1-17-2019

Good Morning All,

       Genesis 3:9; “The Lord God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”

    Sometimes we play a game in our house called, “Honey, have you seen my phone?”  I usually start the game and it usually ends when we call my phone from a different phone in the house.  Now, if you would have approached me in my college years and tell me that there will be time when you will look for your phone by using a different phone; I probably would have asked you what exactly have you been inhaling.  However, I do that quite often.  I even try to make it exciting.  Will it be on my desk, or dresser, did I leave it in the car or have I found some new and exciting place to forget my phone at?

    So, I spend a fair amount of time seeking and looking.  Deep down I know that my phone isn’t trying to hide from me; it is an inanimate object but sometimes; well you just wonder how it got where it got to.  Looking for things or even for people can be a very time-consuming task.  It can also be frustrating, exhausting and sometimes painful.

    We might see this same event in our verse.  Something carelessly lost or misplaced.  Yet this isn’t an example of thoughtlessly laying something down and then being lost in the process.  This is a seeking of someone who is hurting and afraid.  In that fear, Adam assumed that God would be angry and vengeful.  What is really doing is trying to reclaim Adam into the family that he has just run away from.

    In our verse, we learn an important trait about God.  God comes to seek us out.  God knew where Adam was; Adam couldn’t hide.  Yet God went seeking him and God seeks you as well.  God does not sit back, withdrawn from the world; rather He is actively seeking us out with his grace and mercy.  This often goes missing in the world.  People think they have to go to God.  People think that they have to make a conscience decision to find God.  The truth is that God is seeking them and has been for longer than they even know. 

    God’s redemptive action in this world is alive and going strong.  God is actively seeking out all the lost and hurt.  We see this most clearly in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.  Here we see God, in flesh, seeking out the hurt, the lost and the suffering in order to redeem them.  We see the same today in the activity of the Holy Spirit.  He calls, gathers, enlightens the whole Christian Church here on earth.  In all ways, God is actively seeking you to be his child.  He is constantly seeking you out with his grace, calling us out of our hiding place. 

    In his mercy, God seeks you out and invites you into his wonderful kingdom of salvation.  He seeks you out to redeem you and to give you hope and to give you comfort.

 Dearest Father, you seek out those whom you love.  You bring us into your loving arms protecting us from the devil’s attack.  Keep us, and all the faithful, safe in your house.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray.  Amen.

God’s Peace

Pastor Bret