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junkyardboy
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Posted: Thu Jan 10th, 2008 05:28 pm |
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i have read,
"the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
what does that mean?
what wisdom is being talked about?
thanks,
peter
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http://www.apprising.org/archives/2006/11/dr_john_macarth.html
http://www.valleybible.net/position_papers.php
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truthseeker
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Posted: Thu Jan 10th, 2008 08:06 pm |
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Hi Peter,
This is a thought provoking question. This is such a familiar verse, and yet so challenging to understand and apply.
In my NIV, the phrase "the fear of the Lord" appears numerous times in the first 23 chapters of Proverbs. (Not every chapter.) Sometimes the word wisdom is used, and other times knowledge. In various instances, this wisdom/knowledge is associated with self-discipline, obedience to God's commandments, humility, and accepting correction.
That's the best this lay person can come up with. :-)
TruthSeeker
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junkyardboy
Member
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Posted: Thu Jan 10th, 2008 08:29 pm |
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thank you truthseeker, for your wonderful words of clarity.
i too, have been reading in Proverbs.
any other thoughts anyone?
____________________
have we been abandoned by God?
http://www.apprising.org/archives/2006/11/dr_john_macarth.html
http://www.valleybible.net/position_papers.php
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Seeking God
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Posted: Thu Jan 10th, 2008 11:33 pm |
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And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Heb 11:6) So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." (Joh 6:53-58)
Fear of the Lord,
In our eastern culture, fear is synonimous with respect, honor and willingness to abide by the authority of the feared.
In our lifes, we have a lot of bandits, criminals, thieves. Life is hard, the government often do not protect their people, so often times, the weak people need "protection" from someone powerful, (that is why Triads, yakuzas thrive in the east), and sometimes we choose the one that is most "feared", so we won't be disturbed by another gangster.
Let me describe in an example:
A comes to me, asking for protection money, so I give money to A,
Then B comes, asking for money, saying A won't protect you from me. so I give money to B. (now don't get it wrong, B could attack A, and often times they do!!)
Then C comes, asking for money...
It could save me a lot of heartache and money, if I could just skip... and give money ONLY to C, because C is the most powerful, and he could protect me from B and A.
So in my sense,
Sometimes I'm enslaved to greed for money so I turn to work.... only to find how lonely I am
So then lust takes over and tightens it's grip over me to turn to porn... only to find the emptiness inside
So then desperation comes and tormenting me with guilt so I would turn to suicide
Then Christ came, offered Himself to me... as protection, satisfaction, grace... to release me from my cruel masters... to offer his body and his blood as his proof of love and authority.
And I am satisfied...
I hope that it makes sense to you all.
All by His grace.
SG
Last edited on Thu Jan 10th, 2008 11:41 pm by Seeking God
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Wilderness Voice
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Posted: Fri Jan 11th, 2008 12:07 am |
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This was one of the first verses that God highlighted to me when I began my deeper walk with Him six or so years ago. I kept wondering what it meant - and it does have many deep meanings. But one of the scriptures leapt out at me and grabbed ahold of my soul:
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil:
and the companion
Psalms 97:10 Ye that love the Lord, hate evil:
It was from this point that I began to ask God to let me see evil as He saw it. So that I too would hate it like He hates it. I prayed for this so that I would no longer be attracted to lust. That I would come to hate the very feeling and touch of lust itself upon the inner man.
God does answer the sincere prayers of the heart. We must also ask for courage to face the answers that God gives as they may not be pleasant to our flesh at all. They may be quite what we'd rather not hear or see.
A sincere and deep love for God comes along with a healthy hatred of evil. A perfect hatred of evil. For evil is what destroys the children of God and God cannot possibly love anything which destroys His children. If we really still are attracted to the wrong things - then we have not seen the depths of the evil and wickedness those things hold. If we allowed our eyes to be opened to what we were really dealing with - the power of the temptation would fall away like a stone in water. Temptation holds no sway where sight of the truth of the evil exists. It is so putrid and horrifying that it can't possibly be anything tempting.
So the fear of the Lord - to hate evil - is the beginning of Wisdom. Or said in its proper sequence: Wisdom hates evil.
Wilderness Voice
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