seeking

I've had a couple posts about seeking........ first about seeking God's face, and more recently on seeking the ancient paths. Seeking is an active thing. Yet, even though we desire these things, we tend to treat them passively rather than actively pursueing them...... and then wonder why we do not find them. When scripture says seek......... it means seek.

Also, maybe part of the blessing of these things lies in the act of seeking them....... we are blessed by the seeking in itself.

LORD, when I say I want to seek you, seek your face, seek the ancient paths........ help this not to be just words....... but help me to seek with my whole heart and will and actions.

manifold

"Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations"
1 Peter 1:6

"As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."
1 Peter 4:10

Sorry, but I had to switch to the King James Version for this one. Our pastor talked about this on Sunday. He said that the word manifold had connections with color and that so what it really means here is more like spectrum. So in the first verse, the trials and temptations that come to us cover an entire spectrum of varieties. But then the only other place that Peter uses that word is in the second verse above. And just as our trials cover an entire spectrum, it is balanced by God's grace also covering an entire spectrum.

"And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
1 Corinthians 10:13

and this is love

"This is love:
not that we loved God,

but that he loved us
and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
1 John 4:10

"For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life."
John 3:16

"Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres."
1 Corinthians 13:4-7

"Dear friends,
since God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God;
but if we love one another,
God lives in us
and his love is made complete in us."
1 John 4:11,12

known

"But the man who loves God
is known by God."
1 Corinthians 8:3

... a verse I read last night.



How do I know that I really love God?

... thoughts today.

an explanation

A couple of my previous posts have had "graphics" in them, and current plans are that there will be several more of these. I originally intended for these to be mini-posters to put up in my workshop, without any explanation to go with them. But somehow they are finding their way here....... along with some thoughts and verses on why I find them significant.

ancient paths

This is what the LORD says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is,
and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls."
Jeremiah 6:16

Reading through the scriptures, paths are a recurring theme.

Literal paths like those of Abraham...
"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 ( I love that verse and have been wanting to get to use it in a blog entry)

Paths of law and of obedience...
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." Isaiah 2:3

or again......
"I run in the path of your commands, for you have set me heart free." Psalm 119:32

But...... obedience is not the only path we can choose.....

"See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Deuteronomy 30:15-20

The history of Israel is one of straying from those ancient paths....... and of God's sending the prophets to point out their errors and to try to guide them back..... and of their disobedience eventually leading to another path.... a literal path into exile. Their paths of disobedience are also a reminder for us.... "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come." 1 Corinthians 10:11

Yet woven throughout the history of Israel, is also the path of God's working to bring redemption for his people. Even in the doom and gloom of the prophets, there are also the beautiful passages pointing to Christ.

Eventually we come to the gospels which are full of paths....... the path of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem where Jesus would be born........ many paths of Jesus leading, and the disciples and others following........ paths that culminated in Jesus' path to the cross....... a pathway of suffering, of obedience to His Father, and of love for his children.

Ancient paths........
also the paths of promise and of blessing......

"You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence."
Acts 2:28

Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
Psalm 25:4,5

of power

"For the kingdom of God
is not a matter of talk,
but of power."
1 Corinthians 4:20

On the same evening that I was reading these words, my youngest daughter had one of her frequent bad dreams. And as I went in to her and put my hand on her to comfort her and to pray for her..... the reality of these words struck me. My prayer for her was not just words, it was God's power at work, right there in that room. The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power. What we read in the scriptures is not just words on a page..... what we read there is reality. Too often scipture is reduced to just a story, or some good moral lessons, or as the source for endless theological debates. These are all missing out on the truth. The kingdom of God is a matter of changed lives, of changed eternal destinies, of changed hearts, of changed actions....... of power.

in the beginning

from Genesis 1:1
*
In the prologue to his book titled Living With Fred, Brad Whittington writes...
"In the early nineties when I first wrote what later became Welcome To Fred, I viewed it as the story of a kid finding his way through a sticky patch of adolescence rendered more difficult by the multiple complications of culture shock and PKness. Then last night I realized I was wrong ... It wasn't the story about a kid. It never was. It was a story about a father."

We also tend to think that our stories, our lives, are about ourselves. We are wrong. They never were. Our lives take place in the much greater story of our heavenly Father. A story that begins with ... In the beginning, God
*
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.