Wisdom from one of my favorites

Knowledge Makes a Secure Man Humble

by Don on January 25, 2010

Years ago, when I worked at a small publishing company outside Portland, I’d get together every couple days with a former seminary professor named Ross Tunnell. Ross had left seminary work and was doing graphic design, but was widely considered to be one of the smarter Old Testament teachers in Portland. I made a deal with Ross, saying that if I bought lunch, he’d teach me the old testament. And Ross took me up on that offer. We probably met more than fifty times over two years. It was a terrific arrangement.

Ross passed away only a few months ago and I’ve been thinking about those lunches, of all that I learned. But last night I remembered the greatest lesson Ross ever taught me. I was thinking about this lesson because while surfing around on the internet, I saw a minister somewhere speaking very arrogantly about how he had some bit of theology figured out and somebody else didn’t. I think maybe it was a moment of weakness for said minister, but nevertheless it helped me remember something Ross once said.

We were driving back from a conference in Salem and I was going off about some bit of scripture, explaining it to Ross as though he’d never come to the same revelation. I must have talked for about ten minutes, perhaps condescendingly (a way of speaking that prevents true dialogue, and also prevents anybody from disagreeing with you, at least in public) and Ross just sat there and listened. I don’t even recall what scripture I was talking about, but when I was done, and when I looked over at Ross to give an affirmation to my unparalleled intellect, he sat quiet. Finally, I asked what he thought. And Ross just stared straight ahead and said “I think knowledge puffs up.”

I was embarrassed, to say the least. There have been a thousand times since, though, that I wish Ross was standing next to me when I’ve made equally as embarrassing tirades.

Of our fifty or more meetings, that’s the lesson I remember best: Knowledge puffs up.

And I think this is the thing that ruins many a seminary student. Knowledge. It’s not that knowledge is bad, it isn’t, it’s good, very good according to Solomon. It’s just that knowledge is incredibly powerful and dangerous. It has to be handled with care, like a radioactive material. It can easily explode and kill many, pushing people away from the church (unless of course they agree with you.)

A good test for me is to come back to the fruits of the spirit. Is my knowledge producing these characteristics: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control?

If we acquire knowledge before we are emotionally healthy, that is if we are insecure, we are going to use it to boost our own ego and compare ourselves to others. The desire for knowledge will be like a need for a drug, then, pacifying a wounded spirit through comparative associations. Entire theological camps have been built and bolstered by this needy, angry, gluttonous desire for knowledge. But if we have confidence, if we are secure, knowledge humbles us. We realize that we did not invent truth, we simply stumbled upon it like food on a long journey. Knowledge will then produce the fruits of the spirit.

Seeking knowledge, then, is like tending a vineyard. It’s just farming. But you aren’t the one who produced the fruit, God is. You’re just a farmer, just a guy who makes and distributes wine. It’s blue-collar work.

Ross was one of the most humble men I’ve ever met. And he was also one of the most intelligent. Those two combinations are sadly rare. These days I’m wishing I knew what he knew, in more ways than one. Goodbye old friend. And thanks for the lesson.

Evotional.com

This is a great perspective on what we do with our words online or off. Who are we? Do we glorify God in it all?

Evotional.com

Perry Noble's Blog

What If The Pharisees Had Twittered? January 12, 2010

Disclaimer…some of these phrases MAY be over 140 characters, work with me! :-)

• “Heard this guy named Jesus teach today, not very impressed. All He did was tell stories, didn’t really go in depth like the guys do at the tabernacle.”
• “That Jesus guy healed a dude on the Sabbath right in front of everyone, which was so disrespectful. Sure, it was nice that the person got healed, I just don’t agree with the way He went about it.”
• “BIG DEAL! So this Jesus guy fed over 5,000 men with five loaves and two pieces of fish. Seems to me like He is just into trying to do entertaining things to get people’s attention rather than teaching them anything of substance.”
• “The people that seem to be following Jesus and taking on some responsibilities for Him have not been to seminary…this is not acceptable!”
• “This Jesus guy keeps talking TO and ABOUT ‘lost people.’ I think His singular focus is going to be destructive to His ministry.”
• “This Jesus guy won’t answer any of our questions. I think He is arrogant to not listen to us…doesn’t He understand who we are?”
• “Jesus didn’t wash His hands before He ate a meal with me last night, I did, therefore I am so much cleaner than Him!”
• “Jesus called me a snake/viper today, I am not quite sure that was appropriate language and I think that kind of talk is going to damage His reputation.”
• “Jesus always calls me and my friends out for His perceived problems with us…and quite often isn’t very ‘loving’ in the way He does it. I think He has temper issues and should stop being so reactive.”
• “Jesus keeps hanging out with the wrong people…doesn’t He know that the people who are closest to Him don’t have their act together?”
• “Jesus lost His temper today and threw things and people out of the temple. His irreverence for the things that matter to me is quite disturbing.”
• “This guy Jesus waters down His teachings, the way He is presenting things ANYONE can be forgiven!”

By Perry Noble

Abundant

Psalm 68:9, “You sent abundant rain, O God, to refresh the weary land.” Our God provides for us. Later on in the Psalm, in verses 19-20 it says, “Praise the Lord, praise God or Savior! For EACH day He CARRIES us in His arms. Our God is a God who saves! The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death”. Take a second and re-read over that verse a few times. What stands out to you? I encourage you to take a few minutes and think about the last year. What has God done in your life? Think over sometimes where you felt God’s presence carrying you through some rough patches. He is constantly by your side and won’t leave you, Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus is the same today, yesterday, and forever. Then in Hebrews 13:16, it says,”…The Lord is my helper so I will have NO fear. What can mere people do to me?” Through Christ we have all power over the things that hold us down. We are free in Him and through His death on the cross we have overcome and won the battle against Satan. In 1 Peter 5:10-11, Paul says, “In His kindness God called you to share in His ETERNAL glory by means of Jesus Christ. So after you suffered a little while He will, RESTORE, SUPPORT, and STRENGTHEN you and He will place you on a FIRM foundation. All power to Him forever! Amen” You have the victory, go run strong and remember all that God has done in your life. He is mightier than any giants you may face, put all you are in Him and you can overcome anything.

Much love- Danielle

Burning Flame

Burning Flame

Megan See

I sit here waiting while everything is in motion around me. My heart pounds. Everything moves faster and faster. My life is flashing before my eyes. My heart is burning with this passionate flame. It's like a fire. It starts out small and grows bigger and bigger. My faith is just like this fire. If it is not tended to it will die down and soon enough will die out... That's why I have to stay strong, so it won't fade away. So I won't fade away. It burdens me when I see one fade away and then die. I reach out to those fading in hope that I will be able to bring them back to a passionate burning flame but I don't always succeed, even though I may fail at times, I will never give up. For when I was fading He never gave up on me. He held me and stayed with me. He tended to me. He still is tending to me. So, that I will stay bright and passionate for Him. This is why I will never give up. I will hold onto the broken, the poor, the deprived and depressed. I will reach out and grab on forever in hope that they will be saved as was I. My flame may fade and maybe even go out at times but it always will come back to the burning passionate flame that He has called me to be. It always comes back because He has never let go and He never will. This day it is a bright, strong, passionate, crazy, and a wild flame for Him. There may be days when it's not but I will always have a little spark. For this little piece is what brought it to become this raging flame. A little flame is all it takes to become a raging flame. I'm here to do exactly what was done to me. Someone lit a tiny little flame in my heart and look at me now. I will light little flames in those who haven't seen. I will light them because someone lit a flame in my heart. Then we will go out into all the world and shine. Shine with our raging, wild, beautiful, bright, crazy, and passionate flames. Our flames will become fires as we grow and we will shine for all and all shall see.

Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales

Megan See

I will try to believe. But it gets so hard with everyone always pushing and tearing me down. I know a lot of girls face this problem of having low self-esteem or just feeling bad about the way she looks. It's so hard these days. The world is vicious and harsh and it's just waiting there to try and pull you in. To pull you into all the destruction. You sometimes get to the point where you can't bare it anymore and you just feel like falling. When you are feeling like falling remember. There is always gonna be someone there to catch you.

I believe that every girl has a fairy tale. In each and every fairy tale there will always be a knight in shining armor. Well, I believe that every girls knight in shining armor is Jesus Christ. He will always be there to catch you no matter what. Yeah, sure we all have our dreams of having that one special guy that we find. Well, I'll tell you this that one knight in shining armor has already been found, well, actually we didn't find him. He kinda sorta already found us. No matter what situation we are in. We can always fall back into his arms.

He already tells us how beautiful we are. He already shows us. So, why don't we believe it at times? Why do we go off and think bad about ourselves? Well, did I mention that in our fairy tale we have a "bad guy"? Our "bad guy" is Satan. He tries and goes after us. Just to make us fall away from our knight in shining armor and gets us all confused. But we have to remember who we are. We are the beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, princesses of God. We are made in his own image. To Him we are everything. I would say He would die for us but He already did that. But I know He would do it again. So, in our fairy tale "everything turns out okay in the end and if it's not okay. Then it's not the end." You, see we are His and He is ours. If people are tearing you down know this, we are made in God's own image. So, whenever people tear us down they're actually tearing God down.

So, remember we are absolutely BEAUTIFUL and there is nothing we can do about it.

Excellence

Life of Excellence

by Gabriel Downey

“How we do anything is how we do everything.”- Buddy Benson

Buddy Benson was a football coach for a high school team in Oklahoma, and he always told his team this at the beginning if each season. This was to motivate them to do their very best in practice because the effort they put in at practice would reflect their performance in a game. However, Buddy did not mean “play perfectly” he meant “play excellently.”

Luke 16:10 says, “If you are faithful in the little things, you will be faithful in the large ones. But if you are dishonest in the little things, you won’t be honest in the greater responsibilities.” NLT

Buddy was not, however, just referring to football; he was using this life lesson to demonstrate that being excellent in the little things, like homework, will make you excellent in the big ones, such as your marriage or career. If you choose to cheat in homework, then think of how your marriage will turn out or how your job will reflect your choices. The more you cheat, the more it becomes a habit in your life. Like Buddy told his team, excellence is about giving your best in all that you do. Therefore you must make it a habit in your life to be excellent.

Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.” NLT

Excellence is based on God. God is One who is always at His best, doing His best, and offering His best.

Excellence requires a goal.

Philippians 3:14 “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” NLT

Excellence doesn’t mean “without mistakes,” Excellence isn’t perfect.

Think

This morning I got up and started thinking about how much God loves me. One way I did that is I thought of someone I love a whole lot and someone that hates me. Then I thought of how much God loves everyone including the people who despise him. God loves everyone ten million times more than we can even imagine.

Bible verse

Proverbs 16:3

Alone

Ever felt alone, discouraged, or dry? We all have, but Jesus encourages us to preserve. In 1 Peter 1:6-7, Paul says to be glad for there is great joy ahead, and trials test and purify us like fire purifies gold. He encourages us to stay strong through the trials, for we will be rewarded when Jesus Christ returns. I firmly believe that that time is nearing soon, we as disciples have to be fervent in our faith. In 1 Peter 5:8-9, Paul urges us to stay alert and be on our guard. The enemy prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour but take heart, you are not alone. Believes all over are the world are fighting the same things as you, and so did Jesus and He encourages you to press on. In Hebrews 10: 34-35, here Paul says that he accepted his suffering with joy because he knew there were greater things for him that would last forever. He encourages us to have patient endurance so that we will be able to continue God’s will for our lives, and then we will receive the eternal life he has promised. Remember this; in Hebrews 12: 28-29 it says, “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is UNSHAKEABLE let us be thankful and please God by worshiping Him with holy FEAR and AWE, for our God is a DEVOURING FIRE”. The Kingdom of God is at hand, will you take it our let it pass you by? I encourage you to read the book of Hebrews, it’s a great encouraging book, and if you’re up to it take on Revelation. Take heart and push in deep! Choose joy, run after God with desperate pursuit, and lead strong this week.

Much love - Danielle

Confidence in Action

Confidence: The Action

by Gabriel Downey

Confidence isn’t a way of thinking; it’s a way of living. If we have confidence in our head and forget to act on it, what’s the point? Acting in confidence and with purpose is one of the most important traits of a great leader. Confidence attracts people to us, because we know what we believe is true and we portray it in the way we live and speak. The definition of confidence is faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way; a feeling or consciousness of one’s powers; a quality or state of being certain. According to this definition, many of the words that are used point toward action, rather than a stagnant thought, for example: “act” and “state of being.” “Act” obviously is the root of action and “state of being” is a state of living, as opposed to a state of mind or thought. It’s probably apparent by now, that to be an effective leader we need confidence. To be this effective leader, we need to, first, start with being confident in ourselves.

This is so rare these days, because of the everyday pressures of being popular and how people view us. I don’t think anyone can honestly say, “I don’t care what people think.” There is always one area or attribute or flaw that each of us has that, at least, makes us feel the slightest self conscious about. But in my opinion, we can’t be effective leaders without flaws, because it’s from these flaws and imperfections that we learn and grow. And with these blemishes people will be attracted to us and they will be able to relate better and we will be able to guide them through all of the imperfections. Confidence cannot even be achieved if there are no flaws, because we have nothing to overcome and be confident in; we would be perfect.

Secondly, we have to be confident in what we believe. Confidence in our belief in Christ cannot be found, unless we are walking in sync with Jesus, spending time with Him, and growing in Him by eating from the Word. It says in John 15, “those apart from Me can do nothing.” We need to go deeper into the Word and grow our roots firm and deep in Christ for confidence to be possible.

And lastly, just like everything else, confidence is a choice. We have to choose to lead a confident life and be confident in ourselves and in our beliefs. Once we choose to be confident in ourselves and in Christ, confidence will overflow into every aspect of our lives, such as in our relationships, how we speak, and in our everyday choices.

Confidence is a way of living, not a way of thinking. Without confidence there is no faith.

Hebrews 11:1

Philippians 3:3-4

Titus 1:2

Love

Jesus Time

-1 Corinthians 13: 4-7, 13

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

-Let’s just look at this from a friendship perspective. We all have friends and I’m sure that we all have what we would call our “best friends.” Now, picture those close few friends and think about how much you love them. A lot right?

-Well, yeah, and you have good reason too. You spend time with them, you have known them a long time maybe, you understand each other, you confide in them, and you just generally love who they are and the fact that you can call them your best friend.

-Now, look back at the passage of scripture and read it. Let’s start with “love is patient…” Now, can you think of a time where you were impatient with a friend you have?

-Of course! We’re not perfect right? Obviously there has been a time where you were impatient with them. And probably many times. Now, obviously you could sit there and read every little one of the characteristics of love and say oh! I have done that wrong, and that too, and so on. But, that will do you no good without some application.

-A good way to “test” how you love people is by reading this passage and comparing the way love should be to the way that humans have wrongly warped it to look like.

-Do you really love the people you say you do? I mean, would you be willing to keep no record of wrongs? Because that’s how love is supposed to be right? According to the Bible yes. Would you be willing to always trust them? Always be kind and never angry or rude? Just think about that. That’s how love was made to be. I mean seriously. It makes you seriously question the way you go about loving people.

-Sometimes we say that we love the people closest to us and then we stab them in the back or secretly hope they fail at something. I mean let’s be honest. What if you’re the person who gets stabbed in the back by your friend because of some misunderstanding? Are you gonna show them love as it should be by being patient with them and forgiving them by keeping no record of wrongs? Or are you going to show them the jacked up love of this world? And that’s a tough choice because it is so tempting to fight fire with fire, but yet we are called to exemplify love daily. Ya, it’s a huge undertaking but we are appointed to do so. And I don’t have to tell you it’s hard because you know it is. No sugar coating here.

-The scripture goes on to say that love is even greater and more important than faith and hope. More important than faith? Say what?

-Yeah, the scripture literally is telling us that love is greater than faith. Just think about that. It will blow your mind.

-If you look at the end of verse 2 in this chapter you will read, “…and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love I am nothing.” God is trying to tell us that He could care less if we know of Him and believe in Him if we do not love Him. He literally could care less, in fact he says in Revelation 3: 15-16 that He would rather us be basically either really bad or really good (hot or cold) than in the middle (lukewarm). Because if we are in the middle then he wants to vomit us out! And that’s exactly what He’s trying to point out here in 1 Corinthians when Paul writes this passage on love. He’s showing us that he wants our love above all else. And it is so much more important than just believing that He exists. Anyone can be a believer, but it takes LOVE to be a follower.

-So going back to love on a friendship level. How do we expect to love God if we cannot first train ourselves to sincerely love our friends, family, and even those we don’t know? The obvious answer is that we cannot. We are not perfect but we surely can try our hardest to live out this call to love. And when we fail to be patient, or when we fail to be hopeful or trustworthy, or kind, that is where God’s grace will come in and show us His perfect love that will forgive us every time if we just ask for it.

-Finally, we have to realize and accept that we are far from perfect. But we don’t have to be because God is our perfection and we can rely on Him in the times we cannot do it on our own. Don’t be discouraged if you find this love to be challenging. In fact, if it doesn’t challenge you then you are not doing it right. I promise you.

-Take some time daily to pray this passage of scripture over yourself. Ask God to give you the patience and the strength to persevere in this real way of love. You have to understand that God must be your crutch. Lean on him, and let him carry you when you no longer have the strength to love yourself. Because you know what; His love never fails, it never changes, and it’s freely offered to you. Just make use of it.