Proverbs 1:24: Don’t turn away

[Wisdom says:] “Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,”
-Proverbs 1:24

There are some churches in this country, some big important churches, that refuse to speak of sin. They say they want to be “positive,” and so they only speak of love. They probably would have spent some time in verse 23 and skipped right over this next section, as though God put this part in by accident.

The promise of verse 23 is a wonderful one, which is why I spent four blog entries talking about it. If you don’t remember, they precede this one. It is a promise that is, in all honesty, the hope of my life, and it is a hope that will be fulfilled.

But if you remember verse 23 at all, you will remember that the promise is contingent on repentance. What happens if someone ignores the call of the Lord and keeps walking by his own counsel?

The next few verses will tell us. It’s not pretty.

At the start, let us be clear. It is a choice to turn away from God. It is your choice, and you cannot blame it on anything else. People from all circumstances, all walks of life, all families have this choice. On the day you meet God (and you will), you will have to answer for that choice.

Romans 1:19-20 says this:

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Like Wisdom of Proverbs 1 stands in the streets and calls, God has made Himself known to all. He has given all of us a chance to repent.

Repent from what? See, a lot of pastors will tell you that you’re okay, and that everything’s alright. But the Bible tells us differently, and, if you think about it, you’ll know differently too. This world is not okay, and you’re not either. This world is filled with hatred, greed, lust, and ambition, and you are too. Face it, the same terror that dictators cause on a large scale exists in your heart too.

You may be thinking, “Hey, I’m a good person!” Maybe you are, but only compared to others. By God’s Holy standard, you are not. Have you lied? James tells us that if you have broken one part of the Law, you are guilty of the whole thing (2:10). Have you looked at a woman lustfully? Then you are an adulterer (Matthew 5:28). Have you used the Lord’s name in vain?

Let us not fool ourselves. God’s standard is perfection, and not a one of us has not sinned.

Depressed yet? Go back to verse 23, for there is hope. Repent, and you will be forgiven. Turn to Christ, who has the power to grant you eternal life. There’s no scorecard in heaven to tell you if you have passed the test or not. We all failed, except for Jesus, who lived a perfect life. But in His death He is able to take your sin upon Himself and give His own righteousness to you.

The alternative to eternal life is eternal death. There is a Hell, and people will go there. You don’t just cease to exist. Every sin will be punished. The question is whether you will take the punishment yourself, or if you will take Christ’s offer to pay the price for you.

Repent, my friends. Go to God and see for yourself how good He is.

Proverbs 1:23: I don’t get it!

[Wisdom says:] “If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.”
-Proverbs 1:23

I am a SEINFELD fanatic. I’ll admit it: I have a problem.

I have seen every episode at least four times. It’s true. Some episodes I have seen ten or more. I have all the DVDs and it’s fairly regular that I will put one in and watch a few episodes. A few years ago, when I was more into television than I am now, I watched at least two episodes a day on late night television.

I’m not suggesting this as a great idea, just telling you the truth. Since I became a Christian, my priorities have shifted away from SEINFELD more and more, but I still love the show.

All of that to say this. When I am with my SEINFELD-loving friends, we will often quote lines from the show and laugh. Constantly we are doing this. And if someone is around us who doesn’t really know SEINFELD that well, he’s going to be lost. It’s an inside joke.

We have our inside jokes, something that requires special understanding to even get. The Bible is sort of like that.

Let me put it another way. I can read medical charts for the most part, because I’ve been trained to, being in insurance. If you give me a mechanic’s notes about my car, I’ll understand less of it. Give me the schematics to a microchip, and I’m lost. I do not have the training or understanding to even begin.

The Bible is like that too.

You can read the Bible and learn a great deal. People all over the world and throughout history are doing so. You can get the basic gist of things. But you’re not going to understand the depth of it until you have the right training. Just like I can only glean a little if you told me how my engine works, much of the teachings of the Word may be lost on you without something important.

No, it’s not a decoder ring or special knowledge. It’s the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2 is a wonderful discussion of this. In verse 14, Paul writes, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

It’s like someone who has never seen SEINFELD trying to make sense of the conversations I have with my friends. It’s like me trying to build a microchip from scratch using only a diagram of one. Not going to happen.

Furthermore, the Spirit drives us to seek the Word. 1 Peter 2:2-3 tells us to “long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord” (NASB).

I find it rather humorous when non-Christians try to tell me what the Bible says about things. They usually butcher it, saying some nonsense like the Bible promotes slavery or something like that. They do not understand, because they do not have the eyes to see it. But it also worries me when I find Christians who do not read it. If you have the Spirit, untold depths are awaiting you in these pages.

It is the Spirit that moves a man to God, not that man himself. The Spirit does it, because a man cannot even understand that much of God to want to do that. But when the Spirit prompts, suddenly certain truths will become evident, that everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that no one is righteous enough to enter heaven on his own.

But the Bible tells also of the greatest truth of all, that Christ came and died so that we can be united with God. Has the Spirit taught you the truth of yourself, that you are not good enough to reach Him alone? If so, then turn away from your old ways and look to the truth of Christ. You deserve death because of your sins, but He died in your place. Now you can take His righteousness and walk in His truth.

Proverbs 1:23: Nine times nine

[Wisdom says:] “If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.”
-Proverbs 1:23

I am surrounded, more and more, by a world that does not know the multiplication tables. Especially now, with the state of American schools, fewer people are even considering this information, fewer people will admit it worthwhile, and fewer people can really multiply nine and nine and get eighty-one without a calculator.

If you’re wondering, I did not use a calculator for that one, but maybe I should . . . Yep, I was right the first time.

If you go around to the people you know, chances are that many of them will have no clue when it comes to mathematics. Many of them will just have a blank look on their faces when you start talking about the multiplication tables.

Doesn’t mean they aren’t true.

Anyone can grab a handful of rocks and work out these tables for their own, making nine little piles of nine rocks each and then counting eighty-one rocks. Any fool can do this. And yet it is so telling that I’ve heard some mathematicians are now questioning the meaning of ONE.

There are absolute truths in this universe of a higher order than ONE. There is wisdom beyond that which a normal man on the street will admit to. There are those who will tell you there is no truth, that nothing is good or evil, that there is no God. But then there are people who do not understand nine times nine, but that doesn’t change the answer away from eighty-one.

In one of my favorite episodes of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, Picard is tortured for an extended period. One of the things the Cardassians do to him is to shine four lights in his eyes and tell him there are five lights. They promise him freedom, food, whatever, if he will just admit there are five lights.

But there were four lights. In just the same way, the evidence of God is all about us, from the way we are fearfully and wonderfully made to the precise balance of the universe to the moral law inscribed within us to love, to love, to love.

Wisdom cries out in the street, and she cries out the name of Christ Jesus, the evidence of a love beyond any other we could ever know. While we were sinning, while we were in rebellion, God sent His Son to save us. Jesus died for us, paying the price for our sin upon the Cross.

It is true, more true than nine times nine being eighty-one. If you repent of your old ways and fall at His feet for mercy, you will find it. Ask Him for His forgiveness and walk in His ways, and you will find love and wisdom as you have never before known.

Proverbs 1:23: Speaking all sorts of foolishness

[Wisdom says:] “If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.”
-Proverbs 1:23

There was a woman who worked with me about ten years ago who was dating a friend of mine. I really disliked this woman greatly at first. I really can’t even remember why, but that’s hardly important. The point is, because she was dating a friend and she worked with me, I had to be around her quite a bit, and I got to know her a lot better.

And I started to like her a lot better too. She became a friend.

I was interesting, because a few weeks later I was talking with yet another friend, who was commenting on this same woman, saying some rather unkind things about her. I had to stop him. “I used to think those same things,” I told him, “but I got to know her better, and she’s really a much better person than either of us gave her credit for.”

He didn’t believe me, but I wasn’t surprised. That didn’t much matter either, because she left that job after a couple of months and my friend broke up with her, so none of us saw her much after that summer.

Sometimes we say so much out of foolishness. Every time I turn on the television it seems I see someone proudly proclaim some kind of nonsense. We don’t want to admit that maybe, just maybe, we are in the wrong, and so we put on our lives as a show to all as though there were nothing to be ashamed of. We proclaim things we do not even understand.

Wisdom stands before us, saying, “Don’t you think there may be a better way? Don’t you think there may be a higher truth than merely your own desires and lusts?”

We ignore her mostly. I did for two and a half decades. But then she finally smacked me over the head with the truth, and I have never seen things in quite the same way again.

The “spirit” she is referring to is the Holy Spirit. When you become a Christian, Christ sends the Spirit to you as a guide and coach, teaching you and changing you. In what ways does He change you? Take a look at the fruit of the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23)

Since Wisdom clubbed me, I have seen these areas of my life transform and multiply tenfold. Many have seen it in me and have dismissed it foolishly, but we have already seen how much Wisdom is ignored, even as she shouts in the street.

When Christ died, He paid the price we owe in our foolishness, but He also made it possible for us to live in wisdom and righteousness. By His Blood our debt is paid, and in His Spirit we may now live.

We find this life by answering the call of Wisdom. What does she say? Repent. Turn away from your old ways and come to Christ. You may have spoken against Him in the past, but I stand before you today saying, “I used to think that way, but I have gotten to know Him, and He is greater than you could ever imagine. Turn to Him.”

If you do, you will be given the Holy Spirit, and you will be cleansed of the past so that you may live freely in Him.

Proverbs 1:23: Forgiveness and repentance

[Wisdom says:] “If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.”
-Proverbs 1:23

How many times have I heard this one?

I’ve asked a few people if they think they will make it to heaven. Of course they say yes. I ask about sins they have committed. What about those?

“Well, God is loving. I’m sure He’ll forgive me.”

What about this one?

A few years ago we went through a series of political figures who were caught in moral indiscretions. More than one of them stated that Christians should not criticize them because Christians were supposed to forgive.

And again . . .

What about the person in your life who does something terrible, and when you call them on it, they will say something like, “I thought you loved me! Obviously you don’t if you can’t forgive me.”

We have such a messed up understanding of forgiveness. We so often think it’s something owed to us, something we deserve. It’s not. Justice is something owed to us; that is what we have earned. Forgiveness, by its very nature, is not earned at all. It is given despite what we deserve.

I love this verse. I love it because it’s the gospel message in one sentence. I’m going to deal with the first part today and continue on in future messages. Today I’m going to deal with forgiveness.

Let me use this analogy (it is one I’ve used before). Say a man has cheated on his wife. If he repents from that and asks her forgiveness, perhaps she will forgive him. Perhaps they can work it out, and we would probably all be okay with that, as long as the man is resolved to be faithful.

But say he does not repent. He is not sorry at all. Not a bit. Say she forgives him in that case, just forgets the whole thing, even while he continues. Would any of us be happy about that? Of course not! We would say that the wife is co-dependant and encourage her to stand up for herself!

And yet we want God to treat us like that co-dependant wife treats her husband. We want to walk all over God and still have Him welcome us into heaven, just because He is loving.

Well, none of us thought, “Oh, how loving!” when the wife let her husband run around on her. Why do we think that forgiveness from God should come without repentance?

True forgiveness must come from true repentance. We know this from our own lives.

In this illustration, Wisdom cannot be met until the person turns away from foolishness (see the previous verse). That’s the only way it can happen. You cannot be wise and foolish at the same time. You must turn from one to embrace the other.

Likewise is God opposed to the ways of this world. You cannot embrace both. You must turn from one to gain the other.

We have lived our lives embracing the world and ignoring God. By all rights He could have just walked away and left us to our fate. But like Wisdom in this illustration, He does not. He stands and calls for us to repent. “If you turn at my reproof,” He says, “behold, I will pour out my spirit to you.”

Repent. Turn from the world and face God. He does not care how foolish you have been in the past. Only turn now, and you will find Him there. Have you heard His call? I ask you to respond.

Proverbs 1:22: Can of worms alert

[Wisdom says:] “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?”
-Proverbs 1:22

I have this can of worms here, and I’m tempted to open it. I’d really rather not, but when I read this verse, Evolution immediately came to mind. See, I’m working on a short series about Creation for my website, and I’m right in the middle of listening to a sermon series on Creation and Evolution by John MacArthur. In addition, the documentary on Intelligent Design, Expelled, just came out on DVD, and I’m anxious to get my hands on a copy. And so the topic is rather on my mind.

Thus the can of worms. I think I’ll go ahead and pop it open. Should be fun!

I thought of this topic when reading this particular verse because of the fierce passion some people have in clinging to this idea. To say even the smallest thing against Evolution will often bring such hatred and scorn. And yet, to believe that random chance brought everything together out of nothing is so astronomically unlikely that it requires more faith to believe in that than to believe in God. I like the way John MacArthur puts it, that simple logic will steer you away from any theory that claims that “nobody times nothing equals everything.”

Yet the desperation to remove God from the equation turns Evolution into a religion. And that is the only way to understand it. After all, if it is true, and chance alone made this universe, then what does it matter what I believe? And yet Naturalists will insult me, argue with me, and even call me names for my beliefs. Why? If they are right, then ultimately what does it matter if I believe in God?

Because they have turned from Him, and they do not want to be reminded of the truth.

Everywhere you turn in this world, you will see people celebrating their own lostness, bragging about their own impiety. You hear radio shows encouraging people to sin sexually, you see famous talk show hosts encouraging people into cults, you see parades celebrating godlessness, you hear of the scientific community automatically dismissing the words of anyone who believes in God, you hear Christianity rebuked by political leaders, you hear the Bible denies in pulpits; we are a land shrouded in darkness.

How long?

It is impossible that nobody times nothing equals everything. By the very sunrise is a Designer proven in every day. Surely you must see it. Do you hate knowledge so much that you can only see chance when you look around?

In this world shrouded in darkness, God Himself came to us in the form of a man to show us the way to truth. He is the truth; He is our salvation. In Christ we may be rescued from ignorance, pride, and simplicity. We can be set free by the truth.

I ask you to repent of your old ways and turn toward Him. By letting go of your own prideful thoughts and all the ways you have it figured out, you will find true freedom. In surrendering your life to Him, you will live for the first time.

Proverbs 1:22: The joys of simplicity

[Wisdom says:] “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?”
-Proverbs 1:22

My wife (I do like saying that, and it’s only been true for a little over a week now) is a teacher, and I often hang around teachers, and so I’ve heard many stories about the general reactions kids have when teachers try to teach something.

It isn’t always good.

Which is a foreign concept to me, since I devour books at every opportunity. I love them. I love learning. But then, it’s important to me.

It’s not to a lot of people.

I know some people who voted in this last election that didn’t spend a single moment looking at issues. Actually, a couple of people I know looked at the issues, but fully admitted that they made their decision based on race.

And then the most blatant example of all: boy bands. People keep buying CDs by boy bands.

Whether we want to admit it or not, we live in a world where people love being simple. They hate knowledge, and they want nothing to do with truth. They want to follow their own ways.

And they make fun of people who go the other way. I cannot tell you how many times people make fun of me for going to church or reading books. Seriously, reading books. We live in a world where people make fun of you for READING.

The world tells us that Angelina Jolie’s newest baby is earth-shattering news, but seeking to secure our eternal soul is fodder for mockery and scorn. Are we going to deny that a world in which two generations go wild over New Kids on the Block is a fallen one?

I say that half in jest, of course, but only halfway. The people around you, the people on the street, at work, in the grocery store, flee from beauty and truth in every step. They hate these things. They pretend that their way is the right one, and yet they cannot even bring themselves to research their vote for the President of the country.

So many people trust Oprah and Tom Cruise for their spiritual security as well. Why? Because they love being simple. They delight in scoffing.

Truth should be sought. We should run through the streets, seeking out Wisdom. As a matter of first importance we should figure out how eternity is going to be, and then worry about our 70 years here on earth.

Jesus tells us that He is “the way, and the truth, and the life.” He is the path for eternal life. He is Wisdom. Even though we love being simple, even though we delight in scoffing, He came to us to offer us a way out of our pettiness and to life.

In His death He paid the price for our wasted lives. Even though we deserve no better than damnation because of our selfishness, greed, lust, and pride, He took on our punishment so we could take on His righteousness.

I ask you to repent of your love of ignorance, your scoffing, your sin. Turn away and run toward Him. Let Him be truth in your life.

Now posting, a married pilgrim!

I hope you will forgive my lack of posts lately. On November 1, I was married, and my wife and I are spending a nice week at home. I do want to get one verse done this week, but generally I’m just spending time with her.

But in the meantime, I am involved in an online magazine called Primum Mobile. We have just finished our Autumn issue. Please check it out!

I hope to be back to posting soon. But until then, God bless, and have a nice day!

Proverbs 1:21: My ex-girlfriend, the spy

“at the head of the noisy streets she [Wisdom] cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:”
-Proverbs 1:21

I had a really strange dream several years ago about an ex-girlfriend. I had not seen this person in many years, but I had a dream where I happened upon her on the street somewhere. We had lunch, and I dropped her off at her house. This house of hers was only a garage and two rooms: her bedroom and a room where she kept all of her berets. There were hundreds of them, all of the walls and cabinets.

If you’re wondering, no, I never saw her wear a beret in real life.

I talked some more, and I left, only to be cornered down the street by a group of CIA agents, who told me that this ex-girlfriend of mine was a Russian spy. Would I help them gather proof against her?

I was torn in my dream on whether to help them. After all, this woman and I had really hit it off, and that seems a lot more important than national security (thus was my thinking in the dream). I left these agents and walked around the town, thinking things through.

And it was then that I woke up. It took me some time, maybe a half hour, to fully understand that it had been a dream. It seemed so real to me then.

But it doesn’t seem real at all. The woman had a room dedicated to berets in a two-room house! The same house from which she was stealing all of America’s secrets! It was completely unbelievable! The truth began to dawn within me, and I really felt stupid for ever believing this silly scenario was the truth.

I felt the same way becoming a Christian. It was like I was waking from a dream, and I felt rather silly for believing all those things I had before.

We are so skilled in believing what we want to. We are so good at telling ourselves things so long that we believe they are true. Like Stuart Smalley, we look ourselves straight in the eye and lie to tell ourselves that we are on the right path.

You want proof? Go outside and ask this question of the people you meet: “Are you a good person?” Most, if not all, will say yes. And yet these are people who lie every day, who lust after the good-looking woman at work, who cut corners at work, who explode in anger regularly, who cut others down to get ahead, who neglect their families so they can spend more time at work to get more money, and who will yell and scream when calling some customer service line to get what they want.

And then they look themselves in the eye and say, “I am a good person.”

Baloney.

Habakkuk tells us about others who are fooling themselves in ridiculous ways: “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it” (2:18-19).

How silly is the person who builds his own idol and then worships it? And yet we do it every day. We make our own idols to solve our problems. We are lonely? A girlfriend becomes an idol we worship, someone to whom we sacrifice time, money, and effort. We want money? Work becomes the idol. In a bad marriage? Divorce is somehow the thing that will solve all your problems. Like to eat? A really great sandwich becomes a idol, something for which you sacrifice, something you pursue. We all worship something; the only question is “What do you worship?”

We work so hard on this, checking every dank corner for a savior, when Wisdom is standing right in front of us.

When truth sets in, you begin to wonder how you ever believed the falsehood. When I became a Christian, I looked back on my life and realized that God had His hand in every moment of my life, and I looked right through Him.

Christ came to earth, to stand amongst us, and we killed Him for it. That’s how intent we are in ignoring the God who loves us so much. And yet, even that was not the end, because Jesus rose from the dead, and He is alive today, still willing to be our Savior, our true and perfect Savior.

Repent of those old ways. Stop and look at what Christ has done for you. He is willing to forgive all of it, all of the wrong you have done, and welcome you home. He stands before you, in plain sight. There is no secret to finding Him, for He has sought you first. Only turn from the world and fix your eyes upon Him.