FRIDAY, April 3rd, 2009

Hey guys! Last night was great! Thanks for coming! It was good to see each of you there!! Michael, thanks for helping me out so much the last few days!!

10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
13 This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:
14 There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:
15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
16 Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
17 The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.

this is a lot of deep truth... I especially love verses 16 - 18... lets talk about them: Verse 16 tells us: WISDOM IS BETTER THAN STRENGTH!!! What a cool verse! You see, I am not the strongest guy that I know, BY A LONG SHOT!!! This verse is so powerful! It explains to us that Wisdom is better to have than strength! The world will tell you the opposite, the world will tell you with their stupid bumber stickers: "My child beat up your honor student", but that is so ignorant because the truth is that the person who is better off is the one with wisdom!

There have been many times since I have been a youth pastor where I have heard some teenager talking about how He was going to "fight this guy" or she was going to "fight that girl if she ever talkes to her like that again" And it is REDICULOUS!! I want to say: you are an idiot!, but I don't, the fact is, when we resort to physical violence we make fools of ourselves.

Verse 18 tells us that wisdom is better than weapons of war!! Think about that! It is better to use wisdom than it would be to use a rocket launcher, a bazooka, an assult rifle, and the list goes on and on! I want Wisdom!! What about you?

The last statement of this chapter is very thought provoking: it says: "one sinner destroys much good" That is so powerful! I think of pastors who have incredible ministries and then they fall into sin, and that one sin destroys so much good. I think of a teenager who is growing closer to the Lord, then they get involved in something they should not, and sometimes even just one sin destroys so much good that was there...

Teenagers: YOU CANNOT SIN AND WIN!!!!!

It only takes one sin to destroy SO MUCH GOOD IN YOUR LIFE!! Don't play with it! RUN FROM SIN!!
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5 comments:

AngelWings said...

Yes, violence is not definately not the answer! just as the verses state. In verse 17, it says that the words of wise men are not heard as much as fools words, meaning that we often hear more people telling another person that they will fight someone becuase they are mad at them and they think that fighting can solve their situations(which can't), instead of using wise words and talk things out with them. At school, I can tell that some kids find it really hard not to punch someone, just by the way they interact and talk, but they should think of it this way: if they use violence for everything, it's just making them more foolish and sinful day by day. Having wisdom, now, people use knowledge and strategies and it's much better to 'think' situations out, trying to find a peace in mind when they are troubled by somone who is giving them serious problems. The very last verse is important too because it says that when someone falls into sin, it can take away the much good that's in them, so we need to be careful (by using our wisdom) to NOT get involved with sinful situations so we can grow closer to the Lord.
~Victoria

April 3, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Godservant said...

"You cannot sin and win"

-Pastor Lee Tomlin

I have witnessed people trying to do bad things, thinking they can get away with it, and 95% of the time, they don't. Why do I say only 95%? Because sometimes people may get away with their crimes ON EARTH. Like the John bennet ramsey case. They have never caught the person who killed her. HOWEVER, GOD KNOWS WHO DID, AND YOU CAN SIN AND WIN IN THE HANDS OF MEN (though its hard), BUT NOT IN THE HANDS OF GOD!

April 3, 2009 at 7:27 PM
FoOtBaLl XtReMiSt (cary) said...

haha.. nice quote "you cannot sin and win".. but soo true.. you can not be living in sin and be having a happy christ-filled life.. its just not possible.

April 3, 2009 at 8:09 PM
Tylermon33 said...

it is so true that wisdom is better and more powerful than brute force because brute force just causes problems when wisdom solves problems. everyone these days would rather have strength over widsom. a good example of that is that they always have tv shows with big buff guys like: WWE, The World's Strongest Man, MMA, and so on. but they never have shows were there are really wise people unless it is dealing with the news and the economy (but that doesn't count...lol). it is also true that "you cannot sin and win". just look at samson...he had everything and he was doing it for God (I think), but then he got caught up is sin and lost everything and ended up dying because of it. so wisdom is better then strength and "you cannot sin in win"...like Pastor Lee said.


P.S. sorry I haven't been doing my devos. lately...I have no excuse except for being lazy. I am going to try to start doing my devos. again.

April 3, 2009 at 8:28 PM
♥Music♫GivesMeLife♥ said...

Not many people appreciate someone who only has wisdom. They may not be the strongest, for example 'nerds' or 'geeks,' so people make fun of them or ignore them, etc. However, wisdom is more important than strength and ability. For instance, in the book I'm reading, The Host, the souls that take over the humans' world do not believe in violence, and they think humans are unnecessarily violent, which is probably true. That book makes you think a little. Anyway, so the souls have much better medicine than humans ever did, it works EVERY TIME. They are smarter and better, but who says they're stronger? Well they could be, but you get the point. Your mind is the most important tool, and without it, you can't do anything with your arms for strength. Yeah and you cannot get sucked into the sins of other people. It's hard, no doubt, but it's possible. You have to follow the Lord, or you can mess up your whole life. They are an INFINITE number of examples of teenagers who have messed up their whole lives because of ONE bad decision they made. Follow the advice of the Lord, back away from temptation, and you'll be fine. It's better to be smart than strong, or cool, or popular; just do what you know is the right thing to do. Don't follow the footsteps of somebody else, follow Jesus's footsteps.

April 4, 2009 at 7:54 PM

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