Thursday, March 12, 2009

MORE THINGS WE KNOW BY INSTINCT -- Devotional for March 12, from "Good Seeds"

“I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it. A man shall not teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sins I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

As to instinctive instruction in the hearts of men God didn’t stop with revealing certain things about temporal life (see March 11). We also seem to have an instinctive awareness, and longing for, eternal life. That which He has planted in the hearts of all men of all generations and civilizations is the glorious end for which all men long. Some call it Valhalla, others, Nirvana. The Bible calls it heaven. But whatever name you give it, the time is going to come – in our hearts we just know it’s true – when all our striving and suffering will be over. There will be a restoration of the original garden of paradise where God planted our original parents! Regardless of his religion or lack of it, every man longs for the fulfillment of his wildest dreams. He hopes against hope that death is not the end – indeed, that death will come to an end! In the search for that illusive “fountain of youth” scientists are frantically working toward the day when the cure for the ultimate disease, aging, will be found. Cryogenics offers hope regarding the ailment that is now killing you, by putting you into a deep, cold sleep, bringing you back only when the cure has been discovered. Humanitarians long for that day when “man’s inhumanity to man” will have come to an end. Noble diplomats and altruistic politicians dream of when men shall “study war no more,” when they shall “beat their swords into plowshares.” Educators wish for perfect conditions for teaching, and for students properly conditioned for learning, some going so far as to hope that someday there will be no more ignorance – no more need for the painstaking teaching/learning process. Every person on earth has his own definition of “The Great Society.” It is surely just as instinctive to know there is something more than just what this life affords, as it is to know that we exist, and that God exists. We read in Romans 1:19, as well as in Psalm 19:1, that creation declaims its Creator – the outward evidence confirms our inward instinct. And now we read Jeremiah’s validation of our universal inner longing for that which is out of this world. Through His written revelation, a word of prophecy far more sure than our nebulous instincts (see II Peter 1:19), God tells us that He has provided the solution to the dilemma of death, and paved the way to eternal life. The job of those of us who have discovered the Scriptural validation of everyman’s deepest longings is to share that Good News with every man we meet!

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