Higher Education

“For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, And preserves the way of His saints.”

Proverbs 2:6-8



“Sheltering in place” has provided most of the world the opportunity to follow all the latest news reports and then research what we just heard or read to see if it is in fact true. If ever there was a time in human history that we need to be like the Bereans who it is written of in Acts 17:11, “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so,” it is now.

A fellow pastor and good friend sent me a text the other day saying, “These days every one is a constitutional scholar and an expert in disease control. In the last days men will increase in knowledge.” His text not only made me laugh but it also brought to mind something I had read a couple of weeks back studying to teach the book of Proverbs. The quote said, “In his 1982 book, Critical Path, futurist and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller estimated that up until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By 1945 it was doubling every 25 years, and by 1982 it was  doubling every 12-13 months. IBM estimates that in 2020 human knowledge will be doubling every 12 hours.”

Unfortunately wisdom, which is far more important to us than knowledge does not grow at the same rate for the simple fact, “knowledge is the accumulation of information, wisdom is its application.” There is an old maxim that goes like this, “everybody has an opinion, and everyone dies with one” which goes along with another old saying, “opinions are a dime a dozen.” What you and I need in a world that is becoming increasingly more complex to navigate is not more information, we need more wisdom. The Bible teaches us the difference between the two can be the difference between life and death. Knowing something doesn’t make any difference if we don’t act on or apply what we know to be true. That’s why Proverbs is such a practical book. Proverbs is God’s gift to us to make us wise for daily living.

It’s no accident that there are 31 chapters, one for every day of any given month. If the old adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” then “A Proverb a day helps light the way” is even more true. Get in the Word of God friend and let God’s Word get into you. Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey!

 
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

James 1:5  

I LOVE YOU!

Michael Osthimer

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