"So that your trust may be in the Lord, I have taught you today, even you. Have I not written to you excellent things of counsels and knowledge, to make you know the certainty of the words of truth that you may correctly answer him who sent you?" (Proverbs 22:19-21, NASB)
The margin in my NASB translates, "I have made you know....Have I not written to you previous things of counsels and knowledge, to make you know truth, that you may return to words of truth?" Notice that the writer is speaking of, "previous things." They are, "things," written and spoken before, "to make you return to words of truth...."
Beware of attempting to answer the world with something new; it never works. If my answer, response to this present world system and those who are enslaved to it is not, "return to words of truth," words which are, "God-Breathed--previous things of counsels and knowledge," I am out of my regenerated sphere. A Follower of Jesus does not reason as the world reasons. He does not "answer" as the world answers. His, "counsels and knowledge," does not make sense to the unregenerate; never will. I am not just writing of quoting the Bible. That can be in way too many cases just Phariseeism I am writing of the, "Words of God," continually shaping my world view and life style, "that you can correctly answer him who sent you."
The only way to reach a world steeped in humanism and me-ism is to offer them Jesus Christ, Who Himself is, "previous things of counsels and knowledge, to make [them, him, her] know truth, that [they] may return to words of truth". When I was in the university and graduate school this aggravated, frustrated, indeed, angered my contemporaries. It also followed me at times in pastoral ministry. It reminded me of the old series back in the 1950s, "Sea Hunt." The star, who was an expert swimmer, expert in working in water would get into a fight on board a boat. He would usually be in danger of getting beat. Then he would force the battle overboard into the water, his element, and there win the day. Take heed.
Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to always recognize my sphere/element. Amen.
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Israeli Prime Minister dealing with Jerusalem attacks: jhs58.blogspot.com
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
