GOD?

Have you ever doubted that there was a God?  Thought that if He did exist that He was uncaring and detached?  Tried to balance what you know about Him to what you have experienced and came up short?

Except for the existing portion of the questions, have you ever thought the very same thing about your parents, your best friend or your partner?

Wrestling it through with God, with any relationship, is a journey not a destination.  We are always growing, hopefully maturing J, and change is one thing that is a sure thing. Relationship is such a complex thing, layered, multi-faceted, and so rewarding!

So let’s look at intimacy - into me see.  Hmmm…perhaps, I am the most uncomfortable with that, right there.  God does not change.  I do.  Looking at the changes in myself takes time and requires focus and it is always on purpose.  Having someone else look into me is vulnerable, a risk—most likely a calculated risk.  But, having perfection look into me and see everything!  There it is—“RUN FOR THE HILLS!”

Is it that God does not exist and is not good, or is that we are to afraid to find out the answer?   I believe that we all ask questions we don’t take the time to work all the way to the end.  So, let’s look at it.  God—so big I can’t take it in.  

Perhaps He does exist and He is a good God.  He may be beyond anything I could ask or even think.  There may be a perfect place He is getting ready for us, heaven.  A place that is without pain, without darkness, no need to sleep, where music is the air, where there is no death and perfect flowers’ faces all look at you as you walk by.  A place where I could walk into a body of water and be in a completely different gorgeous, underwater world, breathing, or I could fly—just think “fly,” be soaring and look down from that perspective.

You see, I think it comes down to God.  
Face to face  
Being unconditionally loved, valued and pursued  
Fabulously, releasing me to be all that is core me  

God.  
Beauty personified  

Completely out of our “box thinking”
What I know and SO much more!

I encourage you to communicate—pursue relationship with God.  How else can you know for sure?   Ask God… anything!  I think we are better listeners than we think and that God is able to (amazingly!) talk in a way that we can grasp.  Put the weight on Him to get to you, instead of the other way around.  If He is God, He is big enough! J

If you have started relationship with God, let this challenge take you to a deeper “into-me-see” level with Him.  When was the last time you talked with Him about all of the beautiful greens or textures He thought into being, shared your exciting moment with Him or your deepest fear?   There are levels in relationship building.  It is easiest to talk about tasks, but going to my ideas and then my feelings, is going to deeper levels.  They bring that rich, fulfilling “into-me-see.”  Don’t run.  Stay!  Take some time to wrestle.  I am challenging myself to ardent closeness with God.

I believe taking this step is essential.  Core self with The Source—God Himself.  Hmmm…Risky, isn’t it?

By Bethany Marks

SOUGHT OUT

- Pursuing God's Presence

- Focused on the next generation

- Encounter a loving God

- Intimate relationship with God – nothing less!

Join us on Sunday, October 23 @ 7pm.

Event details @ Sought Out Global on Facebook.

Passionate Pursuit!

Here is an amazing invitation!  Try wrapping your mind around it.  Engaging its promise will change you.

“Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know -- do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand.”  (Jeremiah 33:3 Amplified Bible)

My son, Deryck, and I went go-carting.  You have a seat, steering wheel, four miniature wheels and a lawnmower engine -- on steroids!  We went fast!  I thought I had turned pro in no time, sliding around the corners with the wind in my face.  Until, that is, the really good guys passed me up.  These guys were passionately pursuing speed!  I tried everything in my short experience to catch them.  They left me humbled in their dust and exhaust.  I was reminded that passionate pursuit occurs because of consistent effort, patience and never giving up.

When the scripture reads, “Call to me,” it is not a single or a once-in-a-while pursuit.  It is pursuit until He speaks.  Our Father deeply enjoys our pursuing Him.  And notice this!  The scripture becomes more meaningful to us because He promises to answer if we call.  God cannot lie nor fail.  He longs to answer our call.  His delay in answering prepares our hearts to listen, receive and carry out what He tells us to do.

The "dust and exhaust" of our pursuit of God disillusions many people.  A half-hearted effort reveals our condition of anemic faith and trust.  The end result is shallowness that dulls the warning siren of the Holy Spirit.  He cries out for us to shake off this satisfaction of merely existing without hearing His voice and feeling His breath on our souls.

When God speaks to our inner hearts, we have to respond.  Often, we are surprised to learn that our condition before God is lethargic obedience.  We don't want to give ourselves permission to pursue God with abandonment.  Putting it simply, we don't want to obey.  Our obedience is a measurement of our intimate relationship to God.

Lord, awaken our hearts to love you with obedience, because you long to show great and mighty things we do not know.

By Herb Marks