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Proverbs Chapter 9
Oh that we would heed the words of wisdom. Again I'm reminded of what wisdom is and where wisdom begins.
We see from the Psalms that wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. We see also in verse 10 of this chapter in Proverbs that says the same thing. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. How do we fear God?
This is fast disappearing from our society. I see today that the attitude of people as a whole is changing. I see a lack of the fear of God. We make jokes about God, we use His name in profanity, we take the word of God lightly, and we ignore His commandments. Those who do claim a belief in God sometimes make God out to be what they want Him to be instead of who He really is. They see a god who accepts their sin and does not demand change. They see God as a giver of possessions for those who believe, even if they are without repentance or having a change in their life. The term "born again" has lost its meaning and has become a joke or by word. How can we know who God is and what He is like? By reading His message to us contained in the bible. That is how we can know God. He is a God of love but we also see He is a God of judgment and justice. If He was not a God of judgment then He surely would not have sent His own Son to die for our sins if our sins didn't matter and we could continue in them and still have eternal life. Jesus went through all that pain and suffering in the flesh on our behalf and also suffered the agony of every one of our sins being placed upon Him as He was on the cross. He died because of our sins. Ours sins killed Him. He died for ours not His own since He did not sin or break the law in any point. If Jesus went to all this trouble to usher in a way of salvation for rich, poor, great or small, why would we ever think we could just believe in what He did and not make any change in our lives and continue in sin just like before? That is nonsense. When we believe in Jesus, we turn from sin and allow His Holy Spirit to change us. This is being "born again". Another way to describe this wonderful conversion is that we are born from above. We start fresh and are made new creatures in Christ. We now have the spirit of God within us to give us the "want to" power to not return to the sin Jesus cleansed us from.
He did all this for us to be free from the bondage of sin and inherit eternal life with a new body that cannot die. We are clean, we are holy, we are covered by His righteousness.
Without the shedding of the blood of Jesus no one could be saved from sin and no one would enter eternal life. That is why He came. How could one even think we could knowingly and willingly return to the sin we were saved from and still expect to enter heaven after such a great sacrifice?
There are those that reject the gospel, reject the word of God and will turn on those who try to reprove them. Then we have those that are willing to repent and love rebuke. They may be uncomfortable at first but later when the fruit of repentance has changed their lives, they will love those that brought them that word that made the change.
The more we have the more we desire to have. The less of God we have the less we desire to spend time in His presence.
Salvation actually starts by fear. We fear the judgment for sin. This fear is the beginning of wisdom. This wisdom brings us to repentance and receiving the word in our hearts. This word was made flesh and that was Jesus Christ. When we believe in Jesus' death, burial and resurrection to save us from sin, that increases our wisdom more. We then are given the Holy Spirit. This increases us more and more in the wisdom that Proverbs is talking of. Then as we read the word more the Holy Spirit teaches us and our wisdom increases. If we stop at any point and stop seeking God, our wisdom in the word, in the spirit and in the things that really count, begins to decrease. The more we have the more we receive. The less we have the less we will desire to receive. The choice remains within each one of us.
Living by God's wisdom will increase life but mostly will bring eternal life.
This woman represents the temptation to ignore God's word and seek only the temporary pleasures of this life. It looks good at the time but it will lead to death and hell. This is a picture of sin. Sin destroys our body and our standing with God. Sin separates us from God. He sent Jesus to bridge that gap and bring us back to God. When we let Jesus cleanse us from sin and reconcile us back to God, we are granted the promise of eternal life. We have the presence of the Holy Spirit to help us in this life but in eternity there will be no death, pain, sorrow or loss of any kind.
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