“For a while the dean’s office made an exception to the rule about required church. The edict was handed down that a student might attend a religious discussion group instead, and those groups were scheduled to take place before church in order to prevent boys from attending only so they could get a little more sleep on Sunday mornings. For that reason only the most radical dissenters attended, and it was one of those—a lean, freckle-faced senior—who turned to me once, thin-lipped with anger, and said, “So what’s so good about religion anyway?” and I found myself speechless. I felt surely there must be something good about it. Why else was I there? But for the moment I couldn’t for the life of me think what it was. Maybe the truth of it is that religion the way he meant it—a system of belief, a technique of worship, an institution—doesn’t really have all that much about it that is good when you come right down to it, and perhaps my speechlessness in away acknowledged as much. Unless you become like a child, Jesus said, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and maybe part of what that means is that in the long run what is good about religion is playing the way a child plays at being grown up until he finds that being grown up is just another way of playing and thereby starts to grow up himself. Maybe what is good about religion is playing that the Kingdom will come, until—in the joy of your playing, the hope and rhythm and comradeship and poignance and mystery of it—you start to see that the playing is itself the first-fruits of the Kingdom’s coming and of God’s presence within us and among us.” (Buechner, Frederick. Listening to Your Life. HarperOne. Kindle Edition.)

The gift of knowledge…a Word of knowledge – increasing our knowledge should be a lifetime endeavor. Those who have the gift of knowledge have the insight into retaining and understanding all kinds of knowledge. For Christians knowledge would be formed by scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and then G-d’s revelations would inform that knowledge with spiritual insight. We see the bible as the word of truth that G-d has given to all of creation. This then is one source of knowledge for us in our search for the ability to have an in-depth understanding of spiritual issues or situations.

Those with spiritual knowledge have an understanding of G-d’s ways, but only to the point that any one of us might hope to gain such knowledge – for many of the things of G-d remain shrouded in mystery. And knowledge should not be used to gain power over others because knowledge is a powerful thing.

The struggle for the church is to be able to see knowledge as predominantly inspired through the Holy Spirit, and G-d’s Word in scripture. And those with knowledge should be encouraged to teach those who thirst for knowledge.

Pastor Dave

“Agnes Sanford…was recommended to me by a friend as a fascinating and deeply spiritual woman who had had remarkable success as a faith healer. “Spiritual” was another of those words that I always choked on a little, and faith-healing was something I associated with charlatans and the lunatic fringe; but since my friend had only recently left the college chaplaincy to become a Jungian analyst, I couldn’t dismiss him as easily taken in, so I decided to accept his recommendation and go. I saw Agnes Sanford first in the dingy front hall of the building where the talks were to take place, and after no more than a few minutes’ conversation with her, I felt as sure as you can ever be in such matters that if there was such a thing as the Real Article in her line of work, then that was what she was. The most vivid image she presented was of Jesus standing in church services all over Christendom with his hands tied behind his back and unable to do any mighty works there because the ministers who led the services either didn’t expect him to do them or didn’t dare ask him to do them for fear that he wouldn’t or couldn’t and that their own faith and the faith of their congregations would be threatened as the result. I recognized immediately my kinship with those ministers. Agnes Sanford said…‘You had to expect. You had to believe.’ As in Jesus’ parables of the Importunate Friend and the Unjust Judge, you had to keep at it. It took work. It took practice, was in that sense not unlike the Buddhist Eightfold Path. More than anything else, it took faith. It was faith that unbound the hands of Jesus so that through your prayers his power could flow and miracles could happen, healing could happen, because where faith was, healing always was too, she said, and there was no power on earth that could prevent it.” (Buechner, Frederick. Listening to Your Life. HarperOne. Kindle Edition.)

Is there a teacher you had at one time whom you thought had the gift of wisdom? Or did you grow up thinking one of your parents or a grandparent was wise? What made them wise in your understanding? The gift of wisdom, in biblical terms would be the ability to make decisions and give guidance according to G-d’s will. We know that Solomon had asked G-d for wisdom, as it reads:

“That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him: “Ask. What should I give you?” Lord God, let Your promise to my father David now come true. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10 Now grant me wisdom and knowledge so that I may lead these people, for who can judge this great people of Yours?” 2 Chronicles 1:7-10

The gift of wisdom describes someone who can understand and speak forth biblical truth in such a way as to skillfully apply it to life situations with all discernment. And discernment is one of the necessary tools for seeking wisdom. Buechner writes: “It was faith that unbound the hands of Jesus so that through your prayers his power could flow and miracles could happen, healing could happen, because where faith was, healing always was too, Agnes said…”

Discernment is always a part of wisdom – but apart from discernment we must believe that the wisdom of Jesus will flow through us throughout our lives. This is why we pray for discernment, and we pray for wise minds as we seek to live out the Christ-like life.

Pastor Dave