Author: Dan

Greetings from Tucson Welcome to ShalomWalk. A place of respite for the inquisitive mind and the weary heart. I'm Dan Craig, my I co-writer is Beth McKean. We are both retired professionals, we're both Christians, and we both enjoy writing about things that matter to us. We want to share things that we think about, as the days come and go. The blog will be comprised of; (1) single page essays on a wide range of topics derived from reading scripture; (2) recipes from Pepper with a story behind each recipe; (3) other kinds of useful information for running a household; (4) Photographs from Pepper and original instrumental music from Dan. Our blog focus. By wisdom our house is built on a sturdy foundation; by understanding the roof brings comfort from the heat of life; by knowledge the rooms are filled with grandeur. As a person thinks in their heart, they become in real life (implied in Proverbs 24:3-4 and Proverbs 23:7). May God bless you and keep you safe in His heart. May God bring you his truth and peace. Amen.

Leverage the Available Tools

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Essay By Dan

Pepper read the previous essay on Wisdom and asked – how do we use wisdom while we play in the sandbox? You may recall this sandbox metaphor from my previous essay on Wisdom. How does it work in practice? The idea of God as an infinitely wise being is the root of all truth. You also may recall an essay I wrote a while back about truth. Absolute truth lives in God’s wisdom. We begin here…

Proverbs 11:14 tell us there’s wisdom in the council of many. It is this wisdom that draws us back to our Men’s Group on Saturday mornings, week after week after week, hoping to hear something that will help guide us through the sea of human drama we live within. There are more things of course that draw us to Saturday morning than just corporate wisdom; But wisdom is certainly one of them. We listen, offer our past experiences, and we learn from each other.

I do not want to simplify things too much, but once you are properly playing in the sandbox, the whole of history ultimately becomes a contest between the wisdom of God and the cunningness of Satan. In Isaiah 14:14 Lucifer dared to say – “I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most-High.”  Of course, the outcome of that contest is not in doubt. The lies and pseudo-wisdom spewed out by Satan will fail in the light of perfect wisdom of God. God has promised us He will control the effort of Satan to distract men from walking with God (see Isaiah 14:26-27).

Proverbs 3:18-26 tells us “As a tree produces fruit, wisdom gives life to those who use it, and everyone who uses it will be happy. The Lord made the earth, using his wisdom. He set the sky in place, using his understanding. With his knowledge, he made springs flow into rivers and the clouds drop rain on the earth. My child, hold on to wisdom and good sense. Don’t let them out of your sight. They will give your life beauty like a necklace around your neck. Then you will go your way in safety, and you will not get hurt. When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, you will sleep in peace. You will not be afraid of sudden trouble; you will not fear the ruin that comes to the wicked, because the Lord will keep you safe. He will keep you from being trapped.”  This is the sandbox…

God’s wisdom sees everything in focus, each element in its proper relationship to the whole, and all the required tasking necessary to achieve the endgame. Wisdom moves us towards God’s goal with flawless precision. What do we do? Engage in life with the still small voice of the one true living God.

God does everything with perfect wisdom – first for his own glory and then for the highest good of the greatest number of us for the longest period. There is nothing but pureness, goodness, and wisdom in his acts. Not only could his wise actions not be any better than they are; a better way to do them is not possible to imagine. Oh Lord how manifold are your works and your wisdom that has made them all. The earth is full of your riches (implied in Psalms 104:24-25}.

Most of us go through life praying a little bit for relief from problems, planning a little bit on how we are going to live our life, jockeying for position in our families and our jobs, never quite certain of anything, and secretly afraid that we are going to miss the path. In my humble view, the wisdom he makes available to us brings a calm to the storm as we careen through life like a steel ball in a pinball machine.

If we believe that God constantly injects circumstances that work for our good, He helps us to move towards a constant state of service, praise, and worship. Furthermore, those circumstances help us to find God’s peace and wisdom in the middle of a hurricane. Focus on the tools mentioned in Proverbs 3:18-26. Leverage the tools available in the sandbox.

I choose Jesus.

Evolutionary Hymn

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C.S. Lewis

Lead us, Evolution, lead us

Up the future’s endless stair;

Chop us, change us, prod us, weed us.

For stagnation is despair:

Groping, guessing, yet progressing,

Lead us nobody knows where.

Wrong or justice, joy or sorrow,

In the present what are they

while there’s always jam-tomorrow,

While we tread the onward way?

Never knowing where we’re going,

We can never go astray.

To whatever variation

Our posterity may turn

Hairy, squashy, or crustacean,

Bulbous-eyed or square of stern,

Tusked or toothless, mild or ruthless,

Towards that unknown god we yearn.

Ask not if it’s god or devil,

Brethren, lest your words imply

Static norms of good and evil

(As in Plato) throned on high;

Such scholastic, inelastic,

Abstract yardsticks we deny.

Far too long have sages vainly

Glossed great Nature’s simple text;

He who runs can read it plainly,

‘Goodness = what comes next.’

By evolving, Life is solving

All the questions we perplexed.

Oh then! Value means survival-

Value. If our progeny

Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,

That will prove its deity

(Far from pleasant, by our present,

Standards, though it may well be).

C.S. Lewis (born November 29, 1898, Belfast, Ireland [now in Northern Ireland]—died November 22, 1963, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England) was an Irish-born scholar, novelist, and author of about 40 books, many of them on Christian apologetics, including The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity.

Jesus’ Burden Is Light

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By Deborah Ann Belka

When our load is heavy,
Jesus’ burden is light
when we embrace our fears
He’ll give us strength to fight.

When we feel we are unloved,
Jesus will call out our name
when we feel our own disgrace
He’ll take away our shame.

When we feel over burdened,
Jesus will carry our strife
when we feel the sting of death
He’ll bring us eternal life.

When we feel like giving up,
Jesus will stretch out His hand
when we feel faint and weak
He’ll help us to rise and stand.

When we feel there is no hope,
Jesus will bring to us His love
when we feel our heart break
He’ll send mercy from above.

When we are in need of rest,
Jesus will give it to us
for His yoke is easy . . .
when we give Him our trust!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matthew 11:28-30

Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Daniel and the Lion’s Den

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Once upon a time, there lived a young man named Daniel. He was a kind and brave man who loved his friends, family, and most importantly, he loved God. Daniel always prayed to God every day and followed His commandments.  At that time, Daniel lived in a big kingdom ruled by a powerful king called Darius. 

King Darius really liked Daniel because he was wise, honest, and very good at his job. The king decided to make Daniel one of his most trusted advisors, which made some of his other advisors very jealous. These advisors plotted to get rid of Daniel. They tricked the king into making a law which said that nobody could pray to any god or person except the king for 30 days.  Anyone who disobeyed this law would be thrown into a den filled with hungry lions.

Even though Daniel knew about the new law, he still prayed to God three times a day, just as he always did. When the wicked advisors found out, they ran to the king and told him that Daniel was breaking the law. When the king found out, he was extremely upset because he realized he had no choice but to punish Daniel. Although he liked Daniel, he had to follow the law.  King Darius reluctantly ordered Daniel to be thrown into a den filled with hungry lions. The king hoped that God would save Daniel because he knew how faithful Daniel was.

King Darius was so worried about Daniel, he was unable to sleep that night. Early the next morning, he rushed down to the den to see if Daniel was still alive. The king called out to him and was overjoyed when Daniel replied. Daniel explained that God had sent an angel during the night to protect him, and that he was unharmed. King Darius was delighted. The king then declared that from that day on everyone in his kingdom should worship Daniel’s God, the one true God.

Meanwhile, the jealous advisors were all punished for their wicked deeds. The king had them thrown into the lions’ den, and they were pounced upon immediately.  Daniel continued to be faithful to God all his life. He became a wise advisor to King Darius and helped make the kingdom a better place. People throughout the kingdom admired him for his bravery and his strong faith in God.

1 Timothy 2

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Simple Faith and Plain Truth

2 1-3 The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.

4-7 He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.

8-10 Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God. And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.

11-15 I don’t let women take over and tell the men what to do. They should study to be quiet and obedient along with everyone else. Adam was made first, then Eve; woman was deceived first—our pioneer in sin!—with Adam right on her heels. On the other hand, her childbearing brought about salvation, reversing Eve. But this salvation only comes to those who continue in faith, love, and holiness, gathering it all into maturity. You can depend on this.

A Drop of Water

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Essay By Dan

It has been my observation that exploring God’s Wisdom tends to be accomplished by those of us who are hanging out in God’s sandbox (life in the Spirit), already yielding to the God we serve. The unbelieving mind struggles to be convinced by any proof on topics that include the wisdom of God, but those of us who play in the sandbox, walk with God, talk to God, listen to God, we need no proof. We know. We are hungry to know more.

Permit me to share some paraphrased thoughts from Blaze Pascal (a 16th century Mathematician and namesake for a programming language) about wisdom: We should expect neither truth nor consolation when men act on their own. God formed man and alone taught each of us what we are. God created man to be innocent; God filled man with light and intelligence; God communicated to him wisdom, glory, and awareness of God’s wonders. Through wisdom, the eye of man saw the majesty of God. But man has not been able to sustain the glory God gave him without falling into pride. Man wanted to make himself his own center and free himself from God’s wisdom; therefore, man withdrew himself from God’s grace; then ignored God’s wisdom and set himself equal to God.

Daniel said – Praise the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises others up. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning (paraphrased from Daniel 2:20-21).

When our feeble scribblings about God declare that God is wise, the meaning is far more powerful than what we could ever possibly place on paper. We work to make a comparatively overused word represent the incomprehensible depth of God’s cohesive analytical processing algorithms and breadth of knowledge. Unfortunately, in my weakness, even in this case I have diminished the one true living God’s absolute greatness and majesty merely by my choice of words. On my best day I will fail. Bummer. Isaiah 40:28 says “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.”

His wisdom is infinite (see Psalms 147:5). We know the word infinite describes the bandwidth, height, and depth of something. Given this is the maximum term we could use, we cannot very well put an adjective to enhance the meaning of the word. Would it be appropriate to say “more” infinite or “very” infinite? I think not. Infinite is the correct word. God sets the standard on infinite Wisdom. When I first learned Pascal (a programming language) the notion of MAXINT (the maximum integer possible) seemed immense. However, in the context of God’s wisdom, MAXINT seems like a naive vision of the world (see Proverbs 14:18).

I believe wisdom is taught to us by the Spirit of God (see Nehemiah 9:20) so that on our best day we have the capacity to yield to God’s wisdom as we address situations in a meaningful, positive, moral way. But we should never lose sight that God is infinitely wise and our use of God’s wisdom is but a slight shadow of the totality of God’s wisdom. Our understanding of God’s wisdom is like a drop of water that takes its place in the ocean of water (God’s wisdom) covering most of this globe.

Paul says – “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 11:33-34). There will be much more on this topic of playtime in sandboxes – a lot more from Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Lamentations.

I choose Jesus.