Wisdom, A Benefit Of The Gospel?

Do you ever read something and think, "why have I never seen that?" That's what happened to me this morning. I read this and the light bulb went off.

"He (God) is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption." - 1 Corinthians 1:30 (ESV)

Did you catch that? A part of what Jesus gives us when we surrender our lives to Him is wisdom! So the gospel is not just exchanging our sin for His perfection, but also, our foolishness for His wisdom.

Lord, let this surrendered fool be controlled by Your wisdom.

~Jon

These thoughts were fueled by a book I am reading...Craftsmen, Skillfully Leading Your Family For Christ, by John Crotts.

Joshua...Not Hoshea

I have a divine connection to the Joshua of the Bible. A few years ago, the Lord took me through an intense season where He revealed to me who He says I am. It was through that process that He forever connected me to Joshua. (For the whole story, check out my initial post.) So due to this connection, whenever I come across something on Joshua, my ears perk up. That's what happened tonight.

We have a little devotional book by Beth Moore called Believing God Day By Day and today's reading tells about God's purpose in changing Hoshea's name to Joshua. It hit home for me. Check it out.

"These were the names of the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and Moses renamed Hoshea son of Nun, Joshua." - Numbers 13:16 (HCSB)

"We may not know exactly when Joshua received his new name from Moses, but we don't have to be biblical scholars to reason why he might have needed one. In essence, his original name Hoshea means 'deliverer,' while his new name Joshua (or Jehoshua) means 'Jehovah delivers.'

If I were flesh and blood chosen by God to lead a grasshopper people into a land of giant opposition, I'd want to know He was the true Deliverer, not me.

I'd like to suggest that Joshua not only needed to know who he was, he needed to know who he wasn't. He wasn't God. Not a bad lesson for any of us to learn." - Believing God Day By Day, Beth Moore, February 11

Learning the lesson,

Jon

Song Of Fools

Once again Ron Bergthold has taken a relevant truth and turned it on it's musical ear so we can say, "yeah, I get that." If there is one overarching truth the Lord has drilled into me in the last 3 years, it has been that God works through His Body, the Church, to accomplish His purposes...both in cultural ways and in personal ways. Thanks again Ron, for reminding us that it is a good and right thing to live with Godly accountability in the Body of Christ. ~Jon

Song of Fools
by Ron Bergthold

What is the difference between a musician and a savings bond? (Answer: Eventually a savings bond will mature and earn money.)


“Did anyone just hear a bad note?” The question came from one of the woodwinds. Of course, my first thought of “Is it me?” propelled me to verify that I was at least in the right key. Another group run-through confirmed there was indeed something that sounded bad. Others now heard and confirmed it. I did not hear it, but my initial self-evaluation runs clean. Now what should I do? How should the group respond?

Some groups would not have stopped in the first place simply because they don’t even hear wrong notes (some might say ignorance is bliss!). Some groups will hear it and just move ahead like it didn’t happen because wrong notes have become so routine, and therefore accepted, as a normal part of playing. Others who hear may want to stop and fix it, but are unsure how to find and resolve the bad note, and leave it up to the conductor to do so, if he can.

A good musical group will always be sensitive to and deal with wrong notes. They don’t always play perfectly, but they will always know what the tune should sound like and work toward getting it right. A good conductor will help greatly by repeating and reviewing measures that seem wrong. Good players are willing to point out places where something sounds wrong, even if they may be at fault. The group understands that they may have to repeat parts by section or, if needed, by individual player to find the cause. Sometimes it is as simple as an excellent musician just reading the wrong chart! Regardless, the wrong note gets resolved with good listening, an intent to play well, and group accountability focused on helping each other for the glory of God.

Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5:18 that God “…reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” God has an ordained plan and purpose for our lives, and it always involves Christ – Who He is, what He has done, and what He wants to do in us. Our intent should be to seek Him and, as part of the journey, to encourage others to seek Him as well.

We may be seeking Him fully, yet be reluctant to help others do the same. At times, this may include the need for correction. Few people like to be corrected and therefore few take the initiative to correct others. So we often just live wrongly! We forget that many people cannot hear wrong notes because they are simply deaf to God in one or many areas. In truth, we all have some deafness in our lives in this world, and we truly need others to help us hear God well.

We must act in the same manner as a great musical group which is intent upon playing a piece well. We must be listening to God very well, we must have the intent to live according to His ways, and we must encourage each other to live well for the glory of God. A loving church body is perfectly designed to complete this reconciliation. But we must always start with God’s Word: “It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools.” (Ecc 7:5)

For the TRBC Orchestra on February 11, 2009

Wisdom in 2009 pt. 2 - What does Solomon mean by "sense"?

If you took the time to read my post from January 4th about Wisdom in 2009, you know that God has me on a journey in Proverbs this year. I read the book through in January reading a chapter a day and God has begun, what I know is going to be a life changing year for me. I want to first make a few comments on some things I discovered in my first time through Proverbs this year.

If you will remember (or if you don't, check out my first article), I have a hang-up with assuming that common sense decisions are always from God. I do not believe they are. So when I started coming across verses dealing with common sense (the ESV uses the word sense 20 times in Proverbs), I became somewhat troubled. How is one supposed to think about this? I believe after digging a bit in Strongs, I have reconciled the two seemingly at-odds ideas about wisdom. Here's what I found.

There are three different Hebrew words translated sense in the ESV and one of them is the root of another. The first, and most common is "Leb." Strongs defines Leb as: inner man, mind, will heart, understanding, soul, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, inclination, resolution, or determination (of will). The first time this word shows up in Proverbs, it is used three times in one verse!

"making you ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding." Proverbs 2:2 (ESV)

The first time it shows up translated as "sense" is in 6:32.

"He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself." (ESV)

Clearly in the first verse the wisdom referred to is not from the person, but comes from outside the person, thus the command to pay attention to it is understandable. In the second, it sounds more like something that we innately possess. Even though it appears that way, I want to beg to differ. Check out how Jeremiah uses the word:

"The heart is deceitfully wicked above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to the fruit of his deeds." Jeremiah 17:9-10 (ESV)

So our common sense is "deceitfully wicked above all things." But here's the good news, later in the book, Jeremiah uses the word again.

"I will put My laws within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Jeremiah 31:33b (ESV)

This changes EVERYTHING! When God comes and gives us new hearts, nothing stays the same. So this second use of Leb in Proverbs is also from outside us. The "sense" that comes from our hearts without Christ's control is folly. But with Him at the helm, we can trust what He has put in our hearts.

Now the second and third word used for sense in Proverbs are essentially the same, one word is the root for the other. The root is Sakal, meaning: to be prudent, be circumspect, or wisely understand. I must confess, I didn't know what circumspect was, so I looked it up. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, it means "heedful of circumstances and potential consequences." The word that immediately came to my mind was discernment, which is a gift of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:11)! So here's the verse where it is used:

"One who wanders from the way of good sense will rest in the assembly of the dead." Proverbs 21:16 (ESV)

I hope you don't mind my taking a long time here, but God is, I believe, revealing what His wisdom looks like and He is birthing in me a desire to pursue it more.

Praying you will join me,
~Jon