Proverbs 4:1-4
Tradition.
Tradition is the passing down of what has been learned and practiced generation to generation. Why learn from your own mistakes, when you can learn from others? A great many have gone before us from whom we can glean so much.
Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith. Hebrews 13:7
And what do we learn from those who have gone before us who have lived well? What did they do? What can we imitate?
What I see is that they pursued God. They followed hard after God. They spent vast amounts of time alone with Him, thinking about Him, filling with Him. Most all started their day with God, in His word. They found satisfaction in their lives thru God alone, and out of that flowed a life of intention and purpose and meaning. They embraced wisdom and learning and knowing God more deeply.
To live life fully, there is no secret knowledge or plan you need to search for and follow, you need only search for God and follow Jesus. (We Christians believe that Jesus revealed what God is like in human form) I was thinking this morning how abundant life is accessible but not easy or effort-free. “Fitness Made Easy” is no more fitness than “Christianity Made Easy” is following Jesus. If it’s passive or effortless, then it is not following.
Access to God is available to all, thanks to Jesus making the way open for us, but following Him and living the life that is life indeed is not passive, it is not effort-free–for anything effort-free is no longer worth pursuing because there is nothing to actually pursue since it is easy, and now cheapened. College education is available to all here, but they’re not handing out master’s degrees downtown to anyone who just asks for them. You have to actually go to college and do some work after you’re accepted from what I understand (I have no college degrees, so I’m going by what people have told me).
Everyone who I know who has ever tried the diet pill thing gained the weight they lost back and more because they did not appreciate the disciplined effort to get in shape thru hard work.
In Proverbs 4 the father is telling the son to embrace and pursue a life of wisdom because it is worth the effort. It does pay off with LIFE, with really living. Have you ever met a satisfied, fulfilled person who lives a life of laziness, no discipline, no rhythm?
If you want real life, life worth living, know that it comes only thru YHWH. If you need pointers, just look at what others who have lived a life worth living, and take careful note to see what they did. Jesus studied, prayed, meditated, and got alone with Papa quite a bit!
Matthew 4:1-11
People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
So Jesus knew the word of God inside and out. And if He is right, and we live by every word that comes from God, then we best know the word of God.
It is the only thing to effectively combat the evil one and his temptations, as Jesus demonstrates for us in this pericope. It actually works. Trying your own weapons…well, let me know how that goes for ya. Filling yourself with God’s word, memorizing sections of Scripture (sadly a very lost practice these days-at least in the U.S.), we believe, is a non-negotiable to live the Christian life well. To not fill yourself with God and His word, and then to try to live for Him day to day, well, you’re just plain screwed. It’d be like taking a quantum physics course without ever going to class or reading the book. You ain’t gonna learn crap or be able to solve the simplest of equations the class requires you to solve.
Go to class!
With the Master Teacher.
Go to His office hours. I hear His schedule is pretty generous.