Lydia Brownback: “We women need practical advice for life, but even more than that, we need hearts set on the One who governs all our practicalities. The book of Proverbs unlocks the key to both. Its wisdom is timeless. Although the book of Proverbs was written to particular people—primarily young men in ancient Israel—its wisdom and the necessity of obtaining it are the same in every age for both men and women. What changes are the circumstances in which to apply it. We may not face the difficulties that ancient women did, but we do face very real challenges:

• practicing biblical womanhood in a world that scorns us for it;
• keeping sexually pure in a sex-saturated society;
• handling our freedom, independence, and material resources wisely;
• maintaining God-glorifying marriages;
• elevating biblical priorities ahead of day-to-day pressures.

Some may be surprised to learn that Proverbs addresses all these things. In fact, there is no area for which we need wisdom that Proverbs doesn’t address. That’s because all wisdom is summed up this way: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (9:10; see also 1:7 nkjv). Once we get this—and embrace it—we will find ourselves equipped to handle the how-tos.

———- The Tuesday Morning Women’s Bible Study will be studying the Proverbs together this Fall, and using Lydia Brownback’s book to steer the conversation.   Tuesday Mornings @ 9-11AM, a new study begins September 4 Women’s Wisdom – How the Book of Proverbs Speaks to Everything.
Book: $12
Free? Childcare Provided
Contact Paige French pbemfrench AT gmail DOT com

Today at 5:15pm at the Euliano home.
3914 SW 95th Drive in Haile Plantation

Kicking off the year!

In thy presence there is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are

pleasures for evermore (Psalm 16:11). I hold the heady doctrine

that no pleasures are so frequent or intense as those of the

grateful, devoted, single-minded, whole-hearted, self-denying

Christian. I maintain that the delights of work and leisure, of

friendship and family, of eating and mating, of arts and crafts, of

playing and watching games, of finding out and making things, of

helping other people, and all the other noble pleasures that life

affords, are doubled for the Christian; for, as the cheerful old

Puritans used to say (no, sir, that is not a misprint, nor a Freudian

lapse; I mean Puritans—the real historical Puritans, as distinct from

the smug sourpusses of last-century Anglo-American imagination),

the Christian tastes God in all his pleasures,and this increases

them, whereas for other men pleasure brings with it a sense of

hollowness which reduces it. Also, I maintain that every encounter

between the sincere Christian and God’s Word, the law of thy

mouth (Psalm 119:72), however harrowing or humbling its import,

brings joy as its spin-off… and the keener the Christian the greater

the joy. I know for myself what it is to enjoy the Bible—that is, to be

glad at finding God and being found by Him in and through the

Bible; I know by experience why the Psalmist called God’s message

of promise and command his delight (Psalm 119:14, 16, 24, 35,

47, 70, 77, 92, 143, 174—ten times!) and his joy (vs. 111, cf. 162;

Psalm 19:8), and why he said that he loved it (Psalm 119:47, 48,

97, 103, 113, 119, 127, 140, 159, 163, 167—eleven times!); I

have proved, as have others, that as good food yields pleasure as

well as nourishment, so does the good word of God. So I am all for

Christians digging into their Bibles with expectations of

enjoyment…What is enjoyment? Essentially, it is a by-product: a

contented, fulfilled state which comes from concentrating on

something other than enjoying yourself… Bible study will only give

enjoyment if conforming to our Creator in belief and behavior,

through trust and obedience, is its goal. Bible study for our own

pleasure rather than for God ends up giving pleasure neither to

Him nor to us… what brings joy is finding God’s way, God’s grace

and God’s fellowship through the Bible, even though again and

again what the Bible says—that is, what God in the Bible tells us—

knocks us flat.    –JI Packer

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Jesus came to raise the dead.  He did not come to teach the teachable; he did not come to improve the improvable; he did not come to reform the reformable.  None of those things work.  –Robert Farrar Capon

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“There’s a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, “Why on our hearts, and not in them?” The rabbi answered, “Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your heart, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.” –Anne Lamott

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“We present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords.  Here is wisdom; this is the royal law; these are the lively oracles of God.”

With these words in the coronation service the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland handed to the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth a copy of the Bible.

Jesus is glorious.

He simply is.  The beauty, simplicity, and mystery of THIS MAN amazes me.  I want to know Him.  I want us as a church to adore and follow Him.  When we gather for worship Sunday, may He lead us by His Holy Spirit to know our Father and to know ourselves.  And to know that He has reconciled us–forever.  Inseparably.  That you may marvel:

Someday, the Scriptures tell us, all of God’s people will appear before this one whose body is forever scarred by the whipping, the nails, and the spear they thrust into his side. His humanity is real and never sentimentalized. He will be enthroned as King of kings, and in consummating his kingdom righteousness will cover the earth like water covers the sea. He will be worshiped by all of creation, but always knows his people by name (John 10:3, Revelation 3:5).

“What matters supremely,” J. I. Packer says, “is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me… I am never out of his mind… He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters… There is unspeakable comfort… in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself… There is… great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my [friends] do not see… and that he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself… There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.”

If you struggle with faith because you have unanswered questions, knowledge you desire in the hope it will make things certain, remember that what you know and don’t know is important, but not supremely so. There is a greater knowledge that does not depend on us, that embraces us within a greater love, and for which no doubt arises. That is the knowledge that truly matters.

Read the whole article, Doubt, Faith & Reason