Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]

Tag: Proverbs 1
Wisdom

Wisdom

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So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 

Psalm 90:12 

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. 

Proverbs 1:7 

What is wisdom and how shall we apply our hearts to it? Raw knowledge is not wisdom. In fact, the Scriptures point out that ‘knowledge puffs up.’ A person may be knowledgeable about many things, be inordinately proud about having that knowledge, yet be utterly lacking in wisdom. The result is arrogance, obnoxious attitudes and behaviors. By contrast, wisdom, which is understanding, comes from God and leads us to Christ. Reverence for God is the beginning of wisdom, and leads us to embrace Christ, to follow Christ, and to imitate Christ. As we learn to imitate Christ He increases our understanding. The result of that process yields the fruit of the Spirit Who indwells us, renews us in the whole person after the image of Christ, and enables us to die more and more unto sin and to live unto righteousness. The wisdom we gain in this process is ‘pure, peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.’ This is how, during the numbered days we have, we apply our hearts to wisdom. 

Our Good and Wise God, 
we rejoice that You impart to us Your wisdom through the Holy Spirit. 
We praise You that Your wisdom leads us unto Christ 
and keeps us there. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Wisdom

Wisdom

By |

So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 

Psalm 90:12 

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. 

Proverbs 1:7 

What is wisdom and how shall we apply our hearts to it? Raw knowledge is not wisdom. In fact, the Scriptures point out that ‘knowledge puffs up.’ A person may be knowledgeable about many things, be inordinately proud about having that knowledge, yet be utterly lacking in wisdom. The result is arrogance, obnoxious attitudes and behaviors. By contrast, wisdom, which is understanding, comes from God and leads us to Christ. Reverence for God is the beginning of wisdom, and leads us to embrace Christ, to follow Christ, and to imitate Christ. As we learn to imitate Christ He increases our understanding. The result of that process yields the fruit of the Spirit Who indwells us, renews us in the whole person after the image of Christ, and enables us to die more and more unto sin and to live unto righteousness. The wisdom we gain in this process is ‘pure, peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.’ This is how, during the numbered days we have, we apply our hearts to wisdom. 

Our Good and Wise God, 
we rejoice that You impart to us Your wisdom through the Holy Spirit. 
We praise You that Your wisdom leads us unto Christ 
and keeps us there. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Fools Despise Wisdom

Fools Despise Wisdom

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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:7

As the absence of light is darkness, so the absence of wisdom is foolishness.  If ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,’ to refuse to revere God is foolishness and ignorance.  The writer of Proverbs is very blunt.  He declares ‘fools despise wisdom and instruction.’  A writer in Psalms describes this rejection by saying, ‘The fool has said in his heart there is no God.’  This is not merely the person who declares that God does not exist, but includes the one who says, in essence, ‘there is no God for me.’  This is to ‘despise wisdom and instruction.’  This inevitably makes the person who rejects Christ a fool in the biblical sense. Christ said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.’  He was not backward or equivocating in any way.  He proclaimed that to dishonor Him was to dishonor the Father.  For this reason, the knowledge of God must include and involve the Person and Work of Christ at every level.  To reject this is to reject the knowledge of God and thereby to become a fool.  This is not a good road for anyone to take.  Therefore, our appeal to you who read this little work is ‘believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.’

Our Wise and Wonderful God,
we rejoice that You have, in Your Wisdom,
shown us Christ.
We pray that by Your Spirit,
You will continue to open our hearts,
and illuminate our minds to understand more of Him.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
The Beginning Of Knowledge

The Beginning Of Knowledge

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The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge:  but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:7

Within the heart of humanity there is the insatiable thirst for knowledge.  Throughout the course of history, the pursuit of knowledge has consumed the time, attention, and energy of a vast multitude.  If we trace history back to the origin of humanity, we find that there are indications of this thirst in our first parents.  When the serpent appealed to Eve, his selling point was that if she and Adam would eat of the tree they would become, ‘like God, knowing good and evil.’  The desire for knowledge was innate and Satan merely exploited it for his own ends.  If we are to achieve knowledge, where shall we start?  Our text for today provides us with the answer.  ‘The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge.’  This is not ‘fear’ in the sense of craven terror, but rather, reverence, respect, and regard for God.  If we would truly achieve knowledge, here is where it begins.  This beginning will lead us inevitably to Christ.  It is by Christ that God has spoken to us.  He is ‘the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person.’  He ‘upholds all things by the word of His power.’  To honor and reverence God is to honor and reverence Christ.  Therefore, if we are to know, we must come to know God, and that means we must know Christ.

Our Great and All-knowing God,
we rejoice that You are willing to make Yourself known to us.
We praise You, that as we seek Your Face,
in reverence, You will by Your Holy Spirit,
show us Christ.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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