| Dearest one, Our Creator designed us to want and need Him and to be able to experience a close relationship with Him. He never intended for us to settle down for less than wonders and pleasures. The very reason we exist is to be loved by God and to enjoy Him. When Jesus began His public ministry, the first miracle He worked was at a wedding where He demonstrated God's heart. Here's the great Thirst- Quencher making an extravagant amount of wine out of gallons water for people to drink. This act, in a symbolic way, described His mission. What was He showing mankind through it? Jesus had come to quench the thirst of people's hearts. Warming hearts and lifting them to experience joy, this was a miracle of transformation—and extravagance. He transforms ordinary water, ordinary life, into extraordinary, abundant, passionate life. We can’t imagine the sheer goodness of God until we’ve experienced a miraculous transformation in our hearts. Just as surely as Jesus changed the water into wine, He changes a person’s life. In Jesus, our thirsty hearts find living water. No longer are we lost in the barren, thirsty lands. We are invited to come and partake deeply of His love and presence—of His very life. Many years ago, when I was on a private retreat, I was listening to tapes on experiencing a close relationship with God. The teacher had this prayer exercise: “Ask the Lord what He likes about you.” I wrote the question in my prayer journal and waited for an answer. God’s words immediately bubbled up within me: “I love how you think of Me as a person.” This amazed and delighted me. Yet how often have we heard the words that God wants to have a personal relationship with us? Of course He’s a person. Imagine, this is what He yearns for, to be known by each of us. Once we know Him, we know we are His beloved. The closer we come in our relationship, the more we realize His individual favor towards us. We will discover our uniqueness and how special we are to God. This understanding becomes our truest identity. There is no one else like you and no one can love God the way you can, in the expression and manner that you might choose to love Him. This loving is actually an art, and it is very individual. This goes both ways. God, the GREAT ARTIST, loves no one else the way He loves you. He is continually watching you, doting on you, causing things in your life to help you become you. The person He is creating you to be is a life-long process. He’s very involved with your “coming of age” and will be until you come home to heaven. While we grow in God, our eyes must have the object of our deepest desires. And that object is Jesus. We were created for communion and union with our Beloved. Jesus came in human form, not only to redeem us, but to make God touchable. He came to show us God’s face and heart. I discovered that my insatiable desire to know and please God was fueled by the story of Jesus’ life. For years, I immersed myself in the Gospels and the human life of Jesus; there I plunged into the depths of God’s love. Through the life of Jesus, we discover the distance God has traveled, the extremes He has gone to, to reveal Himself to us. Even from the very beginning of God's story, at Creation, we can see His mysterious nature and desire for us. It was a deep yearning to express His love – to share His heart with someone(s)– that drove Him to create us and our world. We were made for the sole purpose of love. He created us to love us, to be the object of His affection. After God created Adam and Eve, He walked with them in the Garden of Eden. He enjoyed their company and they enjoyed His. Everything was given to the man and woman, and they were happy. They enjoyed a stress- free life filled with beauty and goodness—and, best of all, God’s presence. God had placed two trees in the garden. One was the Tree of Life, the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God forbade them to eat from saying that if they did, they would surely die. The forbidden tree was put there as a testimony of love when Adam and Eve chose to obey. This was freedom, to obey and love, or not to. Every time they walked past the tree, their choice was to trust and to love. This obedience delighted God’s heart—until they chose to disobey. Then knowledge beyond purity (holiness) rushed in. The reality of life apart from God became theirs and they found themselves cut off from the Tree of Life, cut off from God, and in a dry and barren land. When our Hero arrived on the scene, it was to usher in the river of God’s life and reopen the way to the Tree of Life. Jesus reveals the heart of God. It was a very long time that the earth thought God was untouchable and unreachable. The Jewish people knew Him primarily as HOLY, far too superior to even be able to speak His name. The Laws and rituals didn't work. All this did was further separate us from Him. Many believed God to be without feelings. Others thought He was detached from the happenings of earth. It wasn’t until Jesus came and taught His apostles what God was really like, that things began to change. Jesus’ life brought the truth to us about God. We are now able to know a God who expresses affectionate longing and tender mercy towards us. The apostles took the message of Jesus’ life and witnessed to the far corners of their world that God had great love for all people and that He had come in person. They taught that Jesus deliberately underwent every human experience, including pain and weakness and death on a cross in order to redeem His beloved, His bride. This was such a radical new view of God that it was difficult for the Jews to accept. It violated every known image of God they had at that time. But this is the message of the Holy Spirit: God is the Great Lover of the Universe. He desires those He created and redeemed in such a passionate way, it is difficult to believe. But the Lord loves us this much: He says to us, You have ravished My heart, My sister,My spouse” Song of Solomon 4:9. Ravish means to overcome with emotions of joy or delight. We have the capacity to do this to Jesus? Yes, and it is important to Him that we know that He is in love with us. Look at what He’s gone through to convince us. Yes, look. Seek, behold, ponder. We hope and pray our books will help you in that quest. |
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| The Heart of the Matter |
| We can’t imagine the sheer goodness of God until we’ve experienced a miraculous transformation in our hearts. |