Mid-Week Musings

August 21, 2024

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6

Dear NBRC Family & Friends,

It’s difficult, if even possible, to say in one sermon all that could be said about a passage of Scripture. Deciding “what’s in” and “what’s out,” and then living with the decision after the sermon’s been preached, can be a challenge when crafting and delivering sermons.

The Scripture text Sunday morning, August 18, 2024, was Proverbs 9:1-6. In it, Lady Wisdom extends an invitation to “all who are simple” and she addresses “those who have no sense” (v. 4).

On the surface, she seems very specific as to those she invites: the simple and those who lack sense. While she doesn’t name those who comprise those groups, they could include those who are yet living apart from Christ and who haven’t accepted God’s invitation to heaven and to His heavenly banquet. Those who haven’t left their foolish way of disbelief and are not walking in the way of God are not living wisely. Those who haven’t accepted Jesus’ invitation to salvation by believing in Him are not walking “in the way of insight” and are yet walking in the way of foolishness.

But, in one way or another, aren’t we all among the “simple” and “those who have no sense”? Even we who are in Christ through faith in Him as Savior and Lord might have areas in our lives where we have not laid aside our foolish, sinful ways and are not living wisely. We might have areas in our lives where we’re living for ourselves and where we’re not “picking up our crosses, denying ourselves, and following Jesus.” We, too, might have areas in our lives where repentance is needed and where we are walking in the way of foolishness.

Is Woman Wisdom’s invitation specific? Yes. Is it broad and does it include everyone? Yes. All of us, believers and unbelievers, are called to examine where we might be living unwisely by foolishly not “walking in the way of insight” and in the way of God. Where in your life might God be calling you to a new way of living?

Prayer suggestion: As you pray, ask God to show you if there are foolish ways in your life from which He would have you turn.

Pastor Ron

(Next Sunday morning, August 25, the Rev. Dr. Lou Lotz will be the guest worship leader and preacher. The Scripture lesson will be from Luke 1:5-25. The sermon title is Our Inabilities Are Not God’s Inabilities.)