Certain

​I feel like I’m living in a giant bubble that increases with size and darkens in color.  I wonder when it will explode and what outcome I can expect.  Almost daily I receive emails from people that love President Bush and despise John Kerry.  Conversely, I get messages that bash Bush and laud the Massachusetts Senator. Each person is certain of his or her views.  I don’t ever remember seeing this nation so polarized and divided over who should be its next Commander-in-Chief.  Perhaps in the tempest it is wise to remember the temptation to lean on our own understanding sets us up for failure.   If our hope for the future is pinned on a man or a party we are destined for an overdose of pain.

Meditation
Isaiah 28:16--Therefore the Lord God said: “Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable.”
 
God made His Stone of flesh and blood but of a kind not seen in the sons of Adam.  Jesus grew up a Jew in an Israel seeking a political hero, an emancipator, and dashed their hopes. He was not out to free them from Rome, He came to save them from sin and ensured the “them” included all nationalities. 

God laid a Stone that was tested.  Satan offered Jesus the world.  The Son of God rebuked Him with Scripture.  Religious leaders debated with Him and tried trapping Him into making mistakes.  He exposed their hypocrisy and chastised their blatant phoniness.  His closest followers offered what looked like good advice to strengthen His campaign only to be rebuked for not understanding God’s will. In following that will, Jesus ended up spiked to a cross, betrayed, battered and mocked.  He lost at the polls and died on a pole.  He arose with His holiness intact.  

God gave an undeserving world, a Cornerstone of incalculable value and indispensable worth.  God promises that if we trust in Jesus we will never have our courage destroyed or our joy defeated.  It is our moral responsibility to vote.  But who we entrust our future with transcends the ballot box.  If you want to be certain, be certain in Jesus.
 
Inspiration
Always beware when you are perfectly certain you are right, so certain that you do not dream of asking God’s counsel.  Our confidence rests not with our wits, but with God.  We must never depend on our own moral judgment or our intellectual discernment or our sense of right and justice.  All these are right in themselves, but not right in us; we can only be right as we remain absolutely confident in God.—Oswald Chambers in Not Knowing Where
 
©2004 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)