Oh, I am EXCITED to start talking about wisdom literature! I have always been drawn to wisdom literature, but especially over the past few years, I just can’t get enough of it! Ie: we’ll be talking about wisdom literature for a long time!! Before we really get into it, though, we need to spend some time talking about what wisdom literature is.

So, what is wisdom? God created the universe according to a set of orderly principles that govern not only the natural world and the laws of math and science, but also hold true in human societies and relationships. Unlike more direct forms of Scripture that will teach Truths directly given by God (“thus says the Lord,”) Wisdom teachers observe the truth and order in God’s universe and then teach it to us in a memorable way.

Wisdom literature starts with the base assumption that God is Creator. As Creator, He embedded truth within all reality. In Biblical wisdom, there is no dichotomy between secular and sacred. It presents a comprehensive worldview, a picture of the universe (Uni-Verse = “one truth!”) where all of life and all of truth fits into one big picture. Ie: Because God is the Creator and source of all Truth, this not only should affect how I worship and relate within the body of Christ, but it should also affect how I work and rest and play.

I think that this particular aspect is part of what draws me to Wisdom Literature. The typical Christian view of the world has, for far too long, separated the secular from the sacred. Without really realizing it, we typically separate our “Christian life” from the rest of our lives. Does knowing God affect how I use my time? Does it have something to say about leisure? How about politics? From a Biblical perspective, each and every tiny detail of our lives should be influenced by knowing God and His Truth.

Wisdom literature assumes that essential answers can be learned from experience. Proverbs emphasizes that if we search diligently for wisdom like a treasure, we will find it! Rather than appealing to Divine directive, the wisdom teachers seek to persuade us to live lives in accordance with God’s principles by appealing to consensus – we all know it to be true, it is observable. As such, we are urged to avoid adultery not on the basis of it violating the 7th commandment, but rather because it is a stupid choice that will ruin our lives!

Because God embedded order in His creation and His character is the standard for what is “good,” if we live according to His ways, life generally will go smoother. To ignore God’s principles is foolish and will usually destroy us.

Now, keeping this in mind, one thing that we must understand before venturing into wisdom literature, and particularly into Proverbs, is that these are not promises. When Proverbs tells us, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it,” (Prov. 22:6) this is not a promise!

I’m sure almost everyone reading this can name families they have known who have done their very best to train their children in righteousness, and their children have departed from it! Does this make Proverbs 22:6 untrue? No! As a general rule, this statement holds true – if parents do well in training their children in the truth, the vast majority of the time their children will continue to walk in the right way. Wisdom literature is an observation of the world God created, restated in a memorable way. They are not promises, and they will not accurately describe every instance – that is not the intention.

I will wrap this up today for the sake of time. I want to pose a couple of questions for you to consider before the next post.

• Can an unbeliever be “wise”?
• Can a righteous person be a “fool”?
• Which comes first, the fear of God or wisdom? (see Prov 1:7 AND 2:1-5)

*Image from wikipedia.org

This week New Leaf Press sent me copies of their “Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers” series to review and share with you all. I ripped open the envelope as soon as it arrived and AG was quite delighted to find that we had received new books! This of course necessitated that we sit down and read them immediately. :)

The “Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers” series by Joey Allen is so exciting. It is aimed at children from ages 4-7 years old, and clearly explains some very complex topics!

The Gospel, not surprisingly, is about the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ! In this book “Gracie” is on each page, explaining the gospel with very child-friendly terminology and illustrations. From having a sinful heart, to deserving punishment for our sin (just like deserving punishment from parents for disobedience), to Christ’s substitution and taking our punishment for us, Gracie walks us through the truths of Scripture. Soteriology for kids!

This book is clear that when we trust in Jesus for salvation, that the Holy Spirit comes to live within us! I love that salvation is explained this way! We far too often lay the groundwork for later confusion when we tell kids that Jesus lives in their hearts. This book also carefully explains that we can’t be good enough to go to heaven, and that we have to trust in Jesus alone for salvation. It also makes clear that we are set free from sin (sin no longer “bosses us around”), but that even when we still do bad things God will love us no matter what!

The Scripture is a great explanation of the Bible. In this book, Gabe is our friendly face on each page guiding us through the complex study of bibliology! :) Inerrancy, inspiration of human authors, the basic purposes of the Old Testament and New Testament and how they point to Jesus, the assembling of the canon, the languages of the Bible, reliability of Scripture, and the Holy Spirit’s use of Scripture to sanctify us – all of these topics are covered in kid-friendly language! I am amazed by this book!

The Trinity is the book that originally caught my attention about this series. An explanation of the Trinity for a 4 year old? This I had to see. Our little guide in this book is appropriately named Angel (a little corny, but that’s ok). :) God’s holiness, self-sufficiency, omnipresence, omniscience, knowledge of each individual, authority as Creator, and uniqueness are again covered in easy to grasp language. Then Angel explains that there is one God in three persons who are all distinct but all one God – I love that the next page says that we can’t completely understand it because God is unlike anything in this world! This truth is applied personally in that the persons of God live in community, and we were created for community, too. The basics of salvation are then covered in this book, as well, explaining the roles of the Father, Son, and Spirit in our salvation.

The Mission just might be my favorite in this series, if I had to pick. The mission explains God’s love for the world, and again explains salvation. The people He created are lost, but has has a plan to fix everything – and He wants us to be part of His plan! Missionaries get to help share the best news in the whole world and invite people to the party in heaven where we will all be singing and dancing and praising God!

Mikey explains, “everyone is invited to trust in Jesus. Some people will not trust in Jesus, but many people have never even heard of Him… So many people need Jesus, but there are not many messengers. God wants to use you to tell other people about Jesus and invite them to the party in heaven. You can be one of God’s messengers!… God has a big job for us to do. God has told us to go to all the world and tell people about Him. Jesus is not just for people in America. He is for people in Africa, Asia, and Australia, too!”

Mikey then explains that even as little kids, God has given each person special talents and abilities that can be used to show others how great God is. You can tell your friends (“You don’t have to be afraid to talk about Jesus. He promised He would be with you and give you special help when you talk about Him.”), learn more about God and His Word so you can tell others, and “you can help missionaries in other countries by praying for them, writing them letters or emails, or sending them presents.” You can even tell your parents that you want to learn more about missionaries and other countries!

I love that these books have simple, colorful illustrations on each page that capture the essence of what is being talked about without trying to depict God in any way. Excellent. Each page also has Scripture references at the bottom that parents can use with their kids for further discussion and study!

I wasn’t sure if my daughter would want to sit through all of these books, since they aren’t “stories,” but she begged to read them one after another! When a three year old loves hearing a book about the Trinity and another on Biblical inspiration, the author has done something right! Thank you, Joey Allen, for these valuable additions to our bookshelf!

FYI, if you are reading this and wishing you had some copies of your own, keep watching because I will be posting a giveaway for The Gospel very soon! A free gift of the best Free Gift!

**For more information or to purchase a copy, click on the book cover images to be taken to the publisher’s website. I am an affiliate and will receive a small percentage of the sale of this or other products. I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my review from New Leaf Publishing Group. The opinions expressed in this review are my unbiased thoughts as in keeping with my disclosure policy.

So, two weeks ago on Tackle it Tuesday I was brave enough to show pictures of the basement…

Ew. Scary.

So, today’s tackle was the basement. This afternoon I took my daughter down and let her play with playdough at my laundry table (a treat because the basement is usually off-limits) and my son played in his pack n’ play. I added more things to my garage sale pile, re-purposed a lot of storage, straightened up the cabinets, etc… and, TADA!

Hooray!! It almost makes me want to do some more laundry…

Almost.

What are you tackling today?

Thank you for joining me on this journey of studying what is true praise and worship. I pray that it has been uplifting and challenging to you – God’s Word is so rich! Today I wanted to wrap up this series with some summary take-away points.

• What is “praise?” Praise is shining a light on who our God is and saying, “Look at our God – there is no one like Him!”

• God is worthy of all praise because of who He is, what He has done, and what He will do.

• True praise is not centered on us and how we feel – true praise springs from knowing who God is and lifting Him up, shining a light on Him, exclaiming publicly, “How great is our God!”

• The Psalms call for all different expressions of praise. Shouting, singing, playing instruments are the most obvious. The Psalms also include as praise: telling of His wonders, praises, salvation; Giving thanks to Him publicly; Declaring His righteousness to the younger generations; Shouting for joy; and Confession of sin and thanking Him for His forgiveness.

• Even in our rejoicing, we should be trembling before Him! True praise and worship must be rooted in Truth, and to behold God for Who He is must compel us to fear Him, even as we praise Him with all that we are.

• What is “worship?” Worship is recognizing and responding to Who God really is. Worship is closely tied to the fear of God and submission to God’s authority as our Maker and Master.

• “Praise and Worship” is not a particular style of music. It is not a genre. True praise and worship are external expressions of internal attitudes toward God.

• It is quite possible to perform external acts of “praise and worship” and be spiritually way out of line. Just as we see in Psalm 50, we might be falling into ritual and failing to bring God the sacrifice of true thanksgiving. Worse yet, we might be blasphemously giving lip service while living in flagrant sin.

After studying this more in-depth for the last couple of weeks, I feel more burdened than ever for our churches today. I am bothered that typically when we discuss praise and worship, we get stuck on styles of music. We equate praise and worship issues with contemporary vs. traditional, praise band vs. organ, powerpoint slides vs. hymnal.

The reality is, Psalms gives us a clear precedent for praise and worship being in a multitude of different expressions! The root issues really are – is it grounded in Truth? Is what we are saying about God true? Are our hearts sincere? Are we lifting God up and shining a light on Him, or are we glorifying ourselves in the name of “praise and worship” services?

I’m sure that people from all kinds of different denominational backgrounds will read this, people of all ages with generational preferences, people with different cultural backgrounds. We might all express praise and worship differently. And you know what? That’s fine! True praise and worship can be expressed while singing the “old hymns” to a pipe organ in a cathedral, while dancing to homemade sheet metal instruments in a mud hut in a third world country, while clapping and singing with a worship band at a concert.

It’s high time we stop fighting over style and start closely examining our hearts. You can bring an insincere and blasphemous “praise” offering to God to the tune of an organ, and you can be following a ritual and going through the motions while you dance to your hip praise band. No matter how we express it, the core issue is the same: is it true? Is it sincere? Does it lift up our God and give Him the honor He is due? It’s not about us!

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:28-29