Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man: A Daily Devotional

by Walter A. Henrichsen

Christ is not blind submission, but intelligent assent. You cannot follow Christ without the use of your reason. “Try the spirits whether they are of God.”1 Testing requires the use of your mind. God gave you a rational mind to think and to judge, and a free will to accept or reject. Revelation presupposes reason, for it communicates truth to the mind, and this assumes that the mind has the capacity to receive it. In religion, the primary task assigned to reason is your mind’s understanding the revelation of God in Scripture. Much of what God says you will find to be counterintuitive: you must honor your parents while forsaking them; you must die in order to live, give in order to receive, etc. This is different, however, from saying that revelation is impossible to believe. Scripture is perfectly consistent within the framework of its presuppositions. It may appear counter-intuitive, but evidence of its validity can be verified for those willing to accept its presuppositions by faith. For example, you can verify the reality of Christ in you by opening your heart and inviting Him into your life, even though “Christ in you, the hope of glory” may be a counterintuitive thought. A lack of comprehension is different from a contradiction. The Bible does not contradict itself, but unless you are willing to believe the incomprehensible, you are destined to live in darkness. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”2 1 I John 4:1...

Exceedingly reasonable! A favorite "appetizer" is this devotional book by Walt Hendrickson.