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Daily Recharge
Mal Fletcher
Finding God...
23 April 2024
John 14:8-10: 'Philip said, " Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work."'
Throughout the history of the world, there have been many attempts to find God. The Hebrews sought to discover God through morality. They produced perhaps the ultimate expression of moral rectitude, the class of people known as Pharisees. The Pharisees saw themselves as protectors of God's divine law, men whose purpose in life was to ensure that people didn't break God's laws, even by accident. So zealous were they to keep laws, they added hundreds of their own so that people were always having to avoid one thing or another. They became petty and legalistic, and people with whom Jesus had great problems, because he proclaimed God's fatherhood and forgiveness, while Pharisees insisted that he was a 'hanging judge'. Others tried to reach God in other ways. Take, for example, the Hindu and Buddhist philosophers. One of the greatest teachers India has produced was asked what the Omnipotent One is like. He considered this carefully and then gave his sage-like answer, in one word: 'Neti'. The word means, 'not that...' In other words, he said, whatever you think God is, he's 'not that'. Lao Tse, was the one of greatest philosophers China has produced. He announced that the divine power was silence. He taught that no noise, image or personality could ever show us God. So many thinkers have tried to explain God, but only one great teacher has ever claimed to show us God. Jesus alone spoke about a God with whom we can have an intimate relationship. Only Jesus talked about a God who waited for our return like a father who waited for his wayward children. Only Jesus taught that God has reached down to us, rather than waiting for us to reach up to him. The world in which we live is no different to the ancient world in this respect: people are still trying to work out what God is like, what he might expect from them and what he may have to offer them. Again in our time, there are those who try to reach God with their impressive adherence to religious laws. And there are others who say that God is unknowable or unreachable, so there's no point even trying to please him. Finally, there are those who, walking in the footsteps of their Master, declare that God is knowable in a very personal way, through his Son Jesus Christ. We need to show people that kind of approachable and accessible God. It's that kind of faith that makes us unique -- and attractive to others who are searching for truth.
Prayer: 'Father, thank you so much that you have made yourself known, especially through the life of your Son Jesus. Help me to show through my life today that I have, as he did, a close personal relationship with you.'
© Mal Fletcher 2003-2004
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