FROM WISDOM TO FOOLISHNESS

Today’s Reading: 1 Kings 11

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

On the right are ruins of a corridor in Pergamum, in ancient Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. In the centre, idol worship took place at the Temple of Athena. In the world of King Solomon and his many wives, idol worship was the normal religious practice.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verse: 1 Kings 11:4

For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord Jesus, in You “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” I pray that I will continue to discover this hidden treasure. I’m reading, marking, memorizing Your treasure map, the Bible, every day. The cross marks the spot where You, Lord God, intersected with the human race. I may be here in one spot, but by faith I travel to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to the place of Your ascension, and on into Your very Presence where “You ever live to make intercession for me” (Hebrews 7:25). Thank You that I am discovering Your wisdom. Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

God willing, I plan to meet Solomon again when we arrive in our two-year through-the-Bible voyage of discovery at the book of 1st Chronicles, and then again in Proverbs. In fact, as I leave Solomon for now, Solomon wrote or assembled most of the Proverbs during those early years when he practised what he preached. My son, David Reynold Mainse, has my Dad’s old Bible as a treasure. Its words are underlined, commented on in the margins, marked by a caressing hand and sometimes tear drops. My most persistent memory of my mother, who died when I was 12, is of her kneeling in prayer for long periods of time. The picture that comes to mind of my Dad most often is of him sitting in his chair, his Bible open on his lap. He was schooled in undergraduate theology by Dr. Peter Wiseman, who, during the early years of the People’s Church, Toronto, was the Bible teacher of choice every Sunday morning. Founding Pastor, Oswald J. Smith, felt that his own main gift in ministry was in preaching Sunday evening soul-winning messages of evangelism. My Dad earned a doctorate, and to the day of his death (I’ve already lived more than four years longer than he did), he poured over the Scriptures, constantly reading, meditating, inwardly digesting what he read, and praying for God’s wisdom to fill his mind. Dad was outside shovelling snow when his heart failed. He laid aside his winter coat and donned his heavenly robe. If I had control over my time to go, I’d like to be reading the Gospels in the middle of one of Jesus’ statements and finish His sentence by memory as I take off for the Celestial City.

Yours for wisdom and grace to obey God,

David

P.S. I’ve asked my missionary/photographer son to take some pictures of my Dad’s Bible, of both the outside and inside of the verse mentioned earlier, 1st Corinthians 3:21-23. The photos are below.