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The Simple Way

We worry about a lot of things that we can't know about. I can remember, back in high school, spending countless hours talking with my friends about aliens and space and God's will. It was stuff that was too lofty for us (Job 42:3). But if the conversation turned towards living out our faith, practical living stuff that we could figure out, suddenly I wasn't as interested.

Did God allow aliens to abduct the dinosaurs? I don’t know, but let’s discuss that for hours.

What practical steps can I take this week to grow in my faith? I don’t know, who wants to watch a movie?

My days since high school have changed my interests a bit. Now I worry less about Bigfoot and Loch Ness and more about developing godly habits (both for me and the people I work with). That’s why I instantly liked how Moses concluded things in Deuteronomy.

Towards the end, after reviewing the entire Law with the Israelites, Moses offers this;

God, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It's up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation. Deuteronomy 29:29

Deuteronomy 30 goes into detail about this revealed portion. Moses talks about how simple all of this really is. It's not exactly rocket science. Moses, even with his low opinion of the Israelites (see Deuteronomy 31:27-29), believed that they could grasp these concepts that he was presenting.

Look at what I've done for you today: I've placed in front of you
Life and Good
Death and Evil.
Deuteronomy 30:15

And as much as our progressive culture tries to muddy the waters of Truth, even we are hard-pressed to complicate this process. Blessings are good. Curses are bad. Loving God is the goal. Loving our neighbor is a command.

If everything we need to know we learned in kindergarten, then everything we need to know about God is also quite elementary. God is good and we should love him with everything we have. It’s that simple.

God will take care of the many things that are too wonderful for us to know. We can discuss it round and round and wonder our time away. But the revealed things are our business.

I'm in the business of making sure the revealed things are being followed. And business is good!

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