Month: March 2020

Love the Narrow Path: Meditations on the Straight and Narrow

After four months of writing, I have turned in a manuscript to Iron Stream Media four weeks ahead of deadline. The Lord has helped me greatly, answering my prayers by giving me insight to the Word and giving me endurance for the task. My previous book, In the Grip of God, is a work of biblical, historical fiction. Even though I had a lot of historical research to do, the novel seemed to be easier for me to write than this much shorter work of non-fiction. Not only does the work have to be biblical and theologically sound, it must be helpful and appealing to Christians who, for the most part, are doing their best to walk the straight and narrow way. It must also ring true in my own heart. As a result, I spent a lot of time in introspection and prayer. The work is built around the command of Jesus for us to enter the small gate and walk the narrow path (Matthew 7:12-14), put together with His teaching that every expectation for our conduct is fulfilled by loving God supremely and loving others sincerely (Matthew 22:35-40; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14), and doing unto others as we would have done to us (Luke 6:31). The love that the Bible speaks of is agapē, divine love, the kind of love that God has for humanity when He gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. Agapē is a word from the Greek that  defines, illuminates, and marks out the boundaries of the narrow path. I have coined it God-love. So, the theme of the book is God-love. In Love the Narrow Path, I have tried to examine every facet of this diamond called agapē.

There are 91 devotions of about 425 words each, 13 weeks of daily devotions. The entire manuscript came in at 40,200 words. Each devotion is accompanied by one to four verses of Scripture. The translations of the New Testament are mine. I wanted to use “God-love” extensively as the English equivalent for agapē and provide a more literal translation into vernacular English, even at the cost of a sometimes-awkward style. The Old Testament is quoted from the NASB which I consider to be the best of the modern translations. I do not yet have a schedule of editing or a launch date.

Love the Narrow Path came from my conviction that God-love is not only the answer to the Christian’s desire to please God, but the solution to most of the problems of the world.

George Cargill

There are questions and there are questions. Whether one has faith in God or not, the world is filled with unanswered questions. I have taught the Bible for many years and have had all kinds of students, from unquestioning sponges to knot-headed atheists. I like to lecture for part of the class and then slip into the Socratic method of question and answer, going back and forth between teacher and student. Neither teacher nor student can get away with only asking questions and never having to answer questions or justify their answers. An acceptable answer is “I do not know.” Then we can talk about learning about what we do not know and try to find some wisdom in understanding the limits of knowledge. But there are bad questions that are put forward that are intended do nothing but confuse the issue, waste time, and avoid other questions. A classic bad question is, “Can God make a rock so big that He cannot move it?” It is a bad, time wasting question, because it assumes that an irresistible force and an immovable object can exist in the same reality. I have learned to trust the Word of God to answer the most important questions that any person can ask, “Where did I come from, why am I here, and where am I going?” Do not look to atheistic evolutionist for the answers, for their answer is, “You are an accident of time and chance, there is no reason for your existence, there is no hope beyond the pleasure and purpose of the moment; you are going to die and that’s it.” I have learned that many atheists are atheists not because of evidence found in nature, but because of their skepticism. They simply do not want for there to be a Creator God.

The beginning of wisdom is to believe what God said through Moses, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Joshua the Son of Nun was in the first generation to receive the written word of God from Moses. He saw the sea parted by the hand of God He witnessed the fire on the Mountain of God and heard the thunderous voice from the Mountain. But what made Joshua wise is that he learned from Moses.

^“Now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses. Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.”  Deuteronomy 34:9-10 (NASB)

In recent years, science has been converging with Genesis. Physics and astronomy have shown that here was a beginning to the universe and there will be an end. Microbiology has shown that time and chance cannot produce the complexity of life we observe. Archeologist have found a creation “event” in the fossil record, the per-Cambrian “explosion” that records the sudden appearance of all the body plans we observe today. We can conclude that evolution was never a theory at all, just an unproven hypothesis glommed onto by atheists of the nineteenth century so that they could argue against creation and the Bible. Joshua did not have what we would call scientific knowledge. But he had wisdom gained through hearing the Word of God through Moses. The Bible has withstood the test of time and every assault of atheists. Look there to find the answers to those fundamental questions, “Where did I come from, why am I here, and where am I going?”

George Cargill, author of “In the Grip of God: Journey into Corinth” and a forthcoming devotional, “Love the Narrow Path.”