“Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”
– Deuteronomy 30:11
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you now on a ‘wild goose chase’? Mark Batterson wrote a book that he titled Wild Goose Chase. Your grandpaa recently finished reading this book. Mark Batterson’s ‘wild goose’ is God the Spirit. What do you think that it means to chase after God – as God the Spirit? Are you chasing after God – as God the Spirit? Are you waiting for God – as God the Spirit, to chase after you? Do you think that maybe God – as God the Spirit, has chased after you already and it is now up to you to aggressively, passionately chase after God – as God the Spirit? What is your impression of God – as God the Spirit? Do you envisage God – as God the Spirit, giving impassive, impersonal direction or leading to guys, gals and kids who have made a decision of faith when they accepted as absolute truth what God – as God the Son, did on the cross on which He was brutally crucified that resulted in His suffering and death becoming an immediate and everlasting ransom payment for their sins and a surety for an eternal victory over the death spirit or do you visualize God – as God the Spirit, offering proactive, individualized direction and leading to guys, gals and kids who God – as God the Father, specially elected and adopted before He placed planet Earth in His cosmos? Your grandpaa has to admit that he has waited too often for God – as God the Spirit, to close or open a door as a way to know what the will of God – as God the Father, is for what he should do instead of vigorously chasing after God – as God the Spirit, by enthusiastically, persistently following through on each divinely driven stirring that God – as God the Spirit niggles or weighs on your grandpaa’s heart and mind to do. God delegated Himself – as God the Spirit, the role of leading guys, gals and kids into doing what would be thought of as being impossible to do outside a norm for His kingdom’s sake. Chasing after God – as God the Spirit, is for a guy, gal or kid to unreservedly be receptive to doing exactly what it is that God – as God the Spirit, asks the guy, gal or kid for him or her to do. This is counterintuitive to a mindset of waiting on or expecting God – as God the Spirit, to first put all the ‘ducklings’ in order before taking the next step to doing what is intellectually ascertained or believed to be what the will of God – as God the Father, is that He has for each guy, gal and kid to do.
God gave about 3445 years ago to His specially chosen guys and gals a pointed missive that is just as apropos today for God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids to apply daily to their lives as it was for God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, to obediently accept and faithfully obey. Deuteronomy 30 has God definitively spelling out to His specially chosen guys and gals what to expect if they should ever decide to worshipping something else other than just worshipping Him. God clearly instructed His specially chosen guys and gals that He would subject them to dying or being banished to a foreign land if they should ever opt to turning their hearts away from Him by bowing down to manmade inanimate gods handmade from wood, stone, clay and metal. God unmistakably told His specially chosen guys and gals in verse 11, “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.” God has never asked, is not asking and will never ask His specially chosen guys and gals or His specially elected guys, gals and kids to do something that they cannot do. What God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids need is God’s unrestrained and boundless strength, wisdom, knowledge, ability, etc. to accomplish a perceived impossibility of doing what God is asking of any of His specially elected guys, gals or kids to do. God’s explicit communiqué also plainly articulates that He knows that His specially chosen guys and gals were going to fail Him and that there would come a day when He would have them exiled as a punishment for their disobedience to His belief and lifestyle mandated paradigm. God gave His specially chosen guys and gals the option to choose between life and prosperity or death and destruction. Your grandpaa knows that the choice must always be life and prosperity but . . . that does not mean that your grandpaa has never succumbed to a temptation that might – if not for God’s mercy, lead to death and destruction for your grandpaa. Just as God promised His specially chosen guys and gals that their lives will one day be restored to hope and prosperity, your grandmaa and grandpaa know that God has blessed them far, far more than what they deserve to be blessed because they know in their hearts that they have never really aggressively chased after the ‘wild goose’ – God – as God the Spirit, so that the ‘wild goose’ – God – as God the Spirit, can do wild things through them.
Even though your grandmaa and grandpaa at times question their faithfulness to God, they have not hesitated to initiate programs that have and are making a difference in God’s kingdom on planet Earth. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that they have remained faithful in their beliefs and in their actions to God; it is knowing that a life investment of chasing after God – as God the Spirit, involves a dedication to prayer, fasting, sharing their faith, communing with fellow Christ-follower guys and gals, etc. that your grandmaa and grandpaa know that at times they come up short doing. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are committed to serving God and listening for His voice.
Deuteronomy 30 (987)