Proverbs010107

Editor's Notes

1. Older people here know what this picture is about! ‘University Challenge’, with Jeremy Paxman continuing the famous catchphrase of the original quizmaster, Bamber Gascoigne. ‘Here is your starter for ten.’
2. Here’s another kind of start. Computer users will recognise this. It’s the ‘start button’ (or more properly the ‘start orb’) from the Windows 7 operating system.
3. And if you want a nightmare, here is what Start will look like when Windows 8 comes out next month.
4. What about this? Does anyone know what this is? If you looked closely, you would have seen a lot of these over the summer. It’s a starting pistol for athletics. It was used at the Olympics.
5. Our reading has something to say about how to start well in life:Verse 7 (The Message): ‘Start with God – the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.’Why?
6. Is wisdom about thinking? Is it only for clever people? No. Wisdom is about how to live well.
7. And that means following the maker’s instructions, his recipé. That’s what this series is about. Start with God. And for that matter continue with God. If we want to learn how to live well, we start with God, who made us. And to learn from him we need to give our lives to him.
8. So we need to listen for the Maker’s instructions. That means regular prayer.
9. And we need to read the Bible to discover what God has to say to us.
10. Most of all, if we want wisdom we need to follow the example of the One who more than anyone else lived well. Jesus.
11. And that means more than anything we need the help of the Holy Spirit. As we begin this series, let’s bow before God for his wisdom. Let us seek his instructions in living well through prayer and the Bible, and by following Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit.