Seeking Eternal

Seeking ETERNAL

while He may be found

Ken Graydon

The word ‘seek’ is an active word. The Concise Oxford dictionary offers several meanings such as, make search for, try or be anxious to find, aim at or pursue, endeavour to do, make for or resort to. Each of these definitions makes it clear that, to seek, is to take an action.

Deuteronomy 4:29-31 But if you search there for ETERNAL your CREATOR, you will find Him, if only you seek Him with all your heart and soul – when you are in distress because all these things have befallen you and, in the end, return to ETERNAL your CREATOR and obey Him. For ETERNAL your CREATOR is a compassionate CREATOR: He will not fail you nor will He let you perish; He will not forget the covenant He made on oath with your fathers.

We can see from these verses that the search for ETERNAL has to be whole hearted or it will not succeed. We have to be ‘doing it’ – actively seeking ETERNAL for ourselves. There is no instruction about waiting for some ‘religious salesperson’ to knock on your door, or reach out from your television screen, with a complete package of solutions. You have to seek ETERNAL your own self.

To make the seeking more precise, [He wants you to find Him!], ETERNAL, speaking through the prophet Amos gives some guidelines:

Amos 5:4-6 Thus said ETERNAL to the House of Israel: seek Me and you will live. Do not seek Bethel, nor go to Gilgal, nor cross over to Beer-sheba; for Gilgal shall go into exile and Bethel become a delusion. Seek ETERNAL and you will live, else He will rush like fire upon the House of Joseph and consume Bethel with none to quench it.

ETERNAL is telling us that we do not have to go to a particular place to find Him, even if other people have experienced Him there. There is a danger of idolatry in thinking we can only find and worship ETERNAL in a special place. You may seek, and find, ETERNAL where you are now.

When you find Him, you will find that, the where you are now, is so much better because ETERNAL is there with you.

Another part of, seeking ETERNAL while He may be found, is to seek only Him. There is not a gang of g-ds, not two or three, only one.

Isaiah 45:18-22 For thus said ETERNAL, the CREATOR of heaven who alone is God. Who formed the earth and made it, who alone established it – He did not make it a waste, but formed it for habitation: I am ETERNAL and there is none else. I did not speak in secret, at a site in a land of darkness; I did not say to the stock of Jacob, “Seek Me out in the wasteland” – I the ETERNAL, who foretell reliably, who announce what is true.

Come, gather together, draw nigh, you remnants of the nations! No foreknowledge had they who carry their wooden images and pray to a g-d who cannot give success. Speak up, compare testimony – let them even take counsel together!

Who announced this aforetime, foretold it of old? Was it not I, ETERNAL? There is no god beside Me, no god exists beside Me who foretells truly and grants success. Turn to Me and gain success, all the ends of the earth! For I am God and there is none else.

This is the emphatic truth. ETERNAL is the only One. If you have believed in a group of g-ds or a son of g-d, then you have been mislead. The wooden [or metal] crosses and images, with or without bodies on them are delusions that keep you from truly seeking ETERNAL and receiving the blessings that finding Him brings into your circumstances, now and in the Wonderful World to Come.

Once again ETERNAL shows us we can seek Him, where we are now. “I did not say seek Me out in the wasteland” you do not have to go to another place to find ETERNAL.

Hosea 10:12 “Sow righteousness for yourselves: reap the fruit of goodness; break for yourselves betimes fresh ground of seeking ETERNAL so that you may obtain a teacher of righteousness”

This prophecy, written by Hosea, tells us, try something new. Really seek ETERNAL, both in the way you live [sow righteousness, live the life you should be living] and the way you study and pray. When you are doing this ETERNAL will provide the teaching – He wants you to find Him. Sometimes the teaching will be through a person, or you will find an answer to a question in your scripture study, ETERNAL will find many ways to provide teaching for you. It is up to you to be open to His leading.

When you have sought ETERNAL and found Him you will find the absolute truth of these verses in Isaiah:

Isaiah 32:17-18 For the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness, calm and confidence forever. Then My people shall dwell in peaceful homes, in secure dwellings, in untroubled places of rest.

If you want that life of calmness, confidence and security right now, seek ETERNAL while He can be found.

kennygee@bigpond.com