6-17-2022

 Good Morning!    

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

    When you were a child, did you ever play games like “Marco Polo” or “Hide and Seek”?

They are fun little games for children especially if you have a handful and different ages.  Marco Polo is a game that works well in a swimming pool if you have a bunch of swimmers.  This helps to limit how far the players can get away from the player who is doing the hunting or seeking.  Kid games often involve looking for or seeking after someone or something.

    This is partly true because we spend a lot of time looking or seeking for someone or something.  Most look for a spouse, look for a job, look for a better price for what we sell, looking for a better price for what we buy; we spend a lot of time looking.  We also spending a lot of time looking for happiness, success, enjoyment, maybe even peace and quiet.  One of the problems is that we often look for these in the wrong places.  We look for them in other people, in ourselves, in poor relationships, in drugs and alcohol, in phony man-made ideas and notions.

     The thing is that as we look in all the wrong places and as we do this, we turn our back to God.  We go looking in the wrong places, we find the wrong answers and we go from seeking to not finding.   Once we have been burned a time or two, we find ourselves confused and we stop looking.  We have the blindfold on, we see nothing.  There is no hope left for us as we are completely lost, hiding from God perhaps without even knowing it.  We are lost but we are being sought out.

    God seeks us out all the time.  He uses the preaching of his Gospel to call out to you, “Where are you?”  He reaches for us with his Spirit renewing in our hearts and in our souls the cry of “Come home.”  He constantly is calling us back to him; to be renewed and restored.  Even as we continue to stumble and sin; he picks us up and calls for us to “come back home.”  His call is one of forgiveness and one of hope.

    The devil and the world will try to lead us away; to get us to hide from God, to turn from him.  At times we will succumb; at times, the trials of this life will beat us down, but God continues to call to us “Where are you?”  “I come to bring you hope, I come to bring you life.”  “I come to bring you peace and comfort.”  He calls us continually, renewing his desire to return us to his home. 

     God calls to us to come home and be safe, to come home and live in his gracious kingdom.  His call to us through the Gospel is one of redemption, one of reconciliation.  It is this call that gives us the certainty of our salvation.

Gracious Father, we spend much of our time trying to hide from you.  We spend our time running from you.  Yet you continually call us back by your grace.  Give us the confidence to trust in your promise of hope.  Call loudly to those who are especially hurting and may not see your gracious hand in their life.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret