The message at the funeral I attended last week did not bring back the dead or dry all tears, but it did speak a hopeful truth. These words from Paul’s sermon in Athens were read: “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:26-28
The Newsboys sing this acknowledgment and prayer:
You are the Author of knowledge… You can redeem what’s been done.
You hold the present and all that is to come.
Lord, I don’t know where all this is going… Or how it all works out.
Lead me to peace that is past understanding… A peace beyond all doubt.
You are the God of tomorrow… turning darkness to dawn.
Lifting the hopeless with hope to go on.
Oh, Lord, You are the Author… redeeming what’s been done.
You hold us in the present… and all that is to come.
Despite all we do not know, there is one thing for certain: God wants people to find him. God put us all in our place in history in the location we live with a great intent: “… so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out and find him.” The psalmist wrote, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Those that taste him hunger and thirst for more. He is not far away… and he wants to be tasted.
The person that tastes the Lord is changed… priorities shift and a new passion arises. The person that finds the Father wants to know him more and no mountain or ocean or valley can stand in the way. If possessions are a hindrance, he’ll get rid of them. If knowledge has puffed him up, he will become a fool. If a cross must be carried, he will pick it up every day. The way to the Father is through the Son and Jesus calls a disciple to a life of total abandon. “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:8-11)
Paul was one who tasted God and he could not shrink back from an all-consuming quest. What else matters? Nothing… but to be found in Christ! In him there is righteousness… a righteousness not of our own. In him there is holiness… without holiness, we cannot see God. In him there is peace… the peace that passes all understanding. In our time and in our location, may we press on.
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14