Frankly Speaking - August 30, 2019
August 30, 2019
(Ps. 42:2, NCV)
A generation ago, “seekers” was one of the buzzwords of the day. There were “Christians” and church people on the one hand, and there were “seekers” on the other … a better word, many felt than “unchurched” or “lost.” There were some good things to say about this language, but also some downsides. For one thing, a lot of people are not seeking, at least not seeking the God of the Bible. In fact, there are people who are running away, avoiding God (see Romans 3:10-11 and John 1:5,10)! Besides that, the population of those seeking the God of the Bible is diminishing more and more as our culture moves further and further away from a Christian way of seeing things.
The biggest factor in my mind, however, is the fact that the people who seek God the most are mature believers. It is not that other Christians are not seeking God, but that the longer you do so and the more you seek him, the more “thirsty” you become … the more you realize that what you are really seeking deep down inside is to be found in God and was there all along. It is a bit of a paradox. On the one hand, knowing God through Christ really does satisfy (John 4:14). On the other hand, it arouses our longing even more and makes us, in a way, even thirstier. We know more than ever what we have been missing, and we seek more because we really know where the Living Water is to be found.
On Sunday we finished the series, Catch the Wind, about spiritual “practices” or “disciplines” in our lives. These are practices that open us up to the “wind” of God’s Spirit, wind that brings power and direction into our lives. However, the practices do not have any particular efficacy on their own. People pray and fast, for example, in all kinds of religious traditions. Those practices are not uniquely Christian, although there is a unique Christian way of doing them. It is possible, for example, to attend church or small group or read your Bible or journal faithfully, but not get much benefit from it because you are going about it the wrong way. The disciplines are not magic. They are not a way to “control” the spiritual life. They are simply a means of seeking God. If one really wants to find God, these are time-proven and biblically supported ways of doing that. I hope you will give thought to at least one new practice that you would like to incorporate into your life routine this fall, but more than anything I want you to seek God. Jesus promises that if we do seek, we will find (Matt. 7:7).
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One of the ways God becomes more real to us is by seeing Him work in the lives of others who are discovering Him in their lives, and one of the ways to do that is by inviting people to come and experience Christians worshiping on Sunday. Not everyone is open to that, but there are more than we tend to think. Who is in your world that might welcome that sort of invitation? There’s plenty of room this weekend as the 9:30 service at The Point re-launches for the fall season. I am looking forward to the months ahead as yet another time to seek God more than ever, and glad to be doing it together with you.
Yours,
Frank