Saturday, February 16, 2008 "The interview" Part II

Saturday, February 16, 2008

"The interview" Part II

From Julie's Keyboard:




Getting Understanding?
Prov. 4:7b......"but with all thy getting get understanding."
The scripture referenced above is a well heard piece, likely etched somewhere in the hearts and minds of most Christians. However, it seems the emphasis (at least for me) is placed primarily on the first portion. "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom;"...

We hear so much spoken about the Wisdom that God gives. By all means, we need not be without it. Yet we must remember the instruction leads on in the same sentence to tell us that we must get understanding as well.

We need this spiritual understanding of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God imparted into our lives. This "Understanding" is a putting together, a comprehending or a grasping of His Word. It's like He turns on a light within us and immediately we've got what He's been trying to reveal to us for some time.

His Word, Jesus, is His Wisdom. If we know Him, we have His Wisdom. Knowledge is His Word that we study day by day and hear preached throughout our lives.

However, if we lack an understanding of His Wisdom and the Bible, we are not fully operating in the purpose He has designed for us.

Psalm 119:130 states, "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple."
We have so many unanswered questions pertaining to God and His Word. So many facts of living that fogs our thoughts a bit. Yet, God can turn on this light within us and dispel the fog. He wants to give us understanding as well. It does come in His timing and in His way.

Many Christians are repeatedly stumbling today because of a lack of understanding. It's not only an ignorance about what God's Word says and requires of us, but also an ignorance about ourselves, our own attitudes, wrong dependencies and misconceived priorities.
Hosea 4:14"....a people that do not understand shall fall."
All of us have God's Wisdom in our hearts, our homes, lying in our laps on Sunday morning during preaching and teaching, but many of us, because of busyness, distractcions, unbelief, pride, and other self-centered thoughts and emotions, choose to depend upon how we feel, what our circumstances are and what others are telling us, rather than what God's Word says.
In light of this, we not only don't understand what God desires of us, but we don't understand why are feelings and actions are as they become.

Let's get His understanding too. What good is God's Wisdom (to us) without our being able to understand it and make a life application?

Psalm 119:27 "Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of Thy wondrous works."
Have a blessed week!
Julie
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"The Interview" Part II



A couple of weeks ago we were talking to some of our founders concerning their thoughts on religion in our country and it’s place in their lives.

I thought we would continue this conversation with a few more of our founding fathers.

Mr. Knox, I understand you were a Revolutionary War General and Secretary of War, would you like to make a statement along your religious view?

“First, I think it proper to express my unshaken opinion of the immortality of my soul or mind; and to dedicate and devote the same to the supreme head of the Universe – to that great and tremendous Jehovah, – Who created the universal frame of nature, worlds, and systems in number infinite . . . To this awfully sublime Being do I resign my spirit with unlimited confidence of His mercy and protection . . .”

Will of Henry Knox

Mr. Paine, I see here in my notes that you have a statement to make about this great nation of ours.

[Yes sir, I do] “I desire to bless and praise the name of God most high for appointing me my birth in a land of Gospel Light where the glorious tidings of a Savior and of pardon and salvation through Him have been continually sounding in mine ears.”

Robert Treat Paine, The Papers of Robert Treat Paine, Stephen Riley and Edward Hanson, editors (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1992), Vol. I, p. 48, March/April, 1749.

[And concerning my own personal state] “ . . .I am constrained to express my adoration of the Supreme Being, the Author of my existence, in full belief of his providential goodness and his forgiving mercy revealed to the world through Jesus Christ, through whom I hope for never ending happiness in a future state, acknowledging with grateful remembrance the happiness I have enjoyed in my passage through a long life. . .”

Will of Robert Treat Paine

[Mr. Putnam, you were a Revolutionary War General and the First Surveyor General of the United States, concerning this subject, where does your heart lie?

“First, I give my soul to a holy, sovereign God Who gave it in humble hope of a blessed immortality through the atonement and righteousness of Jesus Christ and the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. . . . I fully believe that this body shall, by the mighty power of God, be raised to life at the last day; 'for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality." [I Corinthians 15:53]

Will of Rufus Putnam

I am being told Mr. Benjamin Rush who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence is wanting to make a statement concerning salvation. Say on Mr. Rush, the floor is yours.

[Thank you kind Sir, I would like to affirm that] “My only hope of salvation is in the infinite, transcendent love of God manifested to the world by the death of His Son upon the cross. Nothing but His blood will wash away my sins. I rely exclusively upon it. Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!”

Benjamin Rush, The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush, George Corner, editor (Princeton: Princeton University Press for the American Philosophical Society, 1948), p. 166, Travels Through Life, An Account of Sundry Incidents & Events in the Life of Benjamin Rush.

Excuse me Mr. Rush, but I see Mr. Roger Sherman making his way to the front, would like to make a comment Sir.

[Being a signer of the Declaration of Independence and of the United Constitution also, lest it should ever be said of future generations that I be among the thought of deist let me state that] “I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. . . . that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are a revelation from God. . . . that God did send His own Son to become man, die in the room and stead of sinners, and thus to lay a foundation for the offer of pardon and salvation to all mankind so as all may be saved who are willing to accept the Gospel offer.”

Lewis Henry Boutell, The Life of Roger Sherman (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1896), pp. 272-273.

It seems you all are somewhat bold to proclaim your faith, this has become quit a religious meeting. Hold on, I see another signer of the Declaration of Independence making his way to the front. O’ yes, it’s Mr. Richard Stockton, Sir do you have something to add?

[Yes, very much so, Mr. Rush made mention of a future generation ascribing our religious thought to that of the deist. I can not possibly contrive that ever being possible, but just to secure that thought]

“I think it proper here not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great and leading doctrines of the Christian religion, such as the Being of God, the universal defection and depravity of human nature, the divinity of the person and the completeness of the redemption purchased by the blessed Savior, the necessity of the operations of the Divine Spirit, of Divine Faith, accompanied with an habitual virtuous life, and the universality of the divine Providence, but also . . . that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; that the way of life held up in the Christian system is calculated for the most complete happiness that can be enjoyed in this mortal state; that all occasions of vice and immorality is injurious either immediately or consequentially, even in this life; that as Almighty God hath not been pleased in the Holy Scriptures to prescribe any precise mode in which He is to be publicly worshiped, all contention about it generally arises from want of knowledge or want of virtue.”

Will of Richard Stockton

Well, time has run out again, we have time for one closing statement. It appears Mr. John Witherspoon also being a signer of the Declaration of Independence has been chosen to dismiss us. I give you Mr. John Witherspoon.

[As a closing statement] “I entreat you in the most earnest manner to believe in Jesus Christ, for there is no salvation in any other [Acts 4:12]. . . . [I]f you are not reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, if you are not clothed with the spotless robe of His righteousness, you must forever perish.”

John Witherspoon, The Works of John Witherspoon (Edinburgh: J. Ogle, 1815), Vol. V, pp. 276, 278, The Absolute Necessity of Salvation Through Christ, January 2, 1758.

May God bless each of you,
David