This Is My Father's World

God wants to be found.  The humans were the ones who hid themselves in the garden.  God wants to be found, discovered, known, and loved.  Nature silently screams of His character and His power.  He puts His Spirit within us to teach us His way, His Truth, and His life.  God wants to be found, as a treasure that I will sell all I have to get and keep.

Face to face encounters with Jesus transformed people.  His loving gaze freed folks from whatever entangled them.  “He looked beyond their faults and poured out love on their needs” (Brian McLaren).  He showed compassion and somehow that convicted and convinced folks to change without a word of condemnation.  The touch of love works inside out.

The world is a harsh place.  The enemy of God has been unleashed and is running around free to deceive and destroy all in his path.  He overcomes by fear even knowing that God’s love trumps fear.  But in the heat of the battle it is easy to forget who wins in the end.  God is always aware of human weakness and builds ways to remember Him and His ways. 

Rituals are ways to remember; feasts help so I don’t forget.  The earth and all that is in it is God’s.  No one really owns land or wealth, but are merely stewards of what belongs to God.  God is the source of all life.  The rituals and feasts, the weekly, seventh year, and fiftieth year times of Jubilee declare that Truth.

In God alone my soul rests.  He alone is my rock.  He alone is my hope, my salvation, and my fortress.  With all that is going on in the world today I am covered by His mercy and compassion.  My response to the chaos and confusion is “What is that to me?  I follow Jesus”.  “As for me, I walk with God”.  This alone is my security and sanity.  My ears tune out the ever present chatter of the world and remain continually alert to the simple call I have heard before…”Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden.  I will give you rest.”

God is in continual control of all things and of all repairs that need to be made to this broken world.

“Though the earth and all who dwell in it may rock,

It is I who set firm its pillars.”

Psalm 75

God is in continual control of all things, not me.  My responsibility is to communicate the Life that God gives, the Love that God has for His creation, and the Seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that will transform the world.