Thoughts From Korey Cooper

If we could actually embrace the idea that the God of the universe can be known and found by us to increasing degrees of depth and intimacy, our lives would look so different.

There are two things that I have noticed that can hinder us from this experience of God. The first one is our hunger....One of my favorite Bible passages is Matthew 13:44-45:

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."

The cost here is everything - easily giving up everything so that we might know Christ. We have no more rights other than obedience. However, it is a joyful discovery - he is not doing anyone any favors here when he sells everything - it was "in his joy". The treasure far outweighed the cost. I think we don't understand the treasure and therefore our hunger is dulled. We don't understand all that is available to us and our souls are filled by much lesser things. We must pray for an eternal perspective and begin to let ourselves feel the desperate hunger of soul for God and His purposes. I have had several friends this week speak with me about how lonely and dissatisfied they are. All of them are solid Christians but all have a bit of what I'm going to call an identity crisis. They go to church every Sunday morning and attend midweek meetings. They have strong relationships with like minded Christian people. However, in each case they are dulling their hunger for God by filling it with worldly ways of thinking and desires. All of these can be justified. This may be true of you as well. You are sad and you are lonely even in the midst of people that love you because something deep within your soul is crying out for eternal things. The deep recesses of your heart are craving the fulfillment of the purposes for which you were created. Your growth is stunted because you refuse to obey the voice of God. You refuse to let go of the things that define you and make you feel safe. You refuse to let the insatiable desire for God in your soul to take over. You refuse to look like a broken fool who is willing to do whatever it takes to attain it, and there is an uncomfortable gulf between who you are and who are meant to be. Therefore you feel lonely and misunderstood because you are calloused and unchallenged and stifled. And yet, you are a "good" Christian who never does "bad stuff".

"Where faith is defective the result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things." (Tozer)

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Gal 2:20) This is the truth - His life is taking over on the inside, and if you continue to embrace old ways of thinking, you will feel torn and dissatisfied and lonely.

"A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God himself is here waiting our response to His Presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality." (Tozer)

Matthew 9:20-22 says, "And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, 'If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.' Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, 'Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.' And instantly the woman was made well."

To understand the fullness of this story, it helps to get the historical context. This woman, according to Jewish law, was considered unclean. Everyone she touched was also made unclean and therefore she would have lived in isolation for most of the twelve years. She was ostracized by the law and by people. She could have wallowed in her circumstance. She could have embraced the seeming reality of her situation. However, her desperate hunger drove her to something different. She believed a different reality to be true for her, and her faith recklessly grabbed a hold of this reality. She broke cultural and religious boundaries. Her faith reckoned it true that God would heal her - that her uncleanness wouldn't affect Him, but His kingdom would make her clean and whole. The reward was worth the risk. Don't wallow in your past mistakes or current woes. Don't try to make yourself clean before you come to God. The reality is you can't. He doesn't accept you based on what you've done. He's not waiting to judge you for reaching out to Him. He will respond to your desperate faith.

"Faith creates nothing; it simply reckons upon that which is already there." (Tozer)

The second ingredient is faith. "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." (Hebrews 11:6) I also spoke with some friends this week who were downcast. They are Christians but their lives speak of law not grace. They believe that their actions directly coorelate to Gods favor or judgement. If they have done well today, they expect their lives to be problem free. If they have messed up, they feel they deserve their lives to be full of problems and hardships. God doesn't promise us a problem free life. But within all the hardships is a faithful, merciful, omnipotent God who longs for us to live in the reality of His embrace. Whatever obstacles are holding you back from this must be let go with radical force.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 'No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39)

Our life is but a breath, and you don't want to be at the end of it looking back at wasted time and effort...success, power, money, popularity..all count for nothing in the end and you can't take any of it with you. Perspective helps because you pursue what you long for...you long for things that are attractive to you, and things that are attractive to you are determined by what is important to you. What is your "treasure"? "We must shift our interest from the seen to the unseen. For the great unseen Reality is God." (Tozer)

If you can remember how short your life is and how insignificant most natural things are, you will begin to hunger for eternal things. When you grasp the truth that you were created for purpose and that God can use you...that like the Hebrew passage states, angels, saints that have passed, all of heaven is looking upon us now to see if we will give ourselves unreservedely to the purposes of God...then all the "sacrifices" you make will seem so easy and trite. The salvation of your soul, the ability to know God in this life...becoming the aroma of Christ in this world - so that others might smell and taste the goodness of God through your life...if only this could become your obsession. Knowing Him here and now, being transformed daily so our lives look more like Him...so we love others the way He loves us...irresistable and powerful.

"A loving personality dominates the Bible...Always a living Person is present, speaking, pleading, loving, working, and manifesting Himself whenever and wherever His people have the receptivity necessary to receive the manifestation." (Tozer)

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2)