“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.”
(Proverbs 6:6-8, ESV)
Ants are small, but they know their season. They store up food at the right time, discerning when to gather and when to rest. Jesus rebuked Jerusalem for not knowing “the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:44). Esau, in Hebrews 12:16-17, tragically missed his opportunity and could not recover it.
We live in a generation flooded with knowledge – the Word is published everywhere, on TV, radio, and the internet. Yet, are we discerning the season we live in? Are we storing up spiritual food, making the most of opportunities with our families, in our communities, and in our giving to God?
Let us pray for the wisdom of the ant – to know our weakness, to discern our season, and to act with timely obedience.
Prayer:
Father, help me to recognise the season I am in. Give me the wisdom to store up Your Word and to act when You call. Open my eyes to the opportunities around me today. Amen.
Over the next period, I will share small bites of wisdom from small things, four small things exceedingly great wisdom…
1: “Think Big, Learn Small, Act Fast – Wisdom for Restoration”
“Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise…”
(Proverbs 30:24, ESV)
In a world obsessed with the big and the bold, the Bible invites us to pay attention to the small and seemingly insignificant. Proverbs 30:24-28 lists four small creatures, each with a lesson for us in wisdom and restoration. These creatures – the ant, the rock badger, the locust, and the lizard – are not mighty in size, but their wisdom is profound.
Restoration in our lives often begins not with grand gestures, but with small, faithful steps. Jesus Himself wept over Jerusalem because they did not recognise “the time of [their] visitation” (Luke 19:44). How often do we miss God’s work because we overlook the small beginnings?
Let us learn to think big about God’s purposes but be willing to learn from small things and act quickly when God prompts us. The wisdom of the ant, the rock badger, the locust, and the lizard is for our day of restoration. May our eyes be open to see the wonder of the day we live in.
Prayer:
Lord, give me eyes to see Your wisdom in the small things. Help me to act quickly when You speak and to value the lessons of humility and faithfulness. Amen.
No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
Lessons from the Field
While watching my childhood game played by such good international teams, I reminisced about the days I played back in my hometown. Watching the back and forth of the match on televised, I eagerly observe the technical ability and the setting of set pieces, as they are called. Watching team rhythms and individual brilliance, whether it’s the strength or speed. However, undoubtedly, what will win matches are the push and thrust of individuals and teams that can be spontaneous, responding to the moment and keeping fluid and flexible.
Fluidity and Flexibility are key to being able to respond with initiative and rugby sense. So what’s that got to do with me, you may say, even if I like rugby or perhaps you dont like the game. Let me outline the necessary characteristics that individuals and the cooperative church need is to be flexible and fluid.
I find that many live in the church with informed laws and regulations. Even the world knows what the so-called church cannot do, and the laws and regulations are rather about what the church can do: blessing, empowerment, enlarging creation, and people bring maturity, and filling of Christ. All in all,
Religious prescription has taken away creativity; God desires that we become this heart and the expression of God in our inner being, showing what God is like. Being the demonstration of God in whatever world we enter. Faith, having the faith of Christ more accurately, is not about keeping prescriptions, but about being the image and likeness of God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have made us.
That we are called to stand as demonstrations of God’s view and thought, not being law keepers but being demonstrators of life, the life of God.
Let not leaders be so caught up in prescriptive laws, but foster maturity and cultivate the life of God in individuals and the corporate church, so that the world around us is awakened to a life beyond. A quality of life that is attractive and filled with Christ.
As life surrounds us with events and circumstances, as situations hijack us, and as plans become distorted and must change, we are those who become flexible. Ready to adjust, take a side step, slow down, speed up as our environment changes or experience changes before us. As events come from straight ahead but enter from the side, they invade our world seemingly illegitimately, which is beyond our control. We learn to be fluid, knowing the word of God is there to become our common sense, which enables our fluidity.
Beyond Prescriptions: Embracing Spirt life
The word of God is so ingrained in us that it is the base from which our thinking comes from, not that it’s a law outside of us, but as the scripture says, ‘written on our hearts’ (2 Cor. 3:3), it’s our way of living, our common sense. That is what flows from us, enabling our fluidity as our world sometimes throws all at us.
Keeping the Word of God at the forefront and centre, which if we live this way will enable our fluidity in progress. As Jesus encountered the religious leaders of His day, he would say “you say, but I say,” changing the prescriptions that govern their world, introducing us to fluidity. The woman caught in adultery—the law’s prescription says ‘stone her’, yet Jesus said ‘neither do I condemn you’.
Fluidity: The way of love
I could say that the law of love we are meant to embody, demonstrate, and express indeed requires us to be fluid; it truly does. There are no fixed laws, three instructions, two confessions, or four steps to get you out of every situation; otherwise, we will end up like on Jesus’ day when ten laws, the Ten Commandments, were not enough and resulted in over 700 laws, as faith was replaced by prescriptions. Rather than the liberty of fluidity, each new circumstance needed a sub-law to be made to help people live. Jesus and I both agree—there is only one way, the way of love: “love the Lord your God, love your neighbour as yourself.’ As the old Beatles song said, ‘All we need is love, love, love.’
If we are to be a Christ-centred ekklesia, we will be a love-centred church. Fluidity enables demonstration. Consider Jesus’ display of authority; power was not through domination but through a towel and a bowl. Bring self-emptying in washing feet, taking on the servanthood of humanity, he even said, as often as you gather, do this. Is not the breaking of bread, the communion, really yet another self-emoting, downhearted display of towel and bowl? Which is, alas, rooted in our ability to be fluid or demonstrate to every person and environment we find ourselves in, with our sleeves rolled up.
I often say that the church is not defined by its structure or offices to uphold, but by the life poured into people — the resurrection life — filling every shape it is poured into. Let me try to express it this way. Holding a wine glass of water as a picture of the church, we describe the glass in terms of its shape and size, its colour and smooth edges, the contours, and call it the church. Then we attempt to fit a mug into the wine glass, but it fails, declaring that it is not the right shape, as it is not the same. Proceeding to pour the water into a saucer, as the saucer cannot go into the wine glass. We forget the water, the fluidity, is the church, not the shape that holds it, the fluid life. The church fills all that it is poured into, not the shape, but homes, streets, offices, and buildings. Being the expression of Christ filling all in all, the church by nature is to fill, not prescribe a shape. The FLUID church is necessary.
Flexibility: Adapting for maturity
The other ‘F’ is Flexibility, being able to deal with every person and every situation that arises. Being supple and able to stretch for flexibility. What does it look like?
That is flexibility in the sense that it is adaptable to every culture and generation, adapting to a world without internet or word dominance due to all the technical advances. Considering new ideas which show a willingness to consider change rather than being stuck. I think the church and its leaders often show they are stuck rather than adaptable. Flexibility for some is so difficult to entertain, especially for leadership, as it can involve adjusting your priorities and experiencing and bringing about new methods.
Flexibility is having an open mind rather than preconceived positions, in the same way as being able to have the flexibility to discover solutions when there are challenges to consider. Which actually brings a people and individuals to the place of ability ot learn anew, adapting and realising there is not one way only.
Living Fluid and Flexible Lives
A church that is mature, its maturity being fluid and flexible, which is an extension of individuals, functions that are maturing, and they too are flexible and fluid.
Consider
Where and with whom is God inviting you to be more flexible and fluid so you can first demonstrate the life of Christ, followed by being more creative this week?
Stumbling, to trip or momentarily lose one’s balance; almost fall, to make a mistake or repeated or to encounter by chance. That moment when you want to make a good impression to the new admirer, the you look up to, the new boss and without warning your muscle memory is interrupted, in a place where the fear of being seen, or even judged by the stumble is a threat. Walking down the aisle at a wedding, tripping up to a lectern to address the signatories gathered. Your less than perfect self-identity comes apart then we regain our composure, try to compensate, cover up or laugh it off, hoping it does not floor us in the corridors of work or the street of life, so you ignore it and move on?
Yet if we are humble, we will settle that most of our advances and achievements are achieved as we STUMBLE into situations and events, it just happens, it came from nowhere. I know we like to think we produced it, we worked at it, we made it happen, but did we? This does not take away the hours, days, years of self-discipline we put in, the self-preparation that is necessary, yet the reality is we prepare ourselves physically, mentally in every way, stewarding our lives and all that is entrusted to us, our time, friendship, my physicality, possessions what ever they may be. Then we stumble into unique circumstances, relationships, situations that never will repeat again. the weather, the people at that very moment, the unique events around us. We align with people finding ourselves at start line with a group that is unique only to hear the gun go off, or we make an attempt and we stumble in to the moment, the innovation, the breakthrough.
I read once, “in the world of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind”. It is the inner life the physical life we prepare for the unknown that invades us we stumble upon.
Unexpected moments, one day a young widow walked in the fields looking for her next provision considering where she should be when “she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech”. Really does anything “happen”, her stumble put her in the right place, the correct moment.
In our modernist patterns of thinking what is defined, explained, is what we want, to know how it will work but we must hold on to the unprepared rhythm of the Holy Spirit. The breaking in of God, if we don’t, we will miss God in the moment, we will be those that join the masses that cannot see God, but you are designed to see God in all things.
Our modern technology worries me sometimes, not because the technology worries me, it does not I am a bit of a techno really, however the “filter Bubbles” that day by day we allow to rule our worlds, they dictate who we speak to, whom we see, who we connect with, they gather information on us to send you stuff on the basis of our ‘clicking habits’.
This world is being formed around us, it is a world in our image, yes you did hear me correct our image, but we belong to a world that is made in the image and likeness of the Divine, we are not meant to be in world in our image. We don’t want to have this fundamental truth taken from us. Where will we end up if we have a world made in our image in line with our clicking, likes, surfing and web activity, our purchases defining us.
This kind of life in our image will reduce our ability to live it to the full, it will reduce our preparedness for the unexpected, we will be governed and caught in information feed back producing a world that will be unnecessary to cultivate a prepared mind and heart.
This is certainly not a life led by the Holy Spirit, Romans 8:14 ‘For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. People cultivating a life that is ready to stumble, to take up the unforeseen and respond are the family we belong to.
You and I, who love the Christ are the Eden of God, the Garden of God, the temple, we are
to bring that Garden “..go forth and multiply…” humanity to all of creation, this is our call it’s not an escapism to another place but the union of the Divine with the Divinely created world “…two becoming one…” We are enticed by other gardens that surround us, the self-designed, the garden modelled on our wants and desires for pleasure. The garden of GAAF the garden made up from our techno world (Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook). You belong to the Garden of Eden and are to bring this garden to be the greater Garden City we find in Revelation 21, 22.
SO what should we do if we find ourselves caught in the GAAF garden
1 Learn to slow down and come out of the pace of the garden of GAAF to embrace the Garden of God the promised “enter into rest” The rest of Hebrews 4:1-3, the Sabbath rest points back to God’s original rest, and marks the ideal rest—the rest of perfect adjustment of all things to God. This falls in with the ground-thought of the Epistle, the restoration of all things to God’s archetype. The Sabbath-rest is the consummation of the new creation in Christ, through whose priestly mediation reconciliation with God will come to pass.
Now, he uses sabbatismos (σαββατισμος), the word used of the Sabbath rest.
The word points back to God’s original rest, and speaks of the ideal rest. Rest of the nature of God that was there in the first place, it’s still offering to us though Christ.
2 Try getting lost and not know where you are to learn again the big picture, the eternal will of the Father, to learn again to demand on the leading of the Holy Spirit. to be dependent on the inner life’s leading.
3 Experience the Divine, the life of the ancient living word found in the pages of the Bible, encounter with a person, the Christ might become the word that is living in us not words merely on the page that become our laws.
4 Tolerate vagueness, unknowing, uncertainty, put yourself in mode to learn, in discovery mode. Re capture what is hugely necessary the ’Mystery of the Gospel’.
As an aside note on this thought, there is a desperate need to recapture apostles today to be those that hold the church to account to be those that hold on the ‘mystery’ of God, it is so important and necessary. Paul said he was the steward of a ‘mystery’, it is an apostolic characteristic to be stewards of the mystery to God to mature people, grow them up in the mystery. We have seen the proliferation of apostles in last 40 years across the globe, frighteningly, with the proliferation has come title and positions BUT A LOSING AND DWINDLING OF MYSTERY? conclude your selves true apostleship? To bring about an apostolic people who bring the mystery of Christ to our worlds.
You cannot force God. You can not force the things you are desperate for, even if it is
above of God but you can provide the conditions, which is YOU and encourage a prepared mind and heart to welcome, get excited in the unknown
An Honest answer is like a Kiss on the lips – Kiss of friendship
Proverbs 24:26
I am amazed and shocked how much influence a man can wield… our TV has been dominated in recent years with talent shows and competitions for all types of people and animals. Dog trainers, singers, puppeteer, acrobats, martial arts, dancers, individuals and groups alike, all trying their best, programs such as “….got talent”, “X factor”, “The Voice”, “Idol”, the population that view seem to be oblivious to the program’s design, its aim to be exposing of the unfortunate through flattery, its staging what will be done to get viewing figures, the ridicules along with the talented in a world where we have no failures where we are not to allow any one to fail at anything.
The voice of one man, one judge is sought on the UK and USA programs, the opinion of the daddy of talent programs Simon Cowell, a judge, it is what all take interest in receiving. Yet he has acquired a reputation for his severe criticism of the pop-star hopefuls, talent displays. “My attitude has always been, ‘Don’t lie to people,’” Simon says. “Kids turn up unrehearsed, wearing the wrong clothes, singing out of tune, and you can either say, ‘Good job,’ and patronize them or tell them the truth, and sometimes the truth is perceived as mean.”
The real question is, why do people even show up?
Even the untrained ear can discern that many of them can’t sing. Yet they believe with miraculous sincerity that they can make it big. What has happened here?
Someone lied. In an attempt to encourage, a parent or friend or significant other told the hopeful singer that he had the right stuff. In the name of love, someone told him that he should make a CD. Out of a desire to protect the self-image of a young person, someone lied.
Cowell acknowledges that part of his job is to close that gap: “For a lot of contestants, it’s a suspension of belief. Your family and friends say you’re pretty good—and we’re here to stop you.”
Before you made a fool of yourself, wouldn’t you want to be stopped? As hard as it may be to hear the truth, as difficult as it may be to accept it, wouldn’t it be more loving and kind if someone said, gently and firmly, “Don’t do this. It’s not good. I like you. I love you. But you’re not a pop star”?
Of course it would. But we’ve lost the ability to tell the truth when the truth is hard.
Proverbs 24:26 says “An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips,” it’s not an honest answer is like a slap on the face. A kiss is something to look forward to…but honesty?
How can these two be similar?
How is a kiss comparable to an honest answer?
A kiss honours relationship.
A kiss brings us close to another and builds relationship.
Risking this type of kiss, we honour one another and our relationships.
Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, took a big risk when he told Moses that he was taking on too much responsibility by acting as arbiter of all disputes for the people of Israel: “What you are doing is not good!” (Ex. 18:17 ). Moses, who was not known for his patience when confronted with the truth, could easily have rejected this advice—and the advisor. However, “Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said” (v. 24 ).
How many times has your wife or husband come to you honestly “I’m upset…” your children turn and say “I don’t like that…” Often we are not excited to be told the truth about ourselves, especially when it’s contrary to our perception
We could save ourselves much hassle by letting things go. But some times we bravely take on the task of truth telling for my sake and for the sake of better relationships in our family. Proverbs 24:3-4 says, “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.”
Telling the truth is interior decoration for another’s character. The risk—and the relationship—is worth it.
Stumbling, to trip or momentarily lose one’s balance; almost fall, to make a mistake or repeated or to encounter by chance. That moment when you want to make a good impression to the new admirer, the you look up to, the new boss and without warning your muscle memory is interrupted, in a place where the fear of being seen, or even judged by the stumble is a threat. Walking down the aisle at a wedding, tripping up to a lectern to address the signatories gathered. Your less than perfect self-identity comes apart then we regain our composure, try to compensate, cover up or laugh it off, hoping it does not floor us in the corridors of work or the street of life, so you ignore it and move on?
Face2Face - Gareth Duffty Blog 