The Quest for Hidden Treasure

"The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
2 To know wisdom and instruction,
To perceive the words of understanding,
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom,
Justice, judgment, and equity;
4 To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion—
5 A wise man will hear and increase learning,
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
6 To understand a proverb and an enigma,
The words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction." -Proverbs 1:1-7

It is one thing to get older – it is another thing to grow wiser. I have read that the book of Psalms tell us how to get along with God. The book of Proverbs tells us how to get along with people. The book of Psalms helps us know how to worship, while the book of Proverbs helps us know how to walk. This book is filled with the hidden treasures of wisdom – and it is available for any treasure hunter who cares to dig beneath the surface. A proverb is a small statement with great significance. It stands in the place of a longer speech, yet delivers the deep lessons of truth. God, the giver of wisdom who is the personification of wisdom, made this list a part of divine revelation to guide your life and mine. Throughout this treasure hunt, Solomon is going
to give weighty words to all sorts of issues. He is going to reveal wisdom regarding our hearts, our minds, our tongues, and our spirits. Wisdom sets the human apart from any other created being. The intellect and reasoning of human beings has long been a source of debate in the world as to their source. Where did it come from? The Celtic religions believed their goddess
Cerridwen created wisdom. The Romans believed it came from Minerva. The Hindus pointed to their goddess of wisdom known as Saraswati. The Greeks believed that wisdom came from the offspring of Zeus. Evidently, according to their belief, Zeus had heard a prophecy that his wife was going to give birth to a girl who would become the lord of heaven. So he swallowed his pregnant wife whole. However, when it was time for the child to be delivered, Zeus got a terrible headache and through an opening in his head, Athena, his daughter stepped out. Because she came from his head, she became the goddess of wisdom. Athens would be named after her. They built the Parthenon in her honor. She was represented by an owl as her sacred bird. It gave rise to the superstition that lasts to this day that the owl is a wise bird. But we know that wisdom comes from God. It is first
and foremost who He is. He is the all-wise God. His wisdom is in the Bible which is given to us so through it we not only come to know Him personally as Savior, but that His wisdom and knowledge is poured into and is developed as a result of hearing and obeying the scripture. A wise person is not necessarily the smartest person in the church, but is the most submissive person to the scriptures.
Hearing and obeying the scripture leads to wise behavior. If there was ever a lack of wise behavior, it is in
my generation. The older generation that should have been passing along the wisdom of God has abandoned its post. The younger generation is now, one author wrote, living on the moral edge.
Every day in America:
1,000 unwed teenage girls become mothers;
1,106 teenage girls have abortions;
4,219 teenagers contract a sexually transmitted disease;
1,000 teens begin drinking alcohol;
500 teens take their first drugs;
2,200 teens drop out of school;
6 teens commit suicide.
One author wrote, “The government says the solution is better education and job opportunities for graduates; activists say we need to eradicate oppression and injustice; others say we need more police, punishment, prisons, and social programs.” These are dealing only with the symptoms. These are better Kleenexes for life-threatening pneumonia. What we will discover in Proverbs is that the answer is the radical infusion of wisdom from the Word of God.
You see, God's Word is a light, Psalm 119 says that His Word is a lamp for my feet and light for my path. That's wisdom, if we live by it, it will light our way, it will keep us in the boundaries and the right way in which Christ wants us to live. The hidden treasure can be found if we will only apply the Word, stay in the Word. How desperately do we want wisdom? Those
who have ready hands to seize wise counsel find the treasure of wisdom.

The Importance of Christian Knowledge

"And if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it." -1 Peter 3:15

According to Charles Malik says we as Christians face two tasks in our evangelism, and that is, "saving the soul and saving the mind." In other words converting people not only spiritually but intellectually. The church is lagging dangerously behind in the part of being intellectual. In 1980 Mr. Malik rose to the podium to deliver the inaugural address at the dedication of the new Billy Graham Center on the campus of Wheaton College. In his speech he stated the following:

I must be frank with you: the greatest danger confronting American evangelical Christianity is the danger of anti-intellectualism. The mind in its greatest and deepest reaches is not cared for enough. But intellectual nurture cannot take place apart from profound immersion for a period of years in the history of thought and the spirit. People who are in a hurry to get out of the university and start earning money or serving the church or preaching the gospel have not idea of the infinite value of spending years of leisure conversing with the greatest minds and souls of the past, ripening and sharpening and enlarging their powers of thinking. The result is that the arena of creative thinking is vacated and abdicated to the enemy. Who among evangelicals can stand up to the great secular scholars on their own terms of scholarship? Who among evangelical scholars is quoted as a normative source by the greatest secular authorities on history of philosophy or psychology or sociology or politics? Does the evangelical mode of thinking have the slightest chance of becoming the dominate mode in the great universities of Europe and America that stamp our entire civilization with their spirit and ideas? For the sake of greater effectiveness in witnessing to Jesus Christ, as well as for their own sakes, evangelicals cannot afford to keep on living on the periphery of responsible intellectual existence.

Our churches are unfortunately overly populated with people whose minds, as Christians, are going to waste. As Malik observed, they may be spiritually regenerate, but their minds have not been converted; they still think like nonbelievers. What will be the theological understanding, the evangelistic courage, the cultural penetration of such a church? What is being read by Christians? Self-help books filled with slogans, simplistic moralizing, lots of stories and pictures, and inadequate diagnoses of the problems facing the reader. What is NOT being read are books that equip people to develop a well-reasoned, theological understanding of the Christian faith and to assume their role in the broader work of the Kingdom of God. Among these books include the Bible. 74% of American Adults claim to be Christians, however only 14% read the Bible.
Theology is the very core of what is means to be Christians who are committed to joining the mission of God. Exploring our beliefs and how we form them isn't just important for a personal relationship with God but also for the way we explain God to others. Theology is the literally the study of God, and it is worth of study and careful reflection. All theology serves the mission of God. It is the reason why we do theology. So what is it going to take to become a generation who is not illiterate especially in Christianity? It affects the mission of the church, because the mission of the church is to spread the gospel, but is the gospel simply a message about how to get to Heaven? Or does it also hold a message for the here and now that radically changes how we should live? We can't live an authentic Christian life without the knowledge of theology, or knowledge of the Bible. We have no excuse for being illiterate, look at where we live! America! Even though our economy sucks, and we have disgraced God in every way, shape, and form, we have access to a whole Bible, we have internet, we have books of all kinds, we have prominent schools, we have churches on every corner. So what's the problem?

Sought By God

“But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after His own heart and appointed him ruler of His people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.” 1 Samuel 13:14 God seeks out men and women who are sensitive to His heart. Saul motivated by pride and fear did not keep the Lord's command, so God appointed David as the next King. A leader risks losing the Lord’s respect when he disrespects the Lord’s commands. An individual loses their positive influence on people when their influence with the Almighty wanes. God seeks sincere seekers, so He can entrust them with His favor. He recruits submissive star players for His team. Have you become too familiar with your heavenly Father’s commands? Has your familiarity with the Holy One bred unholy contempt? If so, you can return to God’s good graces with grace based obedience or you can risk being removed from your position of authority. Let your heart rest in the hand of your heavenly Father. You will endure under the mighty hand of God, but, out from under His authority, hope shrivels and His help fades away. So, submit to His authority. “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.” 2 Chronicles 16:9 NKJV Keep your heart tender towards God with constant cultivation in the commands of Christ. You remain useful to your heavenly Father by staying sensitive to the Spirit’s promptings. The Lord is not looking at your outward appearance, but at your inward beauty of integrity. Perhaps your mind needs cleansing from the seduction of the sensual and renewed with submission to the Spirit. Also, keep your pride in check with humble acts of service at home. Because the Holy Spirit seeks you out, you are wise to turn toward Him and move in His direction. Obedience to God always moves towards God, while disobedience to God always moves away from God. The Lord may be seeking you out to replace another unwilling servant of His. So, remain humble as opportunities to serve Him open up. Your added responsibilities make you more responsible to represent Christ well. So, surrender to God’s search for your heart. “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.” Job 22:21 From: Wisdom Hunters

Looking Away to Jesus

In the realm of gaining spiritual knowledge we must remember that all knowledge and wisdom comes from the Holy Spirit. That is his apart of who He is. The scripture reminds us, “Without Him we can do nothing.” Nothing includes everything. We cannot read His Word, and gain knowledge. We cannot pray. Everything we encounter in life is given by the Father. Because of this, we praise Him, as David says, “From the rising of the sun, to the setting of the same the name of the Lord shall be praised!” It’s all about the sustainer and Creator of this life we live. Our focus must truly be on Him. Anything good that comes out of our lives is because of Him. When He calls us to follow Him, He is really calling us to a life of transformation. He leaves no area of our lives untouched. The Psalmist wrote in 139 that there is no where we can go that His light doesn’t touch us and expose us. From the deepest Hell to the highest Heaven, He is always there. This is God showing us self-knowledge. Without self-knowledge there is no growth. For a person who neither realizes his fault nor knows his real condition will ever seek for the new or press forward because there is not thirst or hunger in their hearts to know God. The essential part of the Christian life is discernment not just in making decisions but to look at oneself and declare himself undependable and useless. It is then that a wholly trust in God will make us walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh. So how do we know ourselves? We often hear preachers encourage us to look within, and examine ourselves. But too many times I think people take it the wrong way, and do not understand what examining oneself really means. A sinner examining a sinner, not too good. There are times we must examine ourselves as we pray, or do “spiritual” things of remembrance such as communion, things that become more of a ritual and shouldn’t. There is only so much we can see from a human perspective. We see what we want to see, and miss the ugliness and vile things which fill our lives. Very rarely do we compare our lives against the backdrop of God’s perfection and authoritative power and wrath. Hebrews 12:2 urges us to “look unto Jesus.” This means looking AWAY to Jesus. Before we can look to Jesus, we must first look away from what should not be looked upon (ending a sentence with at is not good!). When we look to Him we will find healing, but looking into ourselves only causes damage. Do we desire Christ to be fully manifested in our lives? Look to Jesus. Much of our failure as Christians is thinking of ourselves too much. This hinders the work of Christ. I speak of this from experience. For years I was bound up in shackles in chains of knowing my past. I had no victory in my life because I kept looking to myself. I keep analyzing myself, beating myself up for what I had done. Only when I took my eyes off myself and fully embraced the Fathers true love for me, embracing forgiveness, and embraced His truth did the shackles fall of, redemption took place and I was Redeemed from myself. This is letting Christ so fill us that we forget all that is ours. Anything otherwise would be self-deceiving. So we should pray for His perspective, so we can know our real condition. We pray for His mind to our mind that we may have His judgment. Many become lonely, depressed, and discouraged when they look to themselves too much, this is caused by self-pity. The cure is Jesus. The key is self-knowledge is to be enlightened by Jesus, coming by Him does not produce such adverse effects. In Him is freedom and rejoicing! We enter into His enlightenment by reading Psalm 36:9 “In Your light, we will see light.” This means by having received God’s revelation and being enlightened by His holy light, we are enabled to know the exact situation of the matter. This is wisdom. When we walk in the light of God, we walk wisely. It is possible to be filled with Bible knowledge and at the same time be lacking in the light of God. It just becomes knowledge severed from the Holy Spirit, and it is dead! There is no potential to pursue wisdom without the Holy Spirit, in the same way that faith without works is dead. C.I. Scofield once said that nothing was more dangerous than the divorce of truth from power. We may know lots of truth and possess great knowledge, but if these are not in the power of the Holy Spirit we will have no light by which to show us our true condition and guide our steps. Father- Grant complete and unrestrained revelation of my own self. In Jesus name. Amen.

Knowing God in Prayer and His Word

The most precious thing on earth is knowing God. Knowing Him is not limited to scripture, it helps, but God also reveals Himself through things such as general and special revelation. It causes us to inquire in who this creator is. This very much what prayer can be like, we are talking to the Creator of the entire universe when we pray. We can ask Him anything weighing on our hearts, the more we seek Him, and inquire about Him the more He will reveal Himself to us, and He will answer us. Asking questions is always a good thing, that's how you learn. Nothing is more important than this. There is one thing many Christians lack, and that is desire. Many have thoughts and liking's of being wise, yet they do not want to take the time to attain the knowledge, and apply its truths to their lives. So it is with prayer. Each Christian must have a desire of having God hear their prayer. It's an abnormal Christian if God hears his prayer only once in three or five years or three or five months. This is not to say they do not pray, it's just ineffective. Their faith is more than likely lacking. Faith is a necessity of praying according to the will of God. Many Christians walk around saying over and over, "I want to know God's Will" "What is God's Will for my life?" The problem is that many only know prayer through the Bible, and not prayer in the presence of God. Many live by what the Bible only says, and forget experiences with God where He deals with us and teaches us how we must pray, and the conditions for answered prayer. As we read the Bible the Holy Spirit interprets the scriptures and helps us understand, He speaks into our lives the truths of the Word. Hebrews refers to the Word of the Lord being as a sword dividing (Hebrews 4:12). Here is a helpful Bible study hint. Break your reading into 4 steps. Try not to read too much otherwise it will all become overwhelming and you won't remember much. Take 8-10 verses in a chapter and 1. Read over it and familiarize yourself with it. 2. Ask the Lord to impress a word or phrase on your heart to take out and think on. 3. Pray and praise over the Word, thank Him for it. 4. Ask Him how you can live out what He impressed in you. These are some sure ways to gaining knowledge and wisdom as you read and study the Bible. Reading and praying is a joint thing in our Christian walk. Also, did you know that God speaking to you is apart of prayer? Prayer isn't just us talking to Him. Prayer is also waiting for Him to respond, and speak to our hearts. This is how we find His will. Before all of this can happen there are a few questions we have to ask ourselves, they make the difference in how we read, and how we pray, and how we listen. Are there any hinderences that need to be removed? When you are really seeking for understanding, God will tell you what you need to deal with. Once it's revealed, deal with it, and remove it. This is a way to knowledge. When you know what hinders, you know not to do it. Is there desire? A prayer which does not move the pray-ers heart will not move God's. Did you ask? James 4:2 Are you obedient? This is a HUGE one! This is listening to God. You want Him to listen to you? Listen to Him. This is so true. I came to Him today and said Lord you sure aren't speaking much. Do you know what He said back? Neither are you! It matters. God's ear is open to those who obey Him. Do you have faith? Faith is submission. It is believing God in prayer. All the faith we need is the size of a mustard seed, which is about the size of your pinky toenail probably. Not big at all. But big enough for our BIG God. Are you praising Him? Praise Him! Sing to Him a new song. Lift your hands in humble adoration. Fall before Him. Thank Him. Sometimes we can pray away our faith by praying too much, and not praising enough. This too pulls us into the transcended presence of God. When we pray seeking the Lord, when we praise, when He speaks, we are spending special intimate time in His presence. We are on Holy Ground! It lights our life up! This will begin to have an effect on us. We will begin to come more and more like Him. The more we are with Him, the more we become like Him. The Bible promises that when we seek, we find. Seek Him with all your heart. Abide in His presence. Know Him in prayer, and Word, obtain the knowledge, apply the truths, and keep walking in the way of wisdom.

Passionate Endurance

"In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil." -Job 1:1

With suffering there is mystery. There is questioning. Many emotions are felt and expressed, however, none of it takes God by surprise. I pray after reading this post you have a new perspective on suffering and overcoming it with a passionate endurance. The book of Job is probably the most misinterpreted, misquoted, misunderstood book of the Bible. In all actuality this is not a depressing story about a man, it is rather a story full of hope, and patient endurance. There is so much to say and study and meditate on from this man's story. Job was allowed to suffer because of his righteousness, not just because he lived in a fallen world. He was counted worthy to suffer for the Lord. Job's friends concluded that his suffering was a result of sin in his life. This viewpoint makes God look unloving and totally misrepresents the revelation and person of who God is. He allows things for our benefit, circumstances that will grow us, and trials that allow us to lay up treasure in Heaven. We will never know the why in Job's story as well as our story...not fully at least. God focuses on 2 main things when he allows things to happen: 1. Will there be faith? (Luke 18) and 2. God answers the whys of life with Who. Soul-searching begins when faced with such a story. Hard questions arise as we think deeply. This should intensify your enthusiasm for life-passion. There are 6 lessons we can take away from Job's story:
1. We never know ahead of time the plans God has. Job did not see the conversation in Heaven between Satan and God. There was no note in the mailbox letting Job know what lay ahead. We never know what a day will bring, but God's will and plan always is unfolding. We may experience treasured blessing, or we may drop to our knees. God is on the throne regardless, be ready for anything.
2. A vertical perspective will keep us from horizontal panic. Job fell to the ground and worshiped! He saw that what he had was from above and the same God who gave, can surely take away, and he saw God's sovereignty, and grace and exalted His name for it. We should maintain the same high view of God that we have on the mountain top in the valley. How quickly our song is silenced, how poor our attitude, misguided our faith becomes, and how our view of God lowers. A vertical perspective fans the flames of passion.
3. Discernment is needed to detect wrong advice from well-meaning people. Mrs. Job told Job to curse God and die, while Satan was dancing happily thinking he had Job then! Demons working to weaken him. Job is able to discern the lie and reject it! And in Job 2:10 he responds with something a lot of people miss, "We take good days from God-why not also take the bad?" God is still there in the bad, he doesn't leave once the good leaves. Passion!
4. When things turn from bad to worse, sound theology helps us remain strong and stable. Job was grounded in his knowledge of God. His feet planted on the solid rock, in sound teaching and with a faith that could move mountains. Nothing could shake him. So much so that he was still a rock for his wife when she opened her mouth. Swindoll says this, "How memorable it is when the one who is suffering can teach the one who is well."
5. Caring and sensitive friends know when to come, how to respond, and what to say. Job's friends, bless their hearts, everything was fine till they opened their mouths. Eliphaz a philosopher, Bildad and Historian/arguer, Zophar dogmatic, and Elihu a theologian and logician. They each thought in their respective way and all came to the wrong conclusion. Their theology was not so sound. An example of good friends are found in Nathan and Jonathan who were friends to David. Jonathan sought David out. He doesn't let David suffer alone. He listens, he reassures, he understands. He offers words of hope and encouragement. Nathan is used by the Lord to confront David and to help restore his integrity. He leads David back to God into true repentance.
6. The cultivation of obedient endurance is the crowning mark of maturity. This should be every Christians goal, to be healthy, that we are growing up as we are growing older. Endurance, it is a long obedience in the same direction. It's not jaw clenched, intensity. It is choosing to take the road less traveled by. The determination to pursue holiness, to pursue godliness, to pursue wisdom, and all knowledge. Oswald Chambers wrote, "To choose suffering makes no sense at all; to choose God's will in the midst of our suffering makes all the sense in the world."
Apply these lessons to your life. Don't just simply read any story, whether it be Job, or my story, or your friends story. What are they teaching you? What a blessing! Apply, and start living that kind of life. As you are faced with adversity and heartaches, don't just ask God to take it away and it be over soon, ask Him to help you endure. Look for the lessons. Experience the revelations of God. Sometimes, God isn't always trying to teach us, or call us to repentance, there are times He is just testing our faith out, and it's up to us to pass the test.

The Pathway to Knowledge of God

"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God..." -Colossians 1:9-10 There are two kinds of knowledge every believer experiences. One, Understanding the scriptures, and two, knowing the power of God. However, most believers either experience one or the other. Some know scripture, but not God's power, while others know His power, but not the scripture. This should not be. We should be balanced. To know God himself requires we have dealings with God, and dealings by God. Simply, this means, we must pray and we must have circumstances, this is how we get to know God. Knowledge of the Bible alone is not equivalent to knowledge of God. In other words you can't just read the Bible, and expect to know God, it's just head knowledge. God desires that we would have heart knowledge. Proverbs 3:5-6 is the pinnacle of all Christians knowledge and truth. When we do this verse we find ourselves at the center of His will. Because, it is then that we trust Him and not ourselves; I depend on Him, my heart is set to understand Him, following Him by the dim torch of faith. We must have transactions with Him through prayer. Whatever we bring to God, weather a concern, a circumstance, a "help me!" prayer, a sin that causes us trouble or to fall, we seek Him to know what to do. Many times we must pray the same prayer, over and over and over until He speaks. When he speaks what to do that's knowledge. The next step becomes doing it, experience it, apply it to your life, walk it out. When we pray we should not seek answers as much as we should seek wisdom, which results in recognizing and knowing His will, and HIM! This is trusting and obeying. Know this, How we deal with our circumstances determines what we know about God. This is how we are dealt with BY God. He allows us to go through some awful things. He isn't the cause, but remember the story of Joseph, what man and Satan meant for evil, God turned into good! Circumstances and heart aches grow us up, it causes us to reach for Daddy, Jehovah, Abba, our Savior. It is wise to appreciate the valleys, it is wise to learn in the valleys. It's hard work. That is why lazy believers can never expect to know God. Proverbs clearly lays out what the path of laziness leads too. As our verse points out at the top, it is the Spirit who provides understanding. Our personal relationship with Jesus leads to knowledge. The Spirit living within us which convicts and speaks all truth into our lives. Are we sensitive to His speaking, and nudging? Our prayer should be that God would keep working within us, constantly changing us from glory to glory! Praying that we would grow in all knowledge, and wisdom. Are our consciences clear? (Acts 23:1, 24:16, Proverbs 20:27, 28:14, Job 27:6) Have we offended God in any way? If so make every effort to humbly repent and ask forgiveness. This is where you have the knowledge, now do it and be wise.