It is a natural thing to use the end of a calendar year and the beginning of the next as a time for reflection. Regardless of whether you make “New Year Resolutions” or not, it is not unusual at all to spend some time in the last few days of December and the first few days in January thinking over what has already taken place in our lives.
As I consider the recent past of our congregation, it is easy to recall that we have seen much evidence of God’s work among us. The past twelve months have been a time in which some have professed faith in the Savior and many have grown in their knowledge of Him. Our modest group has been used of the Lord to reach around the world through some great missionary partners and make a visible difference. It is easy to let such things rush past our memories, but the Master has allowed us to touch multiple families in the Persecuted Church with love and clothing. Dozens of orphans have received hope and God’s Word because of our efforts. Elim made sure that more than eleven time zones in Europe were able to hear the gospel on radio every day for three months straight. Here in Rockford our children contributed more than twelve hundred food items for the Rescue Mission, and some of our young people took the summer to tell hundreds of other children about Jesus.
Great things and incredible blessings has the Lord showered on us, for which we praise His name; but there are greater truths in His Word, greater depths of experience, greater heights of fellowship, greater works of usefulness, greater discoveries of power, and love, and wisdom. And these we are yet to see if we are willing to study and believe the Word of our Lord!
It is true that the ability for inventing false doctrine is great and ruinous all around. To deny that error is all around us would be the height of folly, but power to see the truth of God is a blessing. And we are so abundantly privileged in that area, aren’t we? As we consider the months in front of us now (should the Lord Jesus not snatch us away!) let us keep our eyes open toward spiritual truth and expect to see more and more as we yield to God’s Spirit in our study of His Word. Let us know that our lives and ministry together will not drivel down into nothing but that we shall be always growing in God’s sight.
Now, this may seem like a “pep talk” from your pastor, and I suppose it is. However, that is not really my intention. Rather, I am wanting to pass along to each of you my joy in knowing that we are continually striving to be a church where wisdom abides. The biblical attribute of wisdom is so essential and so powerful. And it is so clearly defined in God’s Word which says, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight (Proverbs 9:10 ). Yes, the abundance of false doctrine is all around us, and we have had loved ones succumb to it, but what a thrill to know that wisdom—genuine, God-sent wisdom—may be ours as we kneel before the Lord rather than the altar of our own desires.
I would remind you, dear Elim, as we leave 2007 and enter into 2008 that God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are (1 Corinthians 1:27-28). This truth was made known to us in answer to some rhetorical questions asked by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:20-21, Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
“Wisdom” may be the term the world around us uses to describe its present scientific or cultural positions, yet spiritually, the world is quite foolish indeed. Many men, seen as wise in the eyes of the world, are fools in the eyes of our God.
The atheist who audaciously affirms, “I know there is no God, ” is elevated upon the pedestal of intellectualism and wisdom by the world of pseudo-science, yet God calls him a fool (Psalm 14:1). Although the current climate sees an increase in “angry atheism” the truth of God and the world’s final end before Him does not change one iota.
Humanists, who deny the existence of sin and contend that one’s conduct should best be determined by the circumstances in which he finds himself, are applauded and lauded as the wise men of our age. God, in no uncertain terms, has said, Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance. And ddoing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding (Proverbs 10:23; 14:9). Yes, indeed, claiming to be wise, they became fools.
The world cries out, “Do what makes you feel good; do your whatever you think is right or true for you.” God has decreed, Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered (Proverbs 28:26).
I know that we desire for God to see us as a church with wisdom. Even though our nation seems to be floating with the tide of moral and spiritual corruption, we are willing to stem the tide here by knowing, teaching, learning and growing in the things of God that make for wisdom. It is my confidence that I speak for us all when I declare that we would rather be fools in the eyes of a foolish world, than to be known as fools in the eyes of our all-wise Creator.
May 2008 be a year of increasing wisdom among the people of Elim.
Posted on December 1st, 2007 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen
