10-24-22<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How often do you hear the testimony of someone who has \u201cfound Jesus\u201d? Perhaps it is your own testimony, the feeling you had when you came face-to-face with your need for a Savior\u2026 and then face-to-face with the Savior Himself. I pray that this has been your experience, or will be soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFinding Jesus\u201d is a common way of describing Salvation \u2013 knowing Him; believing He is Who He says He is; surrendering to His Will for our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We would do well, in terms of perceptions of reality, and \u201chow we shall then live,\u201d to see this blessed sweet communion with Jesus as, at best, a two-way street. More realistically, to think of it as Jesus finding you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, we all seek\u2026 for something. Every person in humanity\u2019s long history was and is different, except for the common situation that we all sin; all need a Savior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, we all seek\u2026 for something. Is it happiness, security, forgiveness, acceptance? Most likely it is all of these things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, we all seek\u2026 for something. And what a menu the world provides: pleasure; sex; drink; drugs; entertainment; malleable standards; changing values. Lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God\u2019s menu, however, offers only one item \u2013 one that will satisfy all needs, and Living Waters besides: Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in that regard we should recognize that most of us \u2013 no: all of us \u2013 spend our lives seeking the wrong things. Empty calories of life, we might say. But the point is that we seek after so many things. Once we have checked the boxes of education and providing for family, we scurry about like mice on crack, seeking short-term and false goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The irony \u2013 astonishing, really \u2013 is that whether we also, at some stage of spiritual maturity, \u201cseek\u201d Jesus; or rejoice when we have \u201cfound\u201d Him\u2026 we never had to seek, or look far, or wrack our brains somehow to seek and find Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, He never was, or ever is, far from us. He is no stranger needing to be discerned, searched for, as if He somehow is hidden. Rather, He never leaves or forsakes us, but is a constant friend (not only \u201cin times of trouble,\u201d but always), and is closer than a shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, too many of us have it backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He seeks us<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we hide from Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By our actions and inaction, by our inclinations, we avoid Him. We put Him off. We put other priorities before Him. We ignore Him when we sin. We do not study about Him, when the Bible always is open before us. We twist His commands. We dress Him up in our own wardrobes of excuses and distortions. We demote Him to a mere wise teacher. We assume His Words are not for today. We take His Name in vain. We recognize His form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. We reduce Him to a holiday figure, and not the Incarnation of God. We act like His miracles died in the tomb with Him; and did not rise for His followers today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are not the acts of people who seek<\/em> Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have many pictures, illustrations, and parables. Jesus Himself told us that He stands at the door and knocks. Get it? We are not knocking on His door, as much as He knocks at the door of our lives, asking to come in. Or maybe if we can come out and play, so to speak; for He is our friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He pursues, not merely seeks, us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I suggest that if that persistent, ever-present, inexorable, hounding, unrelenting, continual, Man of the Cross does not occasionally annoy you\u2026 you are not aware of your own situation. We hide so often, and in so many ways, that we cannot honestly say that we always seek Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 except, usually, in times of trouble and crisis. Bless His name, then we realize, in our mess, that we do in fact need <\/em>Him.<\/em> Ha, we call that \u201cfinding Jesus.\u201d Well, fine. And by the way, if that is how humankind works, can we blame God for occasionally permitting crises to come into our lives\u2026 if that\u2019s what it takes for us to \u201cfind\u201d Him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another piece of irony \u2013 or maybe not, if it\u2019s God\u2019s plan \u2013 with all the seeking and hiding and finding, when we have become Children of God, one with Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, we play a new<\/em> sort of \u201chiding\u201d game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We no longer will hide from God, but accept His offer to be our hiding place. From the storms of life, we will seek the shelter. He has formed a cleft in mighty rocks where we will be safe. \u201cNo other refuge can save, but Thee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of this journey, who-found-whom is not really as important as the fact that we can \u201chide ourselves in Thee.\u201d And we do not need to stand atop that Rock of Ages, shaking our fists at the world. What the Lord offers is refuge; happiness, security, forgiveness, acceptance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The things we felt the need to seek all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n