There Is a Way That Seems Right to a Man

 Proverbs 14:12

There is a way that seems right to a man,

but in the end it leads to death.

Worldly wisdom is no wisdom at all.  That's why it is so sad to see "great" scholars and scientists dedicate their entire life to trying to disprove the existence of God.  They concoct foolish schemes and theories to try to explain the world we live in, but without God.  As if God's creation could exist independent of him.  They close their eyes to the fact that we live in a complex, systematic world.  Our world could not exist for a single second if it was governed by random chance.  That kind of chaos would have torn it apart the very second after it came into existence.  Random chance and change leads to total chaos.  That is not what we see in our world.  We see order, logic, complexity, and systematization.  These things are in antithesis to randomness and chance.  It is the foolishness of human "wisdom" that led the Apostle Paul to write to the church in Corinth the following:

        

        Where is the wise man?  Where is the scholar?  Where is the philosopher of this age?  Has not 

        God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through 

        its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached 

        to save those who believe.- 1 Corinthians 1:20-21

That's a pretty good explanation of what Solomon was saying in Proverbs 14:12 nine hundred years earlier.  

The bottom line, that most people don't want to accept, is that because of sin, we just aren't that smart.  We like to think we are.  We try to convince everybody else that we are.  But we aren't.  Sin has made us fools.  Faith in Jesus makes us fools to the world.  It is only through the gift of faith that we can see the foolishness of the world. 

It's kind of like living in The Matrix.  Most people walk around thinking they have life all figured out, relying on their own wisdom and understanding.  Then we come along- sharing our perspective and worldview, and the world doesn't even understand what we are talking about.  They look at us like we're speaking a completely different language.  Faith inspired wisdom is foolishness to the world.  It is just as foolish to unbelievers, as their worldly "wisdom" is to us.

If that's the case, why does the way that seems right to men lead to death?

God gave us the answer to this question way back around 1500 B.C. when he instructed Moses to write:

        The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every 

        inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.- Genesis 6:5

It's also in the explanation from Paul in 1 Corinthians above.  Because of sin, man left to himself does not know and believe in God despite all the evidence God has given to everyone through his creation and our consciences.  But even when people do understand that there has to be a God through the natural things God has used to reveal himself to people, no one can ever come to a knowledge of Jesus on their own.  Jesus doesn't make sense to worldly minds.  He is counterintuitive to worldly wisdom.  That is why a man's own way only leads to death.  His own ideas and wisdom will never lead him to Jesus.  Notice in the 1 Corinthians passage above Paul talks about "the foolishness that was preached".

There are only two ways people can learn and know about Jesus: reading the Bible themselves, or having someone share God's Word with them.  It all comes down to God's Word.  The Bible is where Jesus has revealed himself to us.  It is only through that revelation in the Bible that we can know and believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world.  It is only through God's Word that the Holy Spirit works faith in hearts.  This is why Solomon's wisdom is just as true today as it was the day he wrote it.  A man's own way leads him away from God and his Word.  And that is why it leads to death.  Spiritual death is eternal separation from God, and left to our own "wisdom" we will always go our own way.

That is why Paul continued on in this passage from 1 Corinthians:

        Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified:

        a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both 

        Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God

        is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

        -1 Corinthians 1:22-25

God bless.

Jason Fredrick

        

It Was Not This Way from the Beginning

 Matthew 19:8-9

Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard.  But it was not this way from beginning.  I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."

Moses allowed the Old Testament Jews to divorce because their hearts were hardened to God's Word.  It was not this way from the beginning.  Divorce is a by-product of selfishness.  Selfishness is a by-product of sin.  When God created Adam and Eve there was no selfishness in the Garden of Eden until Eve listened to Satan.  It was ultimately selfishness that Satan used to lure Eve into sin and away from God.

When Eve listened to the devil, and then enticed her husband into sin, Adam and Eve's perfect marriage was ruined forever.  Their sin has damaged every marriage since then.  Now, the challenge for every marriage is trying to overcome sinful selfishness.  This is what Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees in this section of Matthew 19: Moses allowed them to divorce because of their hard-hearted selfishness.

People in our culture don't want to hear this anymore than those Pharisees did.  In America, and countries around the world, people selfishly throw away marriages every day.  Why is that?  It's because they have hardened their hearts to God's Word.  God created marriage.  He hates divorce (Malachi 2:15-16).

Marriage is a commitment.  Whether you're a Christian or not, marriage is a life-long commitment to another person.  This is why it is so important to choose wisely, and not rush into it.  When two people get married they are committing the rest of their lives to each other- for better, or for worse.  Guess what?  The "for worse" will come.  It's not a question of if it will come.  It's a question of when, and how often?

The storms of life are inevitable.  Sadly, too many Americans have created the habit of quitting in their lives.  Quitters quit everything.  It shouldn't surprise us that mothers quit on their pregnancies (abortion) when their parents quit on their marriage (divorce).  Quitting is the legacy of the Vietnam generation.  Quitting is a generational plague just like poverty.  Quitting is a learned behavior.  None of us is born a quitter.  The fact that we exist is evidence of that.  The sperm that fertilized that egg that ultimately became you had to compete with a million other sperm to get their, and get their first.  Nobody is born a quitter.

Unfortunately, our society-and especially schools- enforce the habit of quitting.  In a society that encourages people to just quit if it gets too tough, we shouldn't be surprised that people quit on their marriage.  People quit on themselves every day.

This is not how it was at the beginning.  God did not create people to quit.  Quitting is weakness that is a by-product of sin.  Quitting comes from a lack of faith in God and a weak character.  God did not create Adam weak.  He created Adam perfect.  This is why you can break the habit of quitting of it plagues you.  You can start today by apologizing to someone you have quit on in your life, and then commit to stop quitting.  If you have quit on a marriage, you can't go back and undo all the damage that has been done; but you can repent, apologize, and ask for forgiveness.  You can work to rebuild and repair those damaged relationships with your ex and especially with your children.

Thankfully, Jesus has given us the example of the perfect husband.  He loved his bride (the Church) so much that he sacrificed himself for her.  Jesus is the perfect, selfless husband.  He died to take the punishment for all of our sins of selfishness and quitting.  Jesus is the reason we have the power today to stop quitting and recommit to living the life that he has called us to live.  

Husbands: Love your wives as Christ loved the Church.

Wives:  Respect and submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

God wants your marriage to be a blessing.  God wants to bless your marriage.  Don't quit on it!

God bless

Jason Fredrick

Stay Focused on Your Calling

 Matthew 17:25-26

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak.  "What do you think, Simon?" he asked.  "From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes--from their own sons or from others?"

"From others," Peter answered.

"Then the sons are exempt," Jesus said to him.

In this short section, Jesus is making an observation about earthly governments that still exists today:  When government is involved, there will be special deals for select groups of people.  It may be worse today than it has ever been, but it certainly is nothing new.  Historically the most obvious special deals were for the family of the ruler, or the ruling class.  Today, in the United Stated and elsewhere, it certainly extends beyond just the ruler's family.

Today the additions to the families of the ruling class that benefit from favoritism are Special Interest groups.  These groups include, but are not limited to, Planned Parenthood, Black Lives Matter, and the LGBTQ.  (I'm sure you can think of a dozen others.)  Notice just in these examples that these groups don't add any value to society, instead that are constantly working to undermine and destroy society.  I will let you decide what their motivation for that would be, but the reality is that that is what Special Interest groups do.  They lobby and fight for government favor to fund their personal, political, and social agendas.

In this section of Matthew we once again see Jesus honoring the ruling authority by paying taxes.  When the Bible tells us to honor the governing authorities (Romans 13:1-7) it doesn't give conditions of when this applies.  It  always applies, even if your government is evil and oppressive.  We are commanded to honor those in authority, because there is no authority on earth which God has not established (Romans 13:1).  

The Bible doesn't say we have to like our political situation.  It doesn't even say we have to like the current rulers.  But it does say that we must honor them.

Jesus and St. Paul were very well acquainted with oppressive rulers and ruling classes.  They were both tortured and killed by the ruling class of their time.  If Jesus willingly submitted himself to an oppressive ruling class, then you have no excuse for not doing the same.  It is not our responsibility to determine who should be ruling where.  God already has a plan for that.  It is our responsibility to submit to the governing authority and carry out our Great Commission calling no matter what the political environment may be.  All we have to do is trust God's plan and his faithfulness.  Nothing that we go through is a surprise to him.  He already has it worked out how our trials and challenges are going to work out for our good.

God is faithful.  He never forgets his children.  He already has his plan all worked out.  You can rest assured that the evil things in our society that make you angry, make him angrier.  Lets let God be the judge, and we can focus on doing the work which he has called each of us to: the proclamation of the gospel to all nations (Mark 16:15-16).

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.  Fight the good fight of faith.  Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.  In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.  To him be honor and might forever.  Amen. -1 Timothy 6:11-16

God bless

Jason Fredrick