shall we get high on truth?

lunes, agosto 20, 2007

The Formula for Desire Unveiled!

“His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though He is not far from any one of us. For in Him we live and move and exist.” (Acts 17:27-28)

If the purpose of our existence is to search for God, why does it often seem so hard to find him? Why do I desire to know the truth, but am too self centered to spend my time searching for truth? What is it that is keeping me from finding God? God’s truth is laid out before us in the many pages of the Bible. Simply reading, meditating, and praying with God’s Word will bring us to God’s Truth. Why then, is it so hard to make devotions such a high priority that we read the Bible, meditate on it, and pray to God every day?

If you were to look for the answers of these questions from any Christian pastor in the world, the pastor would most likely say that you need to learn to desire God even more. You need to intensify your desire so that you label God’s truth as a much higher priority in life. He would then probably explain to you the importance of God’s truth and how God’s truth will benefit you so much more than the lies of the world or simple arrogance. But will that increase your desire? Is this new wisdom concerning the benefits of God’s truth enough to get you diving into the search for truth?

No, it isn’t. We return to the busy streets of life and realize that we don’t feel any different. We realize that we still want to experience fun and ease instead of the infallible truth. Something is still missing.

A couple weeks ago, Jeremy, a fellow Christian friend of mine was having a hard time understanding the practicality of missionary efforts to expand God’s kingdom. Since my parents are missionaries to Mexico City, I immediately became very defensive. But then I understood that his question was very unbiased and genuine and it threw me for a loop. The question was something like: Can a missionary accomplish anything in the country that they minister in, that couldn’t have been accomplished without them? You can’t force someone to desire God.

Sure, Jesus commanded the disciples the spread the truth, but that was because people outside of Israel didn’t know the Gospel yet. Sure, you can always lead those who are already searching, but missionaries don’t leave America just to minister to those who recognize the need. They also want to point out to others that they have a need and that Jesus and fulfill it for them. But you can’t force someone to recognize that they need Jesus.

This conversation caused me to think all day about God’s way of using missionaries. Unlike certain religions that have sent out missionaries that force people to conversion by the sword, Christian missionaries live among the people of the foreign nation. Relationships are the key tools that most missionaries use in order to reach out to people. How is it, that the simplicity of a relationship with a Christian can cause some to change their desires? I’ve seen it with my own eyes! Non-believing families have come to my house and hung out with my family and ended up, somehow, being touched. Somehow, they start to desire whatever it is that makes my family different.

This is where it all comes together. Ice-cream is delicious. I love ice-cream. But how do I know that ice-cream is delicious? Because I tasted it!!

To increase your own, personal desire to read the Bible every cotton-pickin day, you’ve just got to buckle down and do it. Like my buddy Zach Eikenberry said, “You just have to take your Bible on a first date. Set aside a time and a place and just do it. Take the initiative to do your part in your relationship with God. Take your Bible on a first date.”

Forget about all the mushy, watered-down theology that says that if you do right, God will do everything and give you all the desire you need! It's not true! God wants you to buckle down and do it!! Just do it!! Read the Bible! Discuss with your friend! Ask questions! The more you learn the more you will want to learn!

It was just a simple phrase that satisfied Jeremy’s questions: In order for you to want truth, you have to be exposed to it. In order for you to want God, you have to taste Him. The same goes for sharing the truth with others.

As I said in my last post, the great thing about truth is that it is everywhere. But lies are everywhere too. God’s truth is especially in those who have accepted Him into their heart. And little by little, as we grow in God’s truth, it will become more and more obvious that we are living and moving and existing in Truth. We are the sample. We are the means for those around us to taste truth—to taste God. The more they taste, the more they will want to taste. Just give them a taste, for God's sake!

1 Comments:

Blogger Jonathan Haynie said...

Nice post. Very well-written and in-depth, perhaps a bit lengthy... j/k. It was great.

And how true as well. The work of missionaries is simply to love people in a way that they may not have been loved before. But that doesn't bar that kind of missionary attitude to only foreign missionaries. Every believer everywhere needs to have that mindset, no matter where they are.

1/9/07 10:38 a.m.

 

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