If you click on the picture of the books, it will take you to the Library of Congress site.
The word "principal" in the quote above from Proverbs 4 comes from the Latin word for "first". Of all the things a person might want in life, wisdom should come first, then one can know what all else he should want instead of being motivated by pathetic fantasies and glandular disturbances.
Where does one find wisdom? I don't think you do find wisdom: wisdom finds you.
Soloman writes in Proverbs 9: 10, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom". A lot of people will try to explain away that word "fear". They'll say it refers to an appreciation for what God has done, what He can do; that it means we should respect God.
I would submit that when the Bible says, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom", the Bible means, "The fear of the LORD is the BEGINNING of wisdom"; not it's middle, and certainly not it's end.
When an unrepentant sinner revels in a life of moral turpitude, or when a Christian plans his "repentance" along with his sins, he is making a mockery of God's love and mercy. When he realizes that he's headed straight for hell, that you can't play God for a chump, then he can feel the kind of fear Solomon is talking about, the kind one experiences as a sinking weight in the belly.
That's how it begins, with a real desire to turn away from sin and toward God. He knows that our repentance can't be perfect, nor can our willingness to serve Him. Nothing about us is perfect, but His mercies are new every day. We need to rely on His mercy, not exploit it.
One of the conceits of the 20th century is that if something was written by some dead guy, it's only good for cross-referencing with something some other dead guy wrote; that it can't possibly have any intrinsic validity for our "modern" world. You'll want to free your mind from such mental myopia before you check out some of these sites.
This list of links contains nineteen entries for online materials by writers from all of the centuries of our era.
1. Visit
The Dead Sea Scrolls Page.
This is a large site. If you wish to read a translation from the originals, select "Objects and Topics" from the first page, then you can select from one of the scroll fragments.
2. Visit
The Ethereal Library Page.
This large site is maintained by Wheaton College and contains an alphabetical listing of lots of online texts from the whole of the Christian era..
3. Visit
The Fathers of the Church Page.
Can any who spend several years in those seats of learning, be excused if they do not add to that reading of the Fathers? the most authentic commentators on Scripture, as being both nearest the fountain, eminently endued with that Spirit by whom all Scripture was given. It will be easily perceived, I speak chiefly of those who wrote before the council of Nicea. But who could not likewise desire to have some acquaintance with those that followed them? with Saint Chrysostom, Basil, Augustine, and above all, the man of a broken heart, Ephraim Syrus? --John Wesley
4. Visit
The Early Church Documents Page.
This site is maintained by the Institute for Christian Leadership.
5. Visit
The Saint Pachomius Library Page.
I couldn't find a picture of Pachomius, so here's an icon of Saint John the Baptist, made in Greece 1993. Saint Pachomius was born in Egypt circa 292 and became a Christian while in Constantine's army when he was about 25. He founded the Tabennesiot cenobite order which eventually comprised nine monasteries and a convent.
6. Visit
The New Advent Page.
This Catholic Encyclopedia is exhaustive and you can even submit articles.
7. Visit
The Confessions of Saint Augustine Page.
8. Visit
The Confession of Saint Patrick Page.
He could have stayed in France and been a priest, celebrating the Mass, raising his family (there was no celibacy for priests then), relaxing by the fireplace; most guys did. He knew where God wanted him to go and he went.
9. Visit
Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas
Hence it was necessary for the salvation of man that certain truths which exceed human reason should be made known to him by divine revelation.
10. Visit
The Autobiography of Madame Guyon Page.
She loved only to do good to her fellow-creatures, and to such an extent was she filled with the Holy Ghost, and with the power of God, that she wrought wonders in her day, and has not ceased to influence the ages that have followed.
11. Visit
The Paradise Lost Page.
John Milton survived the Restoration and when this book came out in 1667, Dryden quoth, "This man cuts us all out, and the ancients too". See what you think. If you're interested, you can check out Samuel Johnson's biography, "Life of Milton" (1779), or for a more sympathetic veiw, Doctor Richard Garnett's "Life of John Milton" (1890).
12. Visit
The Pilgrim's Progress Page.
Bunyan wrote this classic in prison where he spent twelve years for refusing to stop preaching. If you're interested in him try "John Bunyan; his Life, Times and Work" (1885) by Reverend J. Brown
13. Visit
The Imitation of Christ Page.
Thomas Hamerken was born in Kempen, near Düsseldorf, hence Thomas á Kempis. He became a monk at twenty, in 1400, and spent the rest of his life as a copyist and author at the convent of Saint Agnes in Zwolle, Holland.
14. Visit
The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards Page.
Our God used Edwards to kick start the Great Awakening in this country, a revival which has had ramifications down through the decades. When he started giving his Anglo congregation the willies, he left to live with and preach to the Indians.
15. Visit
The Spurgeon Archive Page.
This British preacher and writer has left us a very large opus. He became a pastor in 1854; seven years later, the six thousand seat Metropolitan Tabernacle had to be built just to accommodate the crowd.
16. Visit
The John Wesley's Notes on the Bible Page.
Wesley was deeply impressed by the piety of the Moravian Brethren he met on the boat to Georgia. When he returned, he began to preach about "saving faith".The Church of England shut him out, so he took to the open air, and the rest, as they say, is history.
17. Visit
The Works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Page.
The Nazis killed him because he was sympathizing with the "sub-humans". Some of his work was smuggled out of prison by some very brave people.
18. Visit
Tom's Church and Family History Home Page
This site contains many links that will be of interest to students of the developement of Christianity.
19. Visit
Crawford's Reformation Guide.
This site contains many links to the writings of the great leaders of the Reformation.
In I Corinthians 3 we read "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God".
Right: after all, those two kingdoms are opposites of each other.
Like most people, I use the two phrases;
and,
interchangeably.
But when one picks up his Bible, he should stick to the former. The fact that a finite mind cannot comprehend the works of an infinite one is no surprise.
Likewise, where does a mere human (even one with a bunch of abbreviations after his name) get off saying that the Book which God has given us is wrong, just because he can't see how it could possibly be done.
If God says a particular circle has a diameter of ten and a circumference of thirty (or three or three million), obviously, we can't understand HOW that happened, anymore than we can understand how He walked on water or created the universe out of nothing: He used the miraculous almighty power that He has and that's really as close as we can come to describing it.
Fortunately that's as close as we need to come.
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