Deuteronomy 4:29
A God Who Seeks Us
29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Jeremiah 33:1-16
God Seeks Us
1 While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him a second time: 2 “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: 3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ 4 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the houses in this city and the royal palaces of Judah that have been torn down to be used against the siege ramps and the sword 5 in the fight with the Babylonians: ‘They will be filled with the dead bodies of the people I will slay in my anger and wrath. I will hide my face from this city because of all its wickedness.
6 “‘Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. 7 I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. 8 I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. 9 Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.’
10 “This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more 11 the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying,
“Give thanks to the Lord Almighty,
for the Lord is good;
his love endures forever.”
For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,’ says the Lord.
12 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In this place, desolate and without people or animals—in all its towns there will again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks. 13 In the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, flocks will again pass under the hand of the one who counts them,’ says the Lord.
14 “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.
15 “‘In those days and at that time
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.
16 In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it will be called:
The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’
Luke 15:1-32
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Matthew 7:7
Seek and You Shall Find
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
I thank our Father that we have a God who seeks us...I have often read where God is hidden, He seems to hide...Yet, in the most mysterious, mystic, and unknown ways to man God seeks us...And while He does seek us, He wants us to seek Him...He not only wants us to seek Him, He wants us to find Him...But He also wants to communicate with us, to talk to us and to answer these mysterious, and mystic questions we have...He told Jeremiah to call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know...He sent a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line to us to learn about Him...The One He sent will be called and is called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior...He sent His Son so we would know more about Him...And when He sent His Son, we would have to expect His Son (as well as Him) to be quite different from us, yet to be able to relate to us He would be somewhat like us (this maybe an unfair thing to say about our LORD)...But God became Man, and sent Jesus to us...Jesus is divine and different...I would call Him a Most Unique Individual, and He is able to answer the Job-type questions God asks (Job chapters 38 and 39)...And to repeat, this is something we should expect from our powerful Father who created the earth and the heavens...
God, is our LORD and our God of Infinity...God is Eternal...The Bible describes Him as Almighty...The word Almighty may connect to Infinity...When He created the heavens and the earthly man does not understand Infinity...And now in the past few years, scientists are telling us (and think that they have proven) that the universe is expanding, and continues to expand everyday at an increasing rate...How man understands this, is way beyond my thinking, but not our Father's...He has a reason and a plan for the things He does...God created the universe to expand, and it is expanding to Infinity (wherever Infinity might be)...So for man to seek our Father, who wants us to know Him, and He seeks us so we can know Him better is a difficult to do to say the least...The inner workings of the universe is known only to God...We do learn more about the universe day after day, but only He has Complete Understanding...I imagine when God peppered Job with the sixty plus questions of His own, Job did not know where to start answering His questions about creation and life and our deaths...I would not...
And yet we know God wants us to seek Him and find Him...And that He is seeking us...We look for Him mainly through our eyes, because we do want to see Him...But we may only find Him through our hearts and our souls...And He maybe will show up to us only in small glimpses and slices, because He is Infinite and we are finite...God is limitless and we are limited...He wants is to be persistent in searching for Him, so we must be persistent in our prayers as we search for Him...For the One who has power over all creation and power over both life and death, the best I can do is (to try) to see Him from these small glimpses and slices that He gives me and then trust in Him that His will -will be done in this ever expanding universe that He is in control of...He seems to give us hope, and we maybe restless with what He has placed in our heart and with a soul to seek Him...Maybe the Holy Spirit is both of hope and restlessness...And if I do those righteous things, He says He will allow me to find Him...
I think there is some comfort and some peace knowing that we cannot know everything if the world and universe are expanding everyday...The comfort lies that there is One who does understand the foundations of the universe and life -and all things...His Son told us to talk to Him like this: Our Father in heaven, holy is Your Name...We are privileged and should be grateful the Righteous Savior He sent teaches us to call Him Father, our Father in heaven...
Do we spend a large part of the day seeking Him, or does He spend His time in eternity seeking those who are lost?...It maybe He is seeking us like the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son...Waiting to run to us, when He sees that we are seeking Him...