God and Man: Who's Seeking Whom?

Spirituality Column #220
January 25, 2011
Current in Carmel, Westfield, Noblesville, Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

God and Man: Who’s Seeking Whom?
By Bob Walters

Do we seek God, or is God seeking us?

Often lost in “seeker-sensitive” worship is the truth of what Jesus Christ’s earthly mission actually was. He was sent by God to seek us and bring us back to His flock like the shepherd who looks for the lost sheep in the New Testament parable.

Too often it’s marketed in churches that Jesus is entirely about “paying for” our sin and that our guilt should make us love Jesus. I can’t think of a worse way to describe God’s love, the work of Jesus Christ, or the reason for the Holy Spirit.

Folks, we’re sinners and we have to understand that. But fear and guilt will never help us find God; they only create focus on ourselves. Read the Bible and know that God already dealt with our sin by loving us and courageously giving His son.

When we immerse our “faith” in guilt and shame, we reject God’s love and free gift of salvation. We make God’s divine love a transaction or a payment plan instead of letting him just give it to us on His terms … on faith.

What does John 3:16 say? "For God was so mad at the world that He killed His only begotten Son so believers would be guilt-ridden forever?" No. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Then comes the clincher in John 3:17: Jesus was sent into the world “not to condemn the world” but so “the world through Him might be saved.”

It’s easy to become so focused on “seeking” or “finding” God that we forget that the greatest revelation of God’s grace and love was the fact that He already sent His Son humbly – without sin, into a fallen world, to seek us – to restore us to the perfect communion with the Godhead in the Kingdom of God, “not to condemn us.”

So don’t obsess over seeking God; He’s already seeking us. The biggest part of trusting God is trusting that He is looking for – and looking out for – each of his sheep.

Take some terrific Old Testament advice from Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Over and over Jesus says that with faith in Him, we’ll be saved.

He’s telling us the truth.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com), noting that Jesus Christ came to find the sinners not the righteous, is thankful to have been found.

Tough Love, Tough Jesus

Spirituality Column - #14 - February 13, 2007
Current! In Carmel newspaper

Tough Love, Tough Jesus
By Bob Walters

Lambs are gentle and sheep are stupid, but a good shepherd has to be tough enough and smart enough to make up for the weakness of the flock.

An attentive read of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) reveals a critical truth about the incarnate Christ Jesus – God become man – that runs counter to “Gentle Jesus” stereotypes.

Jesus was one tough customer.

Look at it another way … if sins are our weakness, and Jesus was without sin, how far from weakness was Jesus?

Pretty far.

We are the children of a loving God Who created the world to glorify Himself, then gave us freedom to seek Him and to love Him. Given the awesome power of God Almighty, it’s much more comforting for us to look at God in terms of gentle than tough; savior not disciplinarian; because, to tell you the truth, a tough God scares me.

But how tough can God be, if God loves us?

Put that another way – how tough would a Shepherd need to be to love us, to love this world, to love us in spite of our sin, to die a horrific death to redeem our lives in the eyes of God?
Most of the time I think, pretty tough.

So, Jesus … Gentle Lamb of God who died for our sins? Good Shepherd?

Here is the miracle of Christ ... He did the hard part. He was tough so we can receive the gentle gift of His love; a redeeming love that gives us peace and assures eternal salvation. “My yoke is easy and my burden is light … “ says Matthew 11:30.

“O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world …” goes the wonderful hymn. You can’t possibly think that was a gentle job.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a Carmel resident, thinks Valentine’s Day is no big deal compared with the redeeming love of Christ.