wisdom^(7/6)

Wickedness is more noticable than goodness

[Reynie said] “I see things differently now, and it’s… bothering me, I suppose.” Mr. Benedict gazed at Reynie, stroking a bristly patch on his chin that he’d missed with his razor. He exhaled through his lumpy nose. “Since your mission, you mean?” Reynie nodded. “You mean to say,” said Mr. Benedict after reflecting a moment, “That you’re disturbed by the wickedness of which so many people seem capable. My brother, for example, but also his Executives, his henchmen, the other students at the Institute–”…

Go to the source

Whatever you do, don’t take the shortcut of only looking at how Christians act. Doing so is lazy because every Christian falls short of the teachings of Christ, and the majority of them aren’t actually familiar with what the Bible says. Too many use the Bible as a self-help book that they read whenever they need a pick-me-up, while others use it mainly as a tool to manipulate others or make more money.…

Quotes without context invite misunderstanding

Out-of-context quoting is a practice weaponized to deface people, but I don’t want to address that here. Instead, I will consider the practice of well-meaning Christians to publish Bible verses to a mass audience. Some Christians like to publish verses on social media, or put verses on their windows, binders, walls, etc for others to see. The intent is good–to share the words that give you life–but the consequences aren’t.…

The desert fathers arose when persecution ended

According to Henri Nouwen, the Desert Mothers and Fathers came into being as a response to the end of physical persecution. They sought a new form of witness in a world where it was no longer dangerous to claim the name of Christ. And they sought to separate themselves from a society that they felt was poisonous to Christian faith and practice. 💬 But if the world was no longer the enemy of the Christian, then the Christian had to become the enemy of the dark world.…

The monastery is a school in which we learn from God how to be happy

The monastery is a school—a school in which we learn from God how to be happy. Our happiness consists in sharing the happiness of God, the perfection of His unlimited freedom, the perfection of His love. What has to be healed in us is our true nature, made in the likeness of God. What we have to learn is love. The healing and the learning are the same thing, for at the very core of our essence we are constituted in God’s likeness by our freedom, and the exercise of that freedom is nothing else but the exercise of disinterested love—the love of God for His own sake, because He is God.…

God makes the works of his wisdom more beautiful through contrast

if Adam had never fallen, the whole human race would have been a series of magnificently different and splendid images of God, each one of all the millions of men showing forth His glories and perfections in an astonishing new way, and each one shining with his own particular sanctity, a sanctity destined for him from all eternity as the most complete and unimaginable supernatural perfection of his human personality. If, since the fall, this plan will never be realized in millions of souls, and millions will frustrate that glorious destiny of theirs, and hide their personality in an eternal corruption of disfigurement, nevertheless, in re-forming His image in souls distorted and half destroyed by evil and disorder, God makes the works of His wisdom and love all the more strikingly beautiful by reason of the contrast with the surroundings in which He does not disdain to operate.…

These are the words he read

I find myself aware that in reading the Hebrew Scriptures I am handling something that gives me a closer common link with Jesus than any archaeological artifact could do. For these are the words he read. These were the stories he knew. These were the songs he sang.

The bible is for wisdom and pleasure

While reflecting on one of the Psalms, I thought, “Wow, this song is so generic; I’m not getting anything out of it.” Then I noticed in the textual notes that the Psalm and the one to follow were an acrostic, and the Holy Spirit reminded me of a verse out of Genesis. God’s words both supply nourishment and delight. 💬 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.…

Actions in human wisdom lead to death

The first time Abram is given a chance to rely upon God’s promise instead of his own wisdom, he leaves the promised land and sojourns in egypt. Despite the LORD’s promise to make him a great nation, Abram leaves the land he’d been promised when a famine makes staying hard. When he approached Egypt, he ignored God’s promise to protect his family and used deception to protect himself. He achieved his own protection at the price of Sarai; the very woman through which God was going to fulfill His promise!…

Debt can ruin a business

Although the Bible never draws a hard line against indebting one’s self to another, Proverbs is full of admonitions about the foolishness of this practice. “The borrower is the slave of the lender” (ESV, Proverbs 22:7) is one of the most vivid examples. Temporary borrowing may allow a business to capture an opportunity that wouldn’t be possible if it had to wait until the funds were generated, but if a business regularly needs these type of capital injections it’s likely a symptom of poor management than amazing opportunity.…

Bible meditation offers the highest business wisdom

💬 Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me.…

Debt is sometimes wise

Lending money at interest is not inherently abhorrent to God. For example, Jesus tells a parable about a man who leaves money with his servants while he takes a journey. When the man returns from his journey, he berates the one servant who hid the money, telling him that he ought to have at least lent the money to the bank so he would receive interest. Conversely this means borrowing money at interest is not inherently wicked in God’s sight.…

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.…