Godly Wisdom

The verse for today is one from James. James speaks much about wisdom and in chapter 3 he compares the wisdom of the world to Godly wisdom. The verse for today is James 3:17, Here it is from the NASB.

¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

Notice that he has the qualities in order. Wisdom from above, James says, is pure, that it is holy, God is the source and it is therefore acceptable to Him. Then it is peaceable  which says that it promotes harmony among mankind. Jesus in the beatitudes said Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. Do you think it is easy or hard to be a peacemaker? Third, it is gentle or kind and considerate. I think that Godly wisdom is never harsh or ugly but always seeks the best in everyone. Fourth it is open to reason, always ready to listen. Then it abounds in compassionate love and good works. The last two qualities are stated negatively, Wisdom from above is unwavering, consistent or without uncertainty. Lastly it is without hypocrisy, It doesn't pretend to be something it isn't.

Wisdom from above is the real wisdom and if we lack wisdom, that is what we should seek.
Have a great week,

Radio on the Roof

Radio on the Roof

We have a crew working on the house, and today they are on the roof. The contractor is one who has to have some music going in the background or he just can't work. Maybe you're that way too. Fortunately he is a Christian music fan so the music is pleasant to listen to. By the way, they are going to repair and repaint that gable! The house will be like new when the job is finished.

Verse of the day

A few years ago, when I first came to Howard Payne, there was a program that displayed a verse of the day at the DOS prompt, and waited for you to press a key to continue. The verses were not random but were from a table so the verse for each date in the calendar was the same year after year. That is July 20th always produced 1 John 3:1 and always in the King James Version. I rewrote the program in Visual Basic to make it more user friendly and for the rest of my time there it came up on every computer when you rebooted it or turned it on. I was always amazed at how the verses were so appropriate for the day that they appeared on. Today's verse is no exception.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God...
I John 3:1

That love is a self sacrificing love that is completely unconditional. In Sunday school we recently looked at the letter to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2. This was a church that had lost or forgotten it's first love. That first love was that which God had bestowed on them when they believed. They had received it but had failed to pass it on. The will of God, given to us in the great commission is that we share that love with all we meet, how are we doing?

Grow where you are planted

Last night in Bible study we were looking at Acts chapter 8. There were a couple of key verses that stood out to me. Verse 1 and also verse 4. Here is what they say;


8:1 And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria,


8:4 Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.


First I notice that the Christians were scattered. Persecution was not an abnormal thing, God's people have been persecuted to some extent in every generation and many times the result is the same, scattering. We can look at it as God scattering seed like a farmer. Not that we would accuse God of sending the persecution but since it happened, he makes use of it. He scatters his people across the land and plants them in new places. Notice verse 4, the people who were scattered, "went about preaching the word". That is God's plan for growing His church. He moves us, He plants us and He expects us to grow. As we grow we plant more seeds and they too grow so we are charged to preach the word wherever we are planted and the word is powerful, the word is our seed and God uses it in His unique way to draw people to Himself.


If you have opportunity, plant a seed today.

Water over the dam....

As a result of the rain in the last post, lake Brownwood came up to about 4 feet over the spillway. In our time in Brownwood I can only remember 2 times that it has over topped the spillway. One was in July 2002 and the other was in 2007. On April 26th of this year the lake level was 13 feet low and today it is still 2.5 feet over the dam. Here are some pictures we took last evening at the spillway

A view back over the spillway

A hundred yards downstream

Water headed downstream toward Brownwood

When these events happen we get flooding in Brownwood. The Walmart and various other businesses will take on water if the water gets high enough. Invariably someone tries to drive through one of the low water crossings in the hills around the lake and we lose someone. That seems to have happened this time as well. In spite of all the warnings and reports we never learn.

Rain, Rain, Rain

The rain gauge overflowed at 6 inches overnight and another 2 inches since we emptied it. That is at least 8 inches in the last 24 hours. We are a bit waterlogged to say the least/ The lake, for the first time in a long time, is over the spillway by .08 feet. That means Pecan Bayou through town will be running bank full or more. This has been an unbelievably wet spring and summer so far.

I forgot to include the cat

It occurred to me after yesterday's post that I had forgotten to include a picture of the cat. She is not always helpful on these trips but she goes along much better than at first. Here is her favorite pose.

When we first took her with us to the creek, We took along her drinking fountain, made out of a fish bowl and a small recirculating pump. She would not touch it there but she used it great here. It was like a foreign object to her. She seems to take on a different personality when we travel with her.