connecting the dots

Subject: CONNECTING THE DOTS.........THIS MAY BE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU EVER READ



THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD....................





Wisdom is like a woman in the street; and shouts at the city gate;

YOU FOOLS, how long will you be foolish? How long will you make fun of wisdom, and hate knowledge? If only you had listened when I corrected you

I would have told you what's in my heart. I would have told you what I am thinking. Proverbs 1:20-23



WHEN YOU FEAR GOD AND NOTHING ELSE, YOU DISCOVER THE FREEDOM TO PURSUE GREAT ADVENTURE!

God calls you to a life that cannot be lived without wisdom. While many of us long for God to give us a map that we can simply follow,, He instead gives us a compass that points the way. What we continually ask for is to know God's will for our lives; what God continually offers us is His wisdom for our lives. So critical is wisdom to the journey that God offers it as a gift to all who would desire it. James 1:5



THE HEART OF A FOOL IS MOTIVATED BY PERSONAL GAIN! The heart of wisdom is motivated by the good of others. While wisdom does not always guarantee a life of riches and honor, WISDOM ALWAYS PRODUCES A RICH AND HONORABLE LIFE.



WISDOM CREATES AND PRODUCES GOOD. Wisdom not only sees the good that must be done now, but it catalyzes such events that result in a good future. Wherever wisdom flows, good follows. Not everything that happens to a person who lives wisely is good, but everything that happens from a person who lives wisely is good. This doesn't mean that walking in wisdom is painless, but the ultimate results of wisdom are health, freedom and creativity.



One can be highly educated and also be wise, but it is not a given. You can be uneducated from a conventional standard and still be a person of great wisdom. The converse is also true. You can accomplish great things in the academic world and live a life of foolishness.



Wisdom always finds a way through the mess we make of life. It doesn't find the easiest way, but the way marked by the footprints of God. Wisdom is the Divine Nature of God. Wisdom knows the way to freedom. Where there is wisdom, there is always HOPE. Wisdom unshackles. Wisdom Illuminates. Wisdom LIBERATES. In the end, wisdom enlightens us to live lives of nobility. Wisdom is found in the person of Jesus Christ!



Wisdom is more than simply the ability to see beyond ourselves, but even perhaps more profoundly, to see, to see within ourselves. (Fools have no desire to see within themselves.) Wisdom is the ability to cut to the core of complex issues. Wisdom not only allows us to move beyond living a senseless life; it helps us begin to MAKE SENSE OF LIFE. The fool acts WITHOUT REFLECTION.

The wise man reflects on his actions.



Wisdom becomes the ability to see choice as cause and consequence and benefit as effect. When we see our circumstances as isolated from our actions, we abdicate personal responsibility for our lives. Taken to an extreme, we hold God accountable for the consequences of our actions and become embittered toward Him. It's as if we want the freedom to make choices but expect God to make sure that we don't have to live with the consequences. Then we fret when our children end up just like us!



At times we would rather believe in luck than in responsibility, but superstition is nothing more than improper connection between cause and effect. When we think of ourselves as being unlucky, we accuse God of being a respecter of persons. We abdicate responsibility for the CAUSE AND EFFECT OF our own choices.



When we disconnect our circumstances from our choices, we choose to live powerless lives, pitiful lives. When we embrace the interconnection between our present decisions and our future opportunities, we regain the power to set our course and to shape our journey. A proper view of cause and effect grows us in wisdom, and brings greater freedom to our lives.



WISDOM REFUSES TO SURRENDER THE FREEDOM OF THE FUTURE FOR A TEMPORARY INDULGENCE! Wisdom recognizes that while some opportunities are captivating, beneath the surface they are ready to take you captive! Wisdom recognizes that the inseparable relationship between cause and effect is more than a natural phenomenon; it is a spiritual reality!



6:7

Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others - ignoring God! -
6:7

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

6:8

harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
6:8

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

6:9

So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit.
6:9

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

6:10

Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
6:10

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.




Whether the language is sowing and reaping, cause and effect,, bad karma, what goes around comes around, THE WISDOM OF GOD BEGINS AT CONNECTING THE DOTS BETWEEN THE QUALITY OF OUR DECISIONS AND THE QUALITY OF OUR LIVES.



The future is the sum total of all the choices that are made in the present and past! Fortunately, that sum total includes the choices made by God. A significant aspect of wisdom is having a future orientation. Wisdom gives us a perspective that always looks toward the future from the present and always looks toward the future from the present and always looks from the future to the present.



From the vantage point of the fool the world appears to exist in isolated units. The rebellious mothers don't connect her rebellion against God to her children's rebellion. Or the absentee father to the promiscuous daughter goes undetected. The relationship between bitterness towards your parents and spouse and coldness towards your children goes unperceived. The repercussions of marital infidelity aren't linked to premarital sex. Debt remains unconnected to greed; violence remains unconnected to hate; the loss of hope remains disconnected from the loss of faith. The loss of faith due to rebellion towards God. Sickness and disease being related to ones diet.



WISDOM SEES EVERYTHING IN LIFE AS INTERCONNECTED. Wisdom does not allow us to stand apart from the rest of the world. WISDOM SEES ALL LIFE THROUGH RELATIONSHIPS, Our relationship to God, to others, to nature and more. It is recognizing that our best selves can only be discovered when we consider others ABOVE OURSELVES.



Over the generations, wisdom has become more about ideas THAN LIVING. Philosophy is literally the love of wisdom, but little of wisdom's original essence is left in that discipline. It is so much easier to escape to Walden Pond and contemplate life than it is to RETURN AND REALLY LIVE! Wisdom frees us from living disconnected lives. Wisdom frees us from superstitions that constrain us and broken relationships that cripple us.



WISDOM TRANSFORMS the way we see reality. It sees no distinction between the physical and the spiritual. God created the material universe, and He declared it good. Even in a fallen world, wisdom sees the good that will come through choices made. This distinct view of reality known as wisdom is nothing less than seeing life from God's vantage point. THE EPICENTER OF ALL WISDOM IS GOD HIMSELF.



THE SCRIPTURES REMIND US THAT THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF ALL WISDOM. Then what exactly does this mean? WHEN WE FEAR God, we fear nothing else. It is only in the fear of the lord that we find ourselves free from the fear of death, of failure, and all the other fears that bind us.



When the fear of God is absent from our lives, we become slaves to lesser fears, and your fears define the boundaries of your life. When you fear God, you are subject only to Him. You align yourself to love and truth. You are never afraid to love or forgive when you fear God. You are never afraid to do good when you fear God. You are neve4r afraid to face the truth or speak the truth when you fear God. You live with a clam assurance that in al these things God finds great pleasure! The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, for only in this place are we forced to face ourselves and see ourselves for who we really are. When you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are committed to follow the truth where it leads you. This fear of God frees you to risk, to fail, to dream, to attempt great things.



When you fear God, you understand that you have come to Him in a condition of sinfulness. You know God as not only a God of holiness but also a God of infinite compassion. You live with the knowledge of His grace. You bask in the promise that if you confess you sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you of all your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. 1Jn. 1:19



It is only in the fear of God that we are truly free. We see God for who He really is. We see ourselves for who we really are. And we are enlightened to see a world of should I say kingdom, that waits to come. Wisdom understands the heart of God. The woman of wisdom, the man who is wise, and such people embrace that heart and live by it. Only here are we truly free!