Do you remember World Book Encyclopedia?

I threw our set away a few days ago. We bought it around 1980 when we had four young children, and we’ve kept it all these years. Four moves during that time, two after the kids were gone. But it’s not going to make the move we’re into right now (downsizing to a one-level house).

It still looked great on the shelf. The books were still like new. Some of the information in them is still valid, but some is not – you figure out which! But the value? Worthless. It doesn’t matter how much the set cost or its pristine condition. What matters is, hardly anyone uses paper encyclopedias anymore. All the information in any encyclopedia and MUCH MORE is available online instantly and free.

What an age to live in.

One day ALL of our possessions will have the value of my now tossed out World Book Encyclopedia.

• The things of earth will dim and lose their value
• If we recall they’re borrowed for a while.
• And things of earth that cause the heart to tremble
• Remembered there will only bring a smile. – From “Until Then” by Stuart Hamblen, 1958

…you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. (Hebrews 10.34, ESV)

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. (1 Timothy 6.6 – 8, ESV)

PS I’m shocked to find out that World Book still publishes paper encyclopedias:

As the only general reference encyclopedia still published today, this set provides authoritative content on almost every topic to learners of all ages, from school-age readers to adults.

Whether you are looking up information to understand a subject, writing a research report, or checking a fact for a homework assignment, tens of thousands of index entries make it easy to find information. Abundant colorful photos, illustrations, and maps supplement the easy-to-read text. – from https://www.worldbook.com/world-book-encyclopedia-2025

Yours for only $1,175.00

Nonetheless, my 1980 version has no value.

We’re coming to the end of the Introduction to Proverbs. Chapter 10 begins a long section of the famous “one-liners” like…

A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother. (Proverbs 10.1, NKJV)

Chapter 9 echoes the CHOOSE theme from chapter 8 using two metaphorical women:

Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars… (Proverbs 9.1, NKJV)

The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. (Proverbs 9.13, NKJV)

Or, as Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message: Lady Wisdom and Madame Prostitute (see Proverbs 9.1, 13, MSG).

What’s fascinating is that the same language is used for each:

“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” As for him who lacks understanding, she says to him…” (Proverbs 9.4 and 16, NKJV)

But the messages are quite different:

• Wisdom: …Forsake foolishness and live. And go in the way of understanding.
• Folly: Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

But Folly’s message isn’t true. The chapter ends with:

But he does not know that the dead are there, That her guests are in the depths of hell. (Proverbs 9.18, NKJV)

It’s a common theme in scripture:

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live… (Deuteronomy 30.19, NKJV, emphasis mine)

And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24.15, NKJV, emphases mine)

You always have a choice. It always makes a difference. – Author David McCasland in his book about Joseph

I wrote Monday about the fallacy of thinking that just because there are things that only God can do that we have no part. As I was meditating on those thoughts, I read Proverbs 8, a call to choose wisdom. Choosing wisely is something that we can and must do.

The personification of wisdom invites us to choose wisdom over wealth:

Receive my instruction, and not silver, And knowledge rather than choice gold; For wisdom is better than rubies, And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her. (Proverbs 8.10, 11, NKJV)

Wisdom reminds us:

Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom; I am understanding, I have strength. By me kings reign, And rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, All the judges of the earth. (Proverbs 8.14 – 16, NKJV)

Again, CHOOSE! Wisdom is better than gold and silver.

I love those who love me, And those who seek me diligently will find me. Riches and honor are with me, Enduring riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, And my revenue than choice silver. (Proverbs 17 – 19, NKJV)

Choose wisdom, and choose wisdom daily:

Now therefore, listen to me, my children, For blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, And do not disdain it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 8.32 – 35, NKJV)

That’s why I urge you (and myself!) to begin each day in the Word.

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. (Psalm 19.7 – 10, ESV)

It’s Juneteenth, now a federal holiday…

Juneteenth has a rich history in the foundation of the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, announcing the end of slavery. This came 2.5 years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, finally freeing 250,000 enslaved people in Texas. 

The first Juneteenth celebrations began in 1866, led by Black communities with parades and church gatherings. Juneteenth marks America’s “second Independence Day,” symbolizing true freedom for all. It honors Black resilience and the ongoing fight for equality. In 2021, activism by figures like Opal Lee helped make it a federal holiday. – Shrey Banerjee, June 11, 2025

I support the sentiment of Juneteenth, equality for all, and I wish “all” meant “all.” Just a couple of weeks ago, someone who lived near me in the Pikes Peak region (El Paso County) went up to Boulder and set fire to people just because they were Jews. Here’s the initial FBI report. We have a long way to go.

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place… (Acts 17.24 – 26, ESV)

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7.9, 10, ESV)

Proverbs 7 opens:

My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your nearest kin, That they may keep you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words. (Proverbs 7.1 – 5, NKJV)

Then it goes into detail about how the immoral woman works.

For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, And saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, A young man devoid of understanding, Passing along the street near her corner; And he took the path to her house In the twilight, in the evening, In the black and dark night, and there a woman met him… (Proverbs 7.6 – 10, NKJV)

You see where this is going…

So she caught him and kissed him; With an impudent face she said to him: “I have peace offerings with me; Today I have paid my vows. So I came out to meet you, Diligently to seek your face, And I have found you. I have spread my bed with tapestry, Colored coverings of Egyptian linen. I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until morning… (Proverbs 7.13 – 18, NKJV)

And how it ends…

…Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter…He did not know it would cost his life. (Proverbs 7.22, 23, NKJV, emphasis mine)

Chilling.

The solution is clear, as outlined here in chapter 7 as well as Proverbs, chapter 5:

1. Keep my commands and live. (Proverbs 5.2, NKJV – see the entire introduction above)
2. Drink water from your own cistern, And running water from your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, Streams of water in the streets? Let them be only your own, And not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love. (Proverbs 5.15 – 19, NKJV)

God didn’t say, “NO. You can’t have sex. Naughty.” What God said was, “You can have all the sex you want…with your own spouse.” What a blessing!

I don’t write this stuff…I just report it.

…let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband…Do not deprive one another… (1 Corinthians 7.2, 3, 5, NKJV)

Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13.4, NKJV)

I’m trying to put Seth Godin into practice: “Lock up the candy” that I wrote about last Thursday. I started the day reading Proverbs first. Email off. Internet off. I landed on Proverbs 6.6 – 8, and because it was first in my day, meditated on it all day.

Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest. (Proverbs 6.6 – 8, NKJV)

It’s a text I’ve read many times, but this time I focused on “…having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer…”

No leader, just self discipline to do the right thing when it needs to be done. Actually, for the ant it’s “instinct,” but for us it has to be self-discipline. We have the capacity to take responsibility, work hard and wisely. But we must choose to do so. Hence the command:

Consider the ant and be wise.

Train yourself for godliness. (1 Timothy 4.7, ESV)

My friend Ray, disciple-maker and pastor-coach, and I were discussing a book he was reading in which the guy made two errors. He wrote a chapter insisting that “disciple” is a noun rather than a verb. My first reaction is so what? “Verbing weirds language,” as Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes said. But Ray found four passages of scripture in which “disciple” is used as a verb, not the least of which is Matthew 28.18 – 20.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV)

Look it up: the “make” is not in the Greek. It’s the verb “disciple.” Go disciple all nations. How does a guy get to write a book with blatant falsehoods in it?

Then the guy went on to say, “We don’t make disciples, God does.” Really? That’s not what the Apostle Paul believed:

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3.5 – 9, ESV)

“We are God’s fellow workers.”

I don’t get the point of telling people that they have NO part. They’re already not doing anything, and you’ve just given them permission to continue!

We might as well say, “Piano teachers don’t make pianists.” It’s true. Pianists are made when students practice the skills necessary to build the muscle memory and other physiological things which happen via mysterious processes within the body. But they don’t know what to practice unless they have a TEACHER. So it’s all three: the teacher, the discipline of the student, and the processes within the body.

So we do what we can and must do and trust God to make something out of it.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15.10, ESV)

I’ll have more on our responsibility to choose wisely in a couple of days. Stay tuned.

I’m excited to have all three of my sons here today (and I just spent two weeks with my daughter). Life is good.

And Father’s Day fits right into our reading plan:

Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. (Proverbs 4.1 – 7, NKJV)

My own father passed over 40 years ago, and I am thankful that after a rough start, he met the Lord when I was only 3. He established my foundation in the Word. Thanks, Dad. And thank you, Father, for my dad.

No, today isn’t Pentecost Sunday, but last Sunday was! With all the travel, it slipped up on me, but it won’t hurt to publish something today!

First, I made it back in time to put on my red Pentecost shirt and do a prelude with my friend Mike Guyote, another retired Air Force officer, who is very good on the organ.

The observant among you will notice I have my sling off and I’m using my left hand – an improvement from when Mike and I practiced three weeks ago! Then it was “Two keyboards, three hands.” I still use the right hand to cross over and hit the lowest notes.

But back to Pentecost Sunday.

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1.4, 5, ESV)

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2.1 – 4, ESV)

I love the ALL. “ALL together in one place…rested on EACH one of them…they were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit.” A similar event occurs a little while later:

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4.31, ESV)

Again “ALL filled with the Holy Spirit.” The result was speaking the word with boldness…not necessarily in tongues! And this second one was not an attention step for unbelievers like the first one. It was just for them but resulted in their speaking the word with boldness and power.

And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4.33, ESV)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15.13, ESV)

We’re starting into Proverbs, and I pointed out Wednesday that it’s all about living wisely.

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding, To receive the instruction of wisdom… (Proverbs 1.1 – 3, NKJV)

But Proverbs 2 makes it clear that acquisition of wisdom is neither automatic nor easy:

My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2.1 – 5, NKJV)

IF you…

• receive my words
• treasure my commands
• incline your ear to wisdom
• apply your heart to understanding
• cry out for discernment
• lift up your voice for understanding
• seek her as silver
• search for her as for hidden treasures

THEN you will understand the fear of the LORD…

Sounds like intentional effort to me. Compare Seth Godin’s counsel from yesterday: Lock up your candy. Make the good choice easy and the bad choice hard. Do the work.

The rewards are worth it.

Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path. (Proverbs 2.9, NKJV)

God’s wisdom will protect you from evil men…

Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you, To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things, From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness; Who rejoice in doing evil… (Proverbs 2.11 – 14, NKJV)

…and evil women:

To deliver you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words, Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death, And her paths to the dead; None who go to her return, Nor do they regain the paths of life… (Proverbs 2.16 – 19, NKJV)

Enough said.

PS It’s Friday 13th. Hope you had a good day!