Wisdom calls aloud in the street,

she raises her voice in the public squares;

at the head of the noisy streets she cries out,

in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:

Proverbs 1:20-21 (NIV)

Wisdom – what is it? As you read the Bible you realize that, however it is defined, it is golden in God’s eyes. It seems to me that wisdom is not so much “knowledge”, and it is not high philosophy or an intricate system of logic. It is what God granted Solomon in 1 Kings 3 when he prayed for a discerning heart and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. It is the ability to see clearly, and to judge rightly, and to know God’s will. True wisdom only comes from God.

And Wisdom is not something God hoards. No, the God whom Paul referred to as the “Only Wise” invites us to ask Him for it. He’s got a storehouse of it that He is ready to pour out on you and I, liberally and without reproach:

If you need wisdom–if you want to know what God wants you to do–ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. – James 1:5

How can we not fall head over heels in love with God after reading that? We all need wisdom – it keeps us from making dumb choices and messing up our lives and the lives of those around us. And God offers it lavishly. He wants us to ask.

And wisdom is persistent – she’s in the streets, crying out, rattling cages, practically whacking us over the head.

“You simpletons!” she cries. “How long will you go on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish your mocking? How long will you fools fight the facts? Come here and listen to me! I’ll pour out the spirit of wisdom upon you and make you wise. – Proverbs 1:22-23

Heh – I like the fact that God chose to personify Wisdom as a lady in this passage, and one not to be trifled with either. Wisdom is a commodity that we often think we can do without, and we – wait, let me just change that to “I” – flounder about, making my daily choices usually depending on my own increasingly faulty faculties.

I may not be a king like Solomon, but I am a dad, and I’ve got a family that is depending on me to lead them wisely, and we’re facing situations that we’ve never dealt with before, and, dear Lord, the stakes are high.

So I’m asking, Lord. Pour out a spirit of wisdom on us and make us wise. Lady Wisdom is invited to come make herself at home, rearrange the furniture, sing loudly at the breakfast table, and whack us over the heads if need be. Thank you for Your promise.

Lord, grant us wisdom!

I was reading the great and terrible third chapter of Lamentations this morning (just a little something light to start off my day) – I am struck by the honesty that can descend on a human being when he has reached the end of himself, and all his illusions are gone.

The great prophet wails in the ruins of Jerusalem:

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

He has led me and made me walk

In darkness and not in light.

Surely He has turned His hand against me

Time and time again throughout the day.

He has aged my flesh and my skin,

And broken my bones.

He has besieged me

And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.

He has set me in dark places

Like the dead of long ago.

He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;

He has made my chain heavy.

Even when I cry and shout,

He shuts out my prayer.

Jeremiah suffered something that most of us have never faced – the complete destruction of everything he knew. And the absence of the God who had animated his bold and tragic prophecies for so long.

Even when I cry and shout,

He shuts out my prayer.

I appreciate (although I cannot articulate it well) the honesty of the prophet. He knows that it isn’t the cruel Babylonians who have destroyed him.

God has.

God is the one who has laid the siege, not Nebuchadnezzar. Do I understand these things?

No.

But my Lord is greater than I can understand, and His ways are higher, His thoughts deeper, and His purposes beyond comprehension. I tend to keep Him at a safe distance, and relate to him via the dry vehicles of logic and stated truths. Nice and safe. And God is indeed the great Logos and the Author of Truth. But my Lord is also a warrior poet, an artist without parallel. He inspired his weeping prophet to write these words in a Hebrew acrostic poem in the middle of the book of Lamentations, and in the midst of destruction and hopelessness. For some reason that amazes me. A poem when I would have simply been shrieking. If Jeremiah can write these words prostrate in the rubble and blood of shattered Jerusalem, surely I can cling to and hope in God in the midst of my easy, untroubled life?

This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have hope.

Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,

“Therefore I hope in Him!”

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,

To the soul who seeks Him.

It is good that one should hope and wait quietly

For the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man to bear

The yoke in his youth.

Let him sit alone and keep silent,

Because God has laid it on him;

Let him put his mouth in the dust–

There may yet be hope.

Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,

And be full of reproach.

For the Lord will not cast off forever.

Though He causes grief,

Yet He will show compassion

According to the multitude of His mercies.

For He does not afflict willingly,

Nor grieve the children of men.

He does not afflict willingly. But He does afflict, in His wisdom and His love, and for a time. He will not cast off forever. Which means that we can hope! His faithfulness is great, and His mercies are new, every single morning.

I pray for a new morning in the life of the one who feels cast off, who has lost hope, who’s chains are heavy and who’s prayer seems shut out. God is not absent. The cynics and fools have it wrong – God is not dead. He is here, alive and the Author of life, and He will not cast off forever. His faithfulness is greater than we can imagine.

That’s one reason we sometimes have trouble imagining it.

. . . knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

– Romans 6:9-10 (NKJV)

Thanks to Michelle Malkin for reminding me of this passage.

There is much in the surrounding context of these two verses having to do with us, our condition regarding sin, our life in Christ, etc. But I love these verses which focus on Christ’s complete victory, and the line that gets my heart pumping is this: Death no longer has dominion over Him.

Jesus, my Hero. He submitted Himself to death. And, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross and the shame and the torture. He made it through death and out the other side. He became the Dying God. For us!

And Death lost. It no longer has dominion over Him. It cowers, powerless, in the glorious light of the Life of Christ which conquered Death forever.

Of course, we still shrink before the mystery of death this side of Heaven, we still grieve terribly when those we love die. But with our eyes on Jesus we can take courage – He has defeated death, and not just “barely”. He has crushed death and won a victory so complete that it prompted this holy taunt from Paul:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” – (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).

Paul lived at a time when death was common and life was cheap. Yet he knew that the promise spoken through the prophet Hosea hundreds of years earlier had been fulfilled in Christ.

Thanks be to God.

Love is patient,

love is kind.

It does not envy,

it does not boast,

it is not proud.

It is not rude,

it is not selfseeking,

it is not easily angered,

it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

– I Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)

Lately, for some reason, simple truths that I’ve read many times have begun to jump out at me (hence all the “wow, isn’t this cool?!” Bible posts).

I am especially struck by the last two passages above. Love rejoices in the truth. Truth – so important, so vital in an age where truth is mocked, where it is considered intangible and relative.

Love always protects. Yes. Love stands in the gap. It flings itself on top of the grenade. It rushes into battle for its beloved. Love spreads its arms wide to be nailed to a cross.

Always trusts, always hopes. Love is not naive. But love understands that with God anything is possible. Trust and hope are powerful weapons in a cynical and mocking world.

There are those who have no hope because they have never had anyone hope anything for them. “You’ll never amount to anything”. “You’re worthless”. These are the words they have been bathed in all their lives. And yet in Christ we can hope – we possess hope – because we know that He accomplishes in us His good pleasure, and builds us up into a beautiful work of art for His glory, no matter how ugly we may think we are.

We hope because love always perseveres. Love never fails.

Never. Love does not give up. Love will go to Golgotha for its beloved, even when its beloved is the one carrying the whips and the nails.

Amazing.

Oh, the joys of those who trust the LORD,

who have no confidence in the proud, or in those who worship idols.

O LORD my God, you have done many miracles for us.

Your plans for us are too numerous to list.

If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds,

I would never come to the end of them.

– Psalm 40:3-4 (NLT)

It’s really good tonight to read God’s word!

And it’s good to be in His family. To be identified with God – to trust in Him and take no confidence in the gods of this world. It’s such a privilege. I’m reminded of Psalm 87: “This one was born in Zion.”

I picture the Lord wrapping His arms around His child and saying “this one’s Mine”. Mine – born in Zion. A Kingdom child of the promise.

God’s goodness and mercies toward us really are too numerous to count. Others may choose the gods of this world. I choose (or am chosen by, for reasons I’ll never fathom) the Lord of the Universe.

“For I was born in Zion

Awakened love is crying

Out for You. Oh it must be You!” – David Ruis, “No Other”

I waited patiently for the LORD;

he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock

and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth,

a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear

and put their trust in the LORD

– Psalm 40:1-3 (NIV)

It is amazing to me the hope and healing I can find in God’s word when I’m hurting. Last night Jill and I lay in bed and I read portions of Scripture to her, and then we prayed together and fell asleep. It was a beautiful moment.

Psalm 40 is one of the passages that we read. What a blessing to know that we can wait patiently for the Lord. That He gives us a firm place to stand that cannot be shaken. That He puts the very song in our mouths that we sing back to Him.

And that spiritual blindness can be healed and the fear of the Lord restored. That trust in Him can be restored for the prodigal. That there is always hope.

Waiting patiently . . .