From the Kitchen Table

The Kitchen Table Devotions:          The Game of Life Day 56

“Wisdom”

Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? ³ I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish                  Luke 13:1-3

Without the wisdom of God, we are left with the worries of man.  Speculations and superstitions rule the man who lives by the wisdom of man, rather than the Master.  It’s not how we die but how we live.  Fear with its’ fibs brings us death before we die.  Jesus will say it twice that unless we repent, we will all likewise perish.  Until Jesus comes back, we will all die but some people will die before they die because they won’t have the wisdom of God to live free from fear.  Speculations and superstitions thrive on fear.  The only way out of the worries of man is through “repentance” where we walk away from the worries of man to hold onto the wisdom of God.  That takes “repentance” where we recognize and release the failure of what we did think and recognize and receive the fruit of what God thinks.  If it doesn’t line up with God’s word, lay it down for what God says.  That’s wisdom!

The Kitchen Table Devotions:          The Game of Life Day 54

“Wisdom”

They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. John 8:6

Wisdom works, it doesn’t get worked.  Those who love wisdom love and save their own soul.  Wickedness sabotages the soul of a man, contaminating his own conscience and ruining his own reputation.  When we can’t be honest and honorable, we become hateful and harmful to ourselves and others.  The preacher of Proverbs wrote:

He who gets wisdom loves his own soul;
He who keeps understanding will find good.
⁹ A false witness will not go unpunished,
And he who tells lies will perish.
¹⁰ Luxury is not fitting for a fool;
Much less for a slave to rule over princes.
¹¹ A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger,
And it is his glory to overlook a transgression. Proverbs 19:8-11

Jesus, with wisdom, would not be worked by the crowd but rather worked His wisdom on the crowd, saving and building a life.  Walk in the wisdom of God, not the ways of man and love your own soul.

The Kitchen Table Devotions:          The Game of Life  Day 53

“Wisdom”

Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

John 8:10-11

Wisdom rules over wickedness by judging the person as valuable.  When we judge the person as worthless rather than the perspective, practices and passions of that person, wickedness wins.  We find wisdom in valuing the people, perspectives, practices, and passions God values.  The wise professor of Proverbs wrote:

Then he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
Keep my commandments and live;
⁵  Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!
Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
⁶ “Do not forsake her, and she will guard you;
Love her, and she will watch over you.
⁷ “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom;
And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
⁸ “Prize her, and she will exalt you;
She will honor you if you embrace her. Proverbs 4:4-8

Wisdom is found in what we value and lost in what we violate.

The Kitchen Table Devotions:          The Game of Life Day 52

“Wisdom”

“He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7

The Proverbs say…

The LORD by wisdom founded the earth,
By understanding He established the heavens.
²⁰ By His knowledge the deeps were broken up
And the skies drip with dew.
²¹ My son, let them not vanish from your sight;
Keep sound wisdom and discretion,
²² So they will be life to your soul
And adornment to your neck.
²³ Then you will walk in your way securely
And your foot will not stumble.
²⁴ When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
²⁵  Do not be afraid of sudden fear
Nor of the  onslaught of the wicked when it comes;
²⁶ For the LORD will be your confidence
And will keep your foot from being caught.

Proverbs 3:19-26

Wisdom uncovers and understands wickedness, a perversion of the truth.  The pretense of the Pharisees that day was the law, but the truth was they were lying about their true motives.  They wanted to trap Jesus.  Wickedness works that way to warp our vision and wreck our values.  Get the wisdom of God.  The more we understand who God is, the more we will understand who man is not.

The Kitchen Table Devotions:  The Game of Life Day 51

“Wisdom”

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”                                       John 8:12

Something else we need as we travel through this life is wisdom.  The preacher of Proverbs writes:

​¹ My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
²  Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding; Proverbs 2:1-2

And then he says…

For the LORD gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6

To travel through this life, we all need light, and wisdom becomes the light we need for the journey we’re on.  Wisdom is the result of knowledge and understanding, of education and experience.  Those things are found in Jesus who lived constantly in the light of God.  In the dark, we hurt ourselves and others but in the light, we help ourselves and others.  Walk in the wisdom, the light of the world, Jesus.  Don’t just know what, know why; then you’ll know the when and where.  Find Jesus and follow Him!

The Kitchen Table Devotions:          The Game of Life  Day 50

“Sacred: Forgiveness”

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰ He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground                            Genesis 4:9-10

Something that is sacred to the family is forgiveness.  Forgiveness is sacred to any relationship, but especially to marriage and family.  And it’s not just a matter of releasing forgiveness, it is also a matter of receiving forgiveness.  Forgiveness isn’t just something we say, it’s something we surrender to. 

God came to Cain asking, “Where is Abel your brother?”  To forgive we need to know what we are forgiving.  To receive forgiveness, we need to know why we need forgiveness.  It’s at this point that Cain decides to live in frustration and failure rather than forgiveness.   Refusing to take responsibility and react in rebellion, Cain misses the opportunity to find forgiveness.  Left in his guilt, Cain finds himself with a life that is difficult and one that can’t produce to it’s potential.  Cain is left wandering in life and builds the city of Nod or the city/life of wandering. 

Forgiveness is key to every aspect of life and God comes to us with forgiveness if only we will surrender to it.  Forgiveness is sacred to the marriage, the family and the community.  Without it we are all left with a hole in our hearts.  Keep forgiveness sacred.  Do what it takes to find it for yourself or for others.  With forgiveness we can all move on in a life that has the potential of God to satisfy.   

The Kitchen Table Devotions:          The Game of Life  Day 49

“Sacred:  The Spirit”

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰ He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.                            Genesis 4:9-10

Take care of your heart,  your spirit, it is the heartbeat of your life.  Your spirit is the one thing that comes directly from God, to be with God and live for God.  (Zech 12:1)  It is sacred and if we don’t handle it with honor, we will hurtle it with hurt.  Our spirit is to be the motivation of our lives.  If we don’t take care of the inside, we won’t be able to care for the outside

God came to Cain and asked, “Where is your brother?”  Dealing with the spirit of a man involves asking good questions, not making bad statements.  God comes caring for Cain, but Cain must care too.  Defiant and defensive Cain rejects responsibility and chooses to remain in resentment and rebellion.  That becomes Cain’s choice, but it also becomes Cain’s curse.  Cursed because he wouldn’t repent before God and yet God still acts in kindness toward Cain.  Cain brought it on himself, and so do we when we refuse to take responsibility for our lives and reject God’s great love.  We end up cursing the very things we want and need.

God created the family to nurture the spirit and God shows us how to do that sort of thing.  Approaching and asking in love we address the spirit, not the skin.  If we are willing to address the inside, we will be able to act on the outside.  Keep your spirit sacred.

The Kitchen Table Devotions: The Game of Life Day 48

“Sacred: The Family”

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? Genesis 4:6
Everybody is somebody’s child, and everybody should be in somebody’s family. God has ordained the family for everybody to be under somebody’s care. The family is to be sacred and everyone in the family is sacred to God. All lives matter and those that don’t, don’t think all lives matter either.
Families are filled with faces and faces fill the family’s time. The Bible says, “A joyful heart makes a cheerful face.” (Prov 15:13) and “As water reflects the face, so the heart of a man reflects the man.” (Prov 27:19) What’s really sacred, isn’t the smile but the spirit of a person. But if you watch the face you can see the spirit. God came to Cain asking, “And why has your countenance changed?” Cain had become offended and angry. He had become offended and angry because he wouldn’t trust God. That’s the issue in every angry life. Cain brought God what was leftover. Able brought God what was first. Able trusted God first, Cain turned to God last. That’s not how life works. But God came to Cain, like every parent should with their children, and asked why he had lost his smile, told him where he could find a new one and pointed out what would happen when he did find a new smile. What’s really important is not the smile but the spirit, however, the spirit affects the smile.
Everybody needs somebody to care about their spirit. God made the family and the church family for that very cause. That will mean keeping their face in our eyes, their spirit in our hearts, and the person in our space and time.

The Kitchen Table Devotions:  The Game of Life           Day 47

“Sacred:  The Family”

To the woman, He said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”                        Genesis 3:16

Adam and Eve didn’t keep sacred what was sacred.  They placed their wants over God’s word.  The cost was great, and pain and peril entered the world.  There would be pain in having and raising children.  There would be pain because now it would be done in man’s strength and there would be peril because man would now find himself under the devil’s strength.  Jesus once said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)  However, God had already provided a family.  Family was sacred before it was significant.  Family is a God idea.

God had provided a family to provide and protect those in the family.  Having children would be difficult.  Raising children would be dangerous because everyone would now have an enemy, the devil.  The devil would bite at the heel.  God said, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)  Enmity is hatred.  There would be conflict, but God had provided family.  Keep it sacred!  God has a way.  Jesus gives us life and He gives us life abundantly.  Take care of things spiritually and you can enjoy things physically.  Family done God’s way will set us free from the enemy’s schemes and set us up for the Creator’s success.  Keep it sacred!

The Kitchen Table Devotions:          The Game of Life  Day 46

“Sacred:  The Family”

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth                                          Genesis 1:28

Keep sacred what is sacred; live by the word of God rather than the worries of man.  Remember this, family is a God idea, and it thrives on God’s instruction.  Family is God’s provision, protection, and purpose for parents, children, and society.  In the family, a person can discover God’s passion, power, and purpose for their lives.  That’s what God had in mind.  Be fruitful, multiply, and rule over life and in life so that everyone in the household will learn to be fruitful, multiply and rule with God over life and in life.  God created the family to be the incubator of tomorrow, and good or bad, that’s what family becomes.

The problem for the family is that people don’t make it sacred before they have one.  Understand that the greatest threat to the family is the flesh, not the foe.  We fall into the hands of the foe by learning to live in the habits of the flesh.  When we live a selfish life, we become obligated to the whims of our flesh rather than the wants of our faith.   Paul says that we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:12-13).  God chose the family to bring fulfillment, not frustration; deal with the flesh and you can delight in the family.