Chasing God

On January 22, 2024   /   Word of the Day   /   2 Comments

1 Chronicles 28: 9           New Living Bible

If you seek him, you will find him.

What do you want from Christianity? Is your main purpose to avoid hell? That’s not hard. Do you perhaps expect and desire more? What is it that draws you to Christ and to Christianity?

I hope your answer is that you want to know Yahweh, Jesus and the Holy Spirit personally; you want to be their friend; to have a personal relationship with the God of Divine Creation. To my way of thinking, those of you who answer in this way are true Christians. There are many people who sit on a pew on Sundays and who even go through many of the forms and rituals of a Christians existence, but who are missing the critical piece, a life with Christ. This is what matters.

What does this look like? Well maybe it is church on Sunday and Wednesday, but it is definitely washing dishes with Jesus, riding a bike with Yahweh, walking with the Holy Spirit. Relationship with the Triple Crown of Divinity is living a life with them. Hopefully Sunday school and Bible study are done together with the Father, Son and Spirit, but there are tons of folks who are not engaged with Jesus even in those “spiritual” things.

One of the reasons bicycle riding became so important to me was because it was time Father and I spent together. It became a large part of my spiritual and emotional health regime. To this day I even get jealous with my time when I have been riding with friends because, although I enjoy riding with friends very much, I sometimes just want to get out there alone with Dad.

The best way to develop a personal friendship with any of the members of the Trinity is to seek them. You know my story how, I wanted a deeper, closer relationship with God, so I chased Him all the way out to California from North Carolina. I like to say, “I chased Him until He caught me!” It is so true, and that is how I can tell you that this verse is absolutely true. If you seek Him, you will find Him.

So, what do you want from Christianity. Do want to go to church and have friends? Do you want to learn Bible Scriptures and be knowledgeable about the Bible? Or, do you want to know God? Please answer the latter and seek Him. I promise, you do not have to chase Him all the way across the country. You can chase Him to your backyard or your spare bedroom. You can chase until you find Him in your kitchen. Start your prayer this way, “Father, Dad, I am seeking you. I am searching for you and a closer relationship with you. Reveal yourself to me. Teach me how to seek you.” Be still, be quiet and feel your heart. Have a Bible near in case He wants to speak through it, but listen in your heart, not your brain. You will learn other ways to seek Him and then it would be great for you to share them with the class, so to speak. Use the comments section in any Word of the Day to share with all of us the things the Lord is teaching you. Let’s start the best possible kind of revolution – one of determined purpose to know Jesus and Yahweh better, as our very best friends.

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Getting to Know You

On October 30, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Chronicles 28: 9         Living Bible

“And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him.”

The presumption of the Word of the Day is that God’s Word has power and inspires our lives. I hope you find this verse incites something within you for I find it very enticing.

David is a Biblical icon. Many of our best stories involve him, particularly, his defeat of the giant Goliath when David was still quite young. His faith in God was larger than any giant and that faith won the day. What I love most about David is his relationship with the Father. That relationship gave the world a glimpse into what Jesus would bring to individual lives. So, when David paused to impart wisdom to his son, Solomon, I find myself intent on gleaning the meat of his message.

From his years of experience David taught Solomon that God could be found. He wanted Solomon to know that Yahweh is not far off, but rather that he could have intimate conversation with God Almighty. Most of the people around Solomon would have had a view of a distant God, but David knew better. It was this experiential knowledge of Jehovah that David revealed to Solomon.

David gave Solomon his secret to success. That is what this passage is about. It is a father passing on his wisdom to a son. A king preparing his successor. The key bit of advice for success was, “get to know God.” God is in a realm where you can know Him. He is here with us. That is even more true now that Jesus has come. Jesus, also called Immanuel, is God with us. David told Solomon that God is not only a God who is with humanity. He is more than the God of Israel. When David said that God knows every heart, he was telling Solomon that Yahweh is the friend of individuals in addition to being the God of nations. This was a huge statement at the time because God was not generally known in this way. David said, if you seek God, you will find Him. He was trying to encourage Solomon to seek a personal relationship with God. Not only did Solomon have access to the prophets and through them access to God, but David wanted him to understand that he could have direct contact with God. The way to establish that direct connection was to seek Him. Seek God and you will find Him.

This is some of the best advice any of us could receive, and I, for one, am happy to receive advice from King David. I can certainly attest to the veracity of it. Each of us can have the same kind of close, personal relationship with Yahweh that David had. David modeled the relationship for us. I strongly recommend reading the psalms that David wrote to get a view into their relationship. Not all Bibles indicate the author of an individual psalm. If yours doesn’t, you can always go to www.Biblegateway.com and read the New American Standard Version.

What would you like the Word of the Day to address? Send us a comment or an email. Maybe an upcoming Word of the Day will be inspired by you.

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Seek and Go Find

On January 18, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Chronicles 28: 9

If you seek Him, He will let you find Him.

We have a lot of different ways we worship God. There are many different religions and even in Christianity there are many different beliefs and denominations. Be that what it may, the real crux of the whole thing is embraced in today’s passage. Whether you are Jewish, Baptist, Pentecostal or any of a myriad of belief systems, it all comes down to this quite simple principle. It is all about you finding Him. That is what it has always been about to God. All He has ever wanted is to be our God and for us to be His people. He has chased us from one end of this globe to the other seeking to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us. It really doesn’t matter what faith, religion or belief system you claim. What matters is that you seek God with your whole heart and with honesty. If you do, you will find Him.

Don’t go around looking for a church that believes like you do, or friends that will agree with you. It is not about the church. It is about God. Seek Him, not religion. It really doesn’t matter if you are Methodist or Lutheran to God. That is all stuff and non-sense to Him. These churches are for our comfort zones, not God’s. And guess what! There will only be one church in Heaven so you might as well get used to the idea now.

So many people have failed because they look from church to church and religion to religion seeking satisfaction and comfort. You were never supposed to do that. You were supposed to seek God and then He will lead you to a worship center that is right for you. Right for you, by the way, does not always mean the one that is most comfortable for you. He didn’t want you sitting on your laurels in the first place. He wants to feed and nurture you. He will, therefore, lead you to a place that will do just that, if you will listen.

And even if you believe you have found the right type of worship for yourself let me tell you that it is subject to change as you grow. But it was never about the kind of church you go to. It was always about your heart seeking God with all your might. That is what matters. If you have a good church home, congratulations. But don’t stop in your seeking. Don’t get so comfortable that you stop reaching out to God. Stir up that passion that you had when you were first saved and go after God with all your strength. He has already promised to let you find Him.

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Three for One

On March 17, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Chronicles 28: 9

If you seek Him, He will let you find Him.

I was looking through some notes yesterday and found this note, “Seeking God builds relationship with Jesus and the Spirit.” There wasn’t much else on the page. Apparently, it was an epiphany I had one day and felt inspired to write it down.

I can testify to the veracity of today’s verse. If you seek Him, you will, without a doubt, find Him. Once upon a time, I had a decent relationship with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit. I had a block, though, when it came to the Father. When I was in High School, I believed a bunch of bunk about God growing me through pain and disappointment. Even though I came to understand, intellectually, how foolish an ideology that was, in my heart I still blamed God for the bad things that happened in those years. Knowing Jesus, though, and continually seeking Him brought me to a revelation of the lack of relationship with the Father. Ultimately, that formed the basis of reconciliation with my Father.

Seeking any one of the three persons of the Trinity brings us into greater harmony with the other two. We might rewrite this verse to, “If you seek Him, He will let you find Him, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.” That is the New Testament rendition of this verse. Each person of the Trinity longs to bring you into a deeper relationship with the other two. Each one brings specific benefits and relationship characteristics. We, therefore, need a healthy and well-developed relationship with each of them; Father, Son and Spirit. Seek Him and you will find them.

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The Big, Bad Wolf

On March 7, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 34: 4

I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Fear is a pernicious emotion. It draws us into ever deeper dread, and it draws to us all sorts of negative experiences. Once fear gets a foothold in our spirits, it invites all its little buddies to come torment us as well. We may begin with a fear of spiders or of heights only to realize one day that fear lurks around almost every corner. That is its nature. It wants to invade every part of our lives and it will if we don’t resist it. Thank God that He is our provider in every sense.

In the context of yesterday’s verse, we looked at 1 Chronicles 28: 9, “If you seek Him, He will let you find Him.” In Father’s never-ending quest to encourage and edify us, He sends us this good news today from Psalms. We discover that not only does He let us find Him but that He answers us and our needs in that moment. Going one step further, when we seek Him, He delivers us from those insipid fears that plague our heart. There is healing in His wings, so every encounter with Him brings healing. He touches our hearts, our minds and our bodies with His soothing touch. His love roots out fear even that which has been lodged in our souls for many years. There are two keys, though which will help dissolve those fears.

When we search for God with our hearts, then it is our heart which finds Him. This may seem like semantics but there is a very real principle involved. Searching with your heart opens your heart to Him. The alternative is to search for Him with our minds. I am not suggesting that is a “bad” approach, just not the most potent. If you search with your mind you will still find Him but you will learn about Him more than engage with Him. This is the case because you are presenting your mind to Him. It is best if we present our hearts to Him. Allow your mind, will, emotions and personality to aid you but go to the Lord, seek Him with your innermost being. That is your heart or more precisely, your spirit.

Second, relinquish your fears to the Lord. Begin in a space where you accept and acknowledge that fear has no place in your heart. Expect Yahweh to vanquish those fears. This scripture reveals that if we are afraid, we have need of deliverance. I think we live in a time when we have come to accept fear as part of life. That is the exact opposite of the message the Father is communicating to you. His intention is to deliver you from fear. This means that you must let go of it. That can be harder than it sounds because you are surrounded by people who, almost proudly, confess to being fearful of at least something. Secondly, you may have lived with fear a long time. The familiarity may make it difficult to release the hold it has on you and that you have on it.

Fear is, functionally, a distrust of God. We don’t think of it that way, but it is true. To live with fear is to say to God that you don’t trust Him. The fear of heights or whatever is stronger, bigger and louder than your faith in God. Does that sound harsh? It is not my intention that it scald you. There is, however, an even more accurate way to articulate fear, if you can bear it. Fear is faith in Satan. It is the acknowledgement that he has power in your life and over your life. Deny that obscenity. Faith in God vanquishes fear because there can be no fear where the love of God prevails. Fear is like the big, bad wolf in the story of the three little pigs. He was big and frightening but, in the end, he was overcome, defeated.

Therefore, whatever that area is where fear has taken hold, infuse it with the love of God which has the power to deliver. Speak faith words over it. Do not continue to confess fear but rather replace those fear expressions with ones of faith.

Father is on site to deliver you from all your fears. He has promised you that if you will seek Him, not only will He answer you, but He will give you His deliverance. Don’t live below the God level, the level of life Jesus died to give you. Do not tolerate fear in your life. It is not of God nor meant to be a part of you. Call on the Almighty to be a keeper of His promises and present your heart to Him for healing and restoration.

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Seek and Receive

On March 6, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Ephesians 1: 17

. . . that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

A friend of mine was suffering from writer’s block. It is a most uncomfortable feeling. I thought, “I cannot afford writer’s block. The Word of the Day has to be delivered tomorrow morning at 5:00.” I have learned that our Father and His Spirit are supporting me every day in producing these “words” from Him and that I must relax and let Him lead me. Still, there are those days which present a bit of a challenge. Yesterday was one of those days. Most days I can pick up my Bible and read anywhere in it and He will show me a message. That was one of the premises of my book, Journey Through the Bible. Every book of the Bible has something to minister to us today. But yesterday, I read from Numbers, Proverbs and did a little jaunt through some of the New Testament books. Nothing. Then at 5:00 PM I opened my Bible and this verse jumped out at me. He did for me in that moment exactly what Paul prayed for us. He gave me a spirit of wisdom and understanding which revealed the Father.

My reliance is on the Holy Spirit. That doesn’t mean that I can always hear perfectly. Paul knew how we all struggle as we grow and stretch. He also knew what we need, namely the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of the Father. So here is the wisdom that I received. Even when I cannot feel the Father, even on those days when I am not receiving as well as others, He is right here with me and He is present to reveal Himself to me. He desires to show Himself to me so that I may reveal Him to you. He wants us to know Him.

Of course, I was seeking Him and His Word. So, even though I was tired and just a little less alert, He was able to speak to my mind and my heart. I hear in my heart, “seek me so that I may be found by you.” There are plenty of scriptures about seeking Him, but the point is that He wants to be found. Therefore, He encourages us to seek Him. I can’t help but thinking that His favorite game is Hide and Seek. Perhaps, though, someone should tell Him the rules because He is horrible at hiding. In fact, He hides in plain sight. One of my favorite “seeking” scriptures is 1 Chronicles 28: 9, “If you seek Him, He will let you find Him.”

Paul started the church at Ephesus and he had a desire that his young church would grow in the things of God. Well, that is what every pastor wants. Therefore, Paul prayed this wonderful prayer, that God might give you this gift. I will tack on my prayer today to Paul’s and I pray that you might “receive” the “spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” Giving is one thing but receiving is an entirely different one so I pray that you receive. I pray for you today that God will fill you with knowledge of Himself. One thing I advise, seek Him.

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Seeker

On June 21, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Chronicles 28: 9

If you seek Him, He will let you find Him.

This is the advice King David gave his son, Solomon, as he began to turn over the throne to Solomon. I find it interesting to see what advice a leader gives in those moments. They always give the most essential bits of insight they have gleaned through their years in leadership.

David told his son, seek God and you will find Him. I like to say hide and seek with God is so fun because He always hides in plain sight. If we cannot find Him, it is generally because of one of two things: either we are not seeking or we are avoiding Him. I personally found that when I opened my eyes and heart to seek God, He was there. A friend of mine says of my journey, I chased Him until He got me. That is the truth. He was there all along reaching out to me, but I had to open myself to Him before I found Him. I was seeking a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him and I was sick and tired of not hearing His voice. It turned out He had been speaking and I just could not hear. Thankfully, seeking results in finding.

The problem David encountered at the end of his reign, I believe, was that he no longer sought the God of his youth. His hunger abated and he got comfortable. That is a peril we all face. We need to keep our goals so far out there that we must rely on God. I often think of the story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water. Do you think the water was two feet deep or over their heads? Of course, they were in over their heads. That is why Peter panicked. He called out to Jesus and was sustained. That is where I like us to be, in over our heads. Then we must rely on Jesus and Father. It keeps us humble but it also keeps us flowing in their power through the Holy Spirit.

Some people think of these seeking verses only in the context of salvation, but I think of them much more for the subsequent faith walk. It is not that difficult to seek Him and find Him for salvation but sometimes afterwards complacency attacks us and it becomes necessary to renew our seeking. I think this is what David intended to communicate to Solomon. Seek the Lord your God every day of your life and you will know how to proceed in this day. This is great advice for the ruler of a nation but every bit as important to you and me.

I encourage you to take some time today to seek God. Seek a new relationship with Him, seek time with Him or even a new aspect of your relationship. If you know Him mostly as your God, seek His Fathership. If you are comfortable with the Father, seek His Lordship. Maybe you want to know Him as friend. You can, you know. Seek His face, His voice, His hand. Seek and He will let you find Him. Seek and be found.

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