When is a person truly “in” the Kingdom of God?

It is a valid question for anyone to ask, whether Christian or Atheist. When exactly is a person accepted into the Kingdom of God? Is it at baptism? Is it after one says some lines to heaven? Is is after we confess our sins to a priest? Or, instead, has it all been predetermined millenniums before anyone even asked such a question? When asking such theological questions, it only makes sense to turn to the book of God's word – the Bible.

A. Old Testament Theology

It seems that the old testament is rather blunt when answering who is and who isn't in the Kingdom of God. Throughout the testament, God holds up to a covenant he made with Abraham. (Genesis 15:8) The Israelites became God's chosen people, and the old testament follows their story.

God's Chosen

First of all, we can look at Deuteronomy 7:6-11. God is telling the Israelites that they are his “holy people,” and that out off all nations on earth they are “his treasured possession.” (verse 6) This appears to mean that God values the Israelite nation above all others. They have a special connection to Him. The passage further goes on to explain that God did not choose them because they were a great or mighty nation, but because they were the “fewest of all people.” (verse 7) Therefore, God does not select people based on how great their country or nation is. Such earthly signs of power and greatness mean nothing to God.

God continues to say in verse 8 that they were chosen because God loved them and made and oath with their forefathers. He also says in verse 9 that the “covenant of love” was to last for “a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.” This opens up all kinds of questions. First, does Gods love for the Israelites only last for 1,000 generations? Are these chosen people the only ones that will inherit the Kingdom? Or, is God's love more open to anyone willing to “love him and keep his commands?” This does not necessarily seem like an option if God is telling the Israelites to destroy the nations that oppose him earlier in chapter 7. God wants the people to follow his commands because he loves them, and has established laws that need to be followed in order to accept this love. (verse 11)

An Exception?

We often see God angry at the Israelites, causing them to die. Yet, in the old testament we see God saving¹ people for simply helping the Israelites. One such example is Rahab the prostitute. Her story begins in Joshua 2. In particular verse 11² shows Rahab recognizing God as the Lord of heaven. She asks to be spared, and is told that she will be. This is an interesting concept. Rahab, who was not an Israelite, was going to be the only one in Jericho to be saved, yet she was a prostitute, and had just lied to protect two Israelites. She simply protects the Lord's chosen, and is spared when the walls fall. In Joshua 2:15 the Bible says that Rahab's house was connected to the city walls. However, in Joshua 6:20, God causes the walls to fall, but in verse 23 the two Israelites go in and bring her and her family out unharmed. This seems to imply that God must have kept her part of the wall intact, otherwise she would have been crushed. Thus the Lord saved her, and in verse 25 she is brought to live with the Israelites.

But did this allow Rahab into the Kingdom of God? Was recognizing him an entry point to the Kingdom even though she was not Israeli? According to a study done by David Guzik on Joshua 2, a number of factors play into the salvation of Rahab. First, he claims that though she was a prostitute, she had faith. She recognized God as who he is and accepted Him. Guzik goes so far as to say that Rahab wanted to leave her life of sin and join God's people based on Joshua 2:12. (2001) He even claims that God went so far as to send the spies to save her, and that this was God's only reason for sending them. In fact, the fact that the spies went to Jericho did not affect God's strategy at all or help it in any way. (Guzik 2001) A final thing Guzik notes is the importance of the scarlet cord. He claims that theologians as far back as the first century recognized the cord as a symbol of Jesus' blood. (Guzik 2001) In James 2:25³ Rahab is even recognized as “righteous.” It would appear that God accepted her, and even placed her into the Israelite nation. Did God accept her because she accepted him? Or, did God accept her because she was willing to become Israeli and accept their ways because God had chosen them?

Still God's Choosing

Rahab, even according to Guzik, was chosen by God. It seemed that it was part of God's plan to find Rahab. She was already willing to accept the ways of the Lord, but she had no way to do it. Thus, God sent the spies to retrieve her. He chose to accept and save her. By herself, it appears Rahab had no hope of salvation, she was to be destroyed with the rest of the city. God extended his love to her so that she could receive it. She was chosen amongst the entire city to be spared. Not even the children were allowed to live. Therefore, it would seem, that Old Testament theology supports the idea of God choosing those that he wishes to save. This does not mean that a person had to be Israeli because it was possible for someone to join the Israelites and live amongst them.

A. New Testament Developments

It would seem that the New Testament views acceptance into the Kingdom differently. With things like “preaching to the ends of the earth,” and “first the Jew then the Gentile,” and John 3:16, it is hard to see God as only accepting his chosen Israelites into the Kingdom. So what caused this apparent change? Did the 1000 generations meet its end? Or was it something else?

Jesus Wins

First, it should be declared that the rejection of Jesus (as God's Son) is a rejection of God (Himself) as clearly stated in Luke 10:16⁴. Deuteronomy 7:10⁵ mentions that those who reject (hate) God will be met with destruction. Therefore, the rejection of Christ seems to guarantee that a person will not be accepted into the Kingdom. John 8:31-47 relates to the passage in Deuteronomy in a unique way. In John, the Jews are telling Jesus that they are Abraham's children. They are using this as a means of salvation. Jesus tells them they are not truly sons of Abraham because they are rejecting him and trying to kill him; something Abraham would never do. In fact, in verse 37, Jesus recognizes them as Abraham's descendants. Thus, it would seem that simply being part of Abraham's tribe, or Israeli was no longer enough to be accepted by God. Abraham's descendants were missing their promised savior.

Ask, and you are in

Later on in Luke we find another interesting story of Jesus accepting someone into the kingdom. This is found in Luke 23:32-43. Jesus is about to be crucified on the cross. However, he is not alone, but with two other men, criminals. One of them decides to mock Jesus, but the other recognizes his dire situation. He also she Jesus as innocent, and apparently believes that he is the King that he says he is. In particular, an exchange in made in verses 42-43, “then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, 'Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.'” What did this man do to deserve such an honor? He was a criminal until his dying breath. He doesn't ask for forgiveness, there is nothing indicating that he is Abraham's descendant, and there is no sign of God accepting him first. Instead, the man cries out to Jesus with his dying breath. His simple request is to be remembered, and Jesus promises him that he will be in paradise that day. All this man had to do was ask Jesus before he died to be accepted into the Kingdom, and he was.

Baptism, and the Holy Spirit

In the book of Acts, Jesus has already gone from the earth. He has left his disciples in charge of carrying on the message of life. In Acts chapter 2 Peter is speaking to a crowd of people. After a while of listening to his message, they wanted to know how they could be accepted into the Kingdom. Peter tells them in verse 38 that they need to repent of their sins and be baptized. This will allow them to “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (verse 38) However, it is interesting that Peter does not stop there. He makes a peculiar statement in verse 39 when he says “as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” (NASB) This returns to the idea in Deuteronomy that God is calling out and choosing people. In Acts this is not limited to Jews or Israelites, but to everyone. God was opening up the Kingdom to all who would receive His calling. Jesus told the disciples to go to everyone in the world and share what he had done.⁶ It would seem that Jesus was making his call to everyone, so when Peter mentions the statement in verse 39, he is likely referring to all people who will accept God's call.

Here we find two new requirements to entering the Kingdom. The first is repentance. In the Old Testament this meant that someone had to make an animal sacrifice, a blood sacrifice. However, Jesus was the eternal sacrifice, so repentance meant believing that Jesus shed his blood for forgiveness of sins. The second step was getting baptized. This is something that Jesus himself did while he was on earth. This is how Jesus received the Holy Spirit in a special way, and he was setting an example for future believers who wished to follow him.

Being an Israelite does NOT save a person

Paul takes things to a new level. In his letter to the Romans (in particular chapter 10), he explicitly states that the Israelites are not saved. Though the Israelites claim that they are seeking the righteousness of God, they are actually missing it because they have rejected the message of Christ. Pail then goes on to say in verse 9 that a person simply has to state that “Jesus is Lord,” and believe that “God raised him from the dead,” in order to be saved. He does not mention baptism. He explains himself a bit more in verse 10. Here he says that you believe to become justified, but you confess with your mouth to profess your faith. Thus, it seems that Paul is saying that professing faith is required in order to be saved.

Explaining how to become saved is not the end of Paul's message. He goes on to explain that “there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.” This would mean that God is not choosing a favored nation to save. Paul ends by saying in verse 13 that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” There is no mention here of the Lord calling to people first or people answering God's call. People are the ones calling out to God to become saved.

C. The Trajectory of the Kingdom

It seems that there is not only significant difference in to the means of grace between the Old and New Testament, but also differences between books in the New Testament. So what is the final verdict? How exactly does a person truly become into the Kingdom of God? At what point is a person actually going to heaven? The Bible does not seem to have a completely clear answer, however, some conclusions can still be drawn.

For example, the concept of being a Christian requires the believe in Jesus as God's son. This could not have been the case for the people living in the Old Testament because Jesus had not yet come to the earth. However, today it seems to be clear throughout the New Testament that acceptance of Jesus as God's son, and his death and resurrection are indisputable facts required to be in the Kingdom. However, after this there seems to be some discrepancy as to the formal requirements for salvation. Perhaps this is all part of God's plan. There is no set way of attaining salvation. There is only the acceptance of the Christ story.

A man on his dying breath was saved by asking, a crowd of Jews were saved by baptism and the Holy Spirit, other Jews were pleaded with to accept the message of salvation, but what do these things have in common? All these people accepted or were told about the salvation through Jesus Christ. There is no earthly way to know if another person is actually saved. Only God knows a person's true heart. God may have left the perfect definition of salvation blurry on purpose. This allows him to judge as he will. So how does one answer the question, “When is a person truly 'in' the kingdom of God?” Perhaps the answer is simply, whenever God says so, and accepts a person's heart as genuine. It has been said⁷, there is only one way to salvation, but there are thousands of ways to Jesus. A number of ways are described throughout the scriptures, and each of these people were promised salvation, but it is likely that new ways to Jesus are discovered every day.

Resources

Guzik, D. (n.d.). Joshua 2 - The Salvation of Rahab. Enduring Word Media. 2001. Retrieved October 14, 2011, from http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0602.htm

1The term saving here is directly relating the idea of saving one's earthly life, not necessarily their eternal soul.

2“11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” (NIV)

3“In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?” (NIV)

4“'Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.'” (NIV)

5“But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.” (NIV)

6Acts 1:8

7This is a common quote used in sermons and conversation, thus there is no real way to target a source.

Revelations Through Ezekiel

A couple of months ago I became the leader of the young adult group at my local church. It wasn't really something that I expected to be leading, but instead something that I had planned on attending. However, the leadership that was doing it decided that it was too much for them to make the weekly commitment and the group would be disbanded if I did not step up and volunteer to take the position. I knew a couple that was currently not attending church or any kind of small group for growth. One of the couple was somewhat new to the faith and I knew that the group would be perfect for them, as I had enjoyed the time that I got to spend with other people my age. Thus, I saw the need for the group to continue.

I started the group by having a study on Dwight Robertson's book, You are God's Plan A. This seemed like the perfect fit for where everyone was in life. It went as well as any book study with a group of young adults goes. No one really had the book read so we struggled through the discussion. Not willing to try another book study yet, I moved to something different – the Bible. But, I couldn't get them to pick a book in the Bible to study. My goal for the group was not to have a teacher student relationship, but they kept turning to me to be a leader and pick a book. So I was at a loss.

However, then in one of our seminary assignments, I was struck by a couple of interesting verses in Ezekiel. I hadn't realized such interesting things were found in the book. On the other hand, I did remember a number of exceptionally awkward verses that would definitely lead to some rather unusual discussion. So I decided to lead the group through a study on Ezekiel . . . having no idea what was in store.

The first week went well as we had a blast observing the imagery used in Ezekiel's vision. Our first assignment was to draw our own rendition of the “creature” for the following week. This was a good time, but now we hit Ezekiel chapter 3, and we found our first bit of seriousness and profoundness. In particular we looked at the following verses:

Ezekiel’s Task as Watchman

16 At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for[b] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.

20 “Again, when a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 21 But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

22 The hand of the LORD was on me there, and he said to me, “Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you.” 23 So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the LORD was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown.

24 Then the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet. He spoke to me and said: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25 And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes; you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people. 26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious people. 27 But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’ Whoever will listen let them listen, and whoever will refuse let them refuse; for they are a rebellious people.

We all sort of fell silent and didn't really know how to handle some of these verses. We were all kind of focusing and reflecting on the idea that we had perhaps missed a number of opportunities to share God's message . . . and would now be held responsible. What it means in the end to be held accountable for not warning people about sin we did not know, but we did know it could not be a good thing.

God was sharing with us the importance to not miss opportunities to share the gospel. We cannot let things like fear and worry hold us back. It is our responsibility as Christians to share God's message and work His Great Commission – regardless of whether or not people accept it.

I was reminded on a man I once knew and spent a weekend with. A man from Illinois by the name of John Kiley. In my mind he is a living here of Ezekiel's responsibility. From the day that John Kiley was saved, he has never missed an opportunity to share the message of Christ with someone. Literally ever single person we interacted with over that weekend he shared something about God or Jesus with. This was anyone from the waitress at a waffle house, to the cop that we stopped to talk to, the lady at the McDonald's Drive thru, and the man asking us for bus fare. Even the ones who rejected his message he managed to hand a book to even if they only accepted it to get him to go away. He was so committed to the people that we talked to that we ate at the waffle house the next day just to see how the waitress was doing and if we could pray for her or do anything more for her. This man was absolutely crazy, and was in his mid 40's I think. Surely there could be no one that would be left accountable for him. However, sadly, I am not sure I could say the same about myself. I have not lived a life of such boldness and passion for Christ. This passage in Ezekiel serves as a reminder and inspiration as to how we should be living out walk with Christ.

So my challenge for you this time is to consider the opportunities that you have missed.  Did you have the chance to make them different? Were you afraid of rejection or persecution?  What holds us back from living a life like John Kiley?

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,
-Zach Haas

God's Word

  All right, so this still isn't the main post that I wanted to do, but its been a while so I wanted to post something. This is actually something I had been thinking about around a month and a half ago. I mentioned it a little bit in previous blogs. What is the difference between studying, reading, and meditating on the Bible, and do the differences matter? Are all three essential to a relationship with God?

First of all lets focus on something easy – reading. Reading is easy. We can all read; you and I are doing it now. But when it comes to the Bible most people (myself included) say that they don't read it enough or at all. I don't think that I have ever met someone who honestly said “I read my Bible enough everyday. I am in full devotion with God through His word.” Why is this? If God has given us the instructions to life in paper format, why are we constantly begging God to show us what to do in life? I feel like God is sometimes standing right in front of us just pointing at the Bible shouting “READ!” Other times I view Him as more laid back simply sighing with a point “It's right there . . . still.” I have no reasonable answer except that we are lazy and want more immediate results. Think about it. In this day and age anything we want to know is at a click of a button. Between Google and Wikipedia I do not think there is anything useful that we cannot learn in a matter of hours, minutes, seconds even! I don't even need a computer sometimes. I can text message 'Google' with “weather 12846” and get my local weather for 3 days in a split second. As a matter of fact, we can even find the Bible online (which is an amazing resource, and if you haven't used an online Bible to search for things you had better keep reading to my part about studying). Aside from wanting immediate results and not wanting to spend the time reading we also lack discipline. Reading God's word is more than just reading it to find what we want. God doesn't want us to just pick up the Bible and find immediate answers. He wants our time. Taking time to actually just read the Bible allows us to spend time in the presence of God. Perhaps this is even more important than finding our answers. I think the real important factor is that we somehow force ourselves to make a habit to read everyday – I'll let you know when I succeed at this myself. But I think that the three most important things of reading the Bible are consistency, learning/listening, and time spent with God.

  Next I'll talk about study. Some of you may be thinking is there really a difference between studying, reading, and meditating? Well, there is whether you've known it or not. The really close confusing ones for me were reading and meditating I think. Anyway, I would have to say that for me studying the Bible is my strong point. I love getting wrapped up in a single topic of the Bible. Something will get my attention and I'll have to search all over for it. I have an NIV study Bible. It's the most amazing Bible I have ever owned. I'm almost positive there is more non Bible than there is bible. Then, using online Bibles I can search for keywords and look up different translations. If you have never studied a topic using the Bible I suggest you try. It so cool to see how much time you can really spend when you get hooked on studying a topic in God's word. Be careful not to spread yourself too thin though. You don't want to become overwhelmed with topics and lose a focus. The book I read suggested that if you are already in a study group, its not a bad idea to focus on what you are studying there, digging deeper outside the group as opposed to searching for something completely different. Studying consists of focused passages,Biblical exploration and connection, whereas reading is more about time spent in God's word.

  Finally on to meditating. This was the newest and perhaps most interesting concept to me. Apparently, people are often turned off to the concept of meditation due to it's misrepresented mystical feel. People occasionally feel like meditating is a dark or pagan thing. This isn't the case as Psalms contains multiple references to meditation. Scripture tells us that there is nothing to fear as long as God and his word is the focus. Meditating on God does not consist of Yoga and breathing. As a matter of fact, it is defined as “continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature.” It's simply a series of thoughts deeply focused on God's word. Dallas Willard described it as: 

“We not only read, hear, and inquire, but we meditate on what comes before us; that is, we withdraw into silence where we can powerfully and steadily focus upon it. In this way, its meaning can emerge for us and from us as God works in the depths of our heart, mind and soul.”

It's not like I have never meditated before, it's just not something I have ever thought about consciously doing and adding to my spiritual life.  I remember one time specifically that my girlfriend and I took a few aways to be alone and just focus on God.  For me this meant that I locked myself in my closet (I put my desk in there) and spent some time in the complete silent dark.  I read some of God's word.  Prayed a lot.  Wrote a lot about my thoughts.  Read Ecclesiastes.  Then ended it all with some worship music. (I prefer Steve Fee and Chris Tomlin).  This really was an enlightening experience and one that I would certainly not mid revisiting or making into a habit.  Mike Hurt says:

 “Without meditating on the Word of God, my reading would become a contest in speed, and my study would become a purely intellectual exercise. Meditation forces me to slow down and to chew on ever morsel from the text.”  

Wow. That's a cool way to look at it. I can definitely see how in my life (where my best attribute was study) studying can become purely intellectual. I also know that if I did have a reading schedule, like I did when I read the one year Bible in a year, it almost became more of a task. I lost my desire to really read God's word and instead was doing it to get it done. This is important to remember. Never should any of these things be done because we have to. We can't let them become a chore that we do just because we know we should. Perhaps it may start as a chore, but I believe that it should soon become something that we desire and cause us to wonder how we ever lived any other way. We should read to know God's word, study to understand it, and meditate to ingest and apply. These three things will certainly help us to find God's will in our life.

Well, I know where I need to go and I know where I need to start. My challenge for you is to figure out where you are. What are you doing best and what are you doing worst? What can you do to change the way you deal with God's Word? My even bigger more important challenge, is for you to pray for me in getting started and stay on track. :)

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,

-Zachary Haas

P.S. I have no idea if/when you are supposed to capitalize Word when referring to God's word? If someone lets me know if there is a proper way then I can edit the post and fix it all :)

God's Plan for My Life. Wait... it was always that simple and in front of me?

This is a post that I have been itching to write for about 3-4 weeks now.  It was really a combination of this one and the one about God being a friend that really started the idea to make a blog.  SO IF YOU NOTICE THIS POST, I URGE YOU TO READ IT.  IT HAS MORE IMPORTANT MEANING TO ME THAN SOME OF THE OTHERS.  I hope you enjoy and find something to learn too.

I have mentioned before that I have struggled to find God's will for my life.  After the message that I talked about from Steve DeNeff, I learned that God was always with us no matter what.  It caused me to believe that that is a part of the free will God gives us.  God wants us to make choices on our own, but he wants us to make our choices with a faith assurance that He's not going anywhere.  There are at least 4 places in the Bible that talk about how God will never leave us or forsake us.  For right now I like it best in Deuteronomy.

"And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”-Deuteronomy 31:8 (NKJV)

However, sometimes it is very hard to live by this kind of faith.  It is not always easy to try and say well I am going to do this and have faith that God is with me.  Though at the time I felt assured thats what God wanted me to hear, but as my life went on I realized  that there is more to God's will and plans than just having faith that he is with us.  He is always with us, even when we are sinning and running down the path of God rejection -- look at Jonah.  But then, 2.5 years later I have found what I think to be the answer to so questions revolving around God's will for our lives.  And you are not going to believe how easy and simple it is.  I didn't.

Perhaps I am the only one who has overlooked this a thousand times.  Perhaps I am the only one who has been blind to God's obvious call to arms.  Maybe everyone has already known this and I am the only one who missed it.  For some reason I honestly feel like I can't be alone.  How many times have you heard the phrase if you want to know God's will for your life read the Bible.  WAIT!  Stay with me now.  Those of you that just read that line thinking that I just said something incredibly clichéd will know EXACTLY what I am talking about.  We have all heard a million times that if we want to hear God we need to be reading the Bible daily, but how many of us honestly do that.  Theres more, but let me put it in the words of Mike Hurt who caused me to come to this realization.

"Don't become your own urban legend by thinking that God's will is like your personal autopilot.  When you discover what God wants for you to do, it will take energy and effort on your part to live it out.
Many of us have the delusion that if we knew with certainty what God wanted us to do, then we would do it without question, no matter the cost.  Not true -- our personal history bears witness to it.  There are commands in Scripture that you and I disobey every day.... Each of us can remember a time when we knew God wanted us to do something and we refused.  His Spirit whispered to us, we knew it was God, and yet, we did not take action.  Maybe it was a prompt to share your faith with a new friend or shut your mouth when everyone else was bashing your boss.  Whatever the instance, you ignored the prompting. You and I have proven it: Knowledge of God's will is no guarantee for obedience to God's will." (Mike Hurt, Connect the Dots pg. 18)  

Did you catch that?  I pointed out the exact line that did it for me.  "The answer is so obvious!  God's will for our life is to follow Him.  But what does this mean? "Read the Bible to hear God" NO! Really read it, it's right there, all the answers." Is a comment I wrote in the book right next to that phrase.  If God has already given us His will and we are not following it, why are we still asking for it?  The Bible is absolutely filled with God's will for our life.  It is everywhere.  Jesus even specifically said in John 14 that if we love him we will follow his commands.  If we are not following the commands that God has already given us why would he give us more?  I am sure by now there should be a list in your head of broken commands and places of inadequacies in your life.  I could think of a despicable plenty.  Honestly I couldn't believe that I had never seen this or realized this before.  I had always thought about it in a different way.  The idea that seeing isn't believing kind of thing.  People say that if Jesus appeared to them they would believe on spot.  This isn't true because the people who could see Jesus killed him.  Clearly seeing him wasn't enough.  However, I was making this same mistake that I was aware in a different context.  I know what God's wants me to do (or should read the Bible more to remind myself) yet I still choose to not care and do what I want at times.  Really, what got to me was that God's plans for our lives are literally right in front of our faces, in the very word of God.  If we want to hear God's plan for our lives, read the Bible.  Seriously really read it.  He has written it down for us.

Obviously, the Bible isn't going to direct say "Zachary, I want you to move to Arizona after college to do this that and something else."  But my, what a great place to start.  If we start following God's general plan for our lives on a day to day basis, we will already be living out his will!  When we are living in His will I am sure that other parts of his plan for our life will be revealed.  So, start reading the Bible and obey all the commands that God has laid out for you.  My goal is every time I see a command in the Bible I am going to write it down.  These commands are how God wants me to live my life every day.  We need to start with these so that we can get the rest.  How are we supposed to hear God and know his word if we aren't reading his word?  I just can't believe that I have heard it a million times that we need to read our Bibles.  Even more so, I can't believe that the answers were always so close I just missed it.  I hope that you see what I mean.  This concept was really eye opening to me and I hope that I have explained it well enough to my readers.  Just think, we CAN know God's will for our lives.  All we have to do is blow the dust off that old book and start reading it.

"One of the reasons certainty does not necessarily result in obedience is because God is not looking for certainty -- He is looking for faith.  While we want to know more, God wants to trust us more.  While we want assurances concerning the future, God wants us to place our future in His hands.  While we want our doubts and fears to go away, God wants to turn them into a strengthened faith in Him.  It is our faith in the middle of every circumstance that pleases God -- not our certainty of our next step." -page 19

Of course this is how God wants it.  But for me this is incredibly hard to do.  Being uncertain about something is one of my biggest pet peeves ever.  I can not stand not knowing.  Whether it be how to do homework, or how to do something else, not knowing how to do something frustrates and depresses me.  I absolutely despise it.  This is why it is hard for me to just pick up the Bible and find God's commands so that I can follow them.  I know that it is what I am supposed to do, and honestly it is what I want to do, but why is it so hard to make time and actually do it.  I confess, that even though I have found this realization about 3 weeks ago, the amount of time I have spent inside my Bible beyond these posts should be enough to weep (not in a good way).  So wait, I'm saying that I have found God's will for my life yet I haven't grabbed hold of it and been consumed in the Bible for three weeks?  Ding Ding Ding! Winner.  I have proved the author correct.  However, as I think about it right now I find this encouraging.  Wait... encouraging that I have failed to do what I know is right? YES! ABSOLUTELY!  I am even MORE sure that it is what I am supposed to be doing.  What better place for Satan to attack than what I know is right?  If it had been easy for me to start searching God's word right away and truly studying it and meditating on it I would have doubted my recent epiphany.  The fact that I have barely started confirms any doubt that I had that God's will for my life is written plain as day thousands of years ago.  I just need to grab hold and find it.  And it might be a good idea to hold on for the ride.

My challenge today for you is to try it yourself.  If you are looking for a different place to start than the obvious 10 commandments, I recommend 1 Thessalonians.   There are many commands about God's will there that are literally written as God's will.  This is where I am going to start.  It still shocks me that I have missed such an obvious gift from god, His written will, for so long.  I mean really, when you think about it.  God's will... ITS RIGHT THERE! We've had it our whole lives.  Why did I not here it all those times I shrugged off people saying, "Well, did you read your Bible?"  At least I have heard it now.  And I hope that you have learned something too.

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,
Zachary Haas