A Letter To My Children

Dear ones,

I want you to think for a minute about what real wisdom is. I have gone back to Psalm 111:10 once again. There is so much there. How my heart longs that you would fear God…..that you would shun the wisdom of the world and fear God. You can be wise in the things of the world and still fear God.

All the wisdom of the world, without the fear of God is vanity. All who live their lives without knowledge of the purpose they were born for are fools. Normally those who protect their own interest, have business savvy, and even are good at deceiving people for the purpose of gain, are looked at as wise. But even if that is true, their wisdom is unprofitable and twisted, because true wisdom manifests itself in fearing God.

“The beginning of wisdom”,….. that phrase has caused many to think that the fear of God is kind of like a key to wisdom, but that is not true. The fear of God is absolutely comprehensive in understanding God, living for God, knowing about life and what we are to do.

It is a fear of His goodness and grace. A fear of offending someone so good and kind as He is. Think for a minute about what Jesus did on the cross for you. How knowing before the world was created, that He was going to take on Himself the sins of His people, and that you were one of His people.(Of this the scripture is absolutely clear. God knew who were His, not because of some merit or choice He foresaw in them, but because of His own mere pleasure, He loved His own before the creation of the world.)

And so, He took all of your sins on Himself. Of course, He also took on himself the sins of every one of His own, but what is important right now is that you understand that He actually took your sins on Himself while hanging on the cross. And think about how He suffered. How they mocked Him in a mock trial, placing a crown made of thorns on His head and beating upon it with canes so that it pierced down threw His skin and into his skull. Slapping and punching Him in the face and tempting Him to guess who was hitting Him, so many threw the blows. Oh, He knew. Yet nothing could keep Him from what He was going to do for you. He knew that without His suffering, you would have no hope. How He took the beatings with the cat o’ nine tails. A cruel leather whip with many strands laced with broken glass, shards of pottery and metal. They whipped Him 40 times. Count them out. And with every whip the glass and shards buried themselves in His precious skin. Then the executioner would rip the strands out of His body tearing flesh and muscle until the Bible says that looking at Jesus, you could not tell He was a man. A man shaped form of blood and tissue walked up the hill of Calvary to hang on the cross for you. They spit on Him and tore out His beard on the way up. He fell and stained the pathway up the hill with the blood He was shedding for you. I can barely described the scene as they threw Him down, stretched Him out on the cross and pounded large Roman nails through His hands and feet. They raised Him up on the cross and He hung there, bleeding and gasping until He had shed down the cross all that was necessary for death to come and for the price of your salvation to be paid. Then He determined to die and said “It is finished.” I have barely scratched the surface, because He endured so much on our behalf. He was forsaken by the Father as He took your sins on Himself. Think of that. The Son of God, forsaken by God the Father, for you. The wages of sin is death, but Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God. He had no sins to die for. So the agreement between the Son and the Father was that the Son would take your sins and my sins on Himself and die for them. And pay for them He did. He died…..And then, He rose from the dead to prove that He was worthy to do what He did. And He is alive today and speaking to you right now. Gently calling you to love and adore Him. All of your sins are gone. Worship Him. Bow down and praise Him. Never intentionally sin. If you do, think about what Jesus has done for you in His goodness and repent. And then praise Him for His grace and goodness. Fear to offend such love.

Psalm 111:10 says that all who have a good understanding practice the fear of the Lord. What is it to practice the fear of the Lord? It is to live daily with the knowledge and memory of what He has done for you, is doing for you and will do for you. But mainly it is the knowledge of who He is. Read the entire chapter again. This is our God. Full of splendor and majesty. Never was there such a King. What a mighty God. And gracious! He is Holy and awesome. And He is our Lord and our God. Hallelujah!

Now, …look at the promises in Psalm 112 of the one who fears the Lord.

I love you all.