For thought and meditation

[rl69]

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.—Jeremiah 29:13 (http://harvest.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=4f108f827aed8d503b5fca9fa&id=cf343e7fb8&e=3dd732485b)The arrival of the wise men in Jerusalem would have created quite a stir. These were strange men with a strange question, asking for the King of the Jews. They couldn't have said a worse thing to King Herod. In effect, they were saying, "We're looking for the King of the Jews—and clearly you're not him."

This is why we're told in Matthew 2:3, "When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." The word troubled used here could be translated "to shake violently"—like a washing machine in the spin phase. That was Herod. And when Herod was agitated, everyone was agitated. When he was mad, everyone was afraid of what could happen next.

So Herod called in the scribes, men who had committed themselves to studying the Scriptures. Without missing a beat, they went right to Micah 5:2: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting."

There was no question the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Of course, Herod wanted to stop this Child from coming and wanted to destroy Him.

God used these wise men to get Herod's attention. These were pagan men who were steeped in the occult. Yet God reached them in a way that they understood. He came to them by a star.

The Lord says that those who seek Him will find Him. To educated men and women, He will come to them in a way they can understand. To little children, He will appear in a way they can understand.

I believe that if people are truly seeking God, He will reveal Himself to them

[USMC87]

Great lesson.

[square butte]

Appreciate the lesson this morning rl69 - One way or another I am going to find Him here as well

[Pine Baron]

"I believe that if people are truly seeking God, He will reveal Himself to them"
Bingo!

[w5pv]

Seek,See seek more don't for get to knock also

[Blackwater]

What a great lesson. I've long believed that each one of us has an intuitive knowledge of our Maker and Redeemer. How could a creation NOT know its maker? But God also gave us a choice, and we can use that free will any way we wish to. And some use it to deny and mock the Lord. That's a willful choice, and one God gave them the power to make for themselves.

But if that sense of our maker inside us is ALLOWED to set us to seeking Him, we WILL find it. We might not understand it fully when we do, but that understanding takes the rest of our lives to obtain, and it's incremental. The crucial ingredient within us in finding the Lord and His will for us, is simply being humble enough to accept things we might not at first understand, and seek the understanding AFTER we've simply accepted what we inwardly know to be the simple Truth.

God doesn't hide wisdom from us, but we surely do an effective job of hiding it from ourselves, when that wisdom interferes with OUR will. It's said that "narrow is the way and few are they who find it." I don't accept that, but there does seem to be a measure of real Truth in it. We often want to do OUR will when the Lord wants us to do His. This is a simple conflict, and if anyone here has never gone with his own will rather than God's, I'd love to shake your hand, just to be able to say I knew someone like that.

But the path to the Lord is really like unto first sensing that something is "out there" that we need to know about, and accepting that as a reality. Then we have to humbly and diligently and consistently seek to understand that which we can never really know beyond a certain point. And then, we have to battle our own wills, and good luck with THAT one!

In my own case, for years, I sought to understand God via my own intellect. I spent a lot of time skirting the edges of wisdom, but never really got the "meat" out of it using my own comprehension. Then, I quit seeking so hard, and just let things flow into me, when I was humbled and simply thankful, and ...... wonder of wonders, answers started flowing like water within me! I know that's hard for many to accept, but that's only for those who are still doing what I once did, and using their own "intelligence" rather than the whole of our body, minds and spirits. And many seem to develop increasing haughtiness, and that can and does block much of Christ's messages to us.

But it's all a choice, just like when Herod was informed of Christ's birth. He could have recognized the power of such a supernatural event, but instead, he reacted with haughtiness, jealousy, and murderous anger! And it's still done that way today, to varying degrees. Truly Satan DOES really have a LOT of ammunition to use against us, and to try and keep us away from our Savior. It's up to us to decide what choices we'll make, and then, God deals with us accordingly. How else could it be, really?

[buckwheatpaul]

Thanks, You always hit the spot with your mini-Bible lessons.....Paul