FEBRUARY 11 "WHERE IS WISDOM?"

 For 3 days we have been reading on wisdom.  The conclusion in today's reading is..."whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death".  Wisdom here is a metaphor, but this statement is literal. Those who hate wisdom will end up dead quicker than most of us, but what about those of us that don't necessarily "hate" wisdom, but just kind of in the middle? We may end up being the most miserable. We don't love or cherish it enough for it (wisdom) to benefit us, we don't hate it enough to where we will probably die for lack of it, so we just remain in this quagmire....of ...of misery. I am currently in a a very complex situation concerning my taxes, having lived, resided, worked and been a citizen of two countries in one year makes is very difficult to file tax returns.  The complication of doing my taxes far exceeds any financial benefit to me (as I have had to hire a CPA in each country), to the point that I (not wisdom) would say, "forget it, who cares", but WISDOM cries out (as in our text) "do it right, the first time and it will save you trouble in the long run". To be honest, I have not always loved wisdom, as a matter of a fact, she (wisdom) has gotten on my nerves many times, it's just my bad nature and the rebel within. How many times have I heard the voice of wisdom and ignored her? How many times have YOU heard the voice of wisdom and ignored her?  What I like about wisdom is anyone can love Wisdom, Christian and non-Christian alike. Wisdom (like God) is no respecter of persons.  Wisdom says, " I will benefit any prosper "ANYONE" that loves and cherishes me. The fact is, there are many Christians who sit in the church, sins forgiven & redeemed but still have not learned to value and cherish wisdom.  They are forgiven (thank God) but their lives are plagued with problems.  Wisdom is a complex thing in itself, as there are so many facets, Wisdom is mixed in with understanding and prudence, they come in a package, to possess one, you must possess them all. Wisdom is not one dimensional, you cannot say, " I have wisdom here, in this area, therefore I possess  all wisdom".  No, I would say, "you possess wisdom in that one area".  Many successful people in our society possess wisdom in areas of life, such as: career and secular decisions but don't possess wisdom concerning their eternal future and security. They are the neighbors we hate because they seem to have it more together than we do, and truth be known, they sometimes do and this is the reason. Christians have wisdom in sight of eternity, they see and have enough wisdom to fear God, but that is only one aspect of wisdom, but for many Christians, it ends there! The have wisdom to fear God, but every other decision they make seems to be one that blows off wisdom and they make one unwise decision after another. Why did you do that? Why did you ignore that matter? Why did you say that? These are the questions that Wisdom would have asked and they are the questions we ask, from the outside looking in, we think, "did they not think that this would come back to haunt them? Statistics show that many Christian marriages will end in divorce in a few years, many Christians will file Bankruptcy in a few years, many Christians will die of diabetes and other health related problems in a few years and we can only sit back and ask, "did you not think these decisions or lack of decisions would not come back to nip you in the but, harm you or even kill you?" THE POINT IS....Wisdom is not an automatic virtue that comes at salvation; salvation brings with it forgiveness of sins, deliverance and eternal life, but wisdom, just like before you were saved, still is looking for those that will cry out for her, still looking for those that will cherish her above all things and from now to eternity, the promise will ALWAYS be, "Blessed will be the man who listens to me.....but whoever fails to listen will harm himself; all who hate me loved death".  You think you will be blessed just because you're a Christian?!  Think again and look around at your brothers and sisters in Christ and you will see this is not true. Question is, do you possess wisdom and if so in what facet, just one? The bible says if you will seek wisdom you will find her. What is wisdom crying out to you today, to do?  Will you do it? Do you love and cherish wisdom? Ignore wisdom, don't cherish her and you will live a Christian life, plagued with one problem after another (this is what proverbs means by "you will be harmed) while you watch the ungodly prosper because though they may not have wisdom to fear God, they listen to the voice of reason, wisdom, understanding and prudence on every other facet and it is sad when we watch the lives of those who don't fear God, run smoother and better lives, than those of us that do. We cannot say, " i have the wisdom to fear God" and that's all that matters, i don't care about the rest....if you live long enough, you will learn to care and you will learn to regret, hopefully sooner than later.....your disregard for....WISDOM!!!