Hide and Seek

“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.” Psalm 54:1-2

“Here I come, ready or not!” How many times did we engage in that game as children? Almost every time all of us gathered at the Cahill’s, the Henderson’s or elsewhere, we kids would play ‘Hide and Seek’. And almost always we played at night and ‘safe’ was the front porch….or wherever there was a light. We sought to be ‘safe’, even in our games. As adults we continue to seek ‘home’, to be ‘safe’.

‘Hide and Seek’, what fun it is to play that game with our children, and in my case the grandkids. Ha, thought that I would never be a grandparent. That only happens to old people….I have been a member of AARP for four years. Wow!! And I continue to be a seeker, not because of wisdom, but because of my persons spiritual wellness. But I must be wise to some degree because Scripture tells me that wise men seek God. But I am not wise in and of myself.

“From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

And he said to man,‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” Proverbs 28:20-22, 28.

“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” Psalm 24:3-6

For 40 years I have been serving the Lord in ministry, and what I have found is this, people do not really seek God. What people are seeking is His salvation without wanting to know Him, the Savior. And the tragedy is that most of us who have proclaimed the Gospel and are proclaiming the Gospel have been asking the wrong questions. We have invited people to be saved, to find salvation, but not the Savior. What is our favorite question? “Do you want to go to Heaven?” “Do you want to be saved?” In order to be saved people must know the Savior, and He is the means to the end. Heaven is not the means to the end, Jesus Christ is the means to the end, the end being Heaven.

There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and only He is able to fill that void. How does He fill it? By His Son, Jesus Christ. The Cross is the message, the power of God for salvation. But Jesus is the Savior. By reading Scripture one can find the way to the Lord, but the Scriptures are not the way to Heaven. For the Lord Himself has said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7.

Writing about the Grace of God for several days has demonstrated that His Grace is a gift that is given to those who seek Him, discover Him, receive Him by faith, but also know Him.

In the mid 70’s there was an evangelism effort among evangelicals which had a theme that simply said, “I Found It”. Today I look back and see the zeal and reasoning behind the statement, but in reality the statement should have read, I have found Jesus, or I know Jesus. Why? Because there were many who were saying, “I never lost it”.

The larger question is not, “Are you saved?” but rather, “Do You Know Jesus?” Salvation is not an escape, but a relationship with Jesus Christ and those of us who are Christians, i.e, ‘saved,’ know this. But the average person on the street does not. Do they want to be saved? I would think so. But do they want to really know the Person of Jesus Christ as the means? Not really. To find safety is everyone’s goal, but not everyone wants to follow the correct avenue. Just proclaiming ‘safe’ does not ensure ‘safety’.