Pursuit of God is Anything but Trivial
Good Morning Friends,
There are those who are not satisfied until they have experienced more of life. They have discovered that the more intimate our encounter with something or someone, the more profound our desire to know and experience more. This is true in our experience of people and it is true in our experience of the natural world… but too often it is not our experience of church. Still if we are blessed we will find that this desire to known more is not just true in our individual search to know God but also in our experience of church intertwined in a marriage with the divine. To ground us, the Bible points the way for us to experience an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus, but also a corporate one. Knowing God is about encounter and the Bible and mature Christians point the way through Jesus. Thankfully when we truly experience the love of the living Christ through the scriptures and the circumstances of our lives, we always want more. We discover that Pursuit of God is Anything but Trivial.
Scripture: You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.
John 5:39 (NIV)
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
John 14:5-14 (NRSV)
Message: Friends, once we have an openness to God we can receive the truth, not to guide Scriptures, but to allow them to guide us…to the love of God and others.
In his book The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer writes about the experience of following hard after God and the blessedness of possessing nothing except the experience of it. He writes about the veil being removed so that he could see to apprehend God. He writes and prays about the universal presence of God and the gaze of our souls looking on the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus. He writes about the still small voice that resonates within us and the restoration of our relationship between the Creator and created. Here the meek find a childlike but not childish rest. A.W. Tozer writes as is echoed in today’s scripture that we are to learn to pursue God through the Sacrament of living.
Pray we are reassured by the words of Christ. Pray we taste and see the goodness of God. Pray we are painfully conscious of the need for grace. Pray that we are ashamed of our lack of desire to know more. Pray we are filled with a longing that the mercy of God would create a work of love in us. Pray that heaven becomes more real for us than the experience of anything earthly. Pray in our humanity and with all sincerity and humility that we experience the nearness of God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 