To Be Continued.....

   This may turn out to be an incomplete post. Not that there is no rhyme or reason to it, but because I am not sure about the topic or its outcome.

   I like to read, maybe because it takes no physical energy, and maybe because I can lose myself in the story and live in someone else's life, but I read a lot. Retirement gives me that much time.

   But sometimes I come upon a story that I am just not sure about. Is it a worthwhile read? What is the author's purpose in writing? Should I find life lessons in it that I need to incorporate into my daily living?

   How do I associate these questions into what I read in my devotional time this morning? Here is what I saw in the Scripture this morning, from Psalm 46:

"God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear"

   What am I afraid of when I read? Mostly that I might be taken in by some pseudo-Gospel that would cause me to miss the path and truth that God has spoken. If I embrace something false to the Truth of God, I not only endanger my walk with Him, but I can be led to influence others in this way, too.

   So, I finished the book last night and this morning my first prayer was for wisdom and discernment as to its message. It read like a Christian self help book with many references to Biblical characters and a lot of sayings that sound like Scripture, and I guess that I wanted to believe that I had not wasted my time with it. But did I, and should I discard the whole thing or look into it further?

   I know that God is the ultimate authority on all of this, and I truly want to know what He would say about the themes of any book, so can I just leave it there and wait for His guidance, or do I explore further?

   When I explored what others thought about the book, one popular website gave it a 4 star rating out of 5. Does the fact that almost all of the reviews written in English give it a whopping thumbs down and most all of the great reviews are written in Arabic, matter to the truth?

   I want to please God in all of this, so I will just wait and see and pray for wisdom and discernment in all that I put in my mind, from books, from TV, from the internet, from anywhere.

   Could be the end of this particular story or maybe not....God will advise and I will wait.