Guarantee

Jos 23:14  ... Know this with all your heart, with everything in you, that not one detail 
has failed of all the good things GOD, your God, promised you. It has all happened. 
Nothing's left undone--not so much as a word. 

	They had just come from the latest gathering. Excitement couldn't be contained 
for the incredible things that had been spoken. Not only were they going to be freed from 
bondage and forced slavery, they were actually going to have their own land upon which 
they could build a home and provide a living. Though few details had been given, there 
were already an endless number of visions and discussions about what life was going to 
be like, totally removed from the status quo. While excitement was thick in the air, it 
didn't exist without the less than exuberant detractions of those that had lived long lives 
in service to their masters. For them there was some skepticism about where this new 
direction might lead. Their thoughts were expressed, but they were soon obscured by this 
overwhelming tide of belief in the adventure and the promise of abundant life in a new 
and personal land. Words of life had been spoken and expounded upon, and their 
guarantee was too much for any misgivings. 
	As each heard the promise in the same words from the prophet, the exact same 
words formed similar, but uniquely different dreams of the way life would be. With this 
deliverance would surely come all the necessities of life. If God really loved them and 
had good intentions for them, He wouldn't allow them to experience anything of 
difficulty or hardship. There would be so much more time for relaxing and just enjoying 
life the way it was intended. As certain things had been in abundant supply in their place 
of bondage, surely those things and more would be sufficiently supplied in this new 
place. No matter how simple the statement of promise had been, its expansion and 
definition in the minds of those for whom it was intended, transformed it from just a 
promised end to the complete method or means by which that end would be attained. 
Somehow there was a sense that, having been let in on a little of what God had in mind, 
they had the freedom to decide what He should or shouldn't be up to at every juncture. 
	Though a whole nation heard and dreamed the promise, it was only two of them 
that got to experience its fulfillment. If every one that had originally heard it could have 
lived all the way to its completion, however, there might be some disbelief in the validity 
of its existence at all. According to the guarantee they had written in their own minds, it 
would have had to have taken a much different course and arrived at a much more 
pleasurable destination. There would have been no hurdles and only the unchallenged 
blessings of a God that loved them and empowered them to complete domination. How 
different, though, this thing that actually became the promise, and for whom was it 
actually intended? Though sold and given to so many, their descendents were the ones 
who came to actually receive and enjoy the reality of the promise. For them there was 
freedom from the constraints of the preconceived requirements of a "real" promise. They 
didn't lose confidence in the Promise Giver at every experience that didn't fit into the 
scripted requirements of their parents. God was able to be Himself and they were able to 
be a part of His completed work by just obeying and letting Him define the method and 
destination. No matter how difficult the path or how varied the destination, perception of 
the promise never took precedence over the Promise Giver Himself. Whatever might be 
asked and wherever they might be led would never be too difficult or disappointing to 
dissuade them from following and worshiping their God. They would be able to get to the 
promise by not carrying a set of "God-requirements", but by letting God be God at every 
juncture and with every challenge. 
	Today holds a promise of great potential in the kingdom of heaven. There is a 
promised destination of unimagined abundance and delight in the place that is prepared 
for us. On the way to this place, though, there will be an endless number of challenges to 
some kind of notion we may have chosen as to how God might accomplish His promise. 
If He doesn't follow the path of our dream, we will have to make a choice for Him or for 
this self-fabricated idea of the way life in Him should be. There surely is a destination, 
but how many possess the God-written script in its entirety? Probably not any. Though 
some things may be revealed as needed along the way, there will surely be an element of 
wonder in each arriver at the way God has brought His desired purpose to completion. To 
make it there will have required surrender and acceptance to His higher wisdom at every 
point. He will ever hold the warrantee and the fine-print edition of our promise, and at the 
end there will not be one word from His original statement that has been left undone. The 
only escape from its completion will the way chosen apart from His. It will never be His 
failure, but a failure of the one who decided His way wasn't acceptable for one reason or 
another. 
	Let my choosing be formed this day in the near-felt presence of my God. May it 
be His voice that is heard and savored. In my fellowship with Him, let there be the way 
found that allows whatever is seen to be held in His hand and in the sovereign fulfillment 
of His every Word. He's not done writing, if I will but let my heart be His to write upon. 
	

11/27/05