School vouchers

School vouchers are being discussed across the land.  Public education is in a turmoil and has been pronounced by some as a dismal failure.  School Districts are charged with the responsibility of providing a quality education for all children, no matter what their needs.  Some school programs have excelled in quality education, but others have not.  Resources are always a question, and finding those resources among families with few resources is a problem.  Hence the use of vouchers to offer families a choice among educational programs that offer the educational support an individual student needs regardless of what district the child belongs to.

Some school districts and union officials have resisted the use of vouchers claiming it places the districts in jeopardy of losing students to other districts causing a loss of funding for home districts and a reduction of teachers in that district.  This is especially true for those children with special needs.   

These days we hear so much about the "No Child Left Behind" law that seems to force teachers to "teach toward the test." Other teachers have been heard to say they must teach toward the greater number of children in the mid-range and simply do not have time or resources to teach those above or below the mean. Consequently through the evolvement from the first enactment of the Federal law 94-142 that requires children with special needs to be educated through the development of Individual Educational Plans (IEPs), school districts have been experimenting to find the best way to follow the laws and provide a functional education for a child with special needs.

Those experiments have produced a myriad of "solutions" that range from individual tutoring to mainstreaming. A totally forgotten group traditionally has been those individuals who have been institutionalized and cared for through some derivative of a State financed facility that has segregated people with special needs into one place, no matter where they lived in the state. The education for those persons was relegated to total segregation where the "mean" was lowered yet again. Today, as a result of a long-standing practice of "deinstitutionalization" and "normalization" many of those same people with special needs live in segregated "group homes" and spend their days in a "sheltered work shop" with others with intellectual or other developmental disabilities.

The problem with the past methods of helping people with special needs has been an almost complete separation of the individual from his/her primary support group, the natural family. When the educational system of today, post "normalization" practices speaks of public education for people with special needs, by and large it means separating them sometime during the educational day into a classroom where others with similar needs are placed.

Our long history of "separate but equal" in other arenas of life should have taught us that separation from the mainstream does not always mean the quality of those services are equal. The only way the equality for separate services can have a chance to reach and maintain the quality that is meant for the mainstream services is for the person with special needs to have a strong advocate, and that advocate should be the family.

Educators are going to have to realize that the power of quality rests in a system where the provider of those services must be challenged to continually strive for the "best practice" for each individual. The idea of "If you build it, they will come," works only if the system continues to build excellence and quality and maintains dynamic change to attract those who choose that service.

For children with special needs who need support to advocate for themselves to make the choices they need to make to have the best quality of services, the parent or family must have the power to shop around and choose the best available service among services. With that power through vouchers and other methods of having resources, they will not have to settle for only what is offered by one service provider alone.

Jim Killebrew

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Truth

This article is going to be for the more mature readers; not as in "mature audience" to warn of pending pornography, but mature in the sense that of having grown into wisdom by living a life of "knowing" right from wrong.

When Jesus stood before Pilate in a "trial" to determine his crimes, the Governor tried to have Jesus admit He was committing some crime against the Roman authority.  Jesus was talking about a kingdom, but not a kingdom of this world.  In the Gospel of John, chapter 18 we have the following account:  18:36 Jesus replied [to Pilate], “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 18:37 Then Pilate said, “So you are a king!” Jesus replied, “You say that I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world – to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” 18:38 Pilate asked, “What is truth?”  (John 18:36-38)

That has been the age-old question.  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is studied in universities around the world.  He was a German philosopher who looked at the paradigm of absolute Truth in the model of relativity.  He described an idea (thesis) as being affected by the "antithesis" of that idea or belief, that eventually evolved into a "synthesis."  From that it became a new idea or belief.  Of course this is oversimplified and understated, but the paradigm shift proposed by Hegel was significant.  It represented a shift from the Absolute Truth to a relative truth that was situational at best.

Ethical behavior was changed from "sin" to relativism.  Relativism defined simply is the belief that concepts such as right and wrong, goodness and badness, or truth and falsehood are not absolute but change from culture to culture and situation to situation.  The standard that was based on the Absolute presence of God was "synthesized" to a new concept that "God" was anything that could be developed by any culture or society.  No longer was it an Absolute Law from God that one human may not murder another, but killing could be tolerated under certain circumstances and redefined depending upon the situation in which the "murder" was carried out. 

In fact the Laws that had previously been believed as "God's Laws" were simply suggestions that had to be viewed within the context of society, culture and situations.  Society could "borrow" those "suggestions" but had the authority to change them to meet the newer standards relegated by the relative power derived from either the force imposed by totalitarianism or from the rule of any group of individuals who agreed to some stated standard.  From within that paradigm shift even the Church began to change.

In Europe and the United States even the secular societies continued to believe in the God of the universe and essentially knew right from wrong.  For nineteen centuries after the Ministry of Jesus on earth sin was still relegated as being wrong because it was perpetrated against God.  But with the philosophical values ushered in by Hegel even the common man began to believe that "right" was measured by a shifting standard and could mean anything each individual wanted it to mean.  Sin continued, but it no longer had the authority or sting of having been committed against God, but against the standards of another man whose values were less noble.

Entire societies began to emerge with a synthesized set of values that long-sense had discarded Absolutes that the God of the universe was in control.  Truth became unstable and relative truth became king.  That which had been fundamentally wrong became right in the eyes of many.  Nazism, fascism,  socialism and communism became the new, relative truths that provided the rule.  But within that rule came a justifiable truth that allowed atrocities to live within the framework of legalism within the boundaries of Nationalism. 

Nazism relative truth allowed for the extermination of over six million human beings of Jewish faith.  Fascism relative truth allowed for the destruction of basic human rights, property rights, religious rights and the rampant destruction throughout a society that destroyed tranquility and joined with the Nazi relative truth to plunge the entire world into a war.  Socialism and communism relative truth joined to destroy a host of societies to a totalitarian rule that resulted in millions of lives being lost, fatherlands being destroyed and human bondage being forged that lasted for a hundred years.

Atheism found a home nestled in the secure establishment of relativism as well.  It became fashionable to decry the presence of God in anything.  No longer did God live on the earth among and in mankind, but He was not living anywhere in the universe.  "Science" became the new god that Atheism could embrace.  With each new "discovery" or each new "theory" that railed against a Creationist God, relative truth won the day.  Evolutionary Theory replaced Bible reading in the public schools.  Biblical authority gave way to a theory that had been relegated as "fact" even when proponents agreed there was a "missing link." 

Today in the Western cultures and societies the fact of an Absolute God with Absolute Truth is laughed off as a myth borne by uneducated, backward simpletons who must use a crutch of "religion" to make their way in a sophisticated world.  The consistent, incremental movement toward the attack of Christianity in America is following the same patterns it did in Europe. 

Christianity in America is being maligned and marginalized each and every day.  The new relative truth god is more than materialism, or even atheism, it is sophistication and snobbery.  It is people who have become smart in worldly content who have "grown" above the Absoluteness of God.  In America, in the educational systems, political systems, scientific circles, economic systems, social systems and even the religious systems, mankind has finally planted the flag of superiority deeply and squarely on the summit of the Tower of Babel.

There is only one thing they are forgetting:  Absolute Truth continues to reign supreme in the universe.  God is not dead; God is still alive and well.  In the Gospel of John we catch a glimpse of what Truth is with the words of Jesus.  He said He would be leaving for awhile, but we would know Him and He would not leave us alone:  14:5 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 14:6 Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 14:7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:5-7)

Jesus continued to tell about the One whom He would send:  14:15 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. 14:16 Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever – 14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you."  (John 14:15-17)

Finally, Jesus prayed for His followers to be set apart in the Truth of His Word:  17:16 "They [disciples] do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. 17:17 Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. 17:18 Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world."  (John 17:16-18)

Make no mistake about it, it appears that Absolute Truth is dead and gone, however, we need to remember that Truth is in this world and is living within the heart of each Christian who has committed his or her life in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The work that He has done by giving Himself on the Roman cross to be a sacrifice to forgive sins of each person who accepts Him is the Truth, the Absolute Truth and nothing but the Truth.  Even if most of the seven billion human souls living on the earth choose not to believe that, it does not alter it as being a fact:  Jesus is the Absolute Truth!

Jim Killebrew

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Mom remembered

Today would have been my Mother's 99th birthday.  I was born on her birthday so it is just one more of many hundreds of things we shared.  She always said she could never forget her birthday since she always helped me celebrate mine.

Mom was one of those "Greatest Generation" people who was born long before WWII and was married with three children before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  Dad was a bit older at the time of the war's beginning, and with a wife and three children he escaped being called into the war effort for awhile, but finally was drafted in spite of his age and family situation. 

From the point Dad left for his army duties Mom was the head of the household.  After his training and before he shipped out for Germany, Dad started the events that led to my Mother's October 1944 birthday presenting her with a gift of yet another son.  It was later that I learned I had been labeled as a "war baby".  Now with four children and a husband embroiled in the war effort ten thousand miles away, Mom had to use her strength and savvy to provide for herself and her family.

People in those days endured trials and grief that as a child growing up after the war and during the next two or three decades was seldom endured.  Making dollars stretch, finding the best bargains in food and clothes and teaching respect for each other fell to Mom.  She always made the best of it always giving her family the very best she could.

Looking back I can see where Mom was the doctor, teacher, lawyer, preacher, mender, disciplinarian, arbitrator of arguments, provider, soother of hurts, but always Mom.  She cooked all the meals, washed all the clothes, shopped for all the clothes, took us to church and Sunday School, kept us all on course and made it fun to be in "our family".

Mom was special because she spent her life "raising" her kids, caring for them, counseling them, advising them and most of all, loving them.  The Bible says that the length of a human life is but a "vapor" that is here today and gone tomorrow.  As one generation comes and goes another takes its place.  Mom is gone now, but she left her mark on each of her children and their children as well.  We miss you Mom and love you very much!

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Christian reward

A blog I follow written by a fellow Christian wrote about the fear of living one's life and dying in obscurity.  He mentioned the prize of our world was seeking fame, power and resources.  Because Christians love Jesus, however, what we do in His name is done to give Him the glory.  But our lives are lived in submission as God works through us by His Spirit.  My blog friend's conclusions are correct; living our lives in obscurity here is nothing, because being in Jesus is everything.

Matthew, one of Jesus' Disciples recorded something that Jesus said about judgment.  “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 25:32 All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 25:33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 25:34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 25:36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 25:37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 25:38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? 25:39 When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 25:40 And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.’"  (Matthew 25:31-40)

When we act in love toward the "least" of our brothers or sisters who belong to Jesus, our obscurity is thrown out the window, because we, in fact, are doing that kindness to Jesus. 

I would like to think at least two things happen when we arrive in heaven: The first is that we will be met with many who will simply say “Thank you.” The man who learned of Jesus when he was 12 because you took the time to teach his Sunday School class. The woman who didn’t have quite enough money to pay her heating bill and you finished out the payment. The lad who got into your car by hitchhiking and went the last 100 miles home after having lived in “a far country” and woke up one morning having “come to his right mind.”

Those acts, little acts, done in Jesus’ name helped each of those to walk “the streets of gold” forever. Yes, Jesus got the glory, but on that day, in heaven, Jesus will turn to you and say, “but you get the thanks.” He will thank you for yielding to Him and allowing Him to work through you to touch the lives of so many.

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Forgiveness

On Friday 9/30/2011 I heard a news report on the radio that a 13 year old girl in Pakistan had misspelled the word "Mohammad"  on a paper.  The Teacher of the class lost it emotionally and almost had an emotional break-down.  The school made a big deal of the girl's spelling mistake and when word got out, over fifty religious Muslim leaders called for the girl's arrest and for her to be charged with blasphemy; which carries a sentence of death.  The incident caused the girl and her family to go into hiding for fear of their lives.

Perhaps it is just the consequence of a life-time of Western culture and socialization of living in a Democracy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that has established my thinking, but does this sound a bit too harsh a punishment for misspelling a word?  I know there is a vast difference between the theology of Islam and Christianity, just as there was a difference between Isaac and Ishmael.  The subsequent feud between those two brothers has likely created more hatred and bloodshed than any other feud in history.  All the same, if the peoples from those two brothers could examine themselves deeply enough to reach to the core of their basic humanity, I would hope that they would find some level of commonality.  If nothing else, I would hope that commonality would be forgiveness.

If the God of Abraham could find it within His heart to find a way to provide forgiveness to His crowning creation, I suspect that somewhere deep within the deoxyribonucleic acid shared by human nature there is a glimmer of hope for finding a shred of forgiveness for each other.  If this 13 year old girl could be the object of that micro step toward forgiveness from a tradition so deeply rooted in reactionary hatred, it might be the first step onto a path that would lead to healing for humanity.

I will pray for that balm of forgiveness and a glimmer of a new day.

Jim Killebrew

Stimulus growth myth

Government stimulus:  The government does not produce a product or service that generates income.  Money comes to the government by confiscation of that money by the government through laws and regulations imposed on those who work for incomes.  This is usually referred to as income tax, corporate tax, user tax, property tax, or some other kind of tax imposed on the individual with an income.  A portion of each individual's income is handed over to the government even before the individual is paid.  This is the information printed on the individual's check stub that is labeled income tax, FICA, Medicare, State income tax, and in some cases city or county taxes.  If the individual tries to hide or prevent the government from taking the income from the individual, the individual is punished with fines or imprisonment. 

Once the government has possession of the individual's income the representatives of the government freely spend the money as they see fit.  They oftentimes spend the money on special interest groups that directly or indirectly benefit the public official who has the authority to spend the money.  Special projects in public official's districts are funded as an aid to help the public official be re-elected to the office or position numerous times in order to keep the power of managing the money confiscated from the individuals with income.

When the government officials decide to use a portion of the money confiscated from individuals for "infrastructure jobs" or other special projects, those jobs usually do not produce further income.  They are never sustaining nor self-sufficient to the point of reducing the need for more public money.  Moreover, the stimulus money for specific jobs usually require an oversight structure that pays individuals to supervise, manage, administrate, direct or otherwise act as a form of Chief Executive Officer of the funding stream.  For each dollar of the stimulus money used to stimulate spending through the application of some sort of infrastructure job, a significant percentage of each dollar is used for the oversight structure.

When the stimulus money is used to pay for services in the federal, state or local community, it automatically becomes a job that cannot be sustained unless the money from the stimulus source is continued indefinitely.  When the stimulus money runs out there is generally no mechanism in place that will carry the job forward in the future.  Therefore, the person holding that job will usually be laid off and will join the ranks of the unemployed again.

When the government wants or needs more money it simply takes more money from each individual wage earner.  Taxes are raised and a greater percentage of the individual's wages are confiscated.  It is done in hundreds of ways.  Products or services that people want are identified and the government levies a new tax on that product or service.  In addition to the individual's income or wage being taxed, the government taxes the money the individual has left.  The government does that by requiring businesses to collect taxes like sales tax charged on each item of product or service they sell and turn that tax money over to the government. 

Businesses usually cannot afford to absorb the higher taxes the government imposes on their products or services, so the amount of tax the government imposes on those products or services is added to the cost of those products or services.  Then when the individual purchases those products or services the business charges the cost of the product or service and the tax.  The business keeps the earnings of the service or product to replace the purchased product or service, and then surrenders the taxes collected for the government over to the government.  Therefore, the government, through laws and regulations has forced each business in the United States to serve as a tax collector for the government.

The government officials have developed a windfall profit scheme for themselves.  Through the enactment of laws that have the authority to put citizens in prison for many years, they can extract as much money as they want from the average citizen who works for a salary.  They can, and do, tax almost everything that exists.  All people pay taxes to the government.  Each person who works to make a salary pays first right off the top of their check by the use of "payroll deductions."  The portion the government believes is their "fair share" of the individual's salary is taken even before the individual is issued their check.  If the individual does not have enough taken out and falls short of what the government has decided as their "fair share" at the end of the year the employee makes it up by paying more lump sum taxes.  If the payroll deduction number has been too low in the government's opinion, the individual must pay a fine to the government for not deducting enough.  If the individual overpays by having more deducted throughout the year and it requires a "refund" at the end of the year, the government will also fine the individual for causing them to have to issue a refund.

In summary, the federal government is comprised of the President, Congress and the Supreme Court.  There are 535 members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives.  The Congress makes the laws and the President signs them into law.  The Supreme Court judges if they are consistent with the United States Constitution.  Those few people make up the entirety of the law-making process.  They are responsible for the thousands of taxes and the spending of the individual's tax money.

Government stimulus does not really work that well since the money is taken from individuals who earn a living by working and making a salary.  By taking money from the workers and giving, or redistributing, it to others who do not work to make a salary only tends to de-motivate the workers and at the same time kill the incentive to work in the individuals who do not have jobs.  This pattern has been seen in most of the socialistic societies throughout the world. 

Since the government only has money that was taken from individuals who are wage earners, there has to be a limit on what is spent.  As the government spends more and more of the individual's earned wages, there is a slow-down in the economy since the government does not produce any product that is renewable and sustaining.  The government does not build wealth; it only spends confiscated wages earned by others.

Arguments

Did you ever listen to a husband and wife argue, even fight?  What about a brother and sister, or two friends, perhaps a girlfriend with her boyfriend?  If you listen to enough couples over a long enough period of time you will discover that a pattern emerges.

The conversation starts with low tones, just an exchange of thoughts verbalized by each party in their own words.  There are glances, smiles, frowns, looks of puzzlement, surprise or joy.  Then it happens:  a word spoken or an opinion is given; it falls on ears that register disagreement and a flag goes up to prepare for the onslaught of further disagreements.  A counterstatement is spoken by another person, then another; the other counters and voices begin to become strained.  Visceral reactions are charged and emotions begin to explode; the fight stance begins its countdown.

In very short order one party begins to raise the decibel level with charges and countercharges and finally, both parties are shouting at each other.  At that point the argument accelerates to the level of an all-out fight.  Accusations are tossed back and forth, charges are continued, language may begin to deteriorate from civil diction to rancorous profanity and name-calling.  Then suddenly either the man or woman turns from the fight and takes flight leaving slammed doors in the wake.  The person retreats from the room or perhaps leaves entirely; sometimes for hours or even days. 

What follows may be the slow-burn process of thinking things over, telling someone else about the fight, trying to elicit supporters for a favored side by trashing not only the position of the other side, but the person on the other side as well.  Many, of course, simply bury the dreadful feelings received in the fight and let them fester until callousness or hate consumes the person and all hope of reconciliation is gone.

 One theory is postulated that blames ethnocentrism.  Defined in Wikipedia, "Ethnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion. These ethnic distinctions and sub-divisions serve to define each ethnicity's unique cultural identity.^[1]"  What may be true for ethnicity may also be true for personal, relational situations as well.

Mistakenly we charge various misadventures between peoples as racism, when in fact there is only one race:  the Human Race.  Within the human race are various ethnic groups that form cultures that develop behaviors, customs and religions.  We look at those differences and sometimes feel uncomfortable with those differences and sometimes treat those differences with personal hostility.  It is not that we are racist; it is that we are ethnocentric because we pre-judge our own behavior as being "right", while we view the other ethnic behavior as being "wrong".  The problem is that we all do it to each other.

Individuals make the same mistake.  In a relationship we act the same way; we tenaciously hold to our own positions as being "right" and the other positions as being "wrong."  My way of doing things is the "best" way to do them.  If not "my way" it's the "highway" for you.  Yet intellectually in most other instances we agree there are many perceptions to the same incident or situation.  In relationships, however, we become rigid and unmoving when challenged in our own preconceptions.  Most people are "comfortable" within their own "comfort zone."  To try to move them out of that zone is to cause them to exert effort to move; but they usually want to remain right where they are to maintain their personal position.

Really, when we think about it, it is simply a form of self-love.  We look through our own eyes and selfishly believe the world revolves around us and any change that needs to be made must be made by others.  Even the person who is constantly trying to "change society for the better" is only trying to change it to match their own perception of how it ought to be; and usually that being a match to their own likes and dislikes. 

We are warned repeatedly in the Scriptures not to think of ourselves so highly to the point of disregarding others:

"For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith."  (Romans 12:3)

"There is a generation whose eyes are so lofty, and whose eyelids are lifted up disdainfully."  (Proverbs 30:13)

"Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited."  (Romans 12:16)

"Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself."  (Philippians 2:3)

These are admonitions that would help us to get along with each other in our close relationships as well as in our cultural diversity.  In the modern vernacular we just need to "chill out."  We need to logically think of all possible facets to any question or situation.  Look at the other position and see how it fits into our own world.  If we can live with it, we need to think about adapting to it.

Surely in the world there will be positions on politics and religion.  We may never be able to fully "adapt" to positions that are personally untenable within our own belief structure.  But surely with personal issues like buying a gas range vs. an electric range, or painting an object blue vs. indigo is something that logic and negotiation can be used to avoid an argument.

For Christians, however, there is a greater authority and a more direct mandate to avoid personal degradation of character and personality.  We are mandated to "get along" and work out our differences since our "commonality" with one another resides in our being in Christ.  Just review the writings of the Apostle Paul in Colossians:            

Colossians 3

Exhortations to Seek the Things Above

"3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, 3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 3:4 When Christ (who is your life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with him. 3:5 So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion [think of this as lust], evil desire, and greed which is idolatry. 3:6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. 3:7 You also lived your lives in this way at one time, when you used to live among them. 3:8 But now, put off all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. 3:9 Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices 3:10 and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. 3:11 Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all."

Exhortation to Unity and Love

"3:12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 3:13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others. 3:14 And to all these virtues add love, which is the perfect bond. 3:15 Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body to this peace), and be thankful. 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace in your hearts to God. 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Finally, the Apostle James gives us the path to True Wisdom:

"Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct he should show his works done in the gentleness that wisdom brings. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. Such  wisdom does not come  from above but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and not hypocritical.  And the fruit that consists of righteousness  is planted in peace among  those who make peace."  (James 3:13-18)