Tag Archive for Seeking Me

Knocking

2018-04-12 Devotional Companion to Revelation, Devotional with Hymn No comments

A prayer response to Revelation 3:14-22,
Christ’s letter to the church in Laodicea

Jesus,
You come and offer me the boundless wealth of
all You have and
all You are,
yet I cling to my meager resources.

You ask to clothe me in Yourself, and
I angrily resist,
wrapping myself more tightly in my filthy rags.

You freely offer me Your wisdom, but
my ignorance feels so much safer and more familiar.

Despite all this,
You humbly stand at my door,
day after day,
need after need, and
simply knock.
Your only desire is to offer me Yourself:
Your ability for all my weakness,
Your beautiful purity for all my sin,
Your sight for my total blindness,
Your glory for my deep shame.

You have done all You can for me and
will always do all You can,
but my destiny depends on me trusting You enough to
invite You in.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Seeking Me
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Our Pursuer

2015-06-18 Devotional with Hymn, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Isaiah 65:1-3

When pursuing His wayward children, God doesn’t protect His dignity. He isn’t coy. He doesn’t play hard-to-get.

“I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’
To a nation which did not call on My name.
I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people,
Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts,
A people who continually provoke Me to My face.” (Isaiah 65:1-3, NASB)

They have wronged God, yet He takes the initiative to make their relationship right again. While they blindly, stubbornly ignore Him, He continues to pursue them, calling out, “Here I am! Here I am!”

Many believers have looked back on their conversion and have seen God this way: before they knew Him or cared about Him, even while they ran from Him, He patiently, persistently pursued them.

C.S. Lewis testified to such a God in his spiritual autobiography, Surprised by Joy. But perhaps the most famous testimony is a poem whose very title portrays such a pursuing God: “The Hound of Heaven,” by Francis Thompson (1859-1907). It opens this way:

“I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him…
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after…
With unhurrying chase
And unperturbed pace.”

The poem seems difficult and dated to modern readers, but it poignantly captures how God shamelessly chased His rebellious child. The child fled out of fear and ignorance, afraid of the God who only wanted his best. God pursued him as a hunting dog would, never giving up.

That is the God who pursued you…and still pursues your best. He is pursuing your neighbor, your co-worker, the person ahead of you in traffic, and that one who seems a million miles away from Him.  He is pursuing your children, and He’ll pursue their children, and their children’s children, always calling out “Here I am! Here I am!”

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Seeking Me
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics