Forthright Magazine http://forthright.net Straight to the Cross Wisdom is also choosing well. http://is.gd/choose CHOOSE! 13 Choices to Transform Your Heart and Soul COLUMN: FINAL PHASE The Invitation of Wisdom in the Streets by J. Randal Matheny, editor http://wp.me/p1HIjv-2pg On an Internet devotional site the book of Proverbs was abbreviated as Prob. Or maybe they were referring to the book of Probabilities. • We are blessed that the Way is not based upon probabilities, but certainties. God is not the God of odds, but truths. How unsettling it must be to be an agnostic! • Wisdom speaks, yea, shouts in the streets, for she does not speak in generalities or probabilities: "But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm" (Proverbs 1:33 NLT). • Like Christ, Wisdom is inviting and incisive. Inviting, because she desires to share and bless. Incisive, because she is no sloppy thinker, but gets straight to the point. • Because of such incisiveness, the gospel can get you killed. As the invitation to life, as the insistence on hearing the voice of the Resurrected One, some of the dead resent life. • Some saints among us are in no danger of death: we're neither incisive nor insistent. • Sacrifices in this life of lands and loves and limbs and liberties are well repaid, not only in eternal bliss, but in multiplied blessings in this world. • You may not have the deed to this world's blessings, but you have access, which is more important. • Spiritually, the new birth means the new family. That's gospel. That's the church. Amazing that some want to throw out the church as a part of the gospel! • Progressives sometimes have a point in their criticisms. But their solutions are worse than the problems, their cure kills the patient. • Ask yourself one question: When was the last time I was responsible—outside of my children—for the conversion of someone? So how am I fulfilling the Great Commission? • How to do that? Simple. One, get a tool, any good tool, learn it forwards and backwards. Two, ask everybody you know to sit and study the Bible with you. There, now you know. • Need a tool? Here's one./1 • Oh, by the way, this means cutting back on television, Facebook, video games, romance or action novels, or whatever you use to fill up your time when not fulfilling the Lord's commission. • Remember Lady Wisdom? She also says, "Do not withhold good from those who need it, when you have the ability to help" (Proverbs 3:27 NET). • When you don't share the gospel with the lost, doesn't that qualify as withholding good? • And, finally, this evangelistic reminder: "The fruit of the righteous is like a tree producing life, and the one who wins souls is wise" (Proverbs 11:30). • And that, my friends, is Wisdom in a nutshell. No Probabilities in that. _______ 1/ http://gospel.randal.fastmail.fm To comment on this article, don't reply to this email. Rather, go here and insert your comment in the box below the article: http://wp.me/p1HIjv-2pg You can help get the word out. Here's how: http://www.forthright.net/help/ __________ Forthright Magazine http://www.forthright.net Straight to the Cross Email sent from http://www.fastmail.fm