Monday, November 12, 2012
313 - Finding God, Finding Ourselves
Spirituality
Column #313
November 13, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
Finding God, Finding Ourselves
By Bob Walters
November 13, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
Finding God, Finding Ourselves
By Bob Walters
However fervently
we may seek – or help others find – God, we can take heart and trust that God
is pursuing each of us.
The
Bible is rich with evidence. God went
looking for sinful, ashamed Adam in the Garden of Eden. God pursued bewildered but faithful Noah,
made Abraham the father of a great nation, wrestled with Jacob, empowered Moses,
trusted Job, forgave David, delivered Daniel from the fire and the lion’s den,
and visited righteous prophecy on countless seers.
If we
learn nothing else from the Old Testament, it is that God relentlessly pursues active
relationship with flawed humans … humans He created perfectly in His image with
freedom and love, and humans who regularly succumb to the overwhelming
temptation to try to be God instead
of being satisfied worshipping God, accepting His love, glorifying His name,
and obeying His commands.
As clearly
as God told humans – specifically His chosen nation Israel – what they should
and should not do, humans rebelled. They
made golden idols, insisted on earthly kings, and worshipped God’s laws with
personal pride rather than humble obedience.
They made an unseemly show of earthly works and a shambles of divine
faith. They confused internal
righteousness with outward appearance.
Something
had to give, and God gave … again.
God sent
His son Jesus – the Word became flesh
(John 1:14), fully God, fully human, the only perfect human – into the world
to reset the perfection humanity lost in the fall and restore humanity’s
righteous relationship with God. That’s
the New Covenant, the basic doctrine of the Christian faith: the perfectly
human Jesus reconnecting mankind, in pure faith, with a perfectly righteous and
eternal God.
We predominantly
focus on God’s forgiveness of sin through Christ, but Jesus gives us so much
more: adoption into the kingdom of God, participation in the divine life,
sharing God’s glory, communion with the saints, eternal life, dwelling in
heaven, and the perfect love, mercy, compassion and peace of God.
In
pursuit of us, God sent His healing glory into this world in the perfect
humanity of Jesus. If I’m going to find
God and any part of myself worth finding – it’s a work in progress – it will be
in the only human perfection or divine righteousness I can know: through faith
and in relationship with the perfect humanity of Jesus Christ.
The
whole world groans in longing for the restoration of God’s perfect Creation,
which is the ultimate promise of Jesus.
As we go looking for God, we will find our perfect humanity and true
selves only in the perfect person of Jesus Christ.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), citing 1 John 4:7-8,
deduces that God doesn’t come looking for us with wrath, but with love.
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