“The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” I remember the first time I read this statement. My heart leaped. There was something about enjoying God that intrigued me. It captured my imagination. For weeks I found myself asking the same burning questions—“Is it possible for someone to truly enjoy God?” “Is this what my heart has been longing for all these years?” These questions kept swirling in my mind.
What is the meaning of life? It’s a question that has been debated by everyone from philosophers to college students in their dorm rooms. If you would press many Christians to explain the purpose for their existence, they would probably suggest that God gave them life so they could glorify Him in what they do. But, for many of these same individuals, “glorifying God” is an empty phrase. Ask them to describe what it means or how it’s done, and you’re likely to get a blank stare.
You may not realize it, but Father God is ravished by you. You make Him smile. You make Him laugh. You make Him leap for joy. You make His heart beat faster. In Zephaniah 3:17 the Bible even says you make Him sing for joy. Whether you understand that or not doesn’t stop God from responding to you in that way. He looks at you and grins. He sees your hair, your skin, your smile, and He rejoices.
There once was a beautiful woman named Helen who lived in the ninth century before Christ. She was the wife of the king of Greece. The king was madly in love with her. One evening Paris, the prince of Troy, came under the cover of night and took Helen away. Paris had fallen in love with Helen and had stolen her from the king of Greece. History tells us that this started the Trojan War. The two kingdoms went to war over one woman. According to tradition, because of the king’s great love for Helen, he launched over a thousand ships just to get his wife back. Instead of calling her Helen of Troy, we should call her “Helen the Pursued” or “Helen the Fought-Over.”
God is the original initiator of love. Before you ever began wanting Him, He was pursuing you. Even while you were still just a bundle of joy in your mother’s womb, God was shaping and crafting you to be His own. As you popped out in the world—when you could do nothing more than let out a cry—He began pursuing a relationship with you. The concept of God as the seeker of men and women is made clear throughout Scripture.
We misunderstand the difference between the God who is presented in the Old Testament and the seemingly contradictory one we see in the New Testament.
Today’s guest tells us that there are aspects of God’s personality we haven’t even begun to tap into! How often do you think of God’s artistry, creativity and … humility.
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Learn MoreThis week I joined my friends Stephen Crosby and Steve Bremner for another episode of the Fire On Your Head Podcast. In this episode we talk about being agents of beautification for the kingdom of God.
We discuss how to be fascinated by God’s beauty and live with an understanding of how He feels about us as an antidote to a boring spiritual life. We also answer questions like, “How do we encourage ourselves in the Lord?”
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Learn MoreMany people define religion as man’s search for God. However, the Bible paints a beautiful portrait of God’s search for man. The mystery of it all is that God pursues man! When Adam and Eve hid from His presence, the Lord called, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9).