“For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
~ Proverbs 2:6
Hi James and Ellen,
Your grandpaa’s 65th birthday is today. (Your grandpaa is now 81 years old at the time of the editing of this missive.) Do you think that your grandpaa is really old? Even though both of your grandpaa’s Achilles tendons are trying to fight off tendonitis, your grandpaa does not feel really old; it is just painful for your grandpaa to walk. Your grandpaa the first time that he had to put up with tendonitis in an Achilles tendon was when he was translating for a Wooddale Church short term ministry team that was in Guatemala. This short term ministry work team that your grandpaa was translating for was helping to remove dirt and rocks out of a church that was being built above the town of San Antonio, Palopó on Lake Atitlán. To make it up to this church that was being built overlooking the town of San Antonio, the guys and gals who were on the Wooddale Church short term ministry work team had to climb a long, very steep back and forth path to where the church was being built. Because of having a very painful Achilles tendon, your grandpaa each day could barely make it up the long, steep path that led to the church. When the Wooddale Church short term ministry work team first showed up at the church that was being built above the town of San Antonio, the walls of the church – other than for the plastering of the inside of the walls, had already been finished and the church roofed. Because the church was being carved into the side of the steep hill that towers over the town of San Antonio, dirt and rocks had been piled up in the center of what would become the church’s floor. The first thing that the Wooddale Church’s short term ministry work team did when they go to the building site was to carry out – using bags, dirt and rocks that were piled up in the center of the church. By the time that your grandpaa carried a small bag of dirt and rocks out of the front door of the church and by the time that he got to the back part of the church, your grandpaa was already walking on ground that was above the back part of the church’s roof. Your grandpaa did not carry out many bags of dirt and rocks during the days that he was translating for the short term ministry work team that was working in the church that was being built in the side of the hill that shoots seeming straight up over the town of San Antonio. After a couple of days of hauling dirt and rocks out of the church that is more or less embedded into the side of the steep hill that overlooks the town of San Antonio, the short term ministry work team from Wooddale Church still had a couple of large boulders lying or sticking up in the middle of the church floor area to do something with. After trying to break up a couple of the boulders, holes were dug in the dirt floor area of the church to – with the exception of one boulder, bury them. When a cement tile floor was laid in the church that looks down on the town of San Antonio, the guys who laid the cement tiles had to lay them around one large boulder that could not be chipped down or dug up to be reburied – leaving the top of the boulder exposed.
Do you think that it is important to have wisdom? What does having wisdom mean to you? Solomon thought that it was extremely important that wisdom be pursued and stored. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 2 that wisdom is a gift given to who God – as God the Father, chooses to give wisdom. Verse 6 says, “For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” Storing up God’s commands involves an intentionality of always avoiding sin. Pursuing God’s gift of wisdom entails a resolute attentiveness and uncompromising obedience. Finding and having God’s gift of insight and understanding involves a diligent, never-ending search for more and more knowledge. Wisdom is what God – as God the Father, has embedded in hearts of Christ-follower guys, gals and kids. Knowledge is what God – as God the Father, uses to bless the soul that He has placed in every guy, gal and kid who is a Christ-follower. Wisdom is the key for claiming the protection of the discretion spirit. Understanding is the key for asserting the help of the guard spirit. Your ultimate life desire/goal is to walk the Christ-follower walk as blameless kids who only want to invest their lives back into God’s hands.
Purging all the junk – the dirt and rocks, that is in your lives is the road to accumulating wisdom. Even though there are misguided ‘sickos’ everywhere on Planet Earth, you never have to go down their perverse life track. Evil, wicked guys, gals and kids know only the polluted, hopeless side of life; they do not know the good, peace side of life. Corrupt, sin filled guys, gals and kids are trying to survive stumbling down a crooked, dark life path; they are ignoring the straight, light filled life path. Twisted, faithless guys, gals and kids will be ultimately cut off from the land; they will never know what it is like to go through the faith/grace door into the ever growing universal body of Christ-follower guys, gals and kids. Solomon wrote quite emphatically that God is Who alone allows a guy, gal or kid to personally know Him – as God the Son, as his or her Lord and Savior. Solomon also wrote quite explicitly that God is Who alone saves a guy, gal or kid from the devious wiles of the guys, gals and even kids who have no desire to listen to the still small voice of God – as God the Spirit. Wisdom reminds a Christ-follower guy, gal and kid that there is always one more rock still protruding in his or her life in order to show off the imperfections of his or her damaged but saved life. (Your grandpaa’s take now on wisdom – now that he is REALLY old, is that wisdom is something that is acquired over a lifetime – through talking and listening to God, reading and investigating what is written in the Bible, relationships with and testimonies of Christ-followers, improbable experiences and events, etc.)
Proverbs 2 (833)