The Beginning of Wisdom

Written by Suzanne Benner

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”(Proverbs 1:7)

Beyond the connection between fearing God and righteous living, the Bible presents a tight link between the fear of the Lord and wisdom.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding.” (Psalm 111:10)

“The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.” (Job 28:28)

“A wise man fears the LORD and shuns evil.” (Proverbs 14:16)

“The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom.” (Proverbs 15:33)

Once we’ve accepted that we need to fear the Lord, we pursue the path of wisdom. At the same time, seeking wisdom helps us understand what it means to fear God.

Is There Such a Thing As Coincidence?

Jon Walker

“Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon. A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, ‘Would you give me a drink of water?’” (John 4:6-7 MSG)

During this week of Thanksgiving, give some thought to this question: Is there such a thing as coincidence?

In Kingdom reality, there simply cannot be. Random doesn’t happen in God’s Kingdom. Oswald Chambers says God is the Great Engineer, creating circumstances to bring about moments in our lives of divine importance, leading us to divine appointments.

Was it a coincidence that Jesus came upon the woman at the well? Was she just a random woman who walked into a discussion of God’s grace and omnipotence and then told a whole village about God’s forgiveness? Would God have left that all to chance?

Would he do any less in the details of your life?

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder

“He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” — Genesis 28:12

The Torah portion for this week, Vayetze, is from Genesis 28:10–32:3 and Hosea 12:13–14:10.

The Jewish Sages teach that when Jacob was on his journey to the city of Harran, he ended up somewhere that he had not intended to go. But it was late, and so Jacob found a few stones, made a pillow, and went to sleep. As providence would have it, the place There, he had his famous dream in which Jacob saw a vision of a ladder resting on earth, stretching up to heaven. Angels were going up and down on it. When Jacob woke up he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it” (Genesis 28:16). Jacob had unintentionally, but providentially, stumbled upon a virtual stairway to heaven.

Rachel : The Woman in Whom Romance and Tragedy Were Blended

Scripture References—Genesis 29; 30;31; 33:1, 2, 7; 35:16-26; 46:19, 22, 25;48:7; Ruth 4:11; 1 Samuel 10:2;Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18

Name Meaning—Rachel was the first person in the Bible to have a proper name derived from the brute creation. Wilkinson remarks, “that, for the most part, the formation of a human name from that of an animal is traceable to some peculiarity either observed or desired in an individual, which would thus be most intelligently expressed in a rude and simple age.” Rachel, the name of Jacob’s beloved wife means “ewe,” employed more or less as a title of endearment, just as the word “lamb” is among ourselves. Laban, accustomed to tenderly nursing the weak ewes as they were born, thought “ewe” to be a fitting name for his second daughter.

The Woman in Whom Romance and Tragedy Were Blended

WHY MOMS DON’T ALWAYS WANT TO KNOW BEST

By Sheila

Each Friday my syndicated column appears in several newspapers. Here’s this week’s!

I’ve been giving advice to men about relationships lately, and I thought I’d continue the trend today, since I like telling men what to do.

Let’s start with a misconception men often have. Many men think that if they have mastered the sentence, “Whatever you want is fine with me, Honey,” they have hit the relationship bullseye.

Unfortunately, if that’s you, you’re likely in for a rude awakening. Imagine this: your wife asks you whether little Johnny should take soccer this year. You smile and utter those magic words, and then incomprehensibly she storms off! Something got lost in translation.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO PRAY FOR BLESSING?

Sheila

I’m on Twitter. I love Twitter. I can send out little soundbites about my day, complain about aches and pains or the weather, or make little jokes, and get instant feedback. It’s fun!

And I have a lot of followers, and I follow quite a few. Yesterday this Tweet came across the board from a certified Life Coach. She said:

Start by blessing yourself. “May I be safe, may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I live with ease.”

I thought this was interesting. I’m speaking at a retreat as you read this (I actually wrote this post and scheduled it to appear today), and I’m speaking exactly AGAINST all of those things.

BEING A BLESSING

By Sheila

                                                                                                                           

There are some days when I’ve just about had it. Recently, when baby-sitting a friend’s two preschoolers for the day, I realized how much one can forget in the six short years since both of my girls have been out of diapers. On that day, the three-year-old got into the paints when I wasn’t looking. 

I discovered him sitting on top of the kitchen table, making interesting designs on his clothes, and took one look at him and decided he was too far gone to interfere with now.