"... But if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him" (Deut. 4:29, NLT).
You cannot deny the fact that you have been looking for something all your life to find some sort of satisfaction or fulfillment. People are looking for love in all the wrong places! Even Solomon tried money, pleasure, knowledge, wisdom, peace of mind or with others, work and ambition, and whatever the world had to offer, including women, but all to no avail! The wiser and educated we become, the more emptiness we are capable of, and the vacuum inside grows. Nature abhors vacuums and this is the worst state we can be in, to have no meaning and purpose in life. Today people cannot even entertain themselves, they're so empty (famed Christian psychiatrist and student of Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, said that the "central neurosis of our time is emptiness"), and this void makes them feel blase even about modern-day achievements like the space shuttle or HST (Hubble space telescope).
The point is that, though people sometimes won't admit it, they're on some kind of frantic search for happiness, fulfillment, or meaning, or even find the answers to life's problems. Augustine rightly pegged man as having an inward desire only God can satisfy ("we are restless till find our rest in God"), and Pascal agreed that man has a "God-shaped vacuum" in his soul.
We promote the American Way, as it were, and this is highly imperialistic and is known as American exceptionalism, in that we think we've got the market cornered on the good life. Actually, Americans are no more happy than other developed nations. Americans seek to impose their way of life on the world as superlative and exemplary: better education, political freedom, and high standards of living. Yet we still suffer high crime and citizens with no reason to go on living, with rising suicide rates even higher than homicide rates. People are looking for something, indeed, but not for God, though they think they are: they're really searching for meaning in life, the answer, or relief from anxiety or depression. In other words, man does not seek God, the Benefactor, but the benefits (cf. Rom. 3:11).
There are fringe benefits to knowing God, and He does bless His children, but we must seek Him and find Him: this endeavor begins at the point of salvation, and the Christian life's business is pursuing God and His face. Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, and it would suffice; however, Jesus said that we see Him and that is the equivalent. The writer of Hebrews (2:9) explains this Beautific Vision as: "But we do see Jesus..." The eyes of our hearts have been opened and anyone born of the Spirit can see the kingdom of God at work.
In man's desperation, he grasps at every passing straw, and as he reaches for it, it slips away. Many are filled with boredom because of their emptiness and lonely despair, which can only be cured by knowing Christ and following Him.
In the final analysis, man has an intrinsic and natural duty to obey God, rewarded or not, simply because He's our Creator. Our purpose for living is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (cf. Isa. 43:7). Without God life is nonsensical. Whatever we do, ought to be to God's glory (1 Cor. 10:31), and find enjoyment, for this is the gift of God--our labor to show the image of God. Never be discouraged doing the work of the Lord (slackness in it is cursed in Jer. 48:10), "knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Cor. 15:58, HCSB). Rick Warren says that the consequences or your job won't last forever [but for your purposes, mission, and ministry will]. William James says we ought to spend our life on something that will outlast it--indeed every day we strike a chord that will vibrate for eternity in the symphony of heaven.
Soli Deo Gloria!
You cannot deny the fact that you have been looking for something all your life to find some sort of satisfaction or fulfillment. People are looking for love in all the wrong places! Even Solomon tried money, pleasure, knowledge, wisdom, peace of mind or with others, work and ambition, and whatever the world had to offer, including women, but all to no avail! The wiser and educated we become, the more emptiness we are capable of, and the vacuum inside grows. Nature abhors vacuums and this is the worst state we can be in, to have no meaning and purpose in life. Today people cannot even entertain themselves, they're so empty (famed Christian psychiatrist and student of Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, said that the "central neurosis of our time is emptiness"), and this void makes them feel blase even about modern-day achievements like the space shuttle or HST (Hubble space telescope).
The point is that, though people sometimes won't admit it, they're on some kind of frantic search for happiness, fulfillment, or meaning, or even find the answers to life's problems. Augustine rightly pegged man as having an inward desire only God can satisfy ("we are restless till find our rest in God"), and Pascal agreed that man has a "God-shaped vacuum" in his soul.
We promote the American Way, as it were, and this is highly imperialistic and is known as American exceptionalism, in that we think we've got the market cornered on the good life. Actually, Americans are no more happy than other developed nations. Americans seek to impose their way of life on the world as superlative and exemplary: better education, political freedom, and high standards of living. Yet we still suffer high crime and citizens with no reason to go on living, with rising suicide rates even higher than homicide rates. People are looking for something, indeed, but not for God, though they think they are: they're really searching for meaning in life, the answer, or relief from anxiety or depression. In other words, man does not seek God, the Benefactor, but the benefits (cf. Rom. 3:11).
There are fringe benefits to knowing God, and He does bless His children, but we must seek Him and find Him: this endeavor begins at the point of salvation, and the Christian life's business is pursuing God and His face. Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, and it would suffice; however, Jesus said that we see Him and that is the equivalent. The writer of Hebrews (2:9) explains this Beautific Vision as: "But we do see Jesus..." The eyes of our hearts have been opened and anyone born of the Spirit can see the kingdom of God at work.
In man's desperation, he grasps at every passing straw, and as he reaches for it, it slips away. Many are filled with boredom because of their emptiness and lonely despair, which can only be cured by knowing Christ and following Him.
In the final analysis, man has an intrinsic and natural duty to obey God, rewarded or not, simply because He's our Creator. Our purpose for living is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (cf. Isa. 43:7). Without God life is nonsensical. Whatever we do, ought to be to God's glory (1 Cor. 10:31), and find enjoyment, for this is the gift of God--our labor to show the image of God. Never be discouraged doing the work of the Lord (slackness in it is cursed in Jer. 48:10), "knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Cor. 15:58, HCSB). Rick Warren says that the consequences or your job won't last forever [but for your purposes, mission, and ministry will]. William James says we ought to spend our life on something that will outlast it--indeed every day we strike a chord that will vibrate for eternity in the symphony of heaven.
Soli Deo Gloria!