Why You Shouldn't Look for God.

Mike Hosey, An Elder

In the English language we often consider the verbs “to seek” and “to look for” to be synonyms.  That is to say that we consider them to be interchangeable, and we generally use them in that way.  But they are not technically interchangeable.  In the strict sense, to look for something is to search for something using only our visual senses.  On the other hand, to seek out something means to search for something with every sense we have.  While not entirely passive, “to look for something” is not near as active as “to seek out something.”  To seek means an energetic, pedal-to-the-metal effort to search a thing out. Consider how we seek treasure, while we just look for the remote control in the couch cushions – where we think it might be.

But ask treasure hunters about their quest to find a lost treasure they believe exists.  They will tell you that they use their minds, their ears, history, maps, computers, and just about any resource they can employ to locate that treasure.  They leave no stone unturned. In fact, their lives will go on hold to seek out that treasure.  Some have been known to drain their life’s savings in order to seek it out. Those that are most diligent, are most often those that find it. And even when they don’t, the skills, knowledge, and experience they earn in the search is incalculable.

God wants us to seek him, not just look for him.  Hebrews 11:6 tells us he rewards those who seek him.  In Deuteronomy 4:29 he instructs the Hebrews that if they stray from him and suffer the consequences of trying to live a life without him, that they can find him again if they seek him with all their heart.  In Proverbs 8:17 we are told that those who diligently seek him will find him.

Notice that Proverbs 8:17 is a promise.  We are promised that if we diligently seek him, we will find him.  If someone of credible authority came to you and told you that they knew a treasure was out in the desert and that if you diligently sought it, you would find it, you probably would waste no time birthing a search party.  You would find a posse that will listen to you, and you’d be on your way. But the difference between an earthly search for treasure, and the spiritual search for God, is that God has promised you that if you seek you will find (Matthew 7:7-8).  And there can be no greater treasure than the one God has guaranteed you will find – and the value of the quest itself is incalculable.

Children are Heritage from the Lord

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Psalm 127:3 tells us that children are a heritage from God. That is to say that they are a special kind of gift. They are special in many, many ways. They are special because we love to hold them, to teach them, and to share in their delight as they experience new things. They are special because they love us, look up to us, and when they are little, value us with a beautiful and innocent kind of awe. But they have a specialness that is far greater than any of those things. They are a heritage in the same way that your family history is.

We call our family history a heritage because it is a cultural gift that was created by those members of our family who came before us. It is expected that we will add to that heritage, own it, preserve it, make it better, and pass it on to the next generation. Children are a heritage in the very same way. It is God's way of preserving our history, and giving us an opportunity to pay cultural dividends forward. That means that our gift is also a great responsibility.

Here at Fellowship Church, we take that responsibility seriously. As a church we want to help our families preserve and develop that heritage. We also want to help those families in our communities who don't belong to Fellowship Church do the same thing. We know that by running a VBS program like we just finished, that we are impacting the larger High Springs and Alachua communities. We know that we will be reinforcing important values for those children who already have Christ in their homes. We also know that those children who may not have Christ in their homes will be exposed to the most important gift they could ever have. And maybe most significantly, we know that in that group of children who came, there might be someone who will be come a pastor, teacher, missionary or future church leader, and they will both sharpen and expand the heritage. Hopefully, everyone will be equipped to share what they've learned.

All of this means that the Kingdom of God will be advanced because people in Fellowship Church have given of their time and their talents. Thank you to every single person involved in the effort.

One Thing it Takes to Be a Successful Follower Of Christ

Mike Hosey, An Elder

If you’ve ever watched a skateboarder on a half-pipe, you’ve watched an amazing thing. The half-pipe is that giant ramp they negotiate that looks like a big “U.”  They roll down a vertical wall on one side that gently curves into a flat area, and then after the flat, they roll through another gentle curve and up a vertical wall on the other side. Often, when they reach the top of that vertical wall on the other side, they launch into the air, execute a full turn around, land on the vertical wall, and then roll back up to their starting point.

I used to skateboard a little as a teenager. In those days I was a bit braver (read stupider – if that’s a word) than I am now, and was willing to try a few crazy things.  But I never had access to a half-pipe. So one day as a full grown adult man, I went with my then teenage son, Caleb, to a park with a half-pipe.  There was a boy there skateboarding on that thing like a pro.  I thought I’d get a few pointers from him and give it a try. The first thing he taught me was that I had to lean into the initial fall on that first vertical wall. This was a totally counter-intuitive skill.  Every cell in my body screamed that I had to lean back as I went down the wall. I never mastered it. And although I didn’t hurt myself, as a man in my forties, I was flirting with disaster.

By Ingo Steinke (Fraktalisman) - Ingo Steinke, CC BY-SA 2.0 de

The point of the story is that some tasks in life require us to go against our normal programming in order to succeed at those tasks.

Many places in the Bible command us to go against the programming of our body, and follow the programming that God’s spirit imparts to us.  Consider Romans 12:14-21, where Paul tells us to bless those who curse us, to feed our enemies if they are hungry, and to give them drink if they are thirsty.  This goes against our programming.  For some people, this is like leaning into that first fall on the half-pipe.  Every cell in your body will scream against it.  But if you want to be successful as a follower of Christ, you must force your body into submission (1 Corinthians 9:27) and throw yourself into the task.  Unlike the skateboarder, though, you have some powerful help. You have the power to do anything that God asks of you, because he is there to strengthen you (Philippians 4:13).

Depending On The World Comes At a Cost. . . .

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Nothing alive on Earth lives in total independence. Nothing. Ultimately, every living thing is dependent on the sun. Even the organisms in extreme environments that receive their energy from thermal vents at the bottom of some dark sunless ocean are still dependent on the sun. If that big ball of fire in the sky blinks out tomorrow, then everything freezes, those thermal vents shut up, and anything that might produce energy will eventually cool and die. And with that death will come the death of all other life as we know it. It doesn’t take long for humans to recognize that dependence is a natural state of the world. Infants understand quickly that they depend on their parents for both provision and protection. Even after we reach adulthood, we understand fully that we will be depending on others for some level of provision and protection. And the world offers us many things that we can depend on. For instance, most of us depend on a job for money. We depend on grocery stores for our food, and oil companies for our energy, and Silicon Valley for the devices that manage our information. But if our dependence stops with those things, then we will find ourselves in quite a bit of trouble if those things cease to function, or if they become a tainted source, rather than a pure source. The heroes of the bible understood this well. Consider how the psalmist argues that he is able to walk in freedom because he has sought out God’s precepts (Psalm 119:45 NIV). He understood that his freedom was independent of things in this world. Instead, he reasoned, that his freedom was dependent on knowing and actively pursuing knowledge of God’s precepts or principles.


Consider how Abram (who later became Abraham) saw that depending on worldly sources for wealth could poison him. In Genesis 14:1-24, King Kedorlaomer raids the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, plundering them, stealing the food, supplies and wealth of the cities, and capturing Abram’s nephew, Lot, as well as taking many of the Sodomite and Gomorrahn inhabitants. Abram sets out to rescue his nephew, and God delivers Abram’s enemies into his hands, and he is able to recover all the people and plunder. When he returns, the king of Sodom offers to allow Abram to keep all the wealth, if he will simply return the people of Sodom. Abram refuses, citing that the king of Sodom would then be able to claim himself, rather than God, as Abram’s source of wealth (Genesis 14:21-23). Dependence on the world always comes at a cost. Abram knew it was better to be tied to a good God than an evil king.