Longing for the Lord

Responding to USCCA, chapter 7: The Good News: God Has Sent His Son, For-Discussion Questions

The questions as written don't excite me!  "Why is it important to appreciate the truth that...", "what is the value...in appreciating...", and all such language is so oriented to analysis, words, thoughts ABOUT the Lord, and all with an emphasis on Revelation ABOUT God's PLAN for our salvation.  While everything the questions here infer is correct, they don't point to or evoke from me the call from Jesus Christ to become alive IN Him.

I would rather ask:
How have I experienced Jesus as my Savior and Lord?
How does my life show I have died to self and live in Him?
How have I experienced Christ's divinity and His humanity?
How would my life be different without Christ?
How does unity with God through life in Christ lead me to love all people?
How am I currently challenged to allow Christ to be more completely my Lord?

I need to write my biography!  To answer these questions with the fullness that delights me (because in so doing I celebrate God's grace to me), I would have to write many pages.  Someday I hope to do that.

For now:
My soul longs for Thee, my Lord; please grant me the grace to long for Thee ever more and forever more.  Amen.

I Was Found Of Thee

In Sabin's "The Gospel According To Mark" (New Collegeville Bible Commentary), she notes that in Jesus' day, it wasn't customary for teachers to seek out their disciples; normally, teachers attracted disciples.  She furthers compares Jesus to "Wisdom" who "calls those who are in need of her -- 'the simple ones' (Proverbs 1:22)"

How exciting and wondrous it must have been to be sought out by Jesus.  I can imagine how thoroughly compelling His call would have been.

And as I write that, I realize I do know how exciting and wondrous it is to be sought out by Jesus!  My Lord is truly compelling!  (Praise You, Jesus-Christ!)

My all-time favorite hymn describes this experience of being sought by the Lord Who Is Love:

I Sought The Lord

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew 
 he moved my soul to seek him, seeking me. 
 It was not I that found, O Savior true; 
 no, I was found of thee. 

Thou didst reach forth thy hand and mine enfold; 
 I walked and sank not on the storm-vexed sea. 
 'Twas not so much that I on thee took hold, 
 as thou, dear Lord, on me. 

I find, I walk, I love, but oh, the whole 
 of love is but my answer, Lord, to thee! 
 For thou wert long beforehand with my soul; 
 always thou lovedst me. 

~Anonymous

My favorite setting for this text is that by J. Harold Moyer, as found in The Mennonite Hymnal, published in 1969