Proverbs 1:7

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

When we know that God will ultimately judge all of His creation for how we use the resources that He provides for us, we have the fear of the Lord. That proper reverence is what causes us to tell the truth when no one cares, to act honorably when no one sees. This is the beginning of knowledge.

I have been that fool that despises wisdom and discipline, trying to fake my way through situations or just arguing with someone when I already knew they were right.  I look back now and wonder why I did that?!  Growth from that is the Lord teaching me and I either wish to learn the lesson or continue to be a fool. 

The beginning of wisdom is much better. :0)

Psalm 119:161-162

Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles at your word. I rejoice in your promise like one who finds great spoil. – Psalm 119:161-162

The demands of a workweek can cause us to think that our employers or clients are persecuting us without cause. This can cause huge amounts of stress we feel that we are trapped in a “job rut”. But the Psalmist reminds us that God is over our affairs and not our boss. God’s word puts our workweek in proper perspective and frees us to work unto God and not unto men. What a blessing!

Psalm 119:147-148

I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word. My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises. – Psalm 119:147-148

The Psalmist is speaking here of guarding our prayer time with God. There are many things that can keep us from the Father. Many times these distractions are not overtly bad. A job can get too busy. Needed rest turns into hours wasted in entertainment. But we need to make sure that we make appointments with God that we keep. Find out the best time that you can give God and put it in your schedule book. You’ll be glad that you did.

Psalm 119:69-72

Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep your precepts with all my heart. Their hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I delight in your law. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. – Psalm 119:69-72

One of the surest ways to gauge our true spiritual condition is by how we react when we feel misunderstood. When we feel like people are lying about us, do we try to strike back or defend ourselves? God’s word keeps our hearts soft and sensitive when we feel that we are attacked. The Psalmist gives us a way through the attacks from outside and even from within.

This is an important verse in times of trouble and a comfort in between those times.  I do have a tendency to try to defend myself.  But, after practicing this a few times, I've found that leaning on him allows things to work out without me getting in God's way and of course, it's much better that way. 

Acts 2:43

Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.- Acts 2:43

Do you feel awe in your faith? Are you confronted by wonders and miraculous signs that God is active in the world today? This was the earmark of the first Century church and it hasn’t stopped since.

We were made for the awesomeness of God. English writers of the 19th Century talked often of the awful God – which back then meant “full of awe”. It happens with every life that comes alive to God’s word, every heart that is healed from pain, every life that is NOT healed and yet, miraculously, sees their suffering as a glory to God.

We live in an awe filled world. May God open our eyes to see it, and let it fill us!

Proverbs 27:17

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. – Proverbs 27:17

It takes iron to sharpen iron. Sharpening a knife requires iron at least as hard as the knife. Once sharpened, a knife is bright, sharp, and ready for much more productive service.

I'm "working" in the craft world right now and while it is not iron.... creativity sharpens creativity.  Your peers influence you.  Peer pressure does not stop when you're in school.  Your peers pressure you at work.  Your peers pressure you at church... etc.  So you want to choose what is going to sharpen you.  You will be shaped by one thing or another, don't you want to be a sharper grade of iron to be used for the productive service of God?  

Rom 9:21

Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?

I want the Potter to be the power over how I am to be shaped and for what purpose he wants to use me.  To sharpen me as iron, to refine me as silver to shape me as clay. 

1 Thessalonians 4:16

Knowing God
God is friendly. His track record proves it. In the beginning, he made
a garden. Not a cesspool, not a slum, not a crowded freeway, but a
garden, a nice place, where Adam’s every need was met. Adam
messed things up, not God. Adam got greedy. He wanted the one
thing he couldn’t have. Adam hid from God because of his own
character flaws. Even then, God came looking for him. God seeks us
long before we have the good sense to seek him.
Let the Bible form your image of God. He is bigger than the Bible,
but he uses it as one of the ways he reveals himself. Only, keep in
mind, the Bible is limited to words and God is not. Whatever you
imagine as you read Holy Scripture falls short of all that God is. He
is smarter than intelligence itself. Nothing can be done he cannot do.
Nothing exists he did not make. He can’t learn something new
because he knows all there is to know. He is not wiser today than he
was yesterday. Those omni words are so familiar to us they’ve lost
their capacity to amaze. God is omnipotent—all powerful.
Omniscient—all knowing. Omni-present—everywhere all the time
at the same time, in every place where it is possible to be. But you
probably won’t spot him in traffic. Not that he isn’t there, just that it
is too noisy. Eternal—beyond time. He lives in the past, present, and
future at the same moment.
God is other. Unique. Not like you and me. We strive to be like him.
He is the original. We are incomplete copies made in his image. God
is much more aware of the consequences of that reality than we are.
God seldom shouts. The day he does, creation won’t be able to
handle it. The world will end. For the Lord himself will come down
from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians
who have died will rise from their graves. (1 Thessalonians 4:16
NLT)
Greg Cummings