Friday, October 14: Isaiah 44- Pascal's wager.

At some point in life everyone makes a decision about God. Some choose not to believe in God, choosing instead to be captain of their own lives. Others choose to follow mystical spiritual powers; theirs may not be a god, per se, but a life force or something like that. Others follow one of the various regional or world-wide religions following its tenants and practices and beliefs about god or spiritual power or… I don’t believe anyone is truly neutral or ambivalent on the matter of God.  Everyone believes and follows something.

In this chapter the God of the Bible claims supremacy over any and all others gods or spiritual forces.  Some don’t like the exclusivity of God’s demands to follow Him alone but if you are God and God alone, You get to set the rules.

I have chosen to follow God as revealed in the Bible. I have staked my life on it and I seek to follow the teachings and ways of the Bible. I have staked my eternity on it as well.

Pascal put it something like this in his famous wager…

If I am correct about my beliefs in the God of the Bible, then I have lived a certain way for my 70 or 80 years and although some people feel I am foolish to live the way I do (by the way I am happy with the way I am living my life) I will be rewarded with an eternity in heaven. If I am wrong and this life is all there is maybe I gave up some pleasures others have run after but like everyone else, I end up a pile of ashes in the ground.

One the other side, people who choose not to follow the God of the Bible, if they are correct then they possibly enjoyed some things in this life I did not but we all end up in the ground together anyway. However, if they are wrong and the God of the Bible is God and the Bible is His Word, then they have earned themselves an eternity of punishment and wrath.

Question is, ‘Are you willing to take that gamble?’

I hope you choose to follow the God of the Bible –the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Think about it.

Lord, help everyone who reads these words to see the truth of Your Word and may they all have the grace to believe in Jesus. In His name I pray. Amen.