Dog…err…cat…gone

Well, I guess I’m not a cat person. The little gray one seems to have moved on as well. Since I’ve gotten out of college, I’ve wanted a dog. But it has occurred to me a number of times, and sometimes not so subtly, that I am gone way too much to have a pet long term. It’s sad but true. I’m glad I learned that lesson with stray cats instead of a dog that I had to pay for, though. I would hate to think that I ruined a dog for life! Listen to me. I sound like a nervous first-time parent! There will come a day, someday, when I’m able to enjoy the company of man’s best friend and have the time and dedication to care for one the right way. Until then, youth ministry!

Proverbs 8:6-7 in the NLT says, “Listen to me! For I have excellent things to tell you. Everything I say is right, for I speak the truth and hate every kind of deception”. I really like these parts of Proverbs that personify Wisdom and Folly, specifically Wisdom. This is another section where she is calling out to all that will hear and giving them the truth. Sometimes she’s gentle and pleading, but others she’s pretty blunt with the fact that people are pretty dumb and need what she has. These two verses serve to reveal a little bit of the character of Wisdom. She says “Everything I say is right”, and she tells us why. First, she speaks the truth. That’s a great start. However, in today’s culture where truth is relative and can be different from one person to the next, this might not hold water for some. I think the second part does well to fill in the blanks. “…And hate every kind of deception” covers the bases that the first may have missed for some. No one likes to be lied to or to be deceived. But if truth only goes so far as being true for you, if someone else’s truth crosses paths with your own and leaves you feeling slighted, deceived, or used, how truthful is that? No, truth is a constant: something that can be proven across the board, for everyone, everywhere. If someone is claiming to give the truth but is himself not truthful, then the message is severely hampered or lost completely. Wisdom hates deception and in the NAS says “wickedness is an abomination to my lips”! An abomination is something that is hated and is disgusting to a person. If deception is that to Wisdom, then you can be assured that what is being said is not deception in any sense. God, speaking through the character Wisdom, is crying out to us today to embrace his words because they are true and excellent.

Big Deal starts at 7 pm and goes to 8:30.
Sign up for Windows of the World/National Missionary Convention Oct 1-3. Cost will be in the neighborhood of $60.

Later…