God's Will

All of us seek to know what God would have of us.  Yet, too often we mistake God's will with believing we can know the future.  We want to know who to marry, what job to take, what school to attend. 

God is not in the prediction business with man anymore.  He gave his prophets of old that calling and it usually meant death, destruction, and mayhem!

God's Word is adequate for our knowing His will.  We just don't bother to take the time to read it.  Admit it, how many new TV shows did you watch this week?  Compare that to your Bible reading.  Sucks doesn't it!

The little book of James towards the end of your New Testament is the Proverbs of the New Testament.  In chapters three and four he gives us tremendous help in knowing God's will.

Specifically, at chapter three and verse thirteen James asks his readers who among you is wise?  Isn't that what we truly want when we say we want to know God's will?  We want God's mind, God's knowledge of what we should do.  And you know we are secretly blaming God for our failures because we think, "Well God, you weren't clear on my marching orders." 

God doesn't care so much about you doing the right things as He does with you obeying Him in that instant!

James answers his own question by saying, He (you) should show his (your) works by good conduct with wisdom's gentleness.  He goes on to say that we are NOT to have any envy or selfish ambition in our heart.  Does the decision you need to make stem from envy or selfish ambition.  That is an honest question we must ask ourselves.  Next, James tells us, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without favoritism and hypocrisy. 

Pure. 
Does your desire come from innocent motives?  Is there a secret agenda that fulfills some selfish lust?

Peace-loving.
Will the choice you make bring peace?  Peace to your soul? your families souls?  your spouse's soul?  We are to pursue peace with all men, even our enemies.  Will your choice bring a win for everyone involved?

Gentle
Like a mother gently holds and supports her newborn infant will your choice gently hold and support you?  Will the people involved support you? 

Compliant
Could you see Jesus making this decision?  This wisdom from above will not be out of Jesus' nature.  If you can see Him doing this then you should or can.  Remember, though, to answer this question you must have a solid understanding of Scripture and how God acts.  We don't like to think of God as dangerous, but He does do some pretty amazing things throughout Old Testament history!

Full of mercy
What is mercy?  It is NOT recieving punishment that we deserve.  We should see our decision/God's will as merciful.  You should be amazed that God would give you another option that keeps you from making a bad one.  If you have two options on the table you should be amazed that one of them is full of mercy. 

Good fruit
What will be the result of your choice one year down the road, five years down the road, twenty years down the road?

God's will isn't really that hard to figure out.  It simply takes knowing His Word, which is His mind. 

Anniversary of OK Corral

Today marks the 130th anniversary of the shoot out at the OK Corral.

That infamous gun fight to end all gun fights, which spawned a million movies and tall-tales of gun slingers and cowboys.  The OK Corral gun fight created hundreds of heroes based on Wyatt Earp and the Doc Holiday.  What nostalgia, what wonder, what excitement!  Four heroes subduing a gang of thugs and not one taking a serious hit.

Makes me wanna watch "Wyatt Earp" with Kevin Costner!

Book Review: Unveiling the Kings of Israel

This easy to read book covers the major stories of the Old Testament reporting on the narrative as it is told in the Bible.  Interspersed in each chapter are archeological finds of recent history and also conclusive evidence demonstrating that the facts of the Bible are true.  Some of the major events and people discussed are Abraham, Moses, the Exodus, King David, Israel and Judahs history with Assyria the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery. There are tables in the appendix's detailing the patriarchs, chronological table and a table of weights and measurements.

When I saw the word archeology associated with this book I expected a little more detailed work on the archeology of the biblical narratives.  At first I was very disappointed in the book because of several reasons.  For one, each chapter goes into great detail retelling the biblical stories, which I found very redundant.  They were almost word for word retelling's.  I immediately thought, "I know this story why I am reading it as if I were reading it directly out of the Bible?"  Then the archeological facts were not much to write home about.  The author, David Downs, relates how while he was researching the exodus he decided to get in his car and drive along the Red Sea to see where the crossing could have taken place.  I became worried and thought this is the extent of his archeological research?  As I read more Mr. Downs used primary texts and recorded data of other archeologists to come to his conclusions.  Needless to say, I felt like this book was a pre-teens Bible story book with some "some-what" interesting facts thrown in.

Then it hit me.  Maybe this book was written for the age category of eleven to eighteen.  If that was its intended market I can understand why it was written the way it was.  If this was a serious investigation of biblical facts then it fell woefully short.  This book was long on re-telling the Old Testament narrative, short of archeology and questionable on its findings.  Even the pictures, which this book is full of, are like looking at someone's summer trip to the Holy Land.  I just could not take this book seriously.

My conclusion has been that it will rest on my son's book shelf and be used as a reference book for them as they become teenagers.  Any adult wanting an easy to read book, with lots of pictures, and a modern telling of the biblical story for their teen this would be a good book.

I received this book free from New Leaf Publishers through the book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”