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About Giraffes and Other Things
by Bill Denton
“Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord {as} salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all {his} letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as {they do} also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (2 Pet 3:14-16, NAU)
“Dear GOD, Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?” — Norma

    You want to know a secret? Everyone has questions they’d like to ask God. Who among us hasn’t wondered about the very same thing as little Norma? Even Peter thought Paul wrote some things that were difficult to understand. I suspect Peter had a thing or two he’d like to get cleared up in his own mind. If an apostle thinks some things are hard to understand, then I don’t feel so badly about those questions rolling around in my head.

Some people get so caught up in the questions, they never get anything settled.
    But some people get so caught up in the questions, they never get anything settled. Although Peter knew some things are difficult, when you read all he had to say it’s clear that his purpose was to encourage us to get the important things settled, do some consistent and serious growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, and secure ourselves against those who would twist things around and those who bombard us with teachings that destroy.

    When Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia he said:

“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel.” (Gal 1:6, NAU)
The Galatians had allowed people with a twisted view of the gospel to come in and confuse what should have been clear and understandable.

    The truth of the matter is that we might not understand every detail. We might not be able to fully explain how or why God did things the way he did. We might miss some application or even some implication of the gospel. Parts of the whole thing might absolutely mystify us. But we can know the historical facts of God’s work through Jesus Christ. We can know of God’s love and the sacrifice of Jesus which provides forgiveness of sins. We can know what the Scriptures say about believing, trusting, and obeying the gospel. We can know that Jesus saves and we don’t. We can know that along with salvation comes the promise of fellowship with the Father, membership in the assembly of saved people, eternal life, and a host of other blessings. While many of those things we can know with certainty produce a long list of other questions, don’t let people who do nothing but camp out on difficult, hard-to-understand, confusing, and unemphasized bits and pieces of Scripture get you so turned around that you don’t know which way is up.

    There is nothing wrong with having questions. We all do. But, there are also some things that we can know, and know surely. Don’t get those things all turned around. Now, about that giraffe. . . .!!
© 1999, Dr. Bill Denton in CrossTies. All Rights Reserved. Articles may not be reprinted in any “for profit” publication without further permission by the author. Articles may be freely distributed via e-mail, reprinted in church bulletins or in other non-profit publications without further permission. Please keep this copyright and Web Site information intact with copied articles.