Questions?????

"The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the incomprehensible, to touch and taste the unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source."
— A.W. Tozer

The more I seek God the more questions I find myself asking. Alot of the time people seem to run from questions. Maybe it's that they already know the answers and the answers scare them. Maybe it's that the answers would require them to change. I'm not sure, but I like questions. Although, the more questions I try to answer, the more questions I find myself asking. I know when I begin to think about questions I begin to search for truth. I no longer settle for the answer coming from someone's mouth, but from the Truth Himself.  God is not afraid of our questions. I think He welcomes them. Questions should come naturally in our pursuit of Him! The couple walking down the isle didn't just grab one another randomly off the street! No, they spent hours upon hours talking and asking questions...getting to know one another. The same thing applies in our relationship with God. What would our walk look like if we really treated God as a person we were in a relationship with? What would happen if we really pursued Him? Talked with Him? Loved Him? Got excited about spending time with Him? Let Him in on the ins and outs of our day?

I don't know about you, but I'm moving into a relationship with God. I refuse to let Him just be the "wizard of oz" who is far away and just "policing" my life. I want to spend time with my Father. I want to pursue Him. I want to make time for Him. I want to get to know Him more. I'm including Him in my life.

God is not afraid of my questions. He knows that in searching for truth it brings me closer to Him. Father loves for his children to come running with questions! I know I will never be able to fully answer all of those questions in my finite search, but I will still seek for answers. It's exciting to know more about Father and His plans. The good thing is that there will always be more to know about Him!!!

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Ro 11:33)

“Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea” (Job 11:7, 8, 9)

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The questions I've been mulling over are:

• Who is God?
• What does He think of me?
• What does a christian look like?
• What does the church look like?

"He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,“‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand. Luke 8:10

So, in my search for truth I'm going to first learn about my Father.I'll be studying His attributes and asking lots of questions!

 Who is God?

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."
— A.W. Tozer

"We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is."
— A.W. Tozer

I love my Father and my Father, He loves me!

I've been thinking alot about the Father lately. We sometimes limit Father by comparing him to our earthly fathers. Even if we've had the best or the worst earthly father it is still wrong to compare him. Yes, to have a father reflect Father's love is a glimpse of who Father is, but it cannot define him. There is much more to Father than what we know or think.

I cannot think about Father and not think about love. Father has done so much for us all just because He loves us. I sometimes think that we get so focused on trying to accept His love that we forget to first love Him. Without loving God first, we can't understand his love for us.

1 John 4:8(NIV)

⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:7
[ God’s Love and Ours ] Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

If God is love, we must first know God. We get to know Father through loving Him. I love John Eldredge's take on it as he references Tozer:

"God wants to be loved. He wants to be a priority to someone. How could we have missed this? From cover to cover, from beginning to end, the cry of God's heart is, "Why won't you choose Me?" It is amazing to me how humble, how vulnerable God is on this point. "You will . . . find me," says the Lord, "when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). In other words, "Look for me, pursue me -- I want you to pursue me." Amazing. As Tozer says, "God waits to be wanted." John eldredge

Father is not just asking you to come to Him to be saved, but to be with Him; to love Him. The more you're around Him the more you know Him. The more you know Him, the more you love Him. Then as you fall in love with Him you are able to accept His love. This opens the door for Father to do so much work in your heart, soul, mind, and emotions. The part of you that is so intimate that your closest friends have no idea of the pain, hurt, or sadness. 

When's the last time you got excited about just spending time with Father? When is the last time you just sat at His feet and listened? When is that last time that you really longed to be with Him, to know Him deeper?

We've been so guilty of looking at Father as an object or a means to an end. What would happen if we began to look at Him as Father and not as the Father. When I think of saying "The Father" it tends objectify Him; to address Him through his position such as saying "The President". Although this is not wrong, what if we changed our mindset and thought about Father. Father is who he is. It's more intimate for me to call Him just by who he is.  Get to know Father, spend time just loving on Him and then listen. He'll tell you His secrets.

Love on Father, He's been loving on you!

"Abiding in the love of God is our only hope, the only true home for our hearts. It's not that we mentally acknowledge that God loves us. It's that we let our hearts come home to him, and stay in his love." John Eldredge

Deuteronomy 6:5
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

Ephesians 3:19
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

He endured so we could persevere!

Just a quick thought....

He endured so we could persevere!!

As I'm reading through Hebrews the Lord begins to connect the dots on a few things...He endured the cross so that we could persevere. If we look at endurance it means to stand in one place while everything else is chaotic. Think of a tree that remains after the winds of a hurricane have ripped other trees out by their roots. If we look at perseverance as moving beyond where we are despite the chaos surrounding us. An example could be that one little flower that grows where it looks to be only sand. He endured the cross not so we could just get by, but that we could go beyond!! That's why having faith and believing in God is not just us stepping into the unknown. It's knowing the circumstances and it's knowing what could be. However, (the most important part) we know and believe what God's word says so we proclaim that! Just as Noah did with the ark. His plans and goals were not based on what the things around him looked like nor what people around him said. It was based on God's word! He was not only able to save himself, but his family as well. That is the abundance. Just as in John 14 verse 12, we are reminded once again that we will do greater things that He did, because He endured!!! So, when you're going through things don't just endure, but begin to persevere! You have to push beyond.

 "You can't steal second, with your foot on first!"

John 14:12-14

¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Hebrews 12:1-11

 ¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

God Disciplines His Children

 ⁴ In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,
   “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
   and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
⁶ because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
   and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”^[a]
 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? ⁸ If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. ⁹ Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! ¹⁰ They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹ No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.