February 15, 2015

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; those who follow His precepts have good understanding." Psalm 111:10

The word fear means more than being afraid or fearful. In fact, I have found that the negative fear is a result of not being submitted to the fear of the Lord.

Everyone fears something and you will submit to what you fear. So, choosing to fear the Lord is a proper and proactive step to avoiding the negative fear and anxiety that can make life miserable.

Fearing the Lord means to have a reverent respect that leads to submission to His Word, His will and His ways. Fearing the Lord is the result of deliberate and daily decision to put God first in everything. Fearing the Lord means you wake up everyday to declare, "You are God and I am not!" Fearing the Lord means the thought of living outside of His will is the thing you fear the most.

King David wrote these words and he chose to fear the Lord early in his life. His fear of the Lord was evident when he faced the giant, Goliath. David's fear for the honor and security of God's nation was great than his fear of confronting the giant warrior.

David's son, Solomon, also chose early in life to fear the Lord. That reverence for God led him to submit to God's wisdom as he assumed the throne from King David.

But David and Solomon also serve as examples of the need to continue to submit to God's wisdom at every impulse, every invitation and every opportunity. Later is life they both made a series of unwise decisions that changed the course of their lives AND the nation they ruled.

Fearing the Lord IS the beginning of wisdom but every day must be a new beginning! And each day will bring a series of choices and decisions points that will require you to ask, "what's the wise thing to do?" and act accordingly.

This question we have devoted the last six weeks to is crucial because life is lived one wise decision at a time. And as David and Solomon testify, one bad decision can significantly alter your life.

You are where you are at this moment in time due to the decisions you have made over your lifetime. Today will confront you with more decisions that will continue to shape your life.

That ought to sufficiently frighten you enough to cause you to ask, "In light of my past experience, my current circumstances and my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing for me to do?"

Ask it, and then in reverence and respect to God, act wisely!

February 14, 2015

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5:8

It is easy to say, "I love you." But how can you be sure if someone really does love you?

Let's learn from the original Lover, the best Lover, the source of all love - God.

God teaches us that love must be proved by a sacrificial demonstration of true commitment. And if love is anything, it is a commitment! One indication of commitment is cost. What are you willing to pay to prove your love? How did God demonstrate His?

First, through creation!

Can you view a stunning sunset and not see divine love?

Can you look at a Spring landscape and miss the message?

Can you hold a newborn and not appreciate what inspired such a miracle?

Can you stargaze into a moonlit sky and not recognize the love behind it?

Creation surely demonstrates a supernatural love. But while it is proof of His creativity it didn't cost Him anything.

Then, through Christ!

If you ever had a long-distance relationship you know it is hard to love that way. Love is better when it is up close and personal.

Through the creation of man, God demonstrated that He desired a personal relationship with him. And before that love was rejected by disobedience, Adam walked and talked with God and experienced the love of God up close and personal. But sin resulted in a long-distance relationship.

So, once again, God demonstrated His desire for a personal relationship by coming in person. Jesus, God's Son, the Word of God, put on flesh and came to dwell among us! He was "Emmanuel" - "God with us"!

Love was demonstrated by a precious gift. Jesus left the spender and security of Heaven and slipped into flesh and blood so He could get personally involved with loving us. During His brief visit to earth He demonstrated daily what the love of God looks like.

Then, Through the Cross!

The ultimate and undeniable proof of God's love was death on the cross. What higher commitment could you demonstrate than dying for one you love? What greater cost can you pay than substituting your life for the one you love?

And that is what Christ's death was! It was a substitutionary death for you! You were sentenced to die in the sin that separated you from a Holy God. But Jesus suffered death for you! Though He was innocent He assumed your guilt. He bore the guilt and the penalty for your sins. He took rejection so you could be accepted into a personal relationship with God!

There can be no doubt that God loves you! And, He loved you first! And He loved you when you were lost and unlovable!

God can do no more than He has done to demonstrate how much He loves you!

So, how can you demonstrate your love for Him?

Receive that love by faith! 

It is a gift purchased for you and offered to you. Jesus is God's valentine to you! 

How can you refuse His great gift?

February 13, 2015

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

God calls you to wisdom and promises to give it to anyone who will ask Him for it.

Wisdom is a decision.

The condition of your life is the sum total of your decisions. If you want your future to be better than your past or your present you will have to begin making better decisions.

Once you ask the question, "In light of my past experience, my current circumstances and my future hopes and dreams what is the WISE thing for me to do?" Then, you must decide if you will act on the answer.

Asking the question will bring you from the edge of confusion to the edge of clarity. But then you have to act wisely.

Once you know the wise thing to do but choose NOT to do the wise thing, the Bible says you are a "fool".

King David chose wisdom and became the first great king of God's people. Here's what he wrote: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise." Psalm 111:10

David's son, Solomon also faced the moment of choice when he was about to become the new king of Israel. God promised the young prince anything he wanted as he assumed the throne and Solomon asked for wisdom (very wise). We know how well that turned out!

Asking the question brings you to the edge of wisdom. Acting on it takes you across the line.

Kings choose wisdom. Fools don't.

What will you do?

Kings "fear the Lord" by giving Him reverence and submitting to His will.

Fools don't.

Will you "fear the Lord"?

February 12, 2015

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

I hope you have burned this question into you heart and mind because it is a question that answers just about everything. So, one more time for good measure let's review: "In light of my past experience, my current circumstances and my future hopes and dreams what is the wise thing for me to do."

Isn't that a great question? 

Doesn't it bring clarity to your decision? But it also only brings you to the edge of wisdom because wisdom requires a commitment to a course of action.

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived except for Jesus, said that wisdom begins with a decision to fear God.

What I find interesting is the large number of people who don't profess to fearing God and have not submitted to Him, but they do submit to the laws of His universe every day!

If you catch a flight to Chicago, you are submitting to and leveraging God's laws in order to travel to your destination. All of the physics of flight are based on God's laws.

You plan your schedule according to the calendar. You have full confidence in the calendar because the earth spins on a consistent axis at a constant speed which makes time predictable. So, when you plan your schedule you are leveraging God's laws of time and space.

When you go to your Doctor for a check up he is able to measure your health because God designed you to have a heart that beats at a predictable rate and a body temperature that is the same for every healthy human.

These are but a few of many physical and natural laws God the Creator built into His creation that man  has learned to harness to make life safer, more secure, more comfortable, healthier and more productive.

In light of the fact you have depended on God's laws of nature to create a better life for your family what is the wise thing for you to do?

Solomon would say the wise thing for you to do is to submit yourself to God. It's especially wise in light of the fact you daily submit to his physical laws so why would you hesitate to submit to the God Who implemented it?

February 11, 2015

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

The world of college basketball in particular and the world in general suffered a significant loss with the death of Coach Dean Smith.

At the time of his retirement in 1997 he had won more games that any other NCAA Division I basketball coach. The number of wins was impressive but what set him apart was how he built a winning tradition while developing scores of young men into outstanding basketball players and, more importantly, successful men beyond basketball.

Dean Smith built the North Carolina Tar Heels into a national dynasty through his system he dubbed the "Carolina Way". 

The "Carolina Way" wasn't a successful because it changed the rules of basketball or the size of the court or the height of the rim but because he was able to motivate his players to execute within the rules of the game more effectively than other coaches. Not only did he respect the rules of the game and taught his players to, as well, but he was also able to convince the best young basketball players in the country to join his team. Furthermore, Coach Smith understood and respected the fundamental of the game and taught them to his players better than most other college coaches. He innovated within the rules better than just about every other coach of his time.

So, the "Carolina Way" embraced and taught by Hall of Fame Coach Dean Smith was so successful because it submitted to the rules of basketball, the fundamentals of basketball and the strategies of the game and he was able to convince talented players to come to Chapel Hill and submit to his system. He is respected by those within the game because of the way he respected the game!

That is essentially what Solomon says about wisdom. Wisdom begins when you stop believing you are the smartest guy in the room and submit to God's wisdom, God's will and God's way. 

Wisdom begins where your dependence on your own knowledge ends.

February 10, 2015

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

Solomon, who wrote these words, was the wisest man who ever lived who was not named Jesus.

For the past six weeks we have been learning from him about making wise decisions. The question I have been trying to burn into you mind at every invitation, every impulse, every opportunity and every decision point is: "what is the wise thing for me to do?"

But Solomon reminds us that asking that question just brings you to the edge of wisdom. Gaining wisdom begins with "fearing God". What does it mean to "fear" God? To fear God means that you "give Him recognition and reverence by submitting to His will and His ways".

Fearing the Lord means waking up in the morning and declaring "You are God, I'm not!"

Fearing the Lord means confessing, "You are Holy and I am sinful!"

Fearing the Lord acknowledges, "You are wise and I am a fool!"

Until you submit yourself to God, you have not properly recognized Him or given Him reverence.

If you remember, this is how Solomon became wise in the first place!

“Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings."  I Kings 3:7-13

How can you ask, "What is the wise thing for me to do?" and not submit yourself to God?  If Solomon couldn't get wisdom until he submitted to God, how do you think you have a chance at it?

Just as it is dangerous and destructive to spend your life living on the edge of sexual immorality, so it is futile to live on the edge of wisdom without submitting to the fear of God.

Will you wisely submit to God today?

February 9, 2015

I’m convinced that one of the most difficult things that the Scripture asks us to do is found in Romans 12:15. That verse says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”

Now the mourning part is not so hard. If there are those who are having a difficult time in life, going through trials and tribulations, we can usually muster up enough sympathy and empathy to hold their hand and provide a shoulder for them to cry on, maybe even to cry with them,and to pray for them during their difficulties.

But to “rejoice with those who rejoice” may be harder.

"It is, indeed, more difficult to congratulate another on his success, especially if his success involves disappointment to us, than it is to sympathize with his sorrow and his loss. It is only when self is dead that we can take as much joy in the success of others as in our own" (Barclay, p. 182). "

Now, it is pretty easy to rejoice at the wedding of a friend if you’re happily married. But if you’re single, and you’d like to be married; if you’re lonely and feel rejected, then an invitation to someone else’s wedding may be a pretty difficult thing to handle.

You drive an old car that’s showing its age, and then your neighbor buys a brand new SUV.

Your sister’s kids are all star athletes and honor students and yours act like juvenile delinquents.

Someone else at the office gets a promotion and a raise, and you don’t, even though you have seniority. It is kind of hard sometimes, isn’t it, to “rejoice with those who rejoice” ?

You see, one of the difficulties is that when something good happens to others, we often compare ourselves to them. “Well, I’m smarter than they are.” Or, “I work harder than they do.” Or, “They’re just lucky. They get all the breaks, and I don’t.”

Imagine that you are at an NFL game with a friend. You were given two free tickets to the Redskins game and so you invited him to go with you. These are the best seats you have ever had! You can’t believe your good fortune. It turns out to be a great game and they are winning big against the Cowboys and you have a great view of it all. With every big play , you and your friend jump up and rejoice together, high-fiving and cheering for the home team. You rejoice with those who rejoice. But then, between the third and fourth, a voice comes over the P.A. and announces that someone in the stadium is going to win a new house, a new car, a dream vacation. He announces the level, the section, the row. It is someone in your row! But when he reads the seat number you see that your friend is sitting in that seat. He has won. You have not. They were your tickets. You invited him. You just happened to sit the wrong seat. Technically, both are your seats. But he got the big prize package – you didn’t! Now how easy is it to rejoice with those who rejoice? Suddenly you are overwhelmed with feelings of anger, envy, discontentment. You pretend to be happy, but inside you mutter and complain. You hate your friend and want what he has been given.

To rejoice with others when they are rejoicing is a hard thing to ask. Especially when things aren't going as well with you. God is asking you to be as happy for others as you would be if the good thing was happening to you.

Are you able to do that?

If you can, it is an indication that God's sincere love is at work in you. If not, there is some work to be done.