FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2014
Talk no more so very proudly; let no arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed.—1 Samuel 2:3
If intellectualism alone were the major key to purpose and fulfillment, then our universities and college campuses would be bastions of peace and purpose. Yet as you walk around your typical secular university today, you will see the emptiness of academic pursuit without God. On these campuses you will often find the most bizarre and aberrant ideas circulating today.
Certainly the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom is a good one. Very few things this life offers are greater than the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, the pursuit of a good education. But if in that pursuit we leave God out, then it will indeed be an empty one.
The year before he died, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant physicist who was known as “the father of the atomic bomb,” said this about his life: “I am a complete failure!” In looking back on his achievements, he said they were meaningless. That sounds a lot like Solomon, who said, “But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:11, NLT).
We celebrate our dramatic advances in science and technology, which have been breathtaking to say the least. But as Tom Brokaw once said, “It is not enough to wire the world if you short-circuit the soul.”
With global telecommunications, we truly have become a global village. Yet there is a sense of isolation and detachment, and all this technology almost seems to numb the soul a little bit more. It is the pursuit of knowledge without God.
Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013
Radio Program: “Christmas: The Story Before the Story — I”
TV Program: “Christmas: the Story Before the Story”
Bible Reading: Ephesians 5-6, Psalm 119:1-80
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Used by permission from Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie, PO Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514.
