daily java

Daily Java:

Stay away from fools, for you won’t find knowledge on their lips. (Proverbs 14:7-8)

Several years back I was watching an episode of the Monkees on MTV. This would have been sometime in the 1980’s. At the end of the episode, it came back to a picture of the four Monkees standing together. the announcer began to ask them what they thought about certain things. One of the things was the war in Vietnam. Since this was the late 1960’s, that was on all young men’s minds.

The Monkees began to talk and then to pontificate a bit. Some of the idea was that someone as phenomenally popular as the Monkees had to have greater thoughts than regular people.

They didn’t. they sounded like the vapid young early 20-somethings they were.

About that time, I began to notice other people saying other things in the same basic context. And it dawned on me that many of these people translated their success in singing or acting to special knowledge of other subjects. In other words, I am a good actor or singer so therefore people are going to turn to me for information on world events. It was as if their success in one area gave them special wisdom in others.

And it didn’t and doesn’t.

When we go to actors or singers or anyone in celebrity positions for our information on world events, we will have a lot of trouble. If you look at these people, they have trouble staying married, they are as immoral as anyone can be and still be alive, they are many times almost brainless. And the comments they make are goody.

Yet they become leaders in global warming, or animal rights, or family planning.

I still remember seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger for the first time on the old Mike Douglas show. There was a great looking man with what seemed to be a double digit IQ. I will have to admit that he got better as he got older. But the funny thing is, when they ask people like him, like the Monkees, like other actors or singers what they think and use it for a reference point, they are going to a poisoned well for drinking water.

Listen to these people talk for a while and that will become apparent. If they are allowed to just talk, they say all kinds of weird things. Some grow up, some do not. Some go on to be something better than what they were. Some just trade on their old fame the rest of their lives..

You want wisdom, go to someone who has wisdom. Don’t go to a man or woman who biggest talent in pretending to be someone else or making music.

One of the smartest comments I ever heard from a professional musician was made by Rich Mullins back in the 1990’s, just a couple of years before he died. We heard him in concert, and he made mention of how people came up to him to ask him big scriptural questions. His comment was that he was not a pastor or a teacher. He was a singer. Don’t go to him. Go to someone who knew.

It took a lot of humility and awareness to say such a thing. And for the most part, people in Hollywood do not have that awareness. They really think they know what they are talking about.

In the play Fiddler on the Roof, Rev Tevye, the main character, wants to be rich. If he were rich, he would sit at the city gates and talk all day. People would ask him questions and he would give wise and measured answers. And they would listen because, as the song he sings goes, “When you’re rich they think you really know.”

Being rich or popular or well-established at something else does not give you the wisdom to talk about things you do not know anything about. And going to fools for wisdom is always a losing proposition.

daily java

Daily Java:

Wise people treasure knowledge,
      but the babbling of a fool invites disaster.  (Proverbs 10:13-14)

Ignorant displays of knowledge can be funny.

In 1973, I worked for a radio station in Odessa, TX. It was an easy listening station, back in the day when that meant quiet music played in grocery stores and the like.

The man I worked for was, although highly dishonest, was still a very educated man and a man who made his living with words. He did, after all, own a radio station, and all a radio station has to offer is words and music.

I have always had a large vocabulary because I have always read a lot. But most of the people I hung around with were not large vocabulary people. A lot of the words I knew were purely academic. I had never heard them, just read them. So I had no idea how they sounded when pronounced.

I was talking with the radio guy (Roy) and I used a large word – aficionado – and mispronounced it badly. Roy stood there for a few seconds and said (in his very resonant radio voice) Do you mean aficionado? And he pronounced it right.

I felt like a fool. I knew the word and knew what it meant, but I was showing off to a man I knew was educated. I even realized then that it was the word that I heard nightly in a station promo and had not recognized it. And I got called on it.

Since that time, I rarely mispronounce words. It is almost like a mania. And if I feel I am going to, I will generally substitute another word for it and then go check it out later. It is a quirk of my personality that I have to research my own conversations. Pathetic, I know.

It is always like that when I hear people try to show off their Bible knowledge when they really do not know what they are talking about. I am not talking about earnest seekers who make mistakes, I am thinking of the guy who likes to quote great blocks of the Bible to show everybody how well-read and intelligent he is. He ends up looking stupid.

I was watching a movie not long ago where the main character would recite Bible verses before he would do something bad. It made him feel good to quote the Holy Written Word before he did something wrong. Kind of like the people who used to like to buy church furniture for their bars and strip clubs. Sitting on church furniture made them feel “deliciously sinful” as one said.

A wise person learns more. It is not because he is any better, but it is because he has a thirst for knowledge. And a real wise person knows where the wisdom comes from. He knows it doesn’t come from within himself but from a source greater than he is.

Any source I learn from, no matter how small it may be, at lest for a moment is greater than me. And as I have said before, I do not mind asking questions. It is not that I am so great, it is that I hate looking like a fool.

And that especially goes with God. I want to treasure knowledge, not babble disaster. And only he can give me true knowledge or wisdom.

daily java

Daily Java:   

Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment.  (Proverbs 4:7)

Wikipedia blacked out the other day in protest of proposed internet legislation. The blackout was only for a day, but it is amazing how we have come to depend on it and the internet in general for knowledge.

With the internet and the availability of knowledge at our fingertips, we know a lot. We can find out almost anything from the internet. The chords to a favorite song, the population of Madagascar in 1897, the different breeds of horses, how to put a pulley belt on a GE dryer, just about everything.

We are awash in knowledge. We know more raw knowledge than at any other time in human history.

But as a culture, we are dumb as a rock. There is no discernment, no common sense, no wisdom.

The writer of Proverbs said that wisdom was the best thing you should get, so get wisdom. It sounds so simple.

But how do you get wisdom? How do you plug into the circuit that somehow transmits wisdom to your life.

Someone once said that if you teach children knowledge without teaching them about God, you are making time bombs. Without the knowledge of God to balance out the knowledge of everything else, there is no perspective. Everything becomes equal.

That is the thing that is bad about the internet: everything is equal. Trivia is as important to a computer as deep wisdom is. And when we do not have access to wisdom, we lose perspective. We lost he ability to tell what is important and what isn’t. our heads become full of knowledge, all of which competes for our attention.

Some of what age brings should be that perspective, the knowledge of how things fit in to life. That knowledge of perspective is wisdom. It is the realization that some things are more important than others, and that some things are to be avoided at all costs.

We lost that in an information age. We become so swamped with information that we lost the perspective. And when we do, we lose wisdom.

In Louis L’Amour books, it always portrays cowboys and men who roamed as deep thinkers. They didn’t know a lot, but hours spent on the back of a horse made them think a lot about what little they knew. So if the read a book, they thought a lot about that book. They didn’t have access to many, so the few they had access to became important to them.

We have access to so much that books become commonplace. And with the advent of Kindle and electronic books, we have access to even more. One person can carry around in his pocket more books that whole states had in their possession one hundred years ago.

And most of them are drivel. Wisdom tells us what is drivel and what isn’t. but that knowledge can only come when we have the perspective of the One who is eternal.

He is all that is truly important.

daily java

Daily Java:

“The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,
      “when I will send a famine on the land—
   not a famine of bread or water
      but of hearing the words of the Lord.
 People will stagger from sea to sea
      and wander from border to border[g]
   searching for the word of the Lord,
      but they will not find it.
 Beautiful girls and strong young men
      will grow faint in that day,
      thirsting for the Lord’s word. (Amos 8:11-13)

The Lord said there would come a time when there was not a famine of food, but of knowledge. There would come a time when people would be dying from knowledge malnutrition more than anything else.

And it seems to be now. But in such an odd way.

We have an overflow of knowledge today. With the advent of Google, we can find out just about anything with one click on our computers. In the past few days, according to my Google link, I have found out a number of things. Definitions of words, biographies of people and of rock bands, cake recipes, Christmas jazz stations, what kind of dog a corgi is, an English to Klingon dictionary, a Greek interlinear Bible, the words and chords to “Me and Bobby McGee,”

I have always had a fascination with knowledge and the computer is a way to almost glut that desire to know more.

But yet, with all the knowing more, we really know less. Things are so easily attainable that we lose the perspective that comes from study. Reading a book and thinking about it brings wisdom. Finding a quote brings just knowledge. Disciplined study brings wisdom, scattergun Googling brings knowledge. That kind of knowledge is great for parties where you are looking for something to talk about, but in general, it is worthless.

We are in an age of wisdom famine. People seem to have no perspective on things, no ability to think things through. We are an impulse society, and impulsive people are never happy nor are they well balanced.

And the knowledge we have is mostly trivial. Looking at the Google bar and what I have looked for on the computer, I see that it is mostly nothing, just trivial things. The idea of sitting with a good book and just reading is almost alien. And it affects me. I want to know something and I want to know it now. I finally have something that can give me instant information. In fact, I get irritated at having to read all the posts on the first page of the Google search just to find my scrap of information.

It breeds impatience, and wisdom can only come through patience.

And we can only come to God through patience and learning to listen to him and know him. He is not Googleable. You cannot know him quickly, nor can you know him thoroughly without a lot of time spent in looking for him and listening to him.

Without him? We grow faint, no matter  how well off we may be otherwise.

daily java

Daily Java:

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. (James 3:17-18)

Real wisdom is evident. And you can always tell the source of wisdom.

What the world calls wisdom is more of an arrogant survival or knowledge. It is the kind of thing that makes the speaker look good, that advances an agenda in some way. It is more talk than anything else and tends to be gibberish after you look at it for a few minutes.

Real wisdom heals. It brings peace. It accomplishes something. It doesn’t just sit there in pithy phrases and make the one who advances it sound good. Sometimes, it can even be against the speaker.

Real wisdom always advances peace, even if it doesn’t seem like it. It was after all, Jesus who said he came to bring difficulty. In Matthew 10:34, he said: Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.

It was the wisdom of God that brought Jesus to this earth (1 Corinthians 1). Yet the experience of Jesus is not always good. There is one third of the world today railing against him, killing people who believe in him.. there is no outward peace there. And there are those who say that the very bringing of Jesus into the culture is harmful and should be avoided at all costs.

Yet Jesus said anyway to go and preach the gospel to all creation, to everybody. The wisdom of God was to preach. To deny that is foolishness.

Real wisdom yields. It doesn’t set up little kingdoms based on men’s thoughts and charisma. It points to God. It is merciful and has good things coming from it.

Real wisdom is noticeable the moment it is seen. And because the world does not want to see God, it is rejected the moment it is seen and heard. The world does not want to see the wisdom of God because it points away from what it wants to do.

It brings us into his presence and into his love. And it causes good things to happen.

Real wisdom is beautiful.

daily java

Daily Java:

For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. (Colossians 1:27-28)

Because the kingdom came out of the Jewish faith, the Jews thought they had primary rights to both the entrance into the faith and establishing entrance requirements for everybody else. And as far as they were concerned, to become a Christian, you had to become a Jew and do it their way.

Paul said no. God is a God of grace, not of works and the old system was based on works.

Arguments ensued and Paul was run out of town in almost every occasion by those who were his spiritual kin. He didn’t do things their way so they beat him and threw him out.

Many times, that is how it works. Those who have been somewhere a long time begin to want to decide how others can come into what they perceive as their property. We want the church to grow, it is said. Well, how will the church grow? By doing what we want, by doing what we did when we were young.

As America gets older, the licensing departments in almost every organization gets more and more complex. In the old days, all a person had to do to be a lawyer was take the bar exam. Now he has to go to an accredited school before he could. Most lawyers before about 1950 or so had never gone to law school. They just had a mentor show them how it worked and they read a lot. Then they passed the exam.

The same is with ministers. At one time, all one did to be a minister of many denominations was to announce they had that desire and, if their lives showed evidence of that desire, a church would employ them.

One of the denominations I was associated with in the past had an incredibly detailed entrance examination. In just a couple of years, their history and polity course increased a thousand percent in size and complexity.

This was a denomination that had come out of extremely common people and I could be wrong, but I think they were trying to prove to the rest of the religious world that they were cool now, too. And yet they bemoaned the fact that no young people would advance in the ordination process.

These young ministers would achieve the first step and then stay. The reason, of course, was that they didn’t want to hassle with all of the bureaucratic steps. They felt God had called them and didn’t feel the need to have a bunch of people make them confirm that by paying a lot of money for unnecessary courses and jumping through unnecessary hoops.

That may or may not be true. The denomination came out of a group of people who were at times proud of their ignorance and known for their ignorance. They needed to move beyond that. But at the same time, they had to recognize that God empowered people, not denominations.

In other words, if Christ lives in you,  you are empowered. Yes, you need to read and not look like a hick. Ours is an increasingly complex and educated world. For a pastor to do well, he has to fit in. An ignorant preacher will not do much good in most of society.

At the same time, what we preach can only be what is in us. We can only present them to God, perfect in their relationship to God if we have him in us, perfect in our relationship.

We can only teach with all the wisdom God has given us if we have wisdom in us in the first place. And we can only get that wisdom from God who gives wisdom.

God empowers, man obeys. I do not believe in ignorant preachers. But an highly educated credentialed minister who does not have God nor his wisdom is worthless in the sight of God. You cannot teach what you do not have, no matter how credentialed nor how educated.

You can only preach Jesus if you have Jesus in your heart.

daily java

Daily Java:  

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:6-7)

The King of the universe born to transient parents in a homeless shelter and his birth announced only to shepherds.

It would seem that the Son of God being born would be a time of great jubilation. He would be born to wealthy parents who would be able to give him all of the education needed to credential him in the eyes of the world. He would have a world stage and millions would come to hear him. he would live a long life and finally die with one of the largest funerals known to mankind.

But no. he was conceived out of wedlock, born to transient parents in a homeless shelter, lived an obscure life in a little town in the middle of nowhere, had a brief three year ministry, then died a criminal’s death and was buried in a borrowed tomb.

As the song says, what a strange way to save the world.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 says:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

God’s plan worked, to put it mildly. Even though Jesus had such a brief ministry after such a plain life, the Christian faith is the largest single religion in the world, greater than any other. Time after time, people have tried to stamp it out, yet it remains. After persecution and government mandate, still it stays.

After 70 years of enforced atheism in the Soviet Union, the minute the wall came down and communism crumbled, up came the church. What had been large in secret became huge is public.

Even with the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries, the church is experiencing a revival with millions being brought to Jesus.

It cannot and it will not be stopped.

Humble though it may have been in its inception, it is massive and will continue until Jesus comes again.

daily java

Daily Java: Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness. (James 3:13-18)

People used to say, pretty is as pretty does. And that is true now as it was then.

But that also goes with wisdom. Wise is as wise does. The writer of Proverbs said, The beginning of wisdom is: get wisdom. In other words, if you want people to think you are wise, act wise. Sooner or later, they will think so and you will become that way just because you act that way.

That sounds weird until you get to thinking it is the same things your parents told you growing up. If you want to be treated like an adult, then act like an adult. When you start acting like an adult, they would say in their best parent voices, then we will treat you like one.

Of course, it wasn’t always true. But it is still good advice.

Act wise. Think about things before  you say them. Don’t say things that are foolish. Keep quiet more than not. Silence is a great fooler. The old adage said, close your mouth and people might think you a fool. Open your mouth and remove all doubt. Sometimes, silence is the wisest thing you can accomplish. Have an argument with your wife and you will find that out.

But if someone tries to pass off something as wisdom, check it out. The wisdom from God is pure. It doesn’t have the taint of the world in it. It brings peace, it considers others, it submits when submission is called for, it is merciful and accomplishes good things, it doesn’t play favorites and is real, it is sincere, from the heart. If it brings about anything but these things, it is not from God. Run away from it.

It is a sad thing to see foolishness celebrated in our world today. People who are obviously lacking in even the basic living skills exalted as role models. When we look to Hollywood for our opinions, we will not find wisdom. This is a group of people who cannot stay married, who celebrate public immorality, who stand as the opposite of godliness. They have nothing but contempt for what is holy.

Run from this.

Real wisdom is seen and not just told. Be wise. Show that wisdom in your life.

daily java

Daily Java: Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?  (Proverbs 8:1)

Balance in our world is gone. A man in Florida does something and the fate of the world hinges on it. People in other countries riot and even the pope asks him to stop.

Where is wisdom? We have become so goofy that everything goes crazy.

A video is shown of a woman putting a cat in a trash can somewhere in England and people all over the world are up in arms over animal abuse.

A teenaged girl somewhere throws puppies in a river and people all over the world are calling for her arrest.

It started a few years ago when two grapes were found in a store that had arsenic and the grape harvest was almost ruined because of fear. Then there was the bottle of Tylenol that had been tampered with and the Tylenol company took a major hit because of it.

One little thing happens and everybody knows it. It is a combination of a 24 hour news cycle desperate for more news and the internet where a grainy Youtube video makes it around the world in less than 24 hours.

I don’t know that we were any wiser in the old days, but at least we didn’t have news blaring at us all the time.

I have always said that people are no different today, just more widely covered. A guy disagreed with me and said that when he was younger, no one ever did the things people do today. And I agreed. But when he was younger, there were more restrictions on what could be done.

I remember discussing homosexuality in the late 1960’s with someone. No one was exactly sure how it went about. Now we have it thrust in our faces constantly.

When I was young, strangers on the street could reprimand you for your actions and you took it. And all adults were authority figures. Try reprimanding a child today.

A few months ago, a man in a store slapped a child who was misbehaving and went to jail for it. The child knows he will not be disciplined and people know they cannot help maintain the social order any longer. So we have an out of control kid with helpless adults.

I asked the man if he were a good child. He laughed and said no, he tried to get away with whatever he could. I asked, what if there was no one to tell you that what you were doing was wrong? Would you have been a good kid? He replied, no, I guess not.

That is our world today. A world that seems to be devoid of wisdom. We have leaders that show no wisdom, we have parents that show no wisdom, we have teachers that show no wisdom. Wisdom calls out but no one answers.

I hope our culture is not doomed.

daily java

Daily Java: Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.  (Proverbs 4:7)

You parents said it before you. You probably said it to your kids.

“If you want to be treated like an adult, then act like an adult.”

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. The only to wise is to act wise. The only way to act wise is to set out to do so. People rarely act wise by accident. They mean to.

Oh, sure, you can mistake some things for wisdom for a while, but sooner or later, it is going to come out.

Someone once said, keep your mouth closed and people may think you a fool. Open it and remove all doubt. You can look wise, but the only real way to be wise is to act it. Think wise things, pursue wise thoughts and actions, don’t run off at the mouth all the time.

One of the worst things in our modern culture and one of the best at the same time is the cell phone. Someone once mentioned that in the old days, fools had to keep their thoughts to themselves when out in public. No more. You can hear some of the stupidest people in the world walking along braying out the most ignorant and profane stuff in the middle of a crowd.

They are talking on the phone. And they do not care who hears it. Their thoughts are unbelievably foolish and I get to hear them in full amplification.

Anybody who carries on a loud conversation with their phone in public is foolish. No one wants to hear about your stuff. No one wants to hear the details of your life.

Though it costs all, get understanding. One of the saddest things is a foolish educated person. He or she is full of knowledge, lots of stuff crammed in to their heads. But no understanding. No ability to translate the knowledge into life skills.

Wisdom is the ability to take knowledge and apply it to life. It comes in all forms. It is the guy who knows all about the machines as opposed to the guy who has a Master’s degree in industrial engineering but has never actually done the stuff. It is the policeman who has been shot at as opposed to the criminology expert. It is the preacher who has been on the front line rather than the theology professor.

Wisdom is also the knowledge about how and when to say things, how and when to do thing. It is something that is not acquired in a classroom or by reading books. It is an ability given by time and work and study, and in the case of living your life to his glory, but the Spirit.

It is worth anything you might have, and everything you have. It is supreme.

acting wise

Whoever is wise, let him heed these things
and consider the great love of the LORD. (Psalm 107:3)

There is wisdom and there is wisdom. Some claim wisdom who just don’t seem very smart. And some don’t claim any wisdom at all who look pretty smart.

I always distrusted people who call themselves apostles. It you are, I will know it. If you aren’t, I will also know that.

That is one reason Jesus said to not call people Master or Rabbi or Teacher. He didn’t mean you couldn’t use honorifics in dealing with others. What he meant was don’t love names of honor. There is nothing wrong with having a title. What is wrong is insisting on one.

If you are wise, you will act wise. Proverbs 4:7 says, Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. If you want to be wise, in other words, act wise. Act wise long enough and you will probably become wise.

Order your life around wise things, do wise things, think wise thoughts, just in general be wise. And after a while, people will notice that you are wise.

Being wise is not a matter of having wisdom appended to your name or on your business card or stationery. It is a matter of heeding the will of God. If you are wise, you will, as the psalmist says, heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.

A wise person knows what is important. That wise person will do what is important. And that wise person will think what is important.

And you will know it.