes, these things are great suppliments to reading the Bible, but we need to be leary of putting too much value on any man-made creation. For those of you who listen to the likes of John Piper, Mark Driscol, Al Mohler, or any other famous religious expert, make sure that you are not following them, but follow the One who they are following, Jesus Christ. Make sure that your "system" begins with the Bible, anything else will bring down your efficiency.

I am speaking to myself more than I am speaking to anybody reading this right now. I have watered down my knowledge by relying on others to pour their knowledge into me. To increase my efficiency in this life, I must rely on God to pour His knowledge into me, by relying on the Word of God. It has the answers to any problem that life may throw at me. The more I read, the more prepared I will be for these problems.

I am ashamed to report that I did not read yesterday, and did not want to post with nothing read. I let my two biggest enemies Lazyness and Busyness get the best of me. Today, I finished 2 Samuel and here are a few things I got out of my readings...

Joab and David's army were in pursuit of a rebel named Sheba. During this pursuit, the army was getting ready to ransack and destroy a whole city. A "wise woman", as the Bible describes her, speaks up and talks some sense into Joab. She ends up diplomatically solving Joab's dilemma without anyone getting hurt, except Sheba of course. The people of the city threw Sheba's head over the wall to Joab. Not only was this a pretty cool story that kept me entertained, it also made me realize that I don't always have the best ways of doing things. It may take a "wise woman" to show me a better solution. If Joab hadn't have listened to this woman, countless people would have been murdered for no reason. I know my decisions don't usually end up in murder (let me clarify, zero murders), but we need to be willing to heed and even search for wise advice.

During David's song in chapter 22, he sings to God, "With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; with the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd". This spoke to me that God will encourage us if we just try to live right. If we display these traits (except for the last one, of course), God will bless us by displaying the same traits to us.

Josheb-Basshebeth, Eleazar, and Shammah. Ring a bell? Anybody? Yeah, I didn't think so. These are the names of David's mighty men, the best of the best. These men killed hundreds, maybe thousands of men. They were the strongest, fastest, smartest men at the time, but now they are just weird names in a book that frankly, not many people read. They were probably stronger and tougher than any Hollywood movie character (Maximus, William Wallace, Achilles), but NO ONE REMEMBERS THEM. This hit me hard. Why do I put so much value in being liked, being famous, being smart, being athletic? In 100 years, no one will remember me (unless I'm still living!). In 1000 years, only a handful of people from our lifespans will be known. We need to focus on daily living for Jesus. If we focus on making a name for ourselves, it will be a losing effort.

My prayer is that we will be efficient in our lives. I pray that we can dive into the Word and start obeying its commands. This is our only hope for a 100% satisfying life!

I am blessed!

Every time I think about my life for any extent of time, I always come to the same conclusion: I am extremely blessed. Right now, I feel so overwhelmed with the amount of blessings that my God has given me and continues to give me daily, even though I do not deserve it. My wife is a gift from God. Yesterday, I thought about all the people who had prayed for my future wife growing up. My parents, grandparents, friends, and other family came to mind. I want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you for those prayers. I am experiencing a great marriage because of those prayers. Tereza is the perfect wife for me. She loves me more than I deserve. She enjoys life just as much as I do. She has so many talents and skills that make up for my inadequacies. Her desire is for me to be the best Christian that I can be, and she continually pushes me to this goal.

I am also blessed with an awesome family. My parents did a brilliant job raising me (I mean, just look at me!). With all jokes aside, I wish that I will be half the father that my dad was to me. My mom taught me how to be compassionate and caring. Your (mom and dad) love for Christ is the greatest thing that you passed on to me, and I thank you for that. I couldn't have asked for a better brother and sister. Sure, we've had the usual sibling fights (back poundings), but I know that they will always be there for me anytime that I need them.

I am also blessed with my job. My boss allows me to work around my school schedule and even sometimes from home. I can't think of a better job that I could have during this time of my life. I enjoy my coworkers, I get free lunch three days a week, and I love what I do.

I will need a part 2 of this post because I have so many other things going through my head right now. Let me end this portion of the post by saying that I do not mean to sound like I am bragging about my life and I am sorry if it came off this way to anyone. I just feel like we all should take a step back and thank God for the blessings that he has given each and every one of us.

Today, I read 2 Samuel 16-19. I wanted to read more than this, but I felt myself losing focus. I'd rather be really interested in four chapters than mildly interested in six or seven chapters. Anyway, in chapter 17, Absalom took the advice of Hushai, one of David's old friends who was secretly still loyal to David, over the advice of Ahithophel, who was highly respected among the people of those days. I know in this story that Absalom is the bad guy and David is the good guy, but I still think that we can learn from Absalom's side of the story. Hushai's advice sounded good and sincere, but it ultimately lead to Absalom's death. This story made me think about what kind of advice I get and from whom. Just because advice sounds good, we should ultimately consult our loved ones and God, through the Word before we make any major desicions.

My prayer is that we fill our minds with God's Word and prayer for wisdom so we can distinguish between the Ahithophels and the Hushais of our lives.

Temptation

Yesterday morning, Luna, my dog decided to start an awful trend.  In the early mornings and at night we have rabbits that hop around the woods behind our house.  The problem; Luna loves rabbits!  She will first sit majestically and wag her tail at them.  Next, she will pace from one side of the yard to the other, accompanied by a small growl every now and then.  After this, she will begin barking hysterically at the poor things.  And as I found out yesterday morning, the final stage of this sequence includes sprinting after the rabbits, regardless of the cost.  The cost in this scenario is, of course, the invisible fence.  I'd like to think of Luna as a pretty smart dog, and she has learned her boundaries by this electric fence.  She has also learned the consequences of crossing those boundaries.  I, too, know this consequence because my wife dared me to try it out and it hurts!  I have concluded that, sometimes, her temptation to chase this rabbit clouds her knowledge and rationale and she knowingly absorbs a good shock all because of this temptation.

Is this far from us as humans?  I am guilty of falling to temptation, being fully aware of the consequences of my actions.  Whether they be internal guilt or outward disciplines, sometimes the temptation may feel like the only option I have.  I have been "shocked" many times and like an animal, continue to fall to the same temptation.  God has created us not to act like animals, but to be over the animals.  It is my prayer that God can open my eyes to when I am beginning to sit majestically and wag my tail at whatever temptation is in front of me at the moment.  I know that by the time that I am barking frantically and pacing back and forth, it is too late!  

Today, I read up to 2 Samuel 15.  The one thing that struck me was the story of Amnon and Tamar.  Amnon was one of David's sons and Tamar was his half sister.  Amnon loved Tamar to the point of being sick because he knew he couldn't do anything about it.  One of his friends advised Amnon to rape Tamar and Amnon did it.  Here is the point of the story....once Amnon raped his sister, the Bible says that he hated her more than he had loved her before.  The way I see it, Amnon fell in temptation and sin, and as always, the temptation did not delivery as advertised.  It probably turned out far worse than he could have imagined.  The end result was that Amnon got murdered by his brother Absalom.

Temptation is an evil tool that Satan uses for all of us.  Be on your guard, my brothers and sisters, so that we will not fall into temptation!  Learn your weaknesses in this area so that you may know when you need help.  It is my prayer that you can surround yourselves with strong, Christian friends that will motivate you to flee from these temptations.  

Here am I, all of me...

Hello all! I figured that in this first post, I will tell you a little bit about myself and the reasons why I wanted to start a blog. My name is Dave, I am 24 and am happily married to Tereza, my favorite person in the world. I am a year away from beginning my career as a high school math teacher and am super excited about it. I am a very quiet and reserved person, which was motivation for me to begin blogging. That's enough about me for now, you'll get to know me better along the way!

The main reason that I wanted to blog is that God has been putting it on my heart. I have always thought of blogging as time consuming and stupid, but now I feel that it will be beneficial to myself, and hopefully you. My aim for this blog is to grow as a Christian by being honest and transparent with my readers. I feel like this will build a sense of accountability between myself and those of you who take time out of your day to read. Here is your first dose of blunt honesty:

I am not doing a good job being a Christian and now that I think about I have never really been the type of Christian that I yearn to be. Let me get more specific with this (I hate Christian generalizations like I just used); I rarely read my Bible consistently, I don't tell others about Jesus, and when I get around to praying, I pray selfishly. I understand fully how Paul feels when he talks about being the worst sinner, and I want this to stop.

Now that that's off my chest, I have a job for you as my readers. I give you all permission to challenge me, question my views, and push me to become a better Christian. You don't even have to know me, if God puts it on your heart to comment, please do.

I am not writing this for your entertainment, so if you're looking to be entertained, keep looking. I am not writing this because I have all the answers, or any answers. I am not writing this because I like to voice my opinion (I don't). I am writing this in the hopes that it will encourage people to take the steps to grow in their walks with God, as well as encourage myself to do the same.

Most of my posts will be much shorter than this, don't worry! The last part of each post will be about what God has revealed to me through his Word. This will motivate me to keep reading the Bible daily. Today I read 2 Samuel 8-12. I usually don't read this much but it was a nice day outside and in the back of my mind I knew I would be posting how much I read on here. My prayer is that I will increase the amount I read and maybe even start to like to read. There are a few things that stuck out at me that I would like to share.

The first thing is 2 Samuel 10:12. Joab, David's army general told his brother, who was heading up some of David's army, "Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the LORD do what is good in His sight." After reading this verse, I began thinking about where Joab is coming from. He has seen God work so many times before. He knows the power of the LORD and tries to pass this on to his brother for battle. Joab knows that he is a part of God's chosen people, and he trusts that God will watch over them during this battle. Shouldn't I have the same feelings? How come I don't have the courage to tell others about Jesus even though I have seen countless times the power of Jesus in my own life and others' lives. Shouldn't I be willing to take that leap of faith because the LORD will do what is good in His sight. God loves me more than I know, so why would he not want to protect me.

I skipped the part about David and Bathsheba because I have read it and heard it too many times to count, but I read about David's son dying because of David's sin. David fasted for seven days so God would have mercy on him and his son. This made me think about all the things that we pray for and don't get. David was a true hero of faith and God still struck down his son even after he fasted for a week (try fasting for a week by the way). The main thing from this story is that after he learned about his son's death, what did David do? He worshipped God. I have a problem worshipping God after I lose a church league softball game. David's son just died because God struck him ill...and he worships God? I cannot get my head around this.

My prayer is to be more like David in this aspect. I yearn to be a Godly man, and modelling myself after David would be a good start. I dare to say that the church needs more men who will boldly worship their Heavenly Father!