{"id":215,"date":"2012-04-19T08:36:03","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T13:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=215"},"modified":"2012-05-08T08:40:23","modified_gmt":"2012-05-08T13:40:23","slug":"the-wisdom-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=215","title":{"rendered":"The Wisdom of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center\" class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Thursday of 2nd Week of Easter<o:o:p><\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3 align=\"center\">  <span>Acts 5: 27-33; John 3: 31-36<o:o:p><\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 align=\"center\">  <span>By Deacon Larry Brockman<o:o:p><\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\">Most of us are easily duped, duped by the wisdom of the world.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It is, after all, the wisdom of the establishment.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It is provable by logic; backed up by science and studies; and is usually directed towards making us feel better.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>The wisdom of the world captures our minds.<span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><o:o:p><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\">The wisdom of God, on the other hand is fleeting.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It requires faith, defies logic, and often causes us discomfort.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>The wisdom of God is aimed at capturing our hearts.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>And so, it is so much easier to accept the wisdom of the world than it is to accept the Wisdom of God.<span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><o:o:p><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\">Such was the lot of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin in Jesus\u2019 time.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Jesus\u2019 message was one that moved people\u2019s hearts, not their minds.<span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\"><span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\"><span><\/span>The Pharisees and the Sanhedrin couldn\u2019t understand that.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Jesus and his disciples broke all the rules, rules that paid lip service to the intent of the law but on the surface, they seemed to capture the intent of the Jewish tradition.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>And so, people could just follow the letter of the law.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>They didn\u2019t have to think about what God\u2019s will was for them; they could feel good knowing they were just following the rules.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Their efforts were directed at playing it safe and being comfortable by doing their own thing.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Their efforts were not directed at making a difference by loving.<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\"><span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><o:o:p><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\">On the other hand, Jesus preached repentance and accepting God\u2019s greatest commandment, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves; to forgive transgressions and love our enemies; and to go out and be proactive by drawing others to God.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>And that was hard; it was challenging. <\/font><font face=\"Arial\">And the Sanhedrin was tired of being told they didn\u2019t have it right.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>And so they wanted to get rid of Jesus; to silence the prophetic voice that there was more to God\u2019s plan than just following some rules.<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\"><span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><o:o:p><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\">Our Gospel tells us that we must listen to and believe the teaching of Jesus if we are to have eternal life.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>That means we need to embrace the wisdom of God.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s a matter of the heart.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>The Holy Spirit gives us that wisdom- it is a free gift.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>All you have to do is ask for it.<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\"><span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><o:o:p><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\">So, do that, ask for the gift of the wisdom of God at the beginning of each day, especially when you are challenged, when the going gets tough?<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Do you make time to pray for and ask for God\u2019s wisdom before you get going each day?<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\"><span>\u00a0<\/span><o:o:p><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Arial\">Fill your heart, and not your mind with the real inspiration you need to get through life\u2019s trials-<span>\u00a0 <\/span>The wisdom of God.<span>\u00a0 <\/span><o:o:p><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">  <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday of 2nd Week of Easter Acts 5: 27-33; John 3: 31-36 By Deacon Larry Brockman Most of us are easily duped, duped by the wisdom of the world.\u00a0 It is, after all, the wisdom of the establishment.\u00a0 It is provable by logic; backed up by science and studies; and is usually directed towards making [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[125],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}