Posted on 12/17/2022 12:45:09 AM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him” (Proverbs 17:24-25).
“Wisdom is before him that hath understanding,” right in front your face, in your Bible. In other words, wisdom comes as we spend some time in the Book: “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach” (Romans 10:8). If you want it, it is right there! “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). Now, do we have a biblical example of how one might ask God for wisdom? Yes we do: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Psalms 119:18).
It costs tens of thousands of dollars to go to a public state university to find out that we came from monkeys. How about we save all that money and go to the source of wisdom where all it costs is a few hours in the Book? Give those thousands of dollars to missions instead. I mean, that’s a lot of money to find out you don’t know where you came from, you don’t know what you are doing here, and you don’t know where you are going. The only thing you come out of there knowing for sure is that the government is bad, and communism is good.
That’s a lot of money to find out that you really don’t know anything and not learning anything. Well, that’s the way of the world and they really don’t know any better.
“. . . but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth,” in other words, he is looking all over the world for the answers and there it is right in front of his face. All he has to do is to ask God for it. Instead of just asking Jesus Christ to be his Saviour, he is way out in some archaeological dig looking for the answers. He doesn’t have to “substantiate” all the historic evidences of the Bible, just take God at His Word that He preserved His Word for us in our King James Bible. All he needs is an open Bible, get down on his knees, and he’ll find more secrets than he ever could have imagined. Instead, these “fools” are “ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (II Timothy 3:7).
It is easy to raise a fool, just follow these directions: 1) No Bible, 2) No Prayer, 3) No Church, 4) No love, 5) No godliness in the home, 6) No heavenly goals. Follow these steps and you are guaranteed to raise a fool.
How to raise kids for sin, hell, and the Devil: Get a TV set and sit them in front of it. Don’t take them to church. Don’t have devotions with them, don’t spend time with them and instead give them everything they want, and you’ll raise them for sin, hell, and the Devil.
“A foolish son is a grief to his father,” the Bible says, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). You and I, Christian, grieve the Father when we grieve the Holy Spirit. When a Bible believer walks after the lusts of the flesh, that not only grieves the Holy Spirit, but it also grieves the Father. Not only that, but it will bring grief on you when God chastens you as a son.
“. . . and bitterness to her that bare him,” that’s the way that Naomi came back from Moab. “And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth 1:20). She went down there with two boys, and came back with none. She went down there with a husband, and she returned a widow.
All of life can be wasted by a foolish moment. In her case, they decided not to trust God to meet their needs and instead went into a heathen land to find food during the famine. As a result, she lost everything. Some people raise a kid, and they spend the whole time that kid is growing up trying to meet that kids physical needs and they find out in the end that they raised a fool.
If a parent doesn’t supply that child’s spiritual needs, they haven’t done it right, because you have not given him the very things he needs to control that physical side. There is nothing more foolish than, “When he is old enough, he can chose for himself if he wants to be religious or not.” Well, we know the result of that philosophy.
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True that.
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