Introduction

Why on earth another blog? “The writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body” -Eccl 12:12 (All quotes, NASB). If that were true in Solomon’s time, how much more so today, when it is not only books but page after page of blogs, myspace, facebook, youtube, et al.? We are all on information overload, and the vast majority of us are responding with a tendency to anesthetize ourselves against the implications of that information by injecting enough entertainment and illusion into our lives to achieve the nirvana of indifference.

What do I mean by “the implications of that information”? The realities of life are hard. There is plenty of fruitless striving, oppression, wrong doing, atrocity, and folly to draw the same conclusion as Solomon: “All is vanity.” How are we to deal with this? For those of us who are not satisfied with indifference, we thirst for understanding.

I came across the theme verse for this site (Job 32:8) very recently. The Spirit dwelling in a man, the very breath of the Almighty (Shaddai), gives men understanding. Wisdom often comes with age (v. 7), but we find that the old may not be wise (v. 9) and the young may indeed find wisdom. It all depends on this relationship we have with the true and only source of wisdom, the Spirit of the Almighty. In Job 28, Job describes the difficulty in finding wisdom – more difficult than mining gold, silver and precious stones. Only “God understands its way, And He knows its place” (Job 28:23). But the conclusion is quite simple, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding” (v. 28). Solomon drew the same conclusion: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:7) and “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments” (Eccl 12:3).

So understanding would seem pretty straightforward. Yet we find the proverbs filled with exhortations to get wisdom and acquire understanding. There is obviously a process of growth involved. If the principle is easy, the practice is anything but. So the purpose of this site is to share one man’s journey. In as much as I thirst for understanding, and I understand the right foundation for finding it, I’m off to a good start. From here, it remains to live the process. I offer whatever writings that come to mind through the process with this goal in mind, that others may be encouraged and edified. Join me as I seek to understand.