10 November 2008

the begining of wisdom.

hi everybody!
im home and currently at the Coffee Ethic, my new favorite place.
its good to be back. the transition has been harder than i expected. i am beginning to see clearly the fruit of last month. I have alot different perspective, am extra sensitive (not in a cute"aww, how sensitive" way, but more of the way things hit me) and am spending alot more time alone in prayer and worship. I am finding alot of freedom and focus in my prayers.

i want to share about some things that God is keeping my heart set on.

one thing that i began to desire over the last month was wisdom. the Bible talks so, so much of wisdom and its importance. i can point to several scriptures that talk about wisdom and this post could probably use to be alot longer than its going to be. but i dont want to wait until i have time to spend hours (thats an understatement) to write out all that is required of wisdom.

So, what does arin have to say on wisdom? i dont really know. I do know that its huge and God has not allowed me to stray from it in the last 2 weeks. I started thinking about wisdom, or rather i started being curious about wisdom and in my prayers i began asking God, "Give me wisdom!" then that turned to "what is Wisdom? and other trails.

So, then sure enough i found myself in Proverbs, and I was absolutely struck when i began reading i found a nugget,
Proverbs 9:10
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

then i began asking, "Ok God, I have no clue what the fear of the Lord is, how can i EVER begin to understand that?" and i love how faithful He is. So in my prayers that week i was led to begin reading and praying the proverbs everyday. I really like that there are 31 of them, so i am spending some time every day praying the wisdom of scripture whatever day of the month it is. That happened around the 24th of October so i read Proverbs 24. Of course, almost every proverb talks about wisdom, but i kept it up (and maybe i got ahead, oops!) and found an answer, which i feel like is a little hidden secret.

(side note) I love it when in scripture there are statements that are so direct that you cannot miss it. like the fear of the Lord IS the beginning f wisdom. i love finding IS statements, you cannot escape the truth, its spelled out for you.

So the thing that popped out like a secret that opened my heart was Proverbs 2 right at the beginning of Proverbs Solomon begins to unpack words his Dad gave him about Wisdom and how to obtain it.

Proverbs 2

The Value of Wisdom
1 My son, if you receive my words,
And treasure my commands within you,
2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding;
3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment,
And lift up your voice for understanding,
4 If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD,
And find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding

I love it! right here it spells it out for us.

I dont want to cheapen it to a formula, but there are specifics here that i have been led to pray for every day.
1. receive my words
2. treasure up my commandments
3. make your ear attentive to wisdom
4. incline your heart to understanding
5. call out for discernment
6. raise your voice for understanding
7. seek wisdom and understanding like silver
8. search for her as for hidden treasures

and here it is. If we do these things, our promise is that we "will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God."
I badly want to behold wisdom and the fear of the Lord and my spirit feels the importance of these things. SO im praying this every day, every chance i get im asking God to give me grace to understand/receive these things. As of yet, i have no deep insight on it, but im hanging out in it, praying every day that i might receive, and i really believe in the Faithfulness of the Lord. While i am praying Proverbs 2, i am leaning heavily on Luke 11:9
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." and Luke 18:7 the parable of the persistent widow and I am believing that He is faithful to answer.

I will probably post a few more times on wisdom, because there is a whole bunch more and i dont feel God letting up anytime soon. As i get insight on this i will share, i promise. But for now, im just meditating on this.

if any of you has deep insight on wisdom, i urge you please share. love to hear others thoughts on wisdom.

OFF TOPIC

Jenn gets back tomorrow, i get to go pick her up from KC. Shes been in Iceland with ZHOP, having an amazing time. That place is breathtaking, and you know how pictures Hardly do any justice to show beauty, im not kidding these pictures ive seen on Jenns facebook are absolutely phenomenal and i can only imagine the beauty of being surrounded by it. I love seeing the beauty of the Lord through the Earth.

I've missed Jenn and im really looking forward to seeing her. Almost as soon as i got back home, i was driving her to the airport. Tomorrow i have the day off and i am gonna go pick her up so Im excited!

i think thats it for now, sorry if this is long but im hoping people read this.

arin.

01 November 2008

coming home.

I'm halfway home. I am in the chicago airport and eating lunch. I have a couple hour layover. Jenn is picking me up at the Kc airport around 430,and I'm really excited to see her.

Nothing else at least for now.