Tried With Fire

On a more serious but related note: We're currently studying Judges in Sunday school. On a plain reading of Judges 6:1-40, there was no confusion about God's will. God told Gideon in no uncertain terms what He wanted Gideon to do. In fact, Gideon reiterates this by stating "as You have said." But for whatever reason, the Word of the Lord seemed to be insufficient. Therefore, the fleece was an act of unbelief , not an act of inquiry . It wasn't an act of faith but evidence of lack of faith. So why do Christians "put out a fleece" to "find" the will of God? Does anyone know where and how this practice originated? I'm curious because it's based on a complete misreading of the text. And lest you think I am pointing the finger, I've put out my share of "fleeces" too. However, I do have a theory. My hypothesis is a well-meaning Sunday school teacher was very uncomfortable with the moral ambiguity of the judge...

I loaned Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung to a friend. We had a good discussion about the book today. We're both recovering from some fear-based, semi-mystical ideas about the will of God so it has been very freeing. Formerly, finding the will of God was as hard as hitting a bull's eye at 50 feet with a dollar store dart gun minus your glasses. Of course, it is difficult to be 100% sure whether you hit the mark, so life is still full of second guessing, if only's, and what if's . It's sad how this mindset also takes our attention away from obeying what is commanded in Scripture to becoming incapacitated over what should be a common sense decision. It would be like agonizing over whether to wear the argyle or striped socks and ignore the admonition to be anxious for nothing. I would venture to say that obedience to the Word outweighs sock color any day. There are times when I am tempted to second guess decisions I made, things I did in the past. If I had done thi...

I highly recommend Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung. It's a short book that packs a big punch. Also as someone who has had a wrong view of the will of God for most of my life, this book clears up a lot of things. I didn't realize how confused I was/am until reading this book. It has been a breath of fresh air cutting through the mystical ideas of the will of God that I used to hold. Part of my confusion may be due to being taught that the entire history of mankind since the fall is Plan B. Therefore, God doesn't appear to have very good control over His creation since He has been trying to salvage things since the Garden. In fact, the will of God becomes a very tenuous thing because there is absolutely no security that His will will happen since man and the devil seem to be awfully good at derailing it. Also, if human history is Plan B, what plan am I in? Given all the wrong choices that I could have made, I could be in the third, fourth, or fifth derivative of Plan...

Wisdom is the difference between knowing a world-class biologist who can write your papers and studying under a world-class biologist so that you can write the kind of papers he would write. Too many of us want God to be the world-class scholar to write our papers and live our lives for us, when God wants us to sit at His feet and read His Word so that we can live a life in the image of His Son. God doesn't tell us the future for this simple, yet profound reason: We become what we behold. God wants us to behold Him in His glory so that we can be transformed into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). If God figured everything out for us, we wouldn't need to focus on Him and learn to delight in His glory. God says, "I'm not giving you a crystal ball. I'm giving you My Word. Meditate on it; see Me in it, and become like Me." From Just Do Something by Kevin De Young, pages 93-94, Moody Press.

I love books. These arrived today, and I can't wait to get started! I am going to start with Kevin DeYoung's book first. I have had and probably still have some major misconceptions about the will of God. I wasn't a liver shiverer but definitely more of the "if you make a wrong choice, you will be out of the will of God and suffer for it your whole life". And worse, in addition to being "out of the will of God", you will be attacked by demons if you don't "follow the leading of the Holy Spirit." Comforting mindset, isn't it? I flipped through the book this afternoon. I think it will be very helpful and set some things straight from a Biblical framework.