“Great website! Bookmarked! I am impressed at your work!”
“This is a wonderful wealth of information. Good Luck!”
“Best site I see. Thanks.”
“Just whant to say HI! I love this place!”
What flattering. Every time I see a comment like that, I know what’s coming next. You got it right, a string of links to sites participating in advertising through Socially Proactive AntiMatter.
But the fact is, there’s nothing to it. But is it just spammers that do it?
On June 7, 1996 the following headline appeared in THE NEW YORK TIMES, “What a tangled web we weave; we ALL practice to deceive.” The article beneath said that 91% of Americans confess that they regularly don’t tell the truth. And a full 20% admitted that they can’t get through the day without telling conscious, premeditated white lies. The report suggests that, “...as a society, we have moved very far away from the age when a man’s word was his bond….to a society in which people are more accepting than ever before of exaggerations, falsifications, fabrications, misstatements, misrepresentations, gloss-overs, quibbles, concoctions, equivocations, shuffles, prevarications, trims and truth colored and varnished.”
You know, there was a time when each man was held to his word. Your word was as good as your signature. Now, even a signature may not mean anything. Where has “My Word of Honor” gone?
Be on your guard, you’re likely to get lied to many times today, the media, the corporations, the advertising companies, you can’t escape it. Face it with a critical eye. Let’s not become part of the society that is “more accepting than ever before of exaggerations, falsifications, fabrications, misstatements, misrepresentations, gloss-overs, quibbles, concoctions, equivocations, shuffles, prevarications, trims and truth colored and varnished.”
What is God’s will for my life? This is a question we should all ask, a question we should all want an answer to. What… who… when… where… the unknowns. And it’s that aspect of the indefinite that provides our lives with another special and exciting dimension. It’s an opening for trust. It’s the explanation of faith. It unfastens an opportunity for reveling in God’s revealed will, and anticipating the road… beyond the bend.
What does it really mean to desire God’s will above all else in our lives? In answer to this question I go back to what desiring God’s will really means in its essence. Before we can truly desire to know God’s will, we must abandon our own selves in faith. The essence of ‘desiring God’s will’ is ‘trusting Him’, regardless of what he reveals. For what would His will mean to us if he were one that we would doubt? Without trust, God’s will would mean absolutely nothing, because… the evidence of it is not seen. Sometimes I start imagining to myself how it would be if there were some cut and dried way of discovering God’s will. Some way that could be mapped out and given to everybody to follow. Some way where there would not be any questions, some way where we knew God’s will for our lives from the start. Something… that would make us all just as the Israelites again.
And that very facet was something I was observing the other evening. “The Israelites had everything they could ask for. They lived under the physical shadow of God. God dwelt with them physically. They had every evidence; they had every proof they needed, and yet they doubted God.” Until now it was something I simply couldn’t comprehend. They were given the privilege of witnessing God in tangible reality. They heard him, they felt him, and they took him for granted. “How could they?!” But the answer lies in one single statement. They had no faith. For faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Heb 11:1) Regardless of whether we can see God or not, regardless of whether we know… how could we ever believe Him without placing our trust in Him? Why would we even be here today, desiring to know His will?
To truly desire God’s will, culminates in one word: trust. And then there are the two aspects of it… trusting to ask, and trusting the answer. And this is what the topic is, ‘knowing God’s will’. We all know how to ask questions. But when we ask them of God, we really desire an answer—or we should. But one thing that I have too often found myself doing, is putting my own stipulations and expectations on the answer. Most of us wouldn’t do that consciously, but are we asking God the question in total trust, willing to accept the answer, whatever it is? Asking God can only be done when we truly are ready to trust any answer He may give us. But this is where we all have questions. How can we be sure it is God speaking? I’ll be totally honest with you. I really am looking forwards to hearing what those who have more experience listening to His answers have to say. I have never experienced God’s voice more than once in the same way. Therefore I could not say, do this, do that, and get the answer. But an interesting excerpt from an article by Winkie Pratney fits here very well. Let me share it with you.
God has three answers in guidance – (1)”Yes” (2) “No” and (3) “Wait”. We cannot have a demanding attitude towards God. Sometimes there must be delays. Our lives are bound up with others, and many times God has to wait until they are ready (or until we are), before giving us the go-ahead. “Wait” is the most difficult of all answers, but sometimes it’s the most necessary. Here is the test of a love-slave. (Psalm 62:1,5, 33:20, 25:5, 27:14, 40:1, 130:5, 37:7; Isaiah 40:31, 49:23; Hosea 12:6; 1 Chron.28:9)
Reading this excerpt reminded me immediately of my parent’s testimony of God leading them together. The story… well, whoever decides to embark on listening to it is in for a late night—if you get what I mean. In other words, it really won’t fit on this page. But the Yes, No, and Wait were very real answers in that story. I know a lot of you will probably want to hear it now that I mentioned it, since this is a subject that we all face at one time or another, but for now I’ll just say this. “Wait can be the most difficult of all answers. But yet it can also be one of the most rewarding! Amen!”
But wait is only that if we are asked to wait. When we are delivered the command to move ahead, to step forwards, to do, to act, we cannot stand idle. This excerpt from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon strikes the question in a way that can only be done by such a man.
His will is done in heaven instantly, and without hesitation. We, I fear, are given to delays. We plead that we must look the thing round about. “Second thoughts are best,” we say, whereas the first thoughts of eager love are the prime production of our being. I would that we were obedient at all hazard, for therein lies the truest safety. Oh, to do what God bids us, as God bids us, on the spot, and at the moment! It is not ours to debate, but to perform. Let us dedicate ourselves as perfectly as Esther consecrated herself when she espoused the cause of her people, and said, “If I perish, I perish.” We must not consult with flesh and blood, or make a reserve for our own selfishness, but at once most vigorously follow the divine command.
Trust, obedience, action… this sums up the core of the topic. May we stand on our path, ready for instruction, ready to obey, ready to wait, ready to be, and ready to act. May we stand before our Lord without baggage, without terms, fully open to his guidance. Above all, may His will be done in our life… as it is in heaven.
Let us pray the Lord that we may do His will on earth as it is done in heaven; that is, joyfully, without the slightest weariness. When our hearts are right, it is a glad thing to serve God, though it be only to unloose the latchets of our Master’s shoes. To be employed by Jesus in service which will bring us no repute, but much reproach, should be our delight. If we were altogether as we should be, sorrow for Christ’s sake would be joy: ay, we should have joy right along, in dark nights as well as in bright days. Even as they are glad in heaven, with a felicity born of the presence of the Lord, so should we be glad, and find our strength in the joy of the Lord.—C. H. Spurgeon
It’s not often we get the chance to have people verbally regret our existence. And it’s less common that they have the same name as we do. Now with me, with there only being 3 or 4 David Boskovic’s in the world to my knowledge, it’s even less common.
But the fact is, David Boskovic is not at all happy that I’m here. I discovered his post yesterday from a link to my site. I could not conscientously give you the link to his post to read. So can I just suffice it by asking you all if you would pray for the other David Boskovic that our Savior would reach down and touch his heart?
My dear readers, I was once a strong believer in Biblical creationism. I was at one time a strong defender of the Bible. But now all has changed for me. Science has finally come up and proven itself. They have filled the missing holes in evolution. I now have sufficient understanding to base myself entirely upon the evolutionary theory.
It is totally amazing, I couldn’t believe it myself, we have done it. We have gotten the 12th frame—the frame that fits into the gap between 11 and 13. It landed in there and stuck snugly, and so… it has answered all you foolish creationists once and for all.
“It’s like 12 frames of a home movie, but a home movie covering 6 million years,” said study lead author Tim White, co-director of Human Evolution Research Center at University of California at Berkeley.
Oh sorry, I think I’ll have to recant. I just realized something. That is actually the one that fits between frame 11 and frame 5,676,480,000,000,000. Now we have progressed from frame 11 to frame 12. And frame 12 has filled the gap. Frame 12 has filled the gap that actually needs 5,676,479,999,999,988 (five and a half thousand trillion) frames to fill. Frame 12 has filled the gap. Frame 12 has filled the gap. Frame 12 has filled the gap. No. Don’t use intelligence, listen to the scientists. Frame 12 has filled the gap.
My friends. That leaves 99.9999999999999999999999…% of the frames to be filled yet. Do I smell a desperate attempt here?
“This appears to be the link between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus as two different species,” White said. The noticeable difference between the phases of man can be seen in Australopithecus’ bigger chewing teeth to eat harder food, he said.
The Link:
I mean seriously, are we beginning to realize that man just doesn’t have the ability to do a thorough job, let alone jab? Do we realize that when God created the world, he created it without any gaps, but when man created the world he created it with a gap that cannot ever fathomably be filled?—That it would take 6,000,000 years to fill that gap if they found one every second, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year?
My God is an awesome God folks. I recant, I mean, after all, I can do my math. I am homeschooled.
I found this quote from Mark Twain somewhat surprising.
Many public-school children seem to know only two dates—1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don’t know what happened on either occasion.
This is not a jab to public-schoolers really, I know HSrs who probably are in the same boat. But nevertheless, Samuel Langhorn Clements said it himself, he’d probably pull his hair out now.
btw, did you know Mark Twain’s real name? Now you do.
The other day I stepped into the washroom where my younger sister had been occupied with cleaning out the cupboard. On the counter was a pile of old medicine bottles, toothbrushes, coins, lids, containers, and floss that looked like as old as I am. One dropper bottle caught my attention.
On it was my name. I haven’t had a prescription since I can remember, let alone been to the doctor on my account. I turned it around. Yes, there was the name of the doctor who had delivered me. It was a bottle of eye drops—17 years old.
It was pretty full, so I obviously hadn’t needed much. But I stood there for a little while… thinking. A comparison slowly curled itself into my mind, and then settled into a back corner to stay.
Would that prescription mean anything to me now? If I had an eye problem, could I pick that bottle up and use it, and would it work? Not likely.
What about in my spiritual life? Would the prescriptions the Lord gave me 5 years ago still work today? How about 1 year ago? Three days ago? Or should I be looking for old prescriptions at all?
When we experience God, we know that what he gave us works. But when we are in need again, do we go looking for the old bottle? Do we shake it upside down for another drop? Or do we set our eyes straight ahead of us, on our Savior, and ask Him, “Lord, I need YOU.”
I’ve seen it happen in other’s lives. I’ve felt the temptation myself. To look behind us for an answer is all too easy. It’s almost reasonable. It worked last time, why not now?
What we forget is that in our lives, it was not the prescription that healed us.
It was the Physician.
May we keep our focus ahead. May we not step back. Let us devote our heart, mind, soul, and body to our Creator. Let us find our life in Him.
David Boskovic -- eighteen, Canadian, Conservative, and sibling to 5 -- writes a practical
mix of journalism, commentary, theology, and inspiration from the perspective of a
Biblical worldview and a homeschooled education. Here at Oneway Purpose he tackles life,
culture, and purpose, taking to task many of the problems that this generation is facing
on the front lines in the battles of the Christian life.
But the Yes, No, and Wait were very real answers in that story. I know a lot of you will probably want to hear it now that I mentioned it, since this is a subject that we all face at one time or another, but for now I’ll just say this. “Wait can be the most difficult of all answers. But yet it can also be one of the most rewarding! Amen!”
