To Seek part 2
Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Us, in other words. He came to shine the light into the darkness so that we might see things clearly--see things as they truly are. So the we might stop "seeking" Him. The lie that Eve swallowed way back in the misty garden of Eden was the one that said we have to DO in order to BE. Eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and then you'll be like God. This was a lie because we were already like God. Created in His image. We just didn't know it. We didn't know who He was, and we didn't know who we were. God had breathed the breath of life into us, but Jesus hadn't yet breathed the Holy Spirit into us. We didn't need to change--especially not from the outside-in, with an external Law trying to modify our behavior--we just needed to see with our Spiritual eyes instead of our natural ones. We thought we were missing something. We thought we were missing the love of our Creator. And we thought we needed to earn that love. We were seeking for something we thought we didn't have. When the truth of the matter is, we always had it. We just didn't know it. Because without the Holy Spirit--our love receptor--God's unconditional, unearned, unstoppable love seemed too good to be true. "How could God love a sinner like me?" So even though what we wanted--what we desperately needed--could only be found in one place, we hid from the presence of God. Because we thought He was mad at us. We were seeking something, alright. But we were looking for love in all the wrong places. Trying to fill a love-shaped (God-shaped) void inside us with any and every thing else. But only God can fill a God-shaped hole. Only love can fill a love-shaped void. And, again, there was really never a void at all. It just felt like it because we weren't able (before the cross) to receive His love. We were stuck trying to earn it. But eternal life (knowing the Father and the One whom He sent... the Father/Son love relationship) cannot be earned. Because it is a gift. And a gift must be received. That's what the good fight of faith is; not trying to get something, but laying hold of what we've already been given... by believing it. By letting God love us. Not by seeking Him, but by believing that He's already found us! That's why totally identifying with Jesus is so important--it makes HIS story OUR story by including us in it! That's what happened when Jesus was lifted up on the cross. He drew all men into Himself. And He planted Himself into all men. He got rid of that false sense of separation that we had inserted into the equation (again, when we hid from God because we thought He was mad at us). We weren't even seeking Him We were hiding. And HE found us. And saved us. Let me try to sum it up, and end this Rant, with Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He didn't wait for, or expect, US to do ANYTHING. He did it all because we COULDN'T do ANY of it. And now, it is finished. We are complete in Him. Once lost, and now found!