I wonder if,at any time over the last few weeks in particular, any of us have felt an emptiness inside that has given us an appetite for spiritual feeding rather than physical?
There is a tension in each of us where we wrestle with the big questions Why are we who we are? What is my purpose? What is the reason for life? There must be more to life than this? What’s it all about?
We can be aware of an unfulfilled space within us where we seek. A palpable need for more than just this.
A Deep calling to us.
We may go in search of answers to fill this space and indeed we may be tempted to fill it with things which we think give joy and happiness but we find that all fall short.
Nothing satisfies and as fast as we acquire we find it doesn’t fill the space and we need more.
We later discover that this is a God shaped hole in us that we are seeking to fill. We may not be initially aware that God too is seeking to be invited in to fill that place.
Meanwhile in life some tensions and questions mirror those relative to faith.
Who is in control? Questioning of is there a God? If so what is He doing?
There can be a complete denial. People with an atheistic disposition will reject the concept of God and may even be vocally angry with a God (whom they profess not to believe in) allowing such adverse things to happen. Some of Stephen Fry and Richard Dawkin‘s comments come to mind.
People of lots of differing religious Persuasions have different ideas about creation and a creator but studies show whatever the belief, that many of them have a sense of a continuum.
The biblical creation story which we append our beliefs on we increasingly find can be endorsed by science as more is discovered, it doesn’t stand in oppose to it as was once supposed. Indeed more and more scientists are finding that God is the elusive factor that science points its finger to.
Whatever we think the basics lie with belief in a God that is far bigger than our concepts.
Where did God come from ?
God is space and time He is not the creator of it. God is Love He is not the creator of it and so on to the dawning of the significance in the senses of His name for Himself, I Am, it begins to become a tangible concept.
There is also,I believe, a continuum of creation that has been the shifting foundation for many generations.
How does the bible remain current since it was first written on scrolls and later printed? Now in numerous translations.
How is it called the Living Word throughout history ?
It is, I believe, because of this continuum. Yes, different place and different time, different influences but where God’s nature and that of human beings remain foundational, ever the same.
Just unfolding in the light of greater revelation, experience, knowledge and wisdom.
A calling from God to us and a seeking of us to fill that space. So simple and so complex all at one and the same time.
I believe that those of us who are blessed with connection and relationship have a responsibility to assist in the revelation of it to others but that our reward is heaven on earth. Nothing we work to earn by good deeds but a gift from God for our taking.
We do not strive only for a place in heaven as we die. There is purpose in revelation being relevant now because whatever we are given is meant to be given away and in the doing of that we will receive more, indeed trusted with more.
Those who, for whatever reason, find the truth eludes them until their final breath have known hell and an emptiness on earth without necessarily knowing it and what had been available all along.
Life in Christ and eternity and the life of the Kingdom can be experienced right now and be such a blessing individually and for humanity globally.
The illustration is of that God shaped space in us awaiting being filled by Jesus and the Holy Spirit to make it whole. To become at peace, at rest and to know joy. Here in a world that doesn’t always show it.
Two scriptures that come to mind:
No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, Jer 31 v 34
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jer 29 v 13
Lessisgreater 