Subjective Rationality
Proverbs 8:8-12 All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; Nothing crooked or perverse is in them. They are all plain to him who understands, And right to those who find knowledge. Receive my instruction, and not silver, And knowledge rather than choice gold; For wisdom is better than rubies, And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her. “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And find out knowledge and discretion.
Wisdom in this passage says that "rational" thought is only as reliable as the information...the knowledge... the "thinker" has. What is rational to a 3 year old...as accurate as they may be with the information they have...is much different from what is rational to a 60 year old, who has seen much more.
Ask a 20 year old about the darkness humanity is capable of and you will get a much different answer than you would from a World War II or Vietnam Veteran. Your ability to evaluate rationally is completely limited by your experience.
It is pure arrogance when ANY person who has lived even 80 years claims they can think more "rationally" than what God has accounted for himself in His own story. The great I AM has been around MUCH longer.
Don't believe everything you hear. You might just miss the one detail that would overflow joy in your heart forever...simply because so many others missed it too!
Psalms 14:1-6 The fool has said in his heart, “ There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the Lord ? There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, But the Lord is his refuge.
The "bread" in this Psalm is the Word...the truth and the life. Those who claim to "know," if they make the mistake of believing their "rational" thinking can out-think God's simple statements of truth, ruin the Word...eat it up...for many who blindly believe them.
I want to be super careful with what I teach, even to one or two people at lunch...for I will be held accountable for every word I teach on behalf of Jesus.
Does what I teach produce wholehearted love for Jesus...does it inspire people to die to themselves and take up their cross and follow Him with joy in the narrow way...reaching and striving to enter the narrow gate?! Or does what I teach frustrate, confuse, open a Pandoras box of worthless philosophy that does nothing to draw God's people into the place of safety in the storm?
The storm will prove the value of my words either way...those who love the ones they teach want to know before the storm if their words are safe! I want to search for Bible truths that call myself and others into wholehearted devotion to the one who holds the storm in his hands!
The clouds are gathering...I can feel the wind picking up. I hear the thunder and the lightning in the distance. What I say and do in THIS generation matters more than any generation that has ever inhabited the planet.
Everyone is a teacher if someone else is listening:
James 3:1-5 Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire.
These are the two things everyone is supposed to teach!:
Matthew 5:19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Revelation is the most "irrational" Book of the Bible...even more so than Genesis 1....to the immature mind. BUT, Revelation is the story of the very love of God poured out in full to the MATURE mind. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean its not there!
The Church is instructed to simply "read the words" of the Revelation prophecy to the Church...no interpretation necessary. The more I teach Revelation, the more I see the truth of this statement. Simply connecting the reading of these glorious words to what the rest of the words in the Bible say opens up minds and hearts to Wisdom.
Most people believe they cannot understand Revelation because so many teachers have eaten up this word for them...usually with someone elses Bible commentary from 1920, or 1970...but the truth of these words are becoming clearer by the day. This Bread has a very specific shelf life:
Daniel 12:4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
A wrong systematic handling of this bread has "eaten it up" for many. It has led them to believe it is either mostly symbolic, is mostly written for unbelievers (unbelievers mostly don't read the Bible, btw...all the warnings are for those who want to be, who are, or who claim to be, God's people), or has already happened.
I suggest you read Revelation for yourself and decide! You might just find a whole lot of safety in a time of intense trouble!
Wisdom in this passage says that "rational" thought is only as reliable as the information...the knowledge... the "thinker" has. What is rational to a 3 year old...as accurate as they may be with the information they have...is much different from what is rational to a 60 year old, who has seen much more.
Ask a 20 year old about the darkness humanity is capable of and you will get a much different answer than you would from a World War II or Vietnam Veteran. Your ability to evaluate rationally is completely limited by your experience.
It is pure arrogance when ANY person who has lived even 80 years claims they can think more "rationally" than what God has accounted for himself in His own story. The great I AM has been around MUCH longer.
Don't believe everything you hear. You might just miss the one detail that would overflow joy in your heart forever...simply because so many others missed it too!
Psalms 14:1-6 The fool has said in his heart, “ There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the Lord ? There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, But the Lord is his refuge.
The "bread" in this Psalm is the Word...the truth and the life. Those who claim to "know," if they make the mistake of believing their "rational" thinking can out-think God's simple statements of truth, ruin the Word...eat it up...for many who blindly believe them.
I want to be super careful with what I teach, even to one or two people at lunch...for I will be held accountable for every word I teach on behalf of Jesus.
Does what I teach produce wholehearted love for Jesus...does it inspire people to die to themselves and take up their cross and follow Him with joy in the narrow way...reaching and striving to enter the narrow gate?! Or does what I teach frustrate, confuse, open a Pandoras box of worthless philosophy that does nothing to draw God's people into the place of safety in the storm?
The storm will prove the value of my words either way...those who love the ones they teach want to know before the storm if their words are safe! I want to search for Bible truths that call myself and others into wholehearted devotion to the one who holds the storm in his hands!
The clouds are gathering...I can feel the wind picking up. I hear the thunder and the lightning in the distance. What I say and do in THIS generation matters more than any generation that has ever inhabited the planet.
Everyone is a teacher if someone else is listening:
James 3:1-5 Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire.
These are the two things everyone is supposed to teach!:
Matthew 5:19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Revelation is the most "irrational" Book of the Bible...even more so than Genesis 1....to the immature mind. BUT, Revelation is the story of the very love of God poured out in full to the MATURE mind. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean its not there!
The Church is instructed to simply "read the words" of the Revelation prophecy to the Church...no interpretation necessary. The more I teach Revelation, the more I see the truth of this statement. Simply connecting the reading of these glorious words to what the rest of the words in the Bible say opens up minds and hearts to Wisdom.
Most people believe they cannot understand Revelation because so many teachers have eaten up this word for them...usually with someone elses Bible commentary from 1920, or 1970...but the truth of these words are becoming clearer by the day. This Bread has a very specific shelf life:
Daniel 12:4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
A wrong systematic handling of this bread has "eaten it up" for many. It has led them to believe it is either mostly symbolic, is mostly written for unbelievers (unbelievers mostly don't read the Bible, btw...all the warnings are for those who want to be, who are, or who claim to be, God's people), or has already happened.
I suggest you read Revelation for yourself and decide! You might just find a whole lot of safety in a time of intense trouble!
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