Matthew 7:7
7 “Keep on asking, and it will be given YOU; keep on seeking, and YOU will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to YOU. 8 For everyone asking receives, and everyone seeking finds, and to everyone knocking it will be opened."
Why is this scripture special to me?
When I first began studying God’s Word on my own, I had one objective- to discover truth and to acquire knowledge.
Up to this point- I had never actually sat down on my own to read God’s Word. From the time I was an infant until around 15 years of age I had always went to church, participated, studied, and read the bible- but it was always in pieces. Pieces that were explained to me.
A scripture here, A lesson there. Each piece and lesson made sense to me. But then again why would it not make sense to me?
After all- I wasn’t a foreign exchange student. I did not have any handicap or learning difficulties to overcome. In fact, one of my strongest areas in school was reading and writing comprehension.
So, at the age of 15- let me briefly summarize what I knew about the Bible:
I knew many scriptures from memory.
I could recite from memory all 66 books of the Bible in chronological order, and the authors of each book.
I knew various bible stories and accounts.
I knew many details about God, His son Jesus, and the apostles.
I not only knew many scriptures, but also the exact understanding and interpretation of each scripture; that had been explained to me.
This is NOT me bragging. Stay with me here.
So to summarize– I knew many details, facts, accounts, and pieces of the bible.. but none of it was MINE. None of it was personal. It was indirect and indifferent, like reading details off the information sign in front of a museum exhibit window. I could see the Cherokee Indian through the window pane, but I couldn’t hear him, touch him, nor talk to him. I could only read about Him. I remained restricted to standing behind the ‘protective’ glass in order to get to know him.
And what stood out more than anything else- was what I did NOT have– which was a real living relationship with Jesus Christ.
But wait, I am getting too far ahead of myself. Let’s go back to when I first began to read God’s Word on my own. At that point, I had yet to realize or begin to comprehend – that I did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
As far as I knew, I had one. And I had a mountain of knowledge, details, scriptures, bible accounts, that at any given moment I could recall and recite from memory to prove it. That was my SOLID evidence that I had a relationship with Christ, that I knew Him. In fact, that I knew Him better than most people.
Yet, nothing could be further from the Truth.
The Truth was after 15 years of going to church every Sunday and Wednesday, reading God’s Word regularly, participating in bible ministry school, and even going out to preach, even after all this-
I was still that same five year old little boy standing in front of the same exhibit at the exact same science museum. There I was with both hands up on the glass, peering through to get a better look at the Cherokee Indian, hoping and praying something had changed. After years of repeating the same ole routine, I didn’t even bother reading the exhibit sign anymore, I had it memorized including the number of feathers in each headdress. Instead of things improving, things got worse. On my last visit, almost everything that identified and decorated the Indians as Indians had been stripped away and replaced by generic gender neutral grey statues that looked more like aliens from outer space than Indians from Cherokee Nation.
All I had was a bunch of facts and details with no LIFE. I had read all about Cherokee Indians, but I had never actually met one.
That’s when I realized, if you want to meet a Cherokee Indian, you are going to have to go out and meet one for yourself. Take a drive out to Indian territory and get engaged. To hear them speak, to sit inside a real teepee, and participate in a real rain dance.
Which brings us back to Matthew 7:7:
Upon reading this scripture I knew it was going to be instrumental in helping me find and locate Christ. From that moment on, it became and has remained part of my GPS tracking system. Except I was not tracking a vehicle, I was searching for the Son Of Almighty God.
[End part A, stay tuned for part B.]
Below is an example of what our nation is doing to Christ at the present moment. The same thing we did to the Native American Indian. Stripping away the core things that make Him the Son of Almighty God, until we have stripped away so many core values that one can no longer remember what Christ stood for or looked like. So that the only option left- is to instill a new Christ of our liking. ~The New American Political Faith
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