Something’s Missing

by Gillian Bethel
Searching for Something
Are you searching for a missing "something" in your life? It's a theme that comes up in people's
posts online quite often. There's just a nagging sense of incompleteness or a longing for
something more, but you don't know what. Ever felt that? Here's how the search went for me:
My Search
In my early teens, I started to realize something seemed to be missing, not just from my life, but
from life in general. A song fragment went, "Is that all there is? Is that all there is?" and that
resonated with me. So when I got out on my own at college, I started a serious search. I tried
drugs, meditation, reading mystical writings, throwing out all the do's and don'ts I was raised
with, you name it! Nothing lasting came of any of it. Great experiences always melted away,
and I was back to that emptiness. So after three years, I just gave up and put my energy into
studying to get my degree in social sciences.
After I graduated, my planned next step of training as a social worker unexpectedly fell apart,
so I looked around for a job. One afternoon I went to the head of my department at college for
a job reference, but I ended up being given a cultural anthropology research assignment in the
Caribbean. Wow! It should have been fun; instead it was really hard . . . and lonely. BUT, as
part of the research, I had to go to churches and observe what happened there. (I had to
laugh—I'd avoided them for years!) After a while, I decided to get a Bible to carry to church like
everyone else did, and this led to the next step in my abandoned search.
Long story short, one day I sat down on my bed with the Bible and randomly opened it. I was
blown away to read words that were like a text message just for me in my search. They hit a
bullseye in my heart. I won't bother to share them because they wouldn't necessarily do the
same for you. That's the point. They were just what I needed to hear at that time.
I read more over the next few weeks, and the book kept doing that! I didn't know what was
going on, but I wrote some of the "text messages" on cards and stuck them on my mirror
because they were so encouraging. Reading them actually made a difference to my state of
mind—they were really powerful! So I started a personal research into Christianity, because my
pre-conceived ideas weren't matching this new stuff.
It turned out that Christianity was very hard to understand because of all the jargon and
gobbledygook. I really wished that someone would explain it simply without the jargon, but no
one could! I would have given up, but I had to know why the Bible was making a lasting
difference when nothing else ever did. Eventually "the lights went on" and I actually found what
I'd been missing all those years. It wasn't at all what I'd expected.
So, if you are interested in exploring, I've written the simplest explanation I can come up with,
using plenty of quotes from the Bible so you can get a taste of it. See if you can put aside the
ideas you already have about God and take a fresh look. You can treat what you'll read as just
information, because that's all it is unless you decide to pursue it.
May you find what you're searching for!

Text Messages From God

"If God is out there, how can I find out what he's like?" Ever wondered that? Well, can you tell
what someone is like by reading text messages from them? God has sent us plenty of text
messages. Try reading these texts from God to you. You may be surprised at how He comes
across.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.... (Jeremiah 1:5)

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. (Jeremiah
31:3)

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.
(Jeremiah 33:3)

I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you
should go. (Isaiah 48:17)

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I
will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:4)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm
you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me,
and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
(Jeremiah 29:11-14)

Indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for
silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and
find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:3-5)

It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will
hear. (Isaiah 65:24)

Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. (Isaiah 49:15)
Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine. When you
pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. (Isaiah
43:1-2)

I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will
die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass? And you forget the Lord your maker,
who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.... (Isaiah 51:12-13)

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will
help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? (Jeremiah 32:27)

You may want to save some of these texts. They're pretty encouraging. You may even want to
text Him back. Here's how.

How to Text God Back

God's communication system is way in advance of ours. You don't need a phone to text Him.
You can just think the texts and He'll get them immediately. Or you can speak them out loud or
whisper them and He'll pick them up clearly. Just tell Him what's on your mind. You don't need
any pre-set words.

Quite often He'll answer by making one of the texts you've read speak to you personally. You'll
just know it's for you in your situation. Sometimes He'll give you a thought that seems to drop
into your mind from nowhere, or someone will say something, and you'll know that's your
answer. Sometimes you can simply tell that God's working things out amazingly.

You will find many more messages from him to you if you start reading His "text-book"--the
Bible. There may be a lot that you don't understand or that doesn't interest you at first, but
keep reading until you find something that speaks to you. Start with the books of Psalms,
Proverbs, or Ecclesiastes. Try the Gospel of John in the New Testament. Look up the texts
above and read around them. There is no question that you will hear God as you read. It's very
exciting!

More

Here are some texts from people who have known Him well. They'll give you some more clues
to what God is like.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; you
understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are
acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you
know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.
(Psalms 139:1-4)

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars; He
calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.
(Psalm 147:3-6)

I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up
out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my
steps. (Psalm 40:1-2)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways
acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:6)

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. (Psalms 138:8. All texts from New King James
Version of the Bible.)

Why would someone look for God?

Have you noticed that God sounds like a person? Many people think of Him as an impersonal
force of some kind. The God of the Bible is not only personal, but He sounds very interested in
us, doesn't He? Why would we be interested in Him? Consider what God wants to give you by
being in your life:

Stability: God is reliable, always there, and willing to give you complete attention at any time.

Guidance: God infallibly directs you in the way you'd choose if you understood all the issues.

Protection: God keeps you as safe as you need to be, but He won't keep you from challenges
which will help you grow.

Adventure: God will put you on a track way beyond anything you could dream up for yourself--
more interesting, satisfying and fulfilling. He will stretch you, but He knows and respects your
limits at each stage.

Love: God is Someone who truly does care about you and wants you to reach all your
potential. He won't let you down or walk away--ever. (But if you choose persistently to reject
Him, He will respect that.)

Empathy: God is Someone very kind who knows exactly what you are thinking and feeling and
has been through human experiences and struggles. (More about that later.)
Peace: God can remove guilt, anxiety, stress, anger and frustration, and give you inner peace
and even joyfulness.

Discipline: God will require a lot of you but empower you to achieve it. He will kindly show you
your shortcomings, but also inspire, encourage, and give you ability to overcome them.

Respect: Above all, God respects your free will--your choice--and will not force you to do
anything. He does not want to brainwash you, hypnotize you, or take away your individuality.
You will have to work at staying close to Him, not at escaping Him. You can quit anytime!

Are you interested? Then the next step is to get to know how God looks at things. His
perspective is different from ours and may seem strange at first. We're going to use texts from
God found in the Bible as a window into His thinking.

God's perspective: first, a problem

"Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord... (Isaiah 1:18)

God has a problem that He wants to talk to us about. WE are the problem. Here's why:

The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who
understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, they have together become
corrupt; there is none who does good. No, not one. (Psalm 14:2, 3)

At first glance, this seems outrageous! You know lots of good people don't you? But think—do
you know anyone who is always like this:

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
does not behave itself rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not
rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

This is the "good" that God is looking for in us and not finding. It's a completely selfless love.
It's beautiful, but surely it's unreasonable to expect that anyone could always be like that, isn't
it?

Listen to God again:

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts
than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8, 9)

God is not boasting; He's just stating fact! So we'll need to put our first reactions aside as we
try to understand God's perspective. Obviously it's going to be very different from what we
expect.

Love and Life

First, we need to grasp the connection between selfless love and life itself. The Bible says
plainly,

Love is of God. (1 John 4:7)

These four little words state something huge and fundamental. God is the source of the selfless
love we've read about. He is also the most perfect example of it. It's what He is. It's a love that
doesn't think of itself; it always puts others first. It is self-sacrificing; it delights to give and give
of itself to make others happy. It's a humble, warm, rich, great, endless love that loves
someone whether he or she is loveable or not. It looks for nothing in return, it never changes;
it's a love you can rest in because it won't be withdrawn if you get something wrong. That's
how God loves, and He joyfully creates that love in anyone who wants to do the same.

There's more:

How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust
under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
and You give them to drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life;
in Your light we see light. ( Psalm 36: 7-9)

"With You is the fountain of life" means that God is the source of life as well as love. The Bible
calls this life "life more abundantly." (John 10:10) It's like an irrepressible fountain that just
keeps springing up forever. The love and life that originate with God are inseparable. God's life
is a life of loving selflessly, and there is no lasting life without that love. This turns out to be
true for us too:

He who does not love his brother abides in death. (1 John 3:14)

This is another enormous statement. "Brother" here means more than sibling—it means other
human beings. It's saying that a person who does not consistently love all others with God's
selfless love does not possess life from God's endless fountain. He's on borrowed time, and
death is on its way.

Because these are mind-stretching concepts, it will take a while to digest them. Already we're
beginning to see why there's a problem. Let's look at the whole thing from another angle now
as we dig a little deeper.

An invitation and a wish

As the Bible portrays Him, God is very awesome indeed. He's the one who made everything,
and He is the ultimate ruler of the universe.

"I am the Lord, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads
abroad the earth by Myself...." (Isaiah 44:24)

"Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all
that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as
head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hand is
power and might; in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all." (1 Chronicles
29:11,12)

If God is the creator and ruler of everything there is, He is entitled to set the rules. And when
God makes rules or laws, they are about love and life--all of them!

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew
22:37-40)

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall
not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other
commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as
yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
(Romans 13:8-10)

God's laws are also the laws of life:

"You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by
them...." (Leviticus 18:5)

"And I know that His commandment is everlasting life...." (John 12:50)

In other words, following the laws of love is what it takes to live, like following traffic laws is
what it takes to get safely to your destination. We saw that love and life are inseparable. But
how can God or anyone command love, especially selfless love, when it's so hard and we slip
out of it so easily? Actually, what He's saying is, "Choose to love my way, and I'll empower you
to do it."

Here's the invitation: ("Won't you choose to love?")

"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to
love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and
His judgments, that you may live ...therefore choose life, that both you and your descendents
may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may
cling to Him, for He is your life...." (Deuteronomy 30; 15, 16, 19, 20 emphasis supplied)

Here's the promise: ("I'll empower you to love.")

"And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendents, to love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." (Deuteronomy
30:6)

Just as physical circumcision involves a removing of flesh, so God will remove the part of us that
prevents us from loving selflessly. More about that later.

And here's God's longing: ("If only you'll cooperate...")

"Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear [respect] Me and always keep all
my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!"
(Deuteronomy 5:29)

God's deepest wish is to be able to give love and life to us for our happiness. He longs to do it;
but there's that problem. Let's look at it more closely.

The core of the problem

We've seen that the keeping of the law of selfless love brings God's endless life to a person.
But now let's look at the other side of that. The breaking of the law, with its origin in self-
centeredness, brings death--that is, it cuts us off from the fountain of life. What are we talking
about here?

Being self-centered means "me first," making sure my felt needs are met. It can even include
looking after people who are important to me; but self-centered people often miss seeing what
others need because they are busy with things that affect themselves.

At its worst, being self-centered leads to hurting others; but more often it means missing
opportunities to bring them happiness and help or being selective about who is helped. It's
often just a preoccupation with self in the nicest way. Sometimes self-centered people are
good to others because it's expected or it makes them feel good about themselves. It is not
safe to judge others' motives, but if we are honest, we have to admit ours are not always
completely pure.

The word used in the Bible for breaking the law of love by putting your interests before others'
is "sin." Now we can see that sin is much more than lying, stealing, or killing. It could be failing
to share something that's rightfully ours with someone who needs it. Whatever form it takes,

Sin is the transgression [breaking] of the law. (1 John 3:4)

And there is only one result from sin:

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)

That's any breaking of the law of unselfish love. Any moment of choosing to put oneself first
leads to death. Think of a crane with a heavy metal ball hanging from a long chain. It only takes
the failure of one link for a moment to break the chain, and the ball falls. But who has never
been self-centered for a moment? So, not surprisingly,

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

It still seems unreasonable though, doesn't it? Of course we all have moments of self-
centeredness. Many of us put ourselves first a lot of the time, even with the best intentions.
How can God expect otherwise? But you see, it wasn't supposed to be that way, and it wasn't
always that way. This is where the Bible tells a story radically different from what many of us
were raised to believe.

Briefly, God designed and created human beings perfectly selfless, loving, and happy, able to
live forever. Each person was given free choice, (because forced love means nothing) but the
original human beings used their free choice to disbelieve and disobey God's law of love and
life.

In our genes now is a tendency towards self-centeredness which only God can empower us to
defeat. And because we live in a world where looking after "number one" is normal, we don't
realize what destructive potential one sin, or act of self-centeredness, has. In nuclear fission, it
only takes splitting the nucleus of one tiny uranium atom to start a chain reaction and make a
mega-explosion. It's something like that. Certainly there is a mega-difference between living
forever and not living forever. Like the one broken chain link or the one split atom, it only takes
one sin to make that difference. Like it or not, that’s reality according to God.

To make it harder—sin puts a barrier between us and God:

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy that it cannot
hear, but your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face
from you so that He will not hear. (Isaiah 59:1)

It's hard to realize how very damaging sin is to us, and how offensive self-centeredness is to
God. It not only blinds us spiritually, but it squelches our interest in things that will make us
truly happy like getting to know God and helping others.
God hates sin because it hurts people. If we hold onto it, it's like a wall around us, shutting out
the God of love whose great joy is giving of Himself. Unfortunately, we just don't recognize
how self-centered we are most of the time. We often think we are pretty good people. But
God sees differently, and because He loves us, it hurts Him too.

So now, perhaps, God's problem is clearer: He loves us and wants us to live forever and be
completely happy. Yet without some kind of enormous intervention, no one is going to. It's a
pretty big problem.

All this raises a question: If breaking God's law of unselfish love leads to separation from God
and death, why are we all still alive? The reason is that God has put an amazing rescue plan
into operation, and the story isn't over yet!

God is love (1 John 4:6 emphasis supplied.)

Because of this, God's solution involves pouring out a breathtaking amount of His selfless love
to us. Let's look at the plan.

God's fix for the problem

In a nutshell, this is how God has solved the sin and death problem:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

This is telling us that people will "perish," or be fully destroyed, because of their sin unless they
believe in God's Son and what God gave Him to us for. But if they do believe, living forever is
still a possibility. There are only two options here: destruction or living forever. Not a hard
choice, is it?

Let's unpick this a bit and see what's involved. First of all, who is God's Son?

The Bible calls Him "the Word." This may seem a strange name for the Son of God, but there is
a reason for it.

No one has seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He
has declared Him [made Him known]. (John 1:18)

Like words portray thoughts, so God the Son is uniquely qualified to portray His Father to us.
Part of His mission is to do that because we often misunderstand what God the Father is like.
That stops us from trusting Him, so we keep our distance from Him.

We are told two astounding facts about the Word:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things
were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life,
and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4)

We read earlier that God is the Creator and Life Giver, but now we're seeing He works through
His Son.

The Word Himself said,

"I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of
life." (John 8:12)

Not only is the Word the direct source of our life, but in cooperation with His Father, He
created and maintains everything there is.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn [head] over all creation. For by Him all things
were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him. And He is
before all things, and in Him all things consist [hold together]. (Colossians 1:15-17)

It makes sense that a God who is love does not work in isolation, but in co-operation with
another being like Himself.

Though He is unimaginably powerful, the Son of God took an incredible step: He became a
human being. The Creator became a created being, yet He was still God. God the Son came
down to us as a human being—fully human and fully God at the same time. The Bible calls this
a mystery, and it is something we cannot really understand.

And the Word was made flesh and dwelt [lived] among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as
of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

By becoming human, the Word, God the Son, showed us the character of God the Father up
close. His life was a continual illustration of God's love in action on our level. It was the
Father's way of getting nearer to us and making it easier for us to understand Him.

But He did more than that. In His own words,

...the Son of Man [sometimes the Word called Himself that] did not come to be served but to
serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28)

He came to serve us (imagine that!) and also to pay a ransom for us with His own life. What is a
ransom? It's the price it takes to free a captive person. Why was His life required as a ransom?
Because, as we have read, "the wages of sin is death." We are death's captives, as it were. He,
God the Son, died the death that's coming to us because of sin, so we wouldn't have to. That's
a huge ransom!

Let's spell this out. Our self-centeredness is going to cause our destruction. Because God is just
and fair as well as kind, there is only one way for Him to stop that from happening. Someone
who has kept the law of love as a human being has to step in and be destroyed in our place.
The Word did that for each individual person, including you and me. Isn't that breathtaking!
And God the Father allowed His Son go through that for us, painful as it was for both of them.
He "gave His only-begotten Son so that (we) should not perish...." There is more selfless love in
what They did than we will ever understand, because there was an infinite amount of suffering
involved for both of them. The more we look at Their sacrifice, the bigger it appears.

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only-begotten Son into the
world that we might live through Him. (1John 4:9)

...when we were still without strength, in due time Christ [meaning "the Anointed One"] died
for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous [good] man will one die: yet perhaps for a good
man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

The Word can offer His death in our place as a gift to us because He never sinned Himself. He
lived a human life full of God's kind of love and never had one moment of self-centeredness.
Amazing! That means He didn't have to perish because of His own sins, but could take ours on
Himself.

For He [God the Father] has made Him who knew no sin [His Son] to be sin for us, that we
might become the righteousness of God [unselfishly loving] in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

A gift and more

Now there are two things we need to realize about this beautiful gift.

The first is that a gift is not ours unless we take it; so we will need to personally accept this one:

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given
us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,
not imputing (counting) their trespasses (sins) to them, and has committed to us the word of
reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through
us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-20)

This tells us that God has fixed our broken relationship with Him through His Son. He will not
just invite, but plead with us (through other human beings) to come individually to Him, and
receive all He has for us. Ask yourself, "Do I want the biggest gift ever--the Word's human life
perishing instead of mine so that I can live forever?" If your answer is yes, you need to tell God
that. (Remember how to text God?)

The second thing to understand here is that the gift comes with a Person:

And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who
has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:11)

This is the best part! The mind-blowing thing is that all this is not just something which took
place long ago. The Word is alive now, and you can get to know Him. He did die as a human
being, but He had the right and the power to take life again because He never sinned Himself,
and because He is the Son of God. He's not physically on earth any more, but He is alive, He
cares a lot about you, and He's very involved in your life though you can't see Him. You can talk
to Him, and you will become aware of what He's saying to you and doing in your life. He is a
friend like you've never had before. He wants you to get to know Him so that you'll trust and
love Him. Then He can start being for you all the things we listed at the beginning.

Here are some texts from Him to you:

"I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of
life." (John 8:12)

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me
shall never thirst." (John 6:35)

"I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)

"Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke
upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls." (Matthew 11:28,29)

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not
your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)

These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have
tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Getting to know God the Son is something like meeting someone and loving them more and
more until you realize they are a part of your life you never want to lose. Marriage at its best is
a commitment on the part of two people to live in close relationship—to combine two lives into
one. It's choosing to love, respect, help and care for the other person more than any other. It's
the ultimate giving of yourself. Whatever is theirs becomes yours, and whatever is yours
becomes theirs. They themselves become yours and you become theirs, yet you keep your
individuality and power of choice. There are strong parallels between this and the kind of
relationship the Son of God wants us to have with Himself and His Father.

"If any man love Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and We will come to
him and make Our home with him." (John 14:23)

"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love." (John 15:9)

It's also like the relationship a young child may have with loving parents. The child will respect
and trust them and want to please them if he or she feels secure and loved. The child will
confidently bring problems to the parents to solve, and will run to them for comfort and
encouragement.

"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 he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread will give him a stone....If you
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father
who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:7-9, 11)

"As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." (Isaiah 66:13)

So we're being invited to much more than escape from self-centeredness and death. We're
invited to know a Person who loves us truly, faithfully, and unendingly, a Person who suffered
and died for us so He can give us happiness and fulfillment forever.

This might seem almost scary--more than we are looking for--but in fact it's just what we are
looking for, whether we know it or not! A man called Augustine once said, "You have made us
for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." But it's not instant! We
need to try out God the Father and His Son and decide for ourselves whether we can trust
them. This will happen as we text God and see Him doing things in our lives and other people's.
It will also happen as we read His texts to us and find out more about Him.

God the Father and God the Son are not the same person, but they are the same in character
and goals. This means that what you find out about one applies to the other. Sometimes, like
any parent, the Father uses "tough love" so what He has done in a situation may not seem kind
at first glance. We may have to look a little longer and deeper to understand. But remember
His promises,

"You shall seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:14)

Indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding...then you will understand the
fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:3-5)

It will take some time and effort, but to get to know God is to find your heart's desire and a
quality of life you've never experienced before. The effort will not all be yours, either! If you
just keep answering God's texts to you, He will make Himself known to you in ways that will
mean a lot to you personally.

If you take the gift, then what?

What happens when you are ready to make a commitment to God is truly amazing! As you get
to know God, He gives you an increasing awareness and hatred of your self-centeredness and
sins. You realize they have not only brought hardship to others, but also great pain to the
Father and Son, who are now very real to you. When you bring to God the guilt and deep
remorse He gives you, ask forgiveness, and choose to turn away from sin, He forgives your sins.
Remember how Christ lived a perfect human life, and took the punishment for your sins? His
life and death are counted as being yours, and because of them, you become entitled to a life
that will last forever. As you give yourself to Him and ask Him to lead in your life, He does even
more than forgiving you. He begins a wonderful process of transformation in you so you are
not trapped in a self-centered life any more.

Up to that point, your experience at its worst may have been like part of this list:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of
good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form
of godliness but denying its power. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Or at its best, it may have been like this:

"...what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will [choose] to do, that I do not practice;
but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law [of God] that it
is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me
(that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform
what is good I do not find." (Romans 7: 15-18)

Is any of this familiar? Somehow, even when we have good intentions, it is next to impossible
to follow through consistently. But when we give our lives completely into God's hands, He
makes a major change in us:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold all
things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of
your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in
My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." ( Ezekiel 36:26,27)

Remember the promise we looked at earlier where God said He would empower us to love?
This is what the circumcision of the heart is all about. Our "heart of stone" is taken away, and
in no less than an act of creation, we are given a "heart of flesh." This is a tender heart of
compassionate, selfless, loving service. The only place we can get one is from God!

What He actually does is give us a new dimension of mind by sending His Spirit into us. The
“Spirit of Truth” or “The Holy Spirit” as the Bible calls Him is an actual Being who is also God.
He comes to give us some of the thoughts and feelings of the Father and Son, so we can see
other people the way They do. He also empowers us to act with love toward them as the
Father and Son would act in our situation. The Bible says,

But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16 )

A person who has Christ’s mind through the Holy Spirit will notice what others need, and gladly
help them without expecting a return. He or she will have the same kind of loving interest and
concern for people that God has. What an amazing thought! Not only that, but there is an
incredible peace that comes with God's forgiveness and love. It feels like a weight has been
lifted off us and we can make a new start. This peace also comes from the Holy Spirit.

The Son says,

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
(John 3:3)

The imagery of being born tells us that this heart change is just the gateway into a new life. We
have the possibility of experiencing a lot of exciting growth.

But we all...beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same
image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

We become like the people we spend a lot of time with. It's especially true that if we spend
time with God, talking to Him, reading texts from Him, and doing what He says, it will change
us. This is how we cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work in us. Doing all of these things is the
way we say, “I want to be more like You, please change me.” The more time we spend with
Him, the closer we'll want to get, and the more we'll experience and reflect His love and life
through the Holy Spirit’s power re-creating us.

It's important to make time daily to feel our need of God and renew our complete commitment
to Him. Each day we may give our whole life into His hands and receive the Holy Spirit to
change us. Each day we have the option of growing closer to Him or drifting away. But we
won't drift away if we keep focusing on the Father and the Son. The more important we make
them in our lives, the more we'll be like that description of selfless love we read, and the more
joy we'll have.

Just as a child cannot grow unless it eats and drinks, our growth will depend on daily "eating
and drinking" all God says to us.

As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. (1 Peter 2:2)

Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11)

The words of God feed our transformed life and make it possible for the old self-centered ways
to be replaced by selfless loving ones. If we don't feed our new life, it withers and dies. That
makes spending time with texts from God pretty important. We find that all God's texts are
more than inspiring words—they are empowering. The power of the Holy Spirit to change us is
especially in these words. They feed our spiritual growth and defuse temptations to be self-
centered again. When we mess up, they bring us encouragement as we go to God for
forgiveness and a loving heart once more. They remind us over and over of God's love for us
and others, and the possibilities of a life lived with Him.

"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water
the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the
eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it
shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." (Isaiah
55:10, 11)

God always sends His texts to do something life-giving. If you search in the Bible and ask God
for help, you will find He brings some words to your attention that seem to be just for your
situation. If you think about those words for a while, you will know they are more than
words—they bring God close with power for change.

(Not) the end...

So now we've come full circle. We started with some texts from God that were strangely
moving. Now that we have a better understanding, they are becoming more meaningful and
powerful. If we keep going back to the "text-book" and searching for insight, God's texts will
shine brighter and brighter. It's like looking at the beautiful night sky with the naked eye first,
then having the opportunity to zoom in with better and still better telescopes. What we see
just keeps getting more amazing and more beautiful.
Be aware that if you start a serious quest for God and His truth, everything in the world will
come along to distract you from it. You have to be very determined, or you will wake up one
day and wonder what happened to your search. But also remember that God is working to help
you find Him, and He is very patient. The invitation is still open right now:

"Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord. (Isaiah 1:18)

And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
(Revelation 22:17)

It's for you!

Getting started on Bible reading

If you've never tried to read the Bible before, here are a few facts and suggestions that will help
you to get into it.

First, the Bible is actually a library of 66 books. They were written by many different authors
(but inspired by the same God) over a period of hundreds of years. The last book was finished
around 2,000 years ago, and they were all written in ancient languages. There are many
translations of the Bible into English. The texts we've looked at come from a translation called
the New King James Version which is an update of a beautiful translation done in the time of
Shakespeare. There are more modern versions also, but some of them are looser translations
of the original languages.

Second, there is a lot of detailed writing about law, history, and genealogies. There are also
some sections of prophecy which may be perplexing to a newcomer. These are not the easiest
places to start. You can begin in the first book, Genesis, (which is really interesting) but if you
try to begin at page 1 of the Bible and just read forward, you may get bogged down. Most
people can relate more easily to the books of Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, or the gospels
of Luke or John as starting points. But there are wonderful things for you all through the Bible.
Just keep looking until you find something that speaks to your heart.

Third, every time you want to read, talk with God before you start. Ask Him to help you to hear
Him speaking to you. Ask for understanding. He will always give this to you if you persevere.
He has so much He wants to say to you!

Fourth, find some Bible study guides to help you navigate through all the varied subject matter
of the Bible. The Bible can answer so many of your questions and give you help with so many
different challenges. You may want to ask someone who knows the Bible well to study with
you, or you can find lots of help online. Try http://truthlink.org/ —studies written to explain
Bible concepts to a searcher with no previous experience of the Bible.
Fifth, if you want to look up a Bible reference or write one down, do it this way: Isaiah 1:18.
Isaiah is the name of the book (you can find an index of the books in the first few pages of a
Bible.) 1:18 refer to the chapter and verse. You would go to chapter 1 of the book of Isaiah,
and then scan down until you see an 18. Many people underline things they want to find again
with a colored pencil if they are using the Bible in book form rather than digital.

Sixth and last, be patient. If you don't understand something, ask God for help and keep
reading. There will be plenty that speaks to you plainly. When you do understand something,
act on it if needed, and your understanding of other things will grow. God has new things to
teach you forever. It's a wonderful adventure. Enjoy!