You know. You want her.

This Sunday, we begin a new series of teachings that we have been excited about for a while. On the surface of it, the actual subject matter doesn't sound all that interesting. In fact, it sounds rather boring, or rather irrelevant to our "modern" lives. The topic? 

Wisdom.

Personified in the scriptures as a woman that invites us inter her ways- wisdom (chokmah, ormah, sophia in the Biblical languages) is actually a central theme to Who God is and what He wants for/from us. However, our modern, Westernized Christian culture often seems to forget this. In her place, we uphold morality. In addition, we judge things with a moral measuring stick. But, even though morals have their place, th

ey are not the point, and not at all the chief concern of God. Shocked? Many people will be until they come to see just what the implications of wisdom, and seeking her, are. Wisdom goes well beyond morality- well into how life actually works and doesn't work. We all want that.

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You know. You want her.  Discussion Guide Part I

Thaw

• What are rules from your childhood ( home, school, team) that never made sense?
  
• What are rules that you broke as a kid and there were no consequences?
  
• What did that do to your perception of rules?
• What are some things from Sunday's message that stuck with you?
• What are some of the questions that the message raised for you?

Read (aloud)

• Proverbs Chapter 8 and Chapter 9:1-6
• What stands out to you?
• What are some of the notable differences in translations that you observed during the reading?

Discuss

• Does our current culture celebrate any sort of wisdom, ignore it or reject it? Explain your response.
  
• What differences are there in your mind between morality and wisdom?
  

Leader Note: Help your group understand that morals, though important in many se

ttings, are accepted customs. Mores change and shift with moods, times, regions, politics, influences, arts, wars, etc...Wisdom, personified in the actual Word (logos) of God, in Jesus, isn't affected by what we accept!)

Respond as a group to these quotes:

•  "Custom represents the experiences of men of earlier times as to what they supposed useful and harmful—but the sense for custom (morality) applies, not to these experiences as such, but to the age, the sanctity, the indiscussability of custom. And so this feeling is a hindrance to the acquisition of new experiences and the correction of customs: that is to say, morality is a hindrance to the creation of new and better customs: it makes stupid. " — Nietzsche Daybreak 19
• "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -C.S. Lewis
  
• How might enforcing morality, or giving it primacy, diminish how people view God?
  
• A popular bumper sticker reads, "God said it, that settles it". Do you think it's disrespectful or sacrilegious to discuss why God may have commanded something, to explore where He is coming from? In other words, does it honor God more to explore His "big picture Wisdom", or to be satisfied with the bumper sticker?

Apply

Apply this discussion about wisdom vs. morality to:

• Drinking alcohol. 
  
• Premarital sex.
  
• Lying. ( Leader Note: is there ever a time to? How do you "know"?)
• Cheating on taxes.
  
• Current "Political" issues.
  

Leader Note: You may need to pay close attention through the night to people perhaps giving the group permission to speak into an issue that needs wisdom. You may also note that over the course of the next few weeks, that's exactly what one or more members need, and you should shut down the course of study and come around that person in the Spirit of wisdom (Prov 15:22). Don't feel tied to the study. Feel tied to pursuing Wisdom. Decision making, seeing God and His world, understanding Jesus, families, relationships, careers, spending, politics; this all has so much to do with embracing the Wisdom and understanding available to us through His Spirit and which saturates His world if we'll go after it. So, you should feel free to pursue Wisdom, wherever she calls your group during this series and in the months to come.