God is the ONLY good; SEEK HIM

     There is only one good, and that is God. There is only one good thing that we can do for one another; that is pushing each other to seek God in everything. Without God nothing is good, not compassion, not aid, not rejoicing, not sadness; not happiness, humor, or community. If we aren't pushing each other towards God, then we are doing nothing. Without God, all of our interactions are meaningless.  God is the one who gives our life purpose, who gives our life meaning.  It is He that brings joy and happiness.  

      "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight (Isaiah 5:20-21). One of the most important things to know, is that we don't know.  Our definition of happiness, joy, and all other things are limited and tainted by our sin.  What we want is not always what we ought to do.  True happiness and joy comes when we align what we want with what we ought to do.  So what ought we do?  This wisdom we are not going to find in ourselves or in others, therefore we must look to God and look to scripture. "All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17)." He is the author and perfecter of our faith, he was sent to bring us life to the full. Again there is nothing good outside of God.  

          If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians: 13:1-3).  Now it is important to keep in mind that this love is not defined by the World, but defined by God.  In my previous blog "Sacrifice, love, and God", I draw out what that love is.  

      John 15: 12-13 says, “My command is this; Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  Sacrifice is a necessary condition to Love.  So what is sacrifice?  We understand sacrifice through God's greatest sacrifice, Jesus Christ.  "Whoever does not love, does not know God because God is love."  We therefore can say, whoever does not sacrifice does not know God because God is sacrifice.  In order to love we need to understand sacrifice, the only way to understand sacrifice is to know Jesus.  It follows that the only good sacrifice is done in regards to the will of God and to glorify Him. If good deeds are made good because of love (as seen in 1 Corinthians above), then only through Jesus Christ can we do good things.

         So what does that mean for our interactions with one another?  What can we do? Nothing apart from God.  Everything is given and comes from God, therefore we must bring ourselves to Him.  As a community, as friends, as the family of God we have but one task; SEEK GOD.  This should be our ultimate focus, this is above all things and incorporates all things.  When a brother or sister in Christ is down, the greatest thing we can do for them is to help them seek God.  When we interact with unbelievers, the only good thing we can do is to show them God and help them seek him.  When we rejoice, alone and with others, we should praise God together and seek after Him.

       Nothing is good apart from God.  That means if we comfort one another, rejoice with one another, or interact with one another apart from God; all we are doing is giving the allusion or appearance of what is good. The greatest comfort, and most selfless thing one can do, is to point a friend to God in everything; not taking credit or expecting reciprocating benefit.  By default this brings about the most fulfilling community, the most beneficial and real relationships that we can have here on Earth. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us form all sin (1 John 1:7)."  Individually striving after God, within a community of those who do the same, is the Kingdom come.  This happens because it is God that is doing the fulfilling, working through people yes; but it is by His mighty hand we are saved.

         "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.  If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.  To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 4:10-11)."

        So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jew, Greeks or the church of God; even as I try to please everybody in every way.  For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.  Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:31-33)."

       Too often we accessorize God; we use Him instead of letting Him use us.  We do not worship an idea of God but a real, loving, powerful, creator, that is at work in our hearts and in this World.  It is time that we stop compartmentalizing our lives, and give everything to the one who can do something with them. 

"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.  As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring.  Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone; an image made by man's design and skill.  In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 18:27-30)."

         Not seeking God results in spiritual death; this is hard to recognize because so many do not know what spiritual life is.  "Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine.  They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands.  Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst. Therefore the grave will enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit; into it will descend their nobles and Masses with all their brawlers and revelers (Isaiah 5:11-15)." This is a wonderful chapter and I would write the whole thing on here if I thought people would read it (which you should anyway).

      So what does it look like to seek God?  I ask myself this question, which I got from Pastor Paul Washer online; My life has finally come to an end, at a ripe old age. At the funeral service, friends a family came up to pay their respects, what will they say about me?  Maybe they will say how I was a good person, a dedicated husband, a truthful friend, a loving father, or a disciplined worker.  The world regards these characteristics as good, but they are all worthless without God.  "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, ...but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1John 2:15-17)."

On the other hand, they may say that the greatest aspect of me, was not me at all, it was God. Hopefully they would say that I loved because of God, that I sought after God in everything I did, and that it was God that made my life the way it was.  If we worship an idea of God, people will only see the illusion of God; if we worship God, then they will see God himself.

         If God is not apart of our relationships, then they are meaningless.  If God is not involved in our activities, then they too are meaningless.  If God is not present in our care for one another, or our thoughts, then those too our meaningless. In these instances we have but one consolation, that God can work through us despite us.  "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:9-11)."  Therefore we glorify God for his abundant love and mercy, and continue to strive after Him.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” --Howard Thurman

         "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched; this we proclaim concerning the Word of LIFE.  The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.  And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  We write this to make our joy complete (1 John: 1:1-4)."