Friday, January 11, 2008

You Lookin' At Me?

For those of you who do want to read something insightful and of meaning....go away. Just kidding. Here's something that I thought of this morning, that was kind of interesting.

So, on my Google home page, every morning, I have a different bible verse. Usually these just annoy me, because literally, they just randomly select a single verse, whether or not it's in need of context or not. So, sometimes it's like " Now I will break their yoke from your neck, and tear your shackles away." (Nahum 1:13), and sometimes it's like "But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near," (John 7:2), and sometimes it's like "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:9).

What I'm trying to say is that sometimes it makes perfect sense in the single context of a verse, and sometimes you're left wondering "huh?". Then what??

But today, as I briefly scanned past the CNN.com widget and the Sesame Street Terror Level Indicator (we're still at Bert & Ernie) to see what the verse was, it said this "And this will we do, if God permit." (Hebrews 6:3). I thought to myself, oh great, another out of context verse. What will we do if God permits??

Then it hit me, even in this snippet of a thought, this fragment of a sentence, there is great meaning as to the philosophy of our faith. Everything we do, we do only if God permits. Yes, I'm a Calvinist. I tossed around naming one of my cats Calvin & the other Luther, and then I came to my senses, and named them after famous English poets instead (some senses!)

The thing is, even in something as seemingly random as a verse out of context, God will speak to our hearts, the truth of His nature, and our faith. The word is alive, and powerful, moving and fluid, mercurial even. The very nature of God's word, whether spoken or in writing, is mysterious and awe-inspiring. These are the words of a majestic and holy God that we read, whether on igoogle.com or in church, or at home. Let us never forget how powerful and moving that can be.

So, today, as I look at my life, and at my choices, specifically whether to trust Him this weekend (for gas money, of all things) or to pursue my own, faulty methods and ideas, I realize that even in the mistakes, He is permitting me to make my own choices. All things that I do, are because God permits. Crazy! In light of that graceful truth, how can I help but honor Him through trusting, scary though it may be. Yeah, trust, that's a whole different blog post, for another time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lev 13:2 "When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or a scab or a bright spot, and it becomes an infection of leprosy on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests.
Lev 13:3 "The priest shall look at the mark on the skin of the body, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the infection appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is an infection of leprosy; when the priest has looked at him, he shall pronounce him unclean.