About March Through Proverbs

The year is 2007 and my good friend Ray Feeney and I are part of an exciting new wave of activity at our local church.  We also work together as part of the Christian Spiritual Development team at the YMCA in Stoke-on-Trent.  Ray has the heart to reach people with the good news and hopefully see people saved as a result.  He also has a huge heart for his city and is desperate to see God move in it with power.  Having recently reconnected with Hughie in the summer of 2006 he’s been regularly going along for the teaching at the COG and that affirms his connection with me.

As God unveils His plans and His heart for the city, we come across the book of Proverbs and as practical a book you can get in the Bible we are inspired to do something with it.  So with the number of days in March being the same as the number of chapters in the book and with the month signalling the end of Winter and the beginning of Spring – the time for action – it seems fitting to dedicate a day to a chapter of Proverbs as we March through the book (geddit?) and also do prayer walks around our local vicinity in the hope of making connections with the neighbourhood and seeing what God’s compassionate heart is saying concerning His people.

The March thru Proverbs idea sticks and is followed for the next two years as a scheme encouraged for the local church as well as an individual pursuit.  As we approach 2010 and no longer being a part of the church in Stoke-on-Trent, it is still however more than appropriate to get deep into this tremendous book of wisdom to discover what God says is the best way to proceed in life.  My understanding of wisdom is the simple equation of Knowledge + Understanding applied properly = Wisdom.  Often it is lack of knowledge that means we miss out on opportunities and worse still misunderstanding and misdirect us from God’s path, but when we submit both to Him and acknowledge the central part He plays in it all wisdom pours forth from our every thought, word and deed.

So the deal remains the same for 2010 to dedicate a day to a chapter in the book of wisdom appreciating that the fear of the Lord – the ready acknowledgement of how awe-inspiring and terrifying He is above all else – is the beginning of wisdom.  I trust you’ll enjoy the series, as with a lot of what I endeavour to do with word studies I hope it won’t be too abstract, but likewise I hope it’s not pragmatic for it’s own sake, but rather that the words will strike home the right message of who God is, who we are in the light of that and how we live in the light of that.  Feel free to leave your comments as you go through.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd