Blog

Observation

God is so present, yet hidden. Creation screams of His presence and invitation to us, His presence in form of Spirit invites each person’s heart to searching and discovery, His church sits on every corner of our world, His written word is available to all, yet His beauty is hidden unless you have eyes to discover. God is present enough to be discovered if I look just a little, if I knock on the door to see if He is real, present, the door to His treasure, himself, will be opened. But God is hidden enough to ensure that I am not left without a choice. No searcher who genuinely wants to discover will not find Him. But the choice to search is given to every individual. Without hiddenness, I would be without choice, but without assurance of discovery, some would be without hope.
Now the challenge is that discovery invites me to wholesale, sacrificial, rebirth change. When you find the treasure you may well sell everything to buy its fullness. So it’s extremely expensive but completely free. God gives himself, and exposes himself, to all who seek to find him as treasure, but the discovery may well trigger a complete willingness to ‘sell’ all the stories of identity, life, happiness, and future that my ego-self has constructed and be transformed into my true self, my made in the image of God-self, that I discover when I discover him. In discovering the treasure that is Him, I also discover the treasure that is me. This change is not a requirement of the discovery, this happens as I seek. The change, this selling of all that was me, is my response to the beauty of the treasure discovered.
People get concerned that God is a taskmaster and demands me to be ‘good’ in order to be accepted by Him. Goodness, or badness, is never part of the discovery process, it is never part of the discovery of God’s love, acceptance and beauty. You discover by seeking not by changing and earning. Change is all in the choice of the discoverer as a response to the beauty of the discovery. It’s not the taskmaster God who manipulates the sale of my false ego-created self, it’s the beauty of the discovery and my choice to own its beauty personally that leads to the sale of my former life. The more beauty of him I discover, the more beauty of the invitation to be transformed into his likeness, and the more willingly I run to the selling of the old self that I may discover my true self. The sale of me is pursued passionately motivated by beauty, not pursued begrudgingly motivated by manipulation, reward and punishment.

Application

I will stay the course of discovery. I will continue to search out, to create rhythms that position me, in your presence to discover your beauty. From here my heart will sell my old life willingly to obtain that which I have discovered. I will never allow my transformed self to be a response to manipulation of any kind. It will always be a response to His beauty and value.

Response

Thank you that you come to me and you transform me in complete freedom. Thank you that beauty and magnificence are the only true source of your transformative impact upon me. Thank you that you make discovery easy, and available to all and that transformation is a response not a requirement for discovery. I love this life of the Kingdom you give me freely. I am a blessed man.

Meditation

How much have you discovered, and have a rhythm of searching, the beauty, treasure, that is God?
How much does transformation for you, of you, flow from your discovery of beauty as opposed to manipulation of must?