peace

Technological Impatience

Do you find it a bit intrusive when someone becomes so impatient with your inability to mindlessly navigate a computer screen, cell phone, or TV remote that they jump in and do it for you? Certainly, sometimes, the person is honestly trying to help, but other times they are simply impatient, and occasionally obnoxious.
I can deal such “help” just fine, but I honestly do feel bad for such people when they mistakenly equate their technical knowledge as akin to possessing wisdom.
The dictionary defines wisdom as “the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting.” Knowledge, on the other hand, is “information gained through experience, reasoning, or acquaintance.”
The Bible goes a step farther, essentially telling us that wisdom is knowledge rightly applied. For example, knowledge memorizes the Ten Commandments; wisdom obeys them. Knowledge learns of God; wisdom loves Him.
In my most recent Instagram post I quote Psalm 91:12, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
What I see in that verse is that even if our life story is filled with a lot of potholes, God is still willing and able to create within us a heart filled with His timeless wisdom. Such an infilling provides us with a peace that passes all understanding, and an undeniable hope of eternal life.

It’s 2021 – HAPPY NEW YEAR

My earnest prayer is that you will allow the Everlasting Father (El Olam in Hebrew) to fill your heart with joy in 2021!

Seriously, whatever you are facing, the God of the Bible is able to “supply all your needs according to His riches and glory” (Philippians 4:19).

In fact, looking at what the prolific early church leader, Paul, says in his letter to the believers in Philippi, we are reminded of what he personally had dealt with:

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:11;13).

Paul’s life had unbelievable ups and downs, the likes of which very few of us have ever endured, AND YET HE ENDURED:

…I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;  in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness (2 Corinthians 11:24-27). 

I say all this because friends, no matter what we might face in the years to come, “if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (Jesus in John 8:31).

Let’s go for it with gusto!

Happy New Year!