Wisdom at the cross roads

We are all on a journey and our path follows many crossroads and hills and valleys. In Proverbs 8 Wisdom is depicted as a woman that stands at the gates of the city and at the crossroads crying out to the people to impart her message:  

Proverbs 8

Does not wisdom cry out,
And understanding lift up her voice?
² She takes her stand on the top of the high hill,
Beside the way, where the paths meet.
³ She cries out by the gates, at the entry of the city,
At the entrance of the doors:
⁴ “To you, O men, I call,
And my voice is to the sons of men.
⁵ O you simple ones, understand prudence,
And you fools, be of an understanding heart.
⁶ Listen, for I will speak of excellent things,
And from the opening of my lips will come right things;
⁷ For my mouth will speak truth;
Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
⁸ All the words of my mouth are with righteousness;
Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.
⁹ They are all plain to him who understands,
And right to those who find knowledge.
¹⁰ Receive my instruction, and not silver,
And knowledge rather than choice gold;
¹¹ For wisdom is better than rubies,
And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.

A few things stood out for me from this:

• Wisdom stands at the gates of the city and the entrance of the doors, beside the way, at the crossroads,  and on the hill.  She is not hiding she is standing on the pathways of life where we all regularly travel.  So we can hardly miss her. 
  
• She very much makes herself visible and is not quiet either - she cries out to us.
• She speaks excellent truth and right things - no wickedness, crooked or perverse things is spoken by her.  
• He Words are plain truths - not difficult and impossible to understand
• Her Words and instructions are better than gold and silver and rubies
• Nothing can be compared with the value of Wisdom
  

 And then verse 10 says - "Receive my instruction"  - Through the Holy Spirit, Wisdom shares with us all her best treasures.  In 1 Corinthians 12 we read that Wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit - we just need to receive... lets open our hearts to receive Wisdom, as revealed to us, as we travel on our daily paths for it is here on the ways most often traveled, at the gates and the doors and the crossroads of life that She is waiting, crying and wanting to give us understanding.  

 What treasures of Wisdom are there for us to be discovered this week?  Let us listen....

Be still - Selah 

The love of God - and our love for each other...

I have been contemplating the love of God for us this week but not only that - also the love God intended us to have for each other in the body of believers.

In John 13:34 Jesus said the following to His disciples:

Love one another

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

and in 1 John 4:7-21 we read:
 

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
 

Seeing God Through Love

12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

 
The Consummation of Love

17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.
 

Obedience by Faith

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

 

I am wondering... if we look at our love for each other... what does it say about the depth, the condition of our love for God?  

 

Oh the Deep Deep Love of Jesus 

Simon Khorolskiy

Now you are light...

With all the load shedding of the past weeks, we numerous times had to use candles or a gas lamp in our house, and I marveled once again over the fact that no amount of darkness can quench even only one candle's light. The darkness just has to flee the moment you light the candle. It made me think about light in the the Bible:  

Genesis 1:1-3

 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴ And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

 1 Peter 2:9

⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; ¹⁰ who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Ephesians 5:8-10

 ⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), ¹⁰ finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 

On the very first day of creation, when God created light, He separated the Light from the darkness.  The Kingdom of God is represented as light and the kingdom of the enemy as darkness.  The word 'night' in that verse in Hebrew carries the figurative meaning of anything that is a 'twist away from the Day' and this was to be called Night.  Thus God is saying anything that, even just remotely, is a twist away from Light, will not be part of His Kingdom.  When man sinned they sadly made themselves part of the kingdom of darkness.

When we read 1 Peter 2 and Ephesians 5 together we see that God, in His great and unfathomable love and wisdom for us, not only called us out of darkness in the sense of a dark place (the kingdom of darkness), and into His marvelous light, but in addition He says He called us who were once darkness out of the darkness that we were - to be light in the Lord. 

In other words, He did not just call us out of a place of darkness, but He called us out of an existence where our identity was darkness into an existence where our identity is light in the Lord.  

 Mathew 5:14-16 elaborates on this when God says:

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

We cannot hide our light-identity, it is meant to give light and glorify and proclaim the praises of our Father in heaven.  

In John 1:1-5 we read: 
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

In Genesis 1 God speaks the Words, "Light be" and there was light and life came because of the light. That Word and Light was Jesus - In Him is life - and this life is our light and this light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot quench it - but moreover it does not comprehend it.  Imagine that!  The whole of the kingdom of darkness do not comprehend the light that is in us... nor the fact that when we have Christ in our hearts, then we are light, then light is our identity!  Marvelous light indeed!

So let us therefore praise our God and bring Him honour for His Light in us!

 Let there be Light - City Harmonic

  

Lord, let your presence go with us!

 Today's devotion from Ellel Ministries's really caught my attention - Lord we do not want to move anyway unless your presence go with us! 

Knowing the Presence of God - Ellel Ministries You can find it here

 In your Presence - Paul Wilbur