Make room for discovery

"Anyone, without exception, can know God if they really want to simply by praying, by honestly telling Him that they want to know Him. He always responds to honest seekers. Jesus promised, 'All who seek, find.'" (Peter Kreeft) The objective in seeking is almost always to find, discover, or expose. We never set out in a true spirit of seeking in anticipation we will never discover anything - we may not always know what we will discover, but we seek something. When our seeking is to find answers to what truly troubles our souls, the likelihood that our honest seeking will take us right to the feet of the cross is pretty good - because God is always looking for those who will seek with the desire to know truth. In seeking, God reveals truth - in revealing truth, the soul is set free.

Without faith no one can please God because the one coming to God must believe He exists, and He rewards those who come seeking. (Hebrews 11:6 VOICE)

If we consider our passage today as "instruction" to be followed, the we could divide it into a couple of sections:

1) Our mindset in seeking is one of believing we will find what we seek. The one who believes God exists comes to God with an expectant heart. There is some form of "anticipation" in coming - we may not be sure what we will receive by our seeking, but our actions are based on the belief God is the creator of all things, cares deeply for his creation, and is the one who rewards all who seek to know him as Lord.

2) Our position in seeking is really based on hope. We see in verse one of this chapter: "Faith is the assurance of things you have hoped for, the absolute conviction that there are realities you’ve never seen." We don't seek aimlessly, but with a specific "purpose" or hope in mind. We know there are things we don't understand, have not seen, don't yet know exist, but we come expectantly (hopefully). Some think of hope as a "pie in the sky" kind of thing - as though it were a "crap shoot" as to if we will ever receive anything good from our seeking. Our passage assures us those who seek God with the conviction of heart determined to understand him will receive this reward!

3) Our action in seeking is one of not only taking steps toward finding truth, but it is being open (making room) for whatever it is we discover in our seeking. It would make no sense to seek to discover something only to leave what we discovered behind. We either tend and preserve our discoveries in life, or we take them up and put them into some use in our lives. If we discover a quiet little spot in the woods where we can enjoy the babbling of a nearby brook, songs of the birds high up in the trees, and the cool repose of a lush bed of grass, we might want to preserve this for many a return to this spot to enjoy it over and over again. If we discover a beautiful seashell washed up onto the shore of the beach, we might scoop it up and take it home to remember the discovery time and time again. God's truths are both preserved for future use (time and time again), and enjoyed in the moment!

We don't seek God with an absent-minded, come what may kind of attitude. We seek God with determined spirit, open mind, and "boots to the ground" kind of action! Just sayin!

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant. In that day and time, a very taboo thing. We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God. Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated. We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar. The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish. Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,

The Plumbline

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