Surely!
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Eve had a choice. She could believe God who had said she would die if she ate the forbidden fruit or she could believe Satan when he through the serpent said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:4).” Satan said that she could not surely depend on what God said. God said she could. And history proves that God was right and that He meant what He said.
Who are we Going to Believe?
Your political persuasion will likely determine what news channels and talk shows seem credible to you. All of them have some truth, all of them have some lies. Some of the lies are intentional and some are unintentional but they still tell their stories from their point of view. It seems to me that the political system in our country has proven that most people have no trouble lying when they think it will benefit them. One of my friends once described this process by saying, “Half the lies that you hear aren’t true!:” Yet many of us choose to believe one set of lies over another because that set seems to make sense to us. I think many choose their “Gospel Truth” the same way. They choose to believe those religious leaders who provide them gods whose messages they like.
Today, one of the gods that lies to us over and over is a thing called “science.” I have watched the way that word has been used in connection with the current Ebola crisis. The “science” did not support a 21 day isolation period for one nurse returning from West Africa. The “science” may not have supported a 21 day quarantine but common sense did and so did her supposed “love for her brother.” But the word science was used as if it was the Gospel truth with regard to this deadly virus.
Science is used to convince our university students that there is no God. Common sense says that there is intelligent design in our universe. Common sense forces us to realize that all men have faith, but they do not all have faith in the Living God who has revealed Himself through creation, through conscience and through Christ. But many have faith in the great god called science which changes its mind about how to treat disease, about how the universe came into existence and about a multitude of other issues. But the “intelligent” among us believe science over God. And they believe science over good old common sense.
What am I going to Believe?
In the book of Acts, Paul was on a ship that was about to sink. He had warned the captain not to set sail but he was a preacher. He was not a sailor. And what he said was not what the captain and the centurion who was in charge of Paul the prisoner wanted to hear. So against Paul’s advice they set sail. Now in the middle of a terrible storm, the Lord gives Paul a promise and he is told that lives will not be lost. Paul says, “Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me (Acts 27:25).”
That is my position. I believe God. I realize that we believe whomever we want to believe and if Satan is offering you God like characteristics and temporal pleasure, it could be easy to believe Him. I don’t fault Eve. I understand her. God doesn’t always tell me what I want to hear. But I am convinced that eternal bliss is better than anything Satan can offer us down here on this corrupt earth. I choose to believe God. I have never been able to see a “down-side” to doing that. I like God’s “surelys”. I am not so fond of the “surelys” of Satan that raise questions about the certainties of God’s promises.
Surelys on which we can Depend
A believer in God can take heart in Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
I like the surely of John 5:24, “Most assuredly (Surely, Surely) I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
So whom are we going to believe?
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of November 16, 2014