Good afternoon, Zane.
For today’s devotional selection, I’m opting to lay aside the New Testament reading schedule and put forth one from the Old Testament. Hope you can give it some careful thought.
Hope to hear how things are going down your way. Love and prayers—Tua/Ray.
There are things presented in and through this Biblical record that are difficult to understand. I have no problem admitting that. There are questions that arise not only over what is said, but over things not said—questions relating to WHY and HOW things are presented, determined, and allowed the way they are. Some readers will become so distraught over these questions that they “throw the baby out with the bath” and totally abandon SEEKING a transcendent God—then turn around and embrace themselves as the most qualified replacement. In grappling with this kind of thing, I have never found a more relevant and supportive capsule of Scripture to feed my struggling mind than the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 29:29—“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” I choose to accept that the LORD is under no obligation to reveal EVERYTHING to me. I choose to accept that I grossly lack the capacity to know EVERYTHING. I choose to accept that God’s OMNISCIENCE is far beyond my limitations, presenting just one of many essential qualities that combine to make God GOD.
OK—lots of stuff I don’t know or understand—things that are like “secrets.” But there is one class of knowledge that I can get in on—things “revealed.” And they are available with increasing clarity for those equipped with the essential of a HEART AFTER GOD. In fact that attitude of heart and soul boils down to THE ONLY OPTION! It’s the ONLY one because if it is not CHOSEN, the alternative option is automated. This is precisely what Moses is repeating over and over before all Israel just prior to his final departure—it seems like he’s shouting like an over-heated preacher. “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him” (29:19-20).
Here’s a valid question for everyone I know—in fact it’s a good one for everyone I don’t know: What are you choosing to do with this information?