by Walt Henrichsen | May 21, 2018 | Articles, Mentors Corner
“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isaiah 46:10 If you desire a satisfactory relationship with God, two pillars must be firmly anchored in your life. You must believe that He is in control and that He has your best interest at heart. The sovereignty of God must be a deeply held conviction. When my son was dying of leukemia, a friend wrote, “I don’t know how this tragedy came about, but I do know that it did not come from God. God is not in the business of killing little children.” As I pondered his observation, I concluded that if God did not kill my son, then I have a far greater problem than my son dying. I worship a god who is not in control. God was not sitting on the edge of the universe chagrined over the disease that ravaged my son’s life. As I held my son in my arms while he slipped into eternity, I knew that I was experiencing the beautiful handiwork of God. This naturally leads to the second essential pillar: The goodness of God. God is good. He is incapable of doing anything but good. The debate, like so many debates in life, is over who gets to determine what good looks like. Do you truly believe that the hurts of life come from the hand of a good God who only does what is best for you? The writer of Hebrews, quoting from the Psalmist says, “The Lord...
by John Hartshorn | May 7, 2018 | Articles, Mentors Corner
In this final part of looking at the correlations and contrasts of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding (as they are mentioned in several instances together in Proverbs), we will consider “understanding”. With respect to the prior discussion on wisdom, it is interesting to note that wisdom and understanding occur together in the same phrase over 25 times in Proverbs in the NAS (New American Standard) translation . Trying to develop a basic definition for understanding can be a challenge. Seemingly, all of the dictionary definitions develop around “comprehension”. A definition I encountered several years ago said “Understanding is the capacity to make experience intelligible by applying concepts and categories”. Although I do not believe it was intended as a biblical definition, it has some valuable applications for thinking biblically. In our discussion on wisdom a suggested definition for wisdom was “Doing things God’s way”. For our discussion I might propose a definition for “understanding” might be “Seeing things God’s way”. One of the noticeable aspects of “understanding” is the variation of its implications and applications in Scripture. The Hebrew word translated most often as “understanding” is the verb [biyn], or one of its derivatives. One Bible dictionary commenting on the OT usage suggests it means ” . to separate, to distinguish. It is perceptive insight with the ability to judge.” It occurs nearly 250 times in the each of the NAS, ESV (English Standard Version), and KJV (King James Version) translations of the OT In the NT their are two words most often translated “understanding”. One is [suniemi], or one of its derivatives — meaning “to gain insight to...
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