Good Morning Friends,
Today many people claim to be wise, and yet we see the effect of their wisdom on society. It is something that many people strive for, to be declared wise and clever in the face of their peers. Ever since the creation of the world men have sought this wisdom. As Christians we face problems of what advice to give to a distressed and needy friend and how to witness to those around us. And hopefully we seek in all things to make choices in the will of God. For all these things we need wisdom and the good judgement that comes from God. Today’s scripture leads us to look for this intelligence of the Creator, Sustainer, and the Redeemer in connection with our experience of daily life and of those things we may never completely master nor understand. Still, in an effort to learn we seek in scripture a more complete understanding of the Spirit of Wisdom that comes from a bond with God and following the moves of the Master. So, Do We Have Delight In The Wisdom Of A Relationship With God?
Scripture: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
John 16:12-15 (NRSV)
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 (NRSV)
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Matthew 28:19 (NRSV)
Then Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Mark 8:31 (NIV)
The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth— when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.
Proverbs 8:22-31 (NRSV)
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5:1-5 (NRSV)
Message: Have you ever watched a craftsman working hard at their craft or a painter creating a work of art? Maybe you have watched a construction crew build a house on television. Maybe you have watched all kinds of craftsman – a carpenter, a plumber, an electrician – each one working hard in building or remodeling your home. There is a certain joy in witnessing someone good at their craft and a frustration when someone falls short. It is interesting watching people put things together. You can learn a lot about people by watching them do their job. In the book of Proverbs, God describes himself as a craftsman. It is true, at one time in His life, Jesus was a carpenter. But in today’s verses from the Wisdom literature of Proverbs, we are given the opportunity to we see Jesus in more advanced crafts. Today, we are going to look at two very important things that Jesus crafted – the world, and our salvation. Our goal today is to let the Spirit help us to see Jesus, the craftsman, and as we do, learn a few things about Jesus and our relationship with God. The hope is to grow in our relationship with the Trinity. As the Holy Spirit works on us, the hope is that we will be growing in faith. Now you would not necessarily expect to find Jesus in the book of Proverbs. Most of the time, we associate him with the Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of Mark, Luke, or John. But here He is, in Proverbs chapter 8. The chapter begins by talking about wisdom. Wisdom is personified, that is, it is spoken of as if it was a person. And by the time the chapter is over, it is clearer that it is Jesus. And that is not just a coincidence. The Bible tells us that wisdom is not just a concept – it is a person – Christ is Wisdom, and Wisdom is Christ. The Spirit is Wisdom and Wisdom is the Spirit. The Father is Wisdom and Wisdom is the Father. It was the wisdom of God that set the Cross at the center of the plan of salvation and creation itself. This was foolishness to the world, but not to those who are being saved. The world may think us strange to embrace this teaching – but it is wisdom to do so.
And So, when we read the Bible, we too should delight in the Word made flesh and manifested in both the creation and our very salvation. When we picture Christ, we always picture him as the Son of God who started working after he was born. But according to the Bible, Jesus was working long before he was born as one of us. Christ existed before the world began. He with the Spirit and the Father was established from the beginning God the Father and God the Son existed together before the world came into existence. They were two separate persons, but one God, united creatively together, before the world was made. Jesus grew in wisdom, taught with wisdom, and worked through wisdom in a relationship that was forged before time. Our small human minds have a difficult time understanding things like that. They are perhaps beyond our understanding but not beyond our ability to believe. Sometimes we just need to stand in awe of Christ, and believe, and worship him. Many people picture Christ as the Savior of all mankind, and that is true. But the Bible tells us that Jesus was also involved in the creation of the world. Jesus was the craftsman, the skilled worker, crafting the world alongside of God the Father. The two of them worked as one God with the Spirit, working closely together in a dance of skilled creativity. Christ, the water of life, crafted the lakes and the oceans. Christ, the rock of salvation, crafted the hills and mountains. And notice how God felt after crafting creation. God delighted in the work as a master of the craft of both bringing into being creation and of designing salvation. Christ is pictured as delighting in the creation of the world and especially delighting in mankind. There has never been anything greater ever crafted, at such a great sacrifice, than the salvation of mankind, which Christ made for us.
Pray the Father and the Son share with us the Holy Spirit, who works in us like a craftsman. Pray the Holy Spirit craft our faith with a Wisdom that is of Jesus. Pray we stand in awe especially of Christ, the craftsman at the Father’s side, the maker of our world in which we can experience God. Pray in the reading of scripture we to know the Wisdom of God and the person of Jesus. Pray we have the Wisdom of an experience of God that weaves creation and salvation in a union to craft our faith. Pray we see the Wisdom in the Trinity and the Three as One and the One as Three. Pray we be a Body of believers in whose consciousness we live, move, and have our very being. Pray we recognize the divine presence in three dimensions. Pray we learn from the Trinity to honor God. Pray we seek a wisdom that glorifies the Trinity and guides us to grow in the faith of Christ. Pray we realize we have been fearfully and wonderfully made to seek and find the Wisdom in a relationship with Jesus that is a delight.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 