Mans Most Challenging Pursuit

As we've stepped out into Matt's House, a recently launched young adult church in the Baltimore area, I've found myself wrestling with my inadequacy for the task ahead. I am ill equipped for the task of planting and growing this new church. If it is to be, and it is, God will have to do it! So the challenge then is to Pursue Him!

One thing I know, through the reading of God's Word, the Scriptures, the Holy Bible, is that God most often uses a remnant, a small band of brothers, that are wholly sold out and set-apart to do His bidding. This small band is always out numbered, ill equipped, and eclectic, as Brennan Manning likes to put it, they are usually the ragamuffins of our society-the outcasts. These ragamuffins are well aware that left to themselves our world will never change for the better. They know that they can do NOTHING without God's helping them to Do It or as the ragamuffins would say, without "God Doing It!" Their success is His Success, Their Glory is His Glory, Their Lives are His... They NO longer have ownership of their lives, these ragamuffins are all, fully HIS... They pursue often wanting to know the details and the future, but discover they are the ones being pursued by the LOVER of their souls.

I myself have wondered about this pursuit of God. This never ending longing that posses my soul. This daunting desire to know... to experience... to touch... to see... to smell... to feel... and to hear God seems to haunt me. Could it be Him, God I mean, wanting to know me... to touch me... to see me... to smell me...? Are we, man that is, pursuing God to be with God or are we continually pursuing Him for what He can give us: stuff, insight, power, position things that might calm my fears and doubts... things that might give me an advantage or provide me with a false sense of security?

Whether seeking Understanding-Knowledge-Revelation-Answers or;
Comfort-Acceptance-Peace-Hope and/or Love from God this pursuit possesses me and all of mankind, whether we acknowledge God or not, the creature created in His image, yes the image of God, desires to know Him!

This most challenging of pursuits, one that man has engaged in since the beginning of time, from ancient civilizations until today we all want to experience God. In mans pursuit of God he is at times humble, but mostly arrogant and self serving! The pursuit has brought out the best and the worst in man: consider the crusades, heresy trials and subsequent carrying out of death sentences, 9/11, the division between the sacred and the secular, the pitting of one man against another, etc. We've killed one another quiet literally... We've killed in our thoughts... We've killed in our words... We've killed in our deeds any and all who might oppose our pursuit and it's purposes. We've also comforted those who oppose us... are different than us... whether they believe or not we've shared a kind word, served by way of a good deed, encouraged by a gentle, uplifting glance. This latter expression, comfort not kill those who oppose us, is of God it is "agape," a Greek word depicting God's unconditional love! A love that is not a conditional statement..."If you_____, then I will ______ ." God demonstrates His love without any conditions toward All man kind even those who oppose Him in their unbelief and/or those who want only to use Him for selfish gain.

• Is "agape" physically killing another?
• Is "agape" killing another in word?
• Is "agape" killing another in thought?

NO! Absolutely NOT!

My Prayer... As I pursue You Abba Father, Daddy, God help me to rest in Your love for me and to love others as you first loved-agaped me...whether they kill me or they comfort me might I love as You love.

As I conclude this post, fellow Sojourner, know that I pray the above prayer with a heightened sense of fear and anxiety concerning the UNKNOWN! The faces and questions that seem to oppose what God is doing frequently race through my mind as I contemplate this NEW endeavor...this NEW adventure...this NEW church..."Matt's House." I find myself wanting to know all the answers: What's going to happen? How will it happen? Who will support and comfort? Who will oppose and attempt to destroy? I'm pursuing and wanting to know God out of a need for security bound up in understanding and knowledge!

So I asked God?

His answer and a profound TRUTH was, "KNOW this... EXPERIENCE this, "The LORD Himself goes before you and will be with you..."

KNOW THIS TRUTH Sojourner...
Believe it and Step out into the ADVENTURE you were born to LIVE! No Fear! No Doubt! No Questions! Just Him, God, with you...THIS IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW!