by Ron Fast
“OH SURE!! How am I supposed to find the correct pillar?” you said, talking to yourself. ”There must be some kind of clue on the pillar some place.” You began with the pillar that pointed to the door. You started looking over it very carefully. There was nothing obvious on any of the pillar faces. Just as you were about to move on to the next pillar, you remembered that there was that circle carved into the top of each one of the pillars. The obvious thing to do would be to set the crown in the middle of that circle. Nothing happened. So you moved on to the second pillar and placed the crown on the top of it and waited. Nothing, again. You moved onto the third and then the fourth pillar, still nothing happened. You had one more pillar to try. You placed it on the circle very slowly. When the full weight of the crown was on the circle, it began to slowly rise. There was another pillar hidden inside the larger outside pillar. The inside pillar was shaped like a cylinder. It rose about twelve inches before it finally stopped.
“Cool!! I must have completed the first step”. You ran back to the book and translated the next page. It said:
YOUHAVECOMPLETEDT
HEFIRSTREQUIREMENT.T
HENEXTOBJECTYOUMU
STFINDREPRESENTSKN
OWLEDGE.
“Okay. Here we go again,” you said to yourself. You began looking for something that represented knowledge. “The BOOK. You use books in schools all of the time,” you said out loud. “It must be a book”. But the only book you know of is the one that contains all of the clues. You need that to figure out the rest of the clues. You turned the page and there embedded in the page was a miniature scroll. “Hey, a scroll is sort of like a book. I mean, they used to write stuff on scrolls before they invented books”, you said. You plucked the scroll from the page and began the process of finding the right pillar. This time you got around to the third pillar before something happened. When you placed it on the third pillar, it too began to rise and stopped at the same point the first one did.
(To be continued in the next G-TRAX)
During the next several weeks we are going to take a look at each one of the spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible. We will take each one and see what it is, who has these gifts and how they are to be used in the church.
The first two gifts we are going to look at are the gifts of Wisdom and Knowledge.
There is a lot of stuff in the Bible about wisdom. Solomon devoted much of his life to teaching others about it. Of course, he was da man who had it all when it came to wisdom. God granted him wisdom because of all the things that Solomon could wish for. He told God he needed wisdom in order to be able to lead the Children of Israel wisely. God said that he could have picked riches or fame but he chose wisdom. Of course, God gave those things to Solomon anyway.
Monday
Brain Stormin’
Let’s pick your brain for a moment and see what we can dig up about what you know about these two gifts.
What’s your definition of wisdom?
What’s your definition of knowledge?
What’s the difference between the two?
Can you have one and not the other?
Who are the peeple-types in your life that you consider to be wise?
How can you tell that they are wise?
Do you go to them for advice when you have a tough question? Why?
For those who have been given the gift of wisdom, what sort of ministries could they have in a church?
How about the gift of knowledge? What sort of ministries could they have in a church?
Tuesday
A Picture of Godly Wisdom
To begin the study of wisdom, let’s take a look-see at how God views wisdom and what His first requirement is to gain wisdom. Turn to Psalms 111 and read verse 10. What is God’s first requirement to gain wisdom and what does it mean to F___________ the L______________?
James gives us a great picture of what true godly wisdom looks like. Read James 3:17 and then list the attributes of what this wisdom looks like.
Which of these do you think you have?
Which would be the most difficult to do? And why?
Wisdom and Knowledge
There is a book in the Bible that specializes in wisdom stuff, mostly because it was written by one of the wisest people that has ever lived.
Read Prov. 2:1-12 and then answer the following questions about the verses.
List the steps in verses 1-5 that you need to take in order to gain wisdom and knowledge.
We live in a world where everything is relative. That means that everything including truth changes from one person to the next. Can “Truth” be relative? Does Truth change? How does verse 6 answer these questions?
Read Prov. 2:10-12. What are the results of gaining wisdom in your life?
Wednesday
The Gift of Wisdom
For each of the following statements, put an ‘X’ where you rate yourself.
1. My friends think of me as someone to come to because they think of me as wise.
2. I believe that God has given me wisdom to make good choices.
3. I believe I have the ability to give others good advice when they come to me with a problem.
4. When presented with a problem, I can usually figure a solution to it without too much problem.
5. I believe that God has given me the gift of wisdom.
Thursday
The Gift of Knowledge
This gift isn’t a show of how smart you are. It’s a gift from God that allows you to understand deep biblical truths on your own, like when you read a passage in the Bible that is hard to understand. There’s a story in the Old Testament that illustrates the gift of knowledge and how it is used. Read 2 Sam. 12:1-14. Nathan knew that David had sinned against God and man but he wasn’t around to witness the sin. How did Nathan know about it?
Why do you think that Nathan told a story about David’s sin rather than being straight with King David? Do you think David would have listened to Nathan if he had been straight with him?
For each of the following statements, put an ‘X’ where you rate yourself.
1. My friends come to me when they don’t understand something in the Bible and I’m able to give them the correct answer.
2. I really hunger to understand the Bible deeply.
Friday
3. When I read the Bible, I am able to gain new insight on my own without asking others.
4. I am able to share insights with my friends that I get from reading God’s Word.
5. I get excited to share new insights I get from my time in the Book.
6. I believe that I have the gift of knowledge.
Saturday
So What????
There are people who have the gift of wisdom and knowledge. Does that mean that the rest of us can’t be wise and know Bible truths?
Why should we spend time and effort trying to gain wisdom and knowledge?
In your everyday lives, how can wisdom help you in your relationships with others?
How could you use knowledge of biblical truths to help friends who have a conflict with someone else?
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Ron Fast is the author of G-TRAX Devo's, Biblical devotionals for youth. G-TRAX Devo’s are now available online at www.youthministrydevotionals.com in an interactive form. He has over 9 years of experience working with Junior High and Middle School students. His personal mission is “to make the Bible relevant to today’s youth”.
