Matthew 7:7

Are you asking of God, yet not receiving? Have you found what you are seeking for? And, have you knocked upon the door only to have it not open?

Well, if you are anything like I was prior to 2004, you may be asking and seeking the incorrect things and knocking upon doors that are not meant to open. What does this all mean? For me, prior to 2004, all I cared about was me. Really! I was eat up with self-centeredness and selfishness. The only time I would ask God for anything was when things were not going my way or I was in trouble. In fact, it is the number one thing that still beleaguers me and I must be on watch to avoid.

In Genesis, the story of Abraham includes a section where God asks him to take Isaac up the mountain and sacrifice him there. Of course, Abraham was upset and heartbroken. He and Sara had waited years, for the promise of God to come true. To have Sara bear a child in her old age in a barren womb. I really enjoy A.W. Tozer and in his book, The pursuit of God, it was first made clear to me what this story meant. Apparently, Abraham had received his gift, in the form of Isaac, but began spending too much time with the gift while neglecting the giver. Prior to Isaac, God reigned supreme in Abraham's life. Now, God was competing with Isaac for Abraham's time and devotion. As God was acutely aware of this, he asked Abraham to go up the mountain and sacrifice his son. Anyone who reads the Bible knows that God stops Abraham just before he kills him. So, what was the purpose? The purpose was to get Abraham rightly situated again with God first, and everything else second. The purpose was to test his obedience as well. It is the same in our lives. We must never worship the gift, only the giver. We have our priorities backward if we only yield to the giver to receive the gifts. Our eyes must be so focused on God that the gifts become an afterthought. Sure, they are great and God intends for us to enjoy them, or he would never give them. Yet, we must always keep them in line behind God in level of importance and we must never use God for the sole purpose of acquiring gifts.

This leads me back to the beginning and to answer some of those questions. What we get depends precisely upon what we ask for. Am I asking for great things to come to pass in my life? Am I seeking to be a great person? If so, we will be very disappointed and will continue to be discouraged in life. As long as I seek for self, the seeking will be fruitless and I will always be left with a feeling of emptiness. Always! How do I know? I did it for over 30 years and I "woke up" one day empty, lonely, and discouraged. I woke up this way despite the fact that I had become a physician and began to "acquire" things.

So, I will tell you what I do when it comes to the practical application of Matthew 7:7. I ask to know God and to have a relationship with him that is so personal, he is just as real to me spiritually as my daughter is to me physically. I only ask for others, and only for myself if it will lead to something positive for another person. With 100% certainty, when I ask solely for myself, the answer never comes and it never will to my satisfaction. Those types of "I" questions need to be posed to the adversary and I can assure you he will grant you all your earthly desires as he paves your way to an eternal life separated from God. God will never answer those types of questions. If he does, the answer will come in such a way to thwart what we are asking for in the first place. What and whom do I seek today? Well, I used to seek pleasure in the form of drugs and alcohol. I used to seek things that would satisfy my flesh. The important thing to know, at least from my experience, is that I usually received some degree of comfort, but it was very short lived, having no staying power whatsoever. And it was a hedonistic comfort, not an eternal comfort. Finally, what doors am I knocking on today? Well, I am not knocking on doors that lead only to self serving purposes. I knock on the door that provides the answer to the following question. What is God's will for me today? If I knock on that door, it will be opened and opened wide for me to enter. Otherwise, prepare to stand for a very long time at the threshold awaiting an answer.

Like Abraham, I was devastated when asked to give up some of the things I had worked so hard to obtain. Yet, it was necessary to put me into a right standing relationship with Him. And to Him, thanks be to God!

Doubt

I attended church today and was happy that we were given free reign to pull out our cell phones and "text" our responses to 2 questions the pastor asked of the audience.  The first question, and I am paraphrasing, was, "Do you believe the Bible to be the inspired and inerrant word of God?"  We were told that only a small fraction of Americans believe that to be the case.  However, the real time texting results revealed that over 80% of the church attendees believed that claim to be true. 

Yet, when we ask ourselves this question in private,  I wonder if that percentage would still hold true.  I  sent the pastor a comment to his blog post while in church because I don't have texting.  Someone asked me, "You have Internet access but no texting?"  I know, it makes no sense and that is a whole different story entirely, trust me!  Anyway, since I could not participate in the text voting, I did the second best thing.  I wrote to our pastor what my thoughts were.  The rest of this blog is an encapsulation of what I wrote to him.

I do believe the Bible to be the inspired and inerrant word of God, 100%.  However, during his sermon (while I was busy manipulating my cell phone), a passage from the Bible was offered up.  It was Isaiah 55: 8-9.  It says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." I think the issue of the Bible and whether it is true or not comes down to this statement out of Isaiah.  Personally, I believe the Bible is written in a way by men inspired and possessed by the Holy Spirit, that only those who are equally inspired and possessed by the Holy Spirit can understand.  Our finite minds cannot completely see and grasp the full extent of the truth from an infinite God.  How can we understand God based solely on a human mind's perspective, using human rationale?  It cannot be done.  We must develop the mind of God and that requires developing a life based on the "spiritual" realm, not the worldly, physical, and material realm.

The second question was, "How many read the Bible on a consistent basis?"  The percentage was very low and his response was, 'how can you say that the Bible is 100% accurate when you're not even acquainted with it on an intimate level?'  What is and has happened to all of us is that we have come to rely heavily upon others for "our truth."  We put 100% faith in others to deliver us the goods and have 100% faith that the goods are 100% accurate.  We need to pick up our Bibles and start digging and investigating for ourselves.  We cannot have a personal relationship with God unless we personally do the work to establish that relationship.  

Finally, I will leave you with a controversial piece.  Our church's theme topic currently is on "Why?"  Why does the Bible matter?  Is it true?  Can we intelligently engage agnostics and atheists in debate?  I was given a  movie to watch by an acquaintance of mine.  He is a non-Christian.  However, he did not push it on me. I was interested in looking at it for myself.  One of the things our church has been talking about is reading the views of non-Christians and atheists.  This movie, "Zeitgeist", challenges Christianity at its core.  It compares Jesus to many other "prophets" or wise men from other religions (B.C) who were supposedly born on December 25th, born to a virgin, visited by 3 wise men, and were crucified and rose on the 3rd day. It then argues that the language in the Bible is astrologically symbolic.  The movie is long with only the beginning dedicated to debunking Christianity.  The rest deals with conspiracy theories on how the central bank and federal reserve control the US and have since its inception in 1913, enslaving Americans through its economic schemes.   

The following link will take you to Professor John Stackhouse's Blog where he provides an excellent critique to the movie, http://stackblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/13/zeitgeist-the-movie-the-new-chariots-of-the-gods/#more-148.  I obtained this link from Ravi Zacharias' ministry home page (http://www.rzim.org/USA/USFV/tabid/436/ArticleID/10172/CBModuleId/1561/Default.aspx) I believe we need not turn and run in fear of engaging people who oppose our views.  I do, however, believe that you must be strong in your faith to engage these arguments or you could easily be persuaded to "jump ship."  So, "work out your faith with fear and trembling" and stand firm in the knowledge of God and his ways.  Then and only then can we withstand the onslaught of many who come with creative and compelling arguments.