Proverbs

I am currently reading Proverbs for my personal study. I am reading it along with a friend and emailing thoughts back and forth for our study. I know that I was going to try and tackle one book for a few months, but that really didn't go anywhere. I either didn't read or just wasn't motivated to keep it up. Either way, I am much happier having some one to keep me accountable and to encourage and share my thoughts with. I think those are important things in a study, but I might revisit that before the end of this post.

Right now, I wanted to talk about what we have been reading. We are on chapter 9 of Proverbs today and read chapter 8 yesterday. I include them both here because they fit pretty well together. They discuss the idea of wisdom being readily available for the asking. The imagery of a woman calling us to come and partake of the teachings is very beautiful. I love toward the end of 8, where wisdom says that it was created before the world. That it was the first helper to God. I guess what I take from this is that it is an important attribute. That it is something that we need to help us make it through the trials of this world. If it was so important, that God created wisdom before He started creating the world, why should we assume that we can make it through life without pursuing it?

In chapter 9, there is a very challenging passage. Its in verses 7-9. I usually read in my Every Man's Bible, which is NLT and the reason why most of the links that I give to verses are in that translation. Well, they also give a bit of commentary on certain verses. These verses were chosen. It said that we should accept rebuke with the knowledge that it might be for our betterment. That we shouldn't be so dismissive when some one offers advice that might be helpful. How hard is it to accept that? We live in a society and often a mindset that we know whats best for ourselves. However, isn't that a key component to Christianity? We have recognized that we don't know whats best for ourselves. Instead, we know that God has a better way and let Him guide us in our lives. So, why is it so hard to accept that He might use some one else's words to guide us? I am probably just as bad as anyone else about this. I guess its that idea of control. We are so eager to give up control over our sins and let God give us the freedom from those, but we aren't so eager to give Him our daily lives. Over at Stuff Christians Like, they have a post dealing with that as well.

I have been noticing that not only will I think one thing when I read my bible or when I hear a message, that I see it echoed in other messages that I might hear or blogs that I might read. I think that God is making sure that I get the point, which I know that I need.

I don't think that I will get into the idea of buddy studying today. Maybe tomorrow. I think that I will just let that sit where it is right now. I will leave you with this, a monkey on a Segway. Its as entertaining as it sounds.