Ensign: The Answer To The Ultimate Question

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 11 December 2013

And a very merry BIRTHDAY to me, to me! Ok, so today I turn forty-two years old and I'm preparing for my forty-third orbit around the sun! (That's how I often refer to the kids' birthdays, their first year alive being their first orbit around the sun, and so forth.) Science fiction fans will no doubt know the significance of the number 42 – it's the Answer to the Ultimate Question in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, the supposed answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

42.

But as an answer is typically given in response to a question, just what is the Question? One of the goals of this increasingly comedic and farcical series (there are five books to this “trilogy”) is to find said question – the first attempt, “What do you get when you multiply six by nine?” doesn't work (except in base three, I understand), and later another character says that it's impossible to know both the Question and the Answer within the same universe.

42.

Kinda like the real-life Heisenberg uncertainty principle where you can't know the nature of a subatomic particle AND its direction at the same time – in fact, the more you know of one the less you know of the other. There's a song I first remember hearing in my university years in the early 1990s (also that's when I started my journal, so I've been writing in it half my life? Blows my mind …) with the lyric, “Jesus is the answer for the world today. Above Him there's no other, Jesus is the Way.”

42.

In my cynical moods – not as many as I used to have, thanks to Tara for pointing that out, but there are still a few – I find myself, I expect with many others, asking if Jesus is the Answer then what's the Question? And I am not going to give you some deep theological argument here, trust me. Jesus isn't about theology, or about what church you go to (or even if you go), certainly I can't see anywhere in Scripture where to be a follower of His some group affiliation in required!

42.

Wait a sec … let me clarify, I'm referring to “group affiliation” in the sense of being on a church membership roll. To be a follower of His does take commitment on your part and mine, it takes the willingness to follow one who leads us. But unlike other leaders (or those who claim to be leaders), Jesus does not go about claiming to show you the way to God His Father. JESUS DOES NOT CLAIM TO SHOW YOU THE WAY TO GOD THE FATHER.

42.

John 14:6 – “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man [and I expect no woman either] cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Jesus saying “I am” what was made the Pharisees apoplectic, the Romans respectful (remember the centurion in Matthew 8, he said he wasn't worthy for Jesus to come into his house to heal his servant – and He did it; and remember Pilate in John 18 wanting to release Jesus and in the following chapter keeping the wording on the cross about Jesus as he'd written it), and us …

With Jesus our Answer,

David

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book, and I hope to be an encourager to action too! If you find that I'm not or you want me to get lost, just let me know -- thank you!

Thank You, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.

Thank You, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You. I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.