So are we talking about “Chasing God” or “The Chasing God”?
Isn’t the point of doing these “40 Day Journeys” so we can “get closer to God”. I mean: we read a booklet, we listen to sermons, we watch a video with a guy who looks like he has a floating head (you know, the guy with the “blue computerized screen” behind him), and Jerry preaches on a specific topic. So… end result: we feel closer to God, right? We’ve done something that allows us to get closer to God. We’re chasing God. We want to catch Him. We want our effort to get us closer to God.
That perspective is quite a contrast from “The Chasing God”. Think about it. “Chasing God” and “The Chasing God”. There’s a fundamental difference. It’s one of the biggest reason for misinterpreting God that there is.
“Chasing God”, that’s religion. Religion is man trying to bind himself to God. Some how our efforts make us deserving of salvation. It is focused on our efforts, our accomplishments, our “deservingness”. Some how we have “earned” the way.
“The Chasing God”, now that’s a relationship. A “relationship with God” is man recieving a relationship in which God has made the way. God has pursued us and invited us into a relationship… and He’s also made the way, the effort. He made the way and invited us before we were good enough. God continues to pursue us, daily, hourly, one thought, decision, and action at a time. It is a “gift”, not something we have been able to purchase or merrit. God is chasing after us.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life”. Romans 6:23 Pauls words outline two economies. One is an economy of earning our way (our payment, our wage), which ends in death. The other economy is based on grace. It’s based on the recieving of a gift that we don’t deserve, yet we have the option of recieving or rejecting. Participating in this second economy ends in life. Because God is Chasing Us.
In John 17:3, John records Jesus prayer. Jesus says that “This is eternal life, that they may know God and His Son, Jesus Christ”. What if we don’t have to wait to see Him face to face to begin “that life”? What if God’s invitation right now is to know Him, and begin living in a relationship that He has made a way for? What if getting the most out of life doesn’t consist of following all the ”church rules”, but is about yielding our life to a relationship with ”The Chasing God” – the God that chases after us, pursues us, & wants to live life together with us now. What if that “life together” with The Chasing God shapes our lives and guides us as we love God back with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strenght; and our neighbor as ourselves.
In what ways has God revealed His love for you?
Do you find yourself “Chasing God” instead of loving “The Chasing God”?
How “is” God pursuing the YOU?
How is God using you to express His love to someone else?
As you answer… pursue the personal answers, not generalities. Lets give witness to what God is doing in our lives.
This 40 day study is touching me in so many ways and on so many levels. God works in my life everyday and I try and open myself up to him and what he wants me to accomplish.
Turning 50 in a few weeks has me going over my life, my choices, my opionions, my faith and trying to find where I should be in God’s plan for me.
Being a Mom and a wife has been such a big part of who I am. My son is a Godly man and I know we have raised him to make a difference and share the love and the word of God with others. God has told me to try and help others in so many ways. The Womens Prison Ministry has become and important Mission to me along with spreading the word with those I come in contact with on a daily basis,
Latley with having workers at my home and making them coffee and homemade goodies we have been taking of our lives and faith.One man in particular asked where I went to church. I told him Alpine and invited him to come and worship with us one Sunday, He said I was one of the first women he had encounterd who seemed grounded and truely sincere.Maybe God was working through me……..who knows. I do know I have seen a change in him and more of a smile each day he arrives to work. God works in each of us each day, We are all Missionaries.I love my Lord with all my heart and if I can touch one person and spread that love I am happy. I look forward to the rest of the 40 days and hiw God will show himself in my life.
I love watching so many people in our church family share the love of God in our community through small group projects, InnKeepers, Angel Food ministry, benevolence efforts, our Christian school, etc…. I have a wonderful vantage point (usually from behind my desk at church or the lense of a camera) and it is a blessing to watch!
Recently I watched with interest as the Kelt/Yoder small group came up with the idea of collecting used furniture to give to those in need. They collected and repaired and waited for someone coming out of prison or getting out of an abusive situation or setting up a household for the first time who just needed help getting a fresh start. THEN, along comes new member Ryan Curry who is always on the look out for a new friend and a person in need. He has such a heart for others and never asks for things for himself but is looking for ways to serve. Last week in his apartment complex he found a young couple with a new baby who had very little. Teaming up with the Yoders and Kelts, they were able to provide them just about everything they needed. It was a joy to watch God providing for this family by using these folks who just wanted to be His hands and feet in such a simple, humble way.
It is a beautiful thing to witness this kind of unity and their desire to serve Him by serving others!
This past weekend, my wife and I visited our oldest daughter and her husband in Dallas. They have been trying to get pregnant for some time now. Last December, 2007, Lisa was pregnant, but miscarried. I know that God loves His children and only wants what is best for them. He knows us in our mother’s womb, even before we are born. In His time and only in His time is anyone born in this world. I praise God that He is in charge of the universe and not us fragile human beings. We are but vessels of His Will. Praise Him for the mystery of life, from conception to the great reunion with Him in Heaven. He is an Awesome God!!
As I went about my day today calling on customers and doing my thing I stopped by a potential customer that I had only met with once. It was during the noon hour – so my thoughts were she probably was not even there. She was and invited me into her office. As we talked she began to look
for something she wanted to give to me and I noticed she had big tears in her eyes. I asked
her if everything was ok and she began to sob.
She told me how embarrassed she was to tell me this – but she just couldn’t stop herself. Her 19
year old daughter is sitting in Smith County Jail for some poor choices she had made and her bond is $100,000.00. She does not have the
$10,000.00 to get her out and really doesn’t think she wants to. This daughter has been giving them alot of trouble for the last two years.
As she told her story and what had happened to her daughter I began to cry with her. I told her our story and how dealing with those situations is the toughest thing anyone has ever been through. How hard it is to watch your children suffer and there is nothing you can do.
As we talked she told me she had become distant from God and especially now she felt she had
not done a good job raising her daughter and had failed God. She had even considered taking
a bottle of pills just to stop the pain.
We talked for nearly two hours and after all was said and done I asked her if she would pray with me. My prayer was for God to take all burden off this mother and we turned the entire situation of her daughter over to Him!
She followed me to my car and told me she felt
so calm and under control now. She took my
cell phone number and asked if she could call
me again just to talk.
After I left I could not believe what had just happened. God had sent me to this hurting Mom – he had used me as a vessel. I really did not want to stop by there, but I did anyway and
look what happened. What a day, what a glorious day!!!!