Jesus is a wise master builder. His words are the foundation of life. They are meant to be taken seriously and learned through active pursuit and practice.
We used to play a board game called trivial pursuit. Someone even invented a “Christianized” version of the game. We might have even owned the game at one time. I know we have a copy of Bible win lose or draw. My purpose is not to either exalt the use of such games or decry them; my purpose is to say that we it seems we often trivialize the bible. We engage the bible as the pursuit of trivial (useless, meaningless factoids) information, rather than approaching the scriptures as a means of relationship with a wise mentor whom you desire to please; demonstrating respect by both hearing and heading His vast reservoirs of wisdom.
Wisdom is timeless, therefore always relevant
Jesus is Lord
Learning through doing
Join me in pursuing and practicing Jesus’ teaching
Wisdom, timeless and relevant
Recently a friend called because they were in a conversation about the Bible and the topic of relevance came up. Is the bible relevant? While I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, I will just make the quick point that the Bible is (even if you don’t believe it is the inerrant Word of God, which I do) a book chocked full of wisdom. Most everyone will say that Jesus was a great teacher and that his teaching would make our lives better. In fact Gandhi attributed much of the success of India’s secession of India from Great Britain to Jesus’ teaching of none violence and social change. A most quoted adage that people use, even if they generally don’t read and accept Biblical teaching is Jesus teaching about non-judging. Of course it is usually misquoted and taken out of the genuine context of Jesus’ teaching, but hey, they are using an argument that is based in the wisdom of the Bible. In fact it has often been the practice of people who are trying to appear smart to quote from some ancient literature. They may quote Confucius, or Plato, or Aristotle, or Solomon, or Jesus. Why? Because the wisdom that they glean from these people is often valid and relevant. In fact the reason they quote it is because it is true wisdom that has born itself out time in again in space, time and across culture.
We would say that wisdom like this is true. I find it interesting that when Jesus speaks of his words and teachings they are not merely true, but He describes them as ‘truth.’ They are not just factually true; ‘I am wearing blue jeans,’ but they are existential truth. They don’t just conform to reality, they actually describe the way things really are. At Jesus’ trial, Pilate asks, “So You are a King? Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify about the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38)
To be continued
