WISDOM'S CHILDREN

[episkopos]

WISDOM'S CHILDREN

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: 2 Chronicles 9:1-12

...But wisdom is justified of her children. (Matthew 11:19)

When someone is wise he brings forth a certain kind of fruit. These fruits or products are what we call the children of wisdom. Do you have these products in your life?If you do not have these children in your life, then perhaps you are not wise. King Solomon sought after wisdom and he described the result of having wisdom in his life (Ecclesiastes 2:4-8). As a result of wisdom, Solomon built houses, farms, gardens, and swimming pools. He had servants and maidens, great possessions, gold and silver. He was involved in development, and he produced greatness (Chronicles 2:1,5,9).

Wisdom brought Solomon promotion, and God's favour. "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall PROMOTE thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thoudost embrace her" (Proverbs 4:7,8)."Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For who so findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain FAVOUR of the LORD"(Proverbs 8:34,35).

When you go through this list of the children of wisdom, you will realize that being wise is better than being foolish. This is how to tell whether someone is wise-look for the children of wisdom. The Queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame, but she only believed when she saw the children of wisdom!

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

As a result of wisdom, Solomon built houses, farms, gardens, and swimming pools. He had servants and maidens, great possessions, gold and silver. He was involved in development, and he produced greatness

The question becomes, was the development God's desire, or Solomon's? Other things Solomon did were not so wise. Three hundred wives, 700 concubines. He worshiped the idols of his thousand women. A fully established kingdom was handed over to him, even though he was not the rightful heir to the throne, and it flourished, as long as he was faithful. Upon his death -- premature at age 60 (we should ask why) -- the kingdom shattered.

How wise was Solomon, really?

 

[Deborah13]

The question becomes, was the development God's desire

My sister sent this to me.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class... had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on) These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

 

[Sparkey]

"OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A

If no one will fail, how then did all fail? I don't get it. How did the "third test" result in an "F" grade? What does it mean, "no one will fail"?? That economist needs to take an accounting class. What would have happened if everybody scored an A? Would all get and A? I really don't understand, nor would I enter into a "rigged" failure like that. Maybe that was the point. The good ol', "if the professor thinks Obama lied, then it's okay for the professor to lie," fallacy? Sounds like the instructor needs and ethics and an accounting class now. I wonder if that "local college" was local to your sister? Possibly not. It could be a fictitious "local college" that is supposedly "local" to all who read it?

 

[Sparkey]

I see another threat. Here's the scenario. First a little background - and pardon as I speak about gun control for a minute. Its just a vehicle to transport an idea. So, a little while ago (in 1990) there was an invention and a working model made of what is called a 3-D printer.

Also, during the Clinton presidency there was a ban on certain characteristics of certain firearms including large capacity clips and/or magazines.

The ban expired after 10 years and there is some debate surrounding the issue today but then comes another change. Now the clip and/or magazine is the most engineered piece of the modern weapon of today. It is one of the easier to control because import and sales and even possession could be regulated without violating 2nd Amendment rights (or so some argue). But between the time that the Clinton era ban expired and now there was some work done on that 3-D printer and its algorithms so that a private citizen can now "print" magazines and/or clips in their home or garage easily. It's not "cheap" yet, but it's possible.

Okay, background information over. Now a little conjecture on my part. I've not heard of this before so there is no evidence to support the thought but...

What if the "trend" continued and there was some method of manufacture that continued the distribution of production from a centralized source toward a more distributed source. Maybe not one 3-D printer, but maybe one good one in every town? And what if the material that was used (plastic?) as the "paper" in this 3-D printer was made readily available so that during the outflow of the "tide" of distribution (we've seen this before, the tide goes in and production is centralized, the tide goes out and it is distributed -- it is the exact same thing for information flow and those in IT have seen it all before) but what if raw materials become more and more available and the net effect is seen as a step toward a more Utopian society?

Let's get on the bandwagon, right? Throw in some "modern" miracle inventions like a cure or something and make it cheap and easy too and the "health care nuts" are in the band. Let it be a savings to the environment and here comes the woodwind section and the band begins to play, right?

Then... what then...

Are we ripe for the pickin yet? No, one more thing. Let's do away with the old and expensive concept of cash and ensure identity protection and there you go. Fresh fruit, ready to pick. Now why don't those Christians see what is good for all? Huh? Why?

Wisdom is to be desired. Understanding is to depart evil.