Spiritual Blindness: The Causes and Cure

Proverbs 26:8

Like tying a stone in a sling is the giving of honor to a fool.

With this Proverb I think it is a good time to make sure that we understand Solomon's use of the word "fool".  In the book of Proverbs the fool is anyone who rejects God and His Word, or anyone who doesn't know God.
Wisdom is God's Word.
The wise refers to anyone who knows God and His Word and lives his life by it.

With that understanding, it makes this Proverb all the more impactful because the fool can be someone who is wise by the world's standards.  How much does the world love to celebrate and honor highly educated fools.  News shows can't get enough of them.  Let's look at a short list of fools that the world adores and loves (feel free to add more to the list):

• Steve Jobs
• Ray Kroc
• Elon Musk
• Jeff Bezos
• Charles Darwin
• Barack Obama
• Al Gore
• Hilary Clinton
• Steven Spielberg
• Stephen Hawking
• Karl Marx
• (Everyone on this list is someone that I personally have never seen or read anything by them, or about them, to make me believe that they are/were Christians.  Some on this list have devoted their entire lives to hating God and attacking His Word.  Feel free to correct me if you have evidence to the contrary.)

How's that for a list of who's who in hell (or currently on their way).  The sad thing is that all of the people on this list have either died hating God, or are "living" hating Him.  Fortunately, some on this list are still enjoying their time of grace, but that won't last forever.  Nor will yours last forever.  We will all have our day before the Righteous Judge.  

What an alluring trap worldly accolades and success can be.  We all want to be liked, successful, and honored by others.  It is a natural human tendency.  The problem comes when we start caring more about what the world thinks of us and less about what God thinks of us.  Problems arise when we lose sight of everything God has already given us and work harder and harder chasing after what the world offers us.  When we begin to suffer from that spiritual blindness Satan is right there to fan those flames of worldliness:  chase more money, do whatever you have to to gain more power and status, don't worry about your marriage your wife will never find out, you deserve it, and on and on go the lies.  The noose gets tighter and tighter until one day the floor drops out from under us and our whole world comes crashing down.  That's how it always ends for the fool, if not in this life definitely for all eternity in the next life.  Like a stone in a sling God launches the fool far far away from His presence for all eternity.

The solution to spiritual blindness and foolishness is actually quite simple:  God's Word.  It is by the daily reading of God's Word that we gain wisdom, real wisdom.  By reading and studying God's Word daily we stay focused on the most important thing in life:  JESUS!  All of God's Word guides us to Jesus, why we need Jesus, and what our loving Savior has done for us.  It is in God's Word that we are reminded that Jesus has done it all because we are incapable of doing anything for our own salvation.  

God's Word is where we learn that as offspring of Adam we are all filthy wretched sinners; that all of our best works are as filthy rags before the Lord; that we can do nothing to make up for our sins or earn forgiveness; that we cannot, on our own, choose Jesus to be our Savior.

God's Word is also where we find the answer to our wretched, sin-cursed condition.  That answer: Jesus.  It is Jesus, the Son of God, who humbled Himself to take on human flesh, live the perfect life that we cannot live, take the punishment for all of our sins by hanging on the cross, and then raising from the dead on the third day to win the victory over sin, death, and hell.  It is in God's Word that we learn that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life" and "that no one comes to the Father except through Him".

This is what all this means:

If you are wise, it is only by God's grace.

Most of the people in the world are fools.

We need to share Jesus with more people; not to save our country, but to save their souls.

Jesus is the only way to salvation and eternal life.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Jason Fredrick

Leadership Skill #1: Listen

In Dale Carnegie's landmark book How to Win Friends and Influence People, Part 2 is titled, "SIX WAYS TO MAKE PEOPLE LIKE YOU".  The interesting thing is that 5 of those 6 things are all about listening.  Here they are:

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener.  Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
6. Make the other person feel important- and do it sincerely.

Listening really is where leadership begins.  A leader needs to be a skilled listener when he is talking to an individual, and he also needs to listen to what his organization is telling him.  Dale Carnegie really does a great job of teaching the skills of listening in a one-on-one conversation to build personal relationships, so I am going to focus on the second point:  Listening to what your organization is trying to tell you.

Listening begins with humility.  In order to effectively listen to someone you actually have to believe they have something to offer or contribute.  If you think you already know everything, you are going to suck at listening and you are going to miss a lot.  A humble leader understands that everybody plays a part on the team, and everybody is valuable because they each bring a different perspective to the conversation.  Humility gives the leader the patience to hear people out, and then reflect on what he's hearing.  Humility keeps the leader from over-talking people and constantly forcing his ideas onto the team.  Humility empowers the leader to recognize when his ideas are bad, and his master plan just isn't working.  A leader has to be willing to receive feedback, good or bad, and then make the necessary adjustments.  The leader cannot afford to disregard feedback for superficial reasons:  academic credentials, how much he likes this person, where this person is from, etc.  Humility really is foundational to effective leadership.  The arrogant leader is on shaky ground; his faith/salvation is in danger, his relationships are in danger, and his team is in danger.  Organizations implode when the leader becomes arrogant and controlling.

How does a leader stay humble?

The biggest way is by staying hungry.  A hungry leader is a learner who is constantly growing.  You cannot be a lifetime learner if you aren't humble enough to recognize that you still have more to learn.  The "leader" who thinks he has nothing left to learn is no longer a leader; he has deteriorated into a manager.  Sadly, too many corporate environments are plagued by this would-be leader- they are victimized by the dictatorship of the Command-and-Control Corporate Manager.  Too often this little Hitler sits atop the pyramid, usually in the nicest office in the building.

The hungry leader recognizes the power of self-education.  He is enthusiastic about developing the leaders that surround him.  The hungry leader utilizes a leadership development system that he makes available to everyone.  Leadership development isn't just for the elites of the organization.  Leadership is for everyone.  The hungry leader knows that everyone has the ability to learn and grow, and his best leader may be someone who isn't even on his radar, currently.  The hungry leader remembers where he came from and how he had to intentionally develop all of his skills, even the God-given talents.

The hungry leader is constantly looking for educational opportunities and learning experiences.  He is daily plugged in to a program of listening to audios, reading good books, and having quality conversations with a diverse group of people.  The hungry leader mentors his leaders, and he also seeks out mentorship from men who have accomplished more and have gained more wisdom than he has.  

Think of some of the top leaders that you know and I am quite confident that they possess these two attributes of being humble and hungry.  Look throughout history and the same is true.

Here is a short list of the great leaders I have had the privilege of working with and serving under who personify these two qualities:

1. Dr. Paul Steinberg
2. Tony Grant
3. Rev. Jonathan Schulz
4. Ron Kelly
5. Vicar Josh Rathje
6. Michael Severson
7. Joseph Kasper

God bless

Jason Fredrick

King Solomon: Abuse of Blessings

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Proverbs 5:7-8

Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say.

Keep to a path far from her [the adulteress], do not go near the door of her house,

The heading of Proverbs 5 is, "Warning Against Adultery".

Adultery is when a married person engages in sex with someone who is not their spouse.

A Fornicator is someone who is not married, yet is sexually active.

Both adultery and fornication are breaking the Sixth Commandment:  Thou shall not commit adultery.

Solomon was a man who was well acquainted with the allure of sexual sin.  He had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3).  1 Kings 11:3 ends with the sentence, "...and his wives led him astray."  So with those credentials Solomon is sufficiently qualified to give warning against the destructive power of sexual sin.  

Solomon was the wisest man to ever live.  He knew better than to intermarry with the princesses of the surrounding nations.  Yet even he had to find out for himself the truth that Jesus spoke in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." (Mark 14:38)

What were some of the results of Solomon's selfish, sexual sins?

• His foreign wives seduced him into worshiping false gods (Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Molech- 1 Kings 11:33).
• Because of his idolatry, God allowed internal rebellion and civil war to tear Israel into two nations.
• Solomon's line was left only two of the tribes of Israel to rule over.

Now that we understand what adultery did to Solomon, what is this Proverb all about?

We have clearly established that we should listen to him, and it would be utter foolishness to turn aside from his warning.  In verse 8 he is very adamant about totally avoiding the adulteress at all costs.  He doesn't just say, "Keep away from her."  NO!  He says, "Keep to a path far from her.."  Those three little letters make a huge difference.  He is warning us to to stay so far away from her that we couldn't possibly be tempted or led astray by her.  This is how powerful the lure of sexual sin is:  we are to stay far away from it.  Only a fool thinks that he can flirt a little, or make subtle innuendos, or repeatedly put himself in one-on-one situations with married women and not get burned.  Solomon warns against this because he got burned by it 999 times.  Apparently he was wise, but he wasn't very smart.  That's a hard way to learn a lesson.  How much dumber would we be if we don't learn the lesson from him?  He repeated it 999 times and we can see how things turned out for him- not so great.  Read Ecclesiastes if you need to find out just how meaningless and empty a lifetime of sexual sin is in the end.  By contrast read the Song of Solomon and see how amazing and fulfilling sex is within the boundaries of marriage.  There is no comparison!

King Solomon is a great example of how a person can be abundantly blessed by God and still screw it up.  Solomon had everything a person could possibly want in this life:  power, fame, wealth, virility, and wisdom.   He didn't want for anything.  But because he was a sinner, Satan was able to use all of those gifts to lure Solomon into selfish self-fulfillment.  Sadly, how many of us have not been blessed as richly as Solomon, yet have been led astray by the same trap.  Satan is very cunning and knows how to do what he does.  I encourage you to learn these lessons from Solomon, don't keep repeating them.  

Graciously, it appears that Solomon did turn back to the Lord before his death; and like Solomon, God will forgive your rebellion.  Jesus payed the price for all of your sins and foolishness when He died on the cross.  

1 John 1:7

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.

God bless

Jason Fredrick