Knowing the Knowable

“The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.

(Deuteronomy 29: 29 NLT)

 

In God’s infinite wisdom he has information known only to him. The Lord loves for us to use our intellect to seek out wisdom from him, but if the pursuit becomes to obtain knowledge just for the sake of knowing, it becomes meaningless.

Yes, God does delight in us seeking out hidden things (Proverbs 25:2 NLT).  In our quest for truth, there is a point where we can cross that line between what we can know and what is unknowable.  God does have secret counsels and trying to explain them is an exercise in futility.  About God’s foreknowledge and man’s freedom, it appears that the Bible does not entirely clarify their relationship.  What God has not completely explained, maybe we should not expect to totally understand.  Being overly inquisitive about such issues can be just an intellectual rather than a spiritual pursuit.

Pastor Alistair Begg has often said, “The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.”   Dwelling on things that cannot be entirely known never leads us to obedience and often divide Christians instead of uniting us.  You cannot obey what you do not know.  Obedience should be the result of all revealed truth.  Dwelling on the minute details of our faith can often lead us to miss the main thing, knowing God and making him known.  Trying to know the unknowable can result in us missing the plain thing, the ultimate command to take the Gospel into all the world

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Podcasts: http://kensblogpodcast.blogspot.com

                http://gleaningspodcast.blogspot.com

A Heavenly Vision

Then Moses went up to Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab and climbed Pisgah Peak, which is across from Jericho. And the Lord showed him the whole land, from Gilead as far as Dan; (Deuteronomy 34:1 NLT)

Keep Your Eye On The Prize

The Lord took Moses to the peak of Mount Nebo to die.  He looked down at all the land of Canaan where will not be permitted to enter.  With death on his doorstep, at some point, he must have stopped looking down and peered upward to his heavenly Canaan that would be far more glorious than any earthly inheritance.

That moment on Mount Nebo must have been bittersweet.  He will not enter the land he has sought his whole life but takes great delight in knowing that Joshua and his people will fulfill his quest.  At this point in the story, we tend to dwell on the temporal loss instead of the eternal gain, his inability to cross the Jordan River instead of the glorious passage of that great river.  The moment he passed from life to death, his remembrance of Canaan must have paled in comparison to the splendor of his heavenly inheritance.  He was finally home with the Lord.  It has often said that people can be so heavenly minded that they are not earthly good.  I am sure this can be true, but it is also correct that you can be so earthly minded that you have no heavenly vision.

My dear Christian friends, no matter how glorious the past was, the future is always brighter.  There is great satisfaction in our temporal pursuits, but our eternal rewards are always greater.  So my blessed brothers and sisters keep your eye on the prize, and the prize is nothing less than the Lord Jesus himself.

Image used with permission by Google.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Podcasts: http://kensblogpodcast.blogspot.com

                http://gleaningspodcast.blogspot.com

  

The Death of Unbelief

"Give me the hill country"

^“So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said.” (Joshua 14:12 NLT)

Caleb is eighty-five years old and still has not received his promised inheritance.  He asked for the land of the descendants of Anak, the giants, who had put fear and unbelief in the hearts of all Israel, save Joshua and himself.   The fulfillment of the promise of God would not be complete if he did not conquer this part of the land and unbelief would remain in Israel.

The hill country more than any other area was the place that caused the ten spies to give their bad report.  All the spies except Joshua and Caleb said, “We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next, to them, we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” (Numbers 13:33 NLT)  Joshua had already captured the city of Hebron (Joshua 10-36-37 NLT) except the mountainous area within it.  It was considered unconquerable.  Caleb could have taken the lowland and lived securely off of the fruits of someone else’s conquests, but he said, “give me the hill country” (v. 12).  If Caleb could not take what God wanted to give him, he would take nothing at all. Why?  He knew that what God had promised, he would do.

Has God promised you your hill country?  Are you getting older or is there an immovable object in your way.  If God has spoken, take the inheritance that God is giving you, and put to death unbelief.  If God is with you, you cannot fail.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Podcasts: http://kensblogpodcast.blogspot.com

                http://gleaningspodcast.blogspot.com