Disclaimer

Last Wednesday, Sarah Bessey published a list of some two dozen "Wise Women Over 50." Being included on the list was a most unexpected and deeply appreciated honor for me.

My jubilee year isn't actually complete until this December, but I'll allow credit for more age than I've earned. More difficult to wear is the label "wise." Although I pray for God to use me as a vessel of His wisdom (and rejoice in answered prayer), I also know that being a vessel of wisdom doesn't necessarily make a person wise. Solomon evidently carried more wisdom than anyone else, but he didn't allow wisdom to carry him.

Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has understanding …
~ Proverbs 10:13 (NKJV)

The invisible Creator has hidden Himself only so that He will be sought and found. (See "God of Hide-and-Seek.") Not once have I earnestly sought the Lord without discovering another precious nugget of knowledge or understanding or wisdom. I've not nearly enough time or words to share more than what amounts to gold dust from my mining the richest vein of gold in the universe. The offerings of this blog are woefully inadequate to the mercies of God.

The problem is that so much of me gets mixed into what I write. On a good day, I manage to share mostly Him and veil most of me. On my lesser days, far too much of me comes through. My prayer is that either way, His Spirit will overcome and use the words printed here in each reader's life.

"He must increase, but I must decrease."
~ John 3:30 (NKJV)

It's been said that my blogging voice is authoritative. God forbid that I speak with authority! (I was happy to do Bible Q&A, when it was hosted on the now inactive blog "Bullets & Butterflies," only because a respected Christian of authority endorsed me.)

But God permit that I speak with assurance. In myself, I have less assurance with every passing year. In my Lord, assurance deepens with every blessing and every passing trial. What gets shared here is confident testimony on behalf of Him.

Jesus affirmed that "by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." As I say to my children, I hope you'll listen to me, but please don't believe what I say simply because I said it. I am fallible. I am weak. I am still learning.

Go back to the Bible for yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you Himself. Measure the words of whomever you hear in accordance with the spiritual fruit of their lives.

Thank you for reading this far, and for allowing me to turn off comments today.