MORAL BENEFITS OF WISDOM
How do we receive wisdom?
It takes effort.
Action – we have to accept
God’s words as truth. Either it is truth
or it isn’t. We can’t pick and choose
from the Bible. Either the whole Bible
is true or it isn’t. We can’t have it
both ways.
We must store up commands –
how do we store them up? Knowing them, putting them in our hearts and our minds, reflecting
on them. We need to take God’s
Word seriously.
We need to turn our ear to
wisdom. What are we listening to? Are we listening to God’s word or are we
listening to things contrary to God’s word.
We have to tune our ears to hear wisdom and disregarding that which is
not wisdom.
We need to apply our heart
to understanding. We need to receive
wisdom with our heart and soul. It
should change us.
We have a new kitty at our
house. Having this new life is like having
a transformation of my own heart. It is
one thing to know about having a kitty in our house but it is another entirely to actually allow that little kitty to penetrate my
heart. To know in my heart how to
understand his needs. He is so funny, he goes full out and gets to tired. He fights it just like a toddler does. I pick him up and hold him firmly so he stops
fighting and he’s sleeping almost instantly.
In my heart, I understand this little life. I have to apply my heart to understanding
him, I have to feel what he feels, sense what he senses, imagine
how it must be like for him. I know
getting to know a kitty is not the same as getting to know God but as I watch
him, I see how God cares about even the smallest of his creatures, how much
more does he care about me.
To apply our hearts to
understanding God, we must know him. We
must feel what he feels, we must sense what He senses, we must understand how
He sees us, how He loves us. We need to
spend time with him and be able to discern His will.
Then the Bible says we must
call out for insight, cry out for understanding, look for it, search for it. Where
do we search for wisdom? In His word. The
Bible is our gateway to understanding God’s wisdom. As we see how he dealt with
Wisdom is so much more than
just knowledge.
Even the secular world is
interested in wisdom.
I was searching the web to
find out more about the difference between wisdom and knowledge. At a website called www.systems-thinking.org
According to Russell Ackoff, a systems theorist and professor of organizational
change, the content of the human mind can be classified into five categories:
1. Data: symbols - Data is raw. It simply exists and has
no significance beyond its existence (in and of itself). It does not have meaning of itself. In a computer, a spreadsheet generally starts
out by holding data.
2. Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides
answers to "who", "what", "where", and
"when" questions. ... Information
is data that has been given meaning by way of relational connection. This
"meaning" can be useful, but does not have to be. . In computers, a relational database makes
information from the data stored within it.
3. Knowledge: application of data and information; answers
"how" questions. ... knowledge is the appropriate collection of information, such
that it's intent is to be useful. Knowledge is a deterministic process. When
someone "memorizes" information (as less-aspiring test-bound students
often do), then they have amassed knowledge. This knowledge has useful meaning
to them, but it does not provide for, in and of itself, an
integration such as would infer further knowledge. For example,
elementary school children memorize, or amass knowledge of, the "times
table". They can tell you that "2 x 2 = 4" because they have
amassed that knowledge (it being included in the times table). But when asked
what is "1267 x 300", they can not respond correctly because that
entry is not in their times table. To correctly answer such a question requires
a true cognitive and analytical ability that is only encompassed in the next
level... understanding. In computers, most of the applications we use
(modeling, simulation, etc.) exercise some type of stored knowledge.
4. Understanding: appreciation of "why" It is cognitive and analytical. It is
the process by which I can take knowledge and synthesize new knowledge from the
previously held knowledge. The difference between understanding and knowledge
is the difference between "learning" and "memorizing". That is, understanding can build upon
currently held information, knowledge and understanding itself. In computers, systems
possess understanding in the sense that they are able to synthesize new
knowledge from previously stored information and knowledge.
5. Wisdom: evaluated understanding. – I take this to mean
comprehension and application of understanding.
It calls upon all the previous levels of consciousness, and specifically
upon special types of human programming (moral, ethical codes, etc.). It
beckons to give us understanding about which there has previously been no
understanding, and in doing so, goes far beyond understanding itself. It is the
essence of philosophical probing. Unlike the previous four levels, it asks
questions to which there is no (easily-achievable) answer, and in some cases,
to which there can be no humanly-known answer period.
Wisdom is therefore, the process by which we also discern, or judge, between
right and wrong, good and bad. I personally believe that computers do not have,
and will never have the ability to posses wisdom.
Wisdom is a uniquely human state, or as I see it, wisdom requires one to have a
soul, for it resides as much in the heart as in the mind. And a soul is
something machines will never possess (or perhaps I should reword that to say,
a soul is something that, in general, will never possess a machine).
We don’t become a Christian
and then just automatically have the wisdom of God. It takes effort, it takes discipline, it takes time to begin to understand God’s wisdom. We are to seek it out.
But when
we understand wisdom:
What is fear of the Lord?
We are called to live in the
fear of the Lord. We are to humbly come
before Him acknowledging His greatness, His awesomeness, his
righteousness. We should never take Him
for granted. Our lives should reflect
the fact that we live in fear of the Lord as the verses indicated.
So, as we understand the
fear of the Lord and find knowledge of God, the Lord in return:
THEN you will understand
o Save from
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Wayward wife
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Seductive ways
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Death
THUS;
WICKED:
MORAL BENEFITS
WHAT CAN BE GAINED FROM
WISDOM?