We pride ourselves as a culture on our ability to improve and make progress as human beings. We develop new ways of doing many of the same old tasks and celebrate that we can do them faster than ever. But is that improvement? Have we yet been able to use technology to produce a better human being? We are inundated with reams of paper and data, the internet is full of information, our ability to store knowledge and then share it in computer clouds is immense, but has wisdom – the applied use of that – increased at all?
I simply cannot say that it has. We seem to be repeating, at a greater pace and with more boldness the same old sins that have brought down every culture and country before us. We have opportunities to know more and know even less about how to utilize what we know. To subscribe to Christian values in that use seems to be just one more option among many for all of us. All of this keeps us in the place of self-assertion. Unless and until we fail at being knowledgeable and wise, we do not recognize our own limits and lack of power. It is then that wisdom can take hold and remind us that God’s wisdom is beyond ours and God’s power is greater than ours. Wisdom begins when we turn to God in reverence and continues when we follow in obedience. Pride will keep us from wisdom at every turn simply because it seeks to hide our inadequacies and keep us from admitting our limits.
The famous philosopher Hobbes once wrote that the good life was like a highway that belonged to a King. The highway was designed for smooth travel on the journey through life. Along the sides of the highway were penetrable hedges, meant to insure travelers stayed on the straight highway. If travelers decided to leave the roadway, they took upon themselves the dangers and hidden hazards that existed there. To become prideful was to leave the highway that was clearly marked and navigable for the open country that was not.
I think history shows us that when we leave the highway of the King, marked out for us in God’s Word, we do so at our own peril. We suffer the moral, social and political consequences and often do so pridefully, believing that whatever end we achieved, the means were fully justified. At that level hubris, destruction is inevitable. The only course back is the course of repentance, which is exactly what the word means in the language of original New Testament. It is a turning around and going the other way – the way of humility, the way of God’s mercy, the wise way.
See you soon in the place where He gives strength to the weary and wisdom to those who ask in faith.
Pastor Mark
for their Dinner Theater? If so, please call the church office to talk Mitzi.
Serving in Ministry
January Greeters-Team #1
8:00 Wendy Dickman, Mona Lindly,
Jeanne Baker
9:30 Gail Hernandez, Laurie McBride,
Bobbie Rettig, Jeanne Baker
11:00 Betty Rae & Jerry Barney, Diane Jackson,
Richard & Barbara Kusserow
January Ushers-Team #1
8:00 Doyle & Sara Smith, Dick Johnson,
Joy Wilson
9:30 Ann & Larry Rothman, Robert Ferrell,
Bobbie Rettig, Virginia Cabero
11:00 Jerry Wallace, Gary & Susan Noble,
Sandra & Gene Myers, Bill Peters
Coffee Time
9:00 Roberta Harrison & LaVonne McMillan
10:30 Michelle & Tony Aguilar & family
Muggers
Jerry Barney
Media Ministry
Manny González, Bob Phillips, Mike Jacobs,
Dave Beck, Don Wilkinson, Marty Alexander
The Gathering Band
Alan Shioji, Felipe Perez, Jackie Gaines, Charles Ogren, Steve Putnicki,
Paul Behrendsen, Adrien Reyes, Melissa Ogren, Dave Boone, Mary Gaddy
Hospital Ministry Visitor
Roberta Harrison
Acolytes
8:00 Luke & Nathan Speelman
11:00 Sophia Valenti & Denali Gonzales
Altar Flowers
Today’s altar flowers are given by Sandra Myers, in memory of my mother, Hazel Bennett
Disciples . . .Experience and express freedom as loving God and loving neighbor.
Romans 12: 1-8
