God is Pursuing A Love Relationship With You
Acts 22:4-11
4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison,5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’
8 “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
10 “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
God is Pursuing A Love Relationship With You
Friends... God created humanity for a love relationship with him that is both real and personal.
There is nowhere you can go that God will not be present. But He won’t force Himself on you. God may draw you to Himself and woo you relentlessly, but He won’t take away your ability to reject Him.
You are a person created in the image of God, created to love and be loved. Greater than anything else in your life, remember that you are created for a relationship with God. Never forget that your relationship with God matters most.
• God pursues us in the relationship. It is God who pursues us, not we who pursued him first. He reached out to us first by sending his son Jesus. God places people, events, and questions in our path so we begin to seek him, and everything that we are experiencing from God comes in response to his invitation.
• It's a relationship of genuine compassion. Love is the lens through which God always relates to us, and is at work in us. God settled the question of his love for us at the cross.
• The relationship is real and personal. God is not distant and unknowable. God reveals himself and intersects in our lives in a way that is real, and we can relate to and understand him.
Just as God pursues us he wants us to pursue him. He challenged us with, “if you seek me you will find me – IF, you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)
This Sunday we come seeking and listening for our God to draw close to us as we draw close to Him! Whether you come in person or online, may you find the joy of our Lord who does not give up on you!
Grateful to be on this adventure with you,
Pastor John
P.S. We have a book (Experiencing God) that you can pick up at the Worship Service the next few Sundays. You can also pick them up at the church office OR we can drop one off at your home!