Pastoral Ponderings...

Welcome to the 'Pastor's Page' of the 

Oelwein Evangelical Free Church. 

Here you will find ramblings from the 

Church's pastor, Dan Driscoll.

Proverbs 1:1-7

Wisdom is God's plan for living in this world. The paradigm of life is easy enough to recognize, if one wishes to see it. But we are foolish by nature (or worse), and we often fail to discern the paths of righteousness and refuse to follow the dictates of what might be called, "Common Sense."

I had a friend once tell me that there is nothing so uncommon as 'Common Sense.' But wisdom personified in Proverbs says that she was with God at the formation of the world.  Proverbs 8:22 "The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. 23 "From everlasting I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth." Wisdom is part of God's creation, it is the pattern, the blueprint, if you will, of His creative acts. 

S it behooves us to seek wisdom. We need to learn the patterns of wisdom so that we will not meet with the destruction of the foolish. The beginning of wisdom, we are told, is the fear of the Lord. To fear God is to recognize His existence, His power and His holiness/otherliness. As our Creator, He owns us, we are His possession. We have a moral 'ought' to be the kind of people He created and designed us to be.

Wisdom is the application of the principles of God's plan. For instance, it is plain in nature that God made us with gender. The human race is male or female. We have gender for a reason, and part of that reason is the procreation of the race. So a wise person recognizes that heterosexuality will achieve God's purposes for gender and will behave in a heterosexual way. 

Beyond gender is sexuality. God created humans with sexuality. We are sexual creatures. He designed humans to exercise their sexuality in the context of monogamous marriage. A wise person recognizes the appropriateness of marriage and unless he/she is called to singleness, will get married, and stay married, if at all possible.

Foolishness sees our gender as unimportant, and our sexuality as a mere process for personal gratification. Selfishness is one of the great enemy of wisdom.

Wisdom results in righteous behavior. Righteous behavior is that behavior that makes a positive contribution to the world. The great enemy of wisdom in the unregenerate heart is laziness and laziness issues in a desire to gain wealth without work. Wealth gained by means other than honest labor is illicit. The most common expression of laziness is in 'get-rich-quick' schemes. The most obnoxious form of laziness is violent thievery. 

Wisdom sees value in work and labor, and puts no stock in the materialism of this world. Wisdom adopts a work ethic that is balanced, seeking neither to avoid work nor to amass undue wealth. Wisdom uses wealth for good, not for personal prestige or temporal security. It is a fool who tries to find in wealth that which God has promised only through Himself given to us.

James says, "if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him." (James 1:5).

Seek wisdom. Christ has become for us wisdom. "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." (1Cor. 1:30) In seeking wisdom, you will find Christ.

May the Lord bless you as you seek to follow Him.