Genesis 4:7 a. If you do well, will you not be accepted?

“If” occurs 1,678 times in 1,507 verses in the ESV. (source BLB.ORG)

Returning once again to the first use of a word in our bible we may learn something about the conditions surrounding the use of the word.

“If” presupposes an alternative condition based on choice and result. It is an unknown that seeks some assurance.

For example, “if” I had known what would happen to me in Vietnam, I might have made different choices. A change in career paths does not guarantee the results.  Success or failure, pleasure or pain, a long life or a short one, advice given can be helpful, if taken.

The goal in this first use is acceptance. Our problem with never knowing “if” is just who defines what is acceptable and what is not.  Do the results define our opinion of our choices?

That is an existential question, is it not?

Life presents us with many choices. Some are limited, some are limitless. What defines our path of least resistance does not always get us to where we want to be. The path less traveled holds no clues to where it will lead. Being clueless is a bad thing.

Teach your children well.

Some children are taught to hate. Some are taught life is nothing but a series of abuses. Some are not taught at all and left to a cruel and ruthless world to teach them what is hot and not to touch, but we get burned that way.

“If” we leave our children in the hands of the “clueless” they will surely lose their way.

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

Note closely that there is no ”if” in that statement of fact.

“If” you want to be someone’s companion, wouldn’t it be a wise “choice” to be with He who has the oil of gladness?

Colossians 1:9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

For the last few days I have been at a loss for something new to write. That happens to me often when I sense that I have come full cycle, approaching the same old material with a new way of looking at it. Today is one of those days.

This is the perfect answer for what the Lord has put on my heart.

All this is about you, not me, perhaps not even the Lord but the object of my innermost prayers.

Sometimes when you are very close to a subject you lose your objectivity. I have been asking myself why again. Why me Lord? Why have you chosen me? Why am I any different? Why Lord why?

It isn’t about me. It is all for you. I am not special, I am just like everyone else. I have a past, I have a present and I have a future. Everything that happens in this world will happen to me just as it will for you. 

Psalm 121 English Standard Version

My Help Comes from the Lord

A Song of Ascents.

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

His love for me makes me feel special, but I am not. We are all loved equally.

He has us, coming and going. It makes no difference.