We protest too much. From dawn to dusk there are situations that do not meet with our approval, and the dangerous options we actually have range between avoidance, disregarding what our perceptions tell us, and mounting a hostile campaign against the circumstances. Most of us have never taken a stand against our own crooked generation yet many so-called leaders are thought to be persons of courage and committed to Messianic revelation. Until you get inside their operations you will never know how great a fall (Matthew 7:27) awaits their sandcastles.

Never know due to not wanting to know

We will never know what it is like to be tested as the sons of Israel were. Their test was not a single specific question as was Abraham’s. Their test was given with the failing grade known to the Examiner.

Now these are the nations that the LORD left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan.

Judges 3:1

I still take my hat off to Abraham for travelling three days to a mountain to sacrifice his only son. With so much time to challenge questionable instructions it is amazing that “God’s friend” followed through all the way, right down to aiming the knife at his son’s neck. We know how that ended!

Never know due to not wanting to know

What ever happened to “read your Bible and grow”? It has turned into the bogus excellence of a leadership stuck on a 17th century translation of the Bible. How authentic can one person’s reception of the gospel call be when the message is heard in a mangled form? How intimate can such a person’s interpretation of the message be with a sieve for a cup? Translation, even the best efforts, can be shallow business indeed! It is popular to think that one is reading the apostles’ words first hand – this is important, right? – in any of the world’s hundreds of versions (languages). You will never know what you are missing.

Since God has no need to test the ones to whom he has given the Spirit as Helper or try the ones he has sealed how dare we jump into the finer details of life and promise believers deliverance from experiences God has been known to use to elicit our growth? We will never know why we were personally involved in such treachery. We will never know why a person touched by the power of the gospel can insist on carrying the bondage and instruments of guilt, shame and condemnation with pride.