Seeker Friendly (in Context)

"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness"
from Matthew 6;33 Jesus speaking to his disciples

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."
from Matthew 7;7, 8 Jesus speaking to his disciples

"And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."
from Luke 11;9 Jesus speaking to his disciples.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
Luke 19;10 Jesus talking to Zacchaeus

Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by those who did not seek me;I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me."
from Romans 10;20 Paul writing to the Christians in Rome

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." from Colossians 3;1 Paul writing to the Christians at Colossea

Modern American Christianity says let's be a Seeker Friendly church. You know, for those people who are out there seeking God. Romans says, "there is no one righteous, no one who seeks God?" What do those who are creating and supporting "Seeker Friendly Churches" do with that verse and the few verses I quoted above. The fact is the ones I quoted above along with several others are taken out of context and applied to those that Christians who misunderstand the Scriptures and apply them to the "seekers." Saying the Bible says, "seek and you will find" all the while neglecting who Jesus is talking to "His Disciples" so this is written to us as well as we who are His disciples today. Our friends may object, "then why should unbelievers read the Bible if this isn't written for and to them?" The bottom line is The Bible is living and active. It is the very Words of God. God can, has and will use His Living Word to birth children into His family. If an unbeliever is willing to read the Bible, then we are to pray that God would use it in their life to bring about new life in them. It is a mystery. God does the saving of souls and yet, he includes us in the process by telling us to share the Gospel with others, pray and give testimony and be free to share His Word.

So, I have taken each of the verses above to see who is this being written or spoken to; some verses I have read within the context of the chapter or the entire letter. Since I was a babe in Christ, I have said, Context, context, context. The "who is this being written to" was a blind spot of mind until about 5 years ago when our oldest was taking a deeper look into the Scriptures and took us with her. It has been eye opening. In fact, the last 5 plus years have been some of the riches and hardest years of my pilgrimage through this life being led by the LORD. How grateful am I to have such a God who would continually work in my life and lead me to continue to be fed by His Word especially the truth of the Gospel: Jesus came to seek and save the lost. There has been no mistake that those who the Father has given to Jesus will not be taken from His hand. (in John 10 it is stated twice in a row in case you didn't hear it the first time) Where it is in the imperative for us "to seek" is written to the Believers not those one might call "seekers."

There is one who is The Seeker: His name is the LORD. Jesus proclaims this to Zacchaeus when he said, "the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost." and this is what the prophet Ezekiel has to say in the 34th chapter of the book by the same name.

¹¹"For thus says the Lord GOD:Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. ¹²As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. ¹³And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. ¹⁴ I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵ I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁶ I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice."

How incredibly humbling to have been sought out and found by the LORD God who laid down His life for me. That the Creator of the Universe would come after to me and give me New Life. I was dead and brought to life! My only response seems SO small and insignificant: Thank you LORD! My heart is overflowing with gratitude! When our kids were small we sang this simple song, "Thank you Lord for saving my soul. Thank you Lord for making me whole. Thank you Lord for giving to me Thy great Salvation so rich and free."

Our churches ought to be Seeker friendly, that the LORD, The one and only Seeker would be welcomed and that His Presence, Great Love and Holy Word would be known among His people and that we would be humble before Him with grateful hearts.

"I am not dead yet, I think I'll go for a walk"



Dark Moon by Alton Gansky
I just finished reading this book (2/11/07). It was really entertaining.

Who did the raising? from Mr. Gansky's new book 40 days chapter 19 Jesus appearing to many after being raised from the dead.

I have been thinking a lot about the MAC (Modern American Churches). Some say that at the end of the 20th century we were launched into the microwave age, our society wanting instant gratification at every turn and that this is no different in our spiritual lives. A number of us don't want to put the effort in to hearing a message and then go and search the scriptures to see if what this person is saying is true. Does it all line up? Yes, the preacher is preaching from the Bible but the scripture references are few. Are we willing to go and first read it in context? then expand the search a little wider?

I have been reading and thinking a lot about the question "How is one saved and by whom?" I was just reading about AG's new book 40 days and the title of chapter 19 sent me flying over to my blog: "Who did the raising?" My educated guess is that this chapter will be about God the Father raising Jesus from the dead and immediately my next thought was: if we are all spiritually dead before coming alive in Christ, then who raised us from the dead?

The first thing we need to establish is whether or not we believe that we are actually "dead in our transgressions" or not. (1st Corinthians 15, Ephesians 2;1&5, Colossians 2;13, ) If you do not believe that prior to being born again you were dead then I strongly suggest that you stop reading NOW. The rest of this post does not apply to you.
The wrestling that I have done over the last year or so concerning this subject has been nothing short of grueling. The match is far from over and the count down on the mat will not happen until I reach the Celestial Arena. Nevertheless, I do concede that I was dead and that I was utterly helpless and hopeless prior to being born again.

Have you ever watched on a movie or TV or perhaps in person when "the body is exhumed"? The dead person does not raise their hand and say "help me up," does he? (unless of course it is one of those horror movies. For this example let's think, crime investigation) The dead body is total and utterly passive and he can do NOthing. So it is with those who are spiritual dead. The Lord must raise us up and give us new life through the regeneration of our spirit (Titus 3).
I can not take any credit for being in Christ. It is the working of the Holy Spirit in my life that has made me alive in Christ.
Some say, well what about all those exhortations that Paul wrote to those of us who believe, like "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" often those who believe you can lose your salvation or better yet believe that you have a part in saving yourself (IE responding to the gospel) fail to read on in that particular verse (of course the whole thing should be read in context). The rest of the verse says, "for it is GOD who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2) My understanding is that we are working out what God has already worked into the fabric of our new nature.
Do we stand by do nothing or whatever we want? If we answer yes, then I question whether God has worked anything into us. For those who answer NO not if I can help it. We press on with the saints who have gone before us and as Paul says further on in Philippians, "I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus."
The more I read, pray and think over the issue, the answer to the question, "Who did the raising (of the spiritually dead) ?" becomes clearer to me.