Finding Meaning & Purpose: Living by the Word of God

“Finding Meaning and Purpose:

Living by the Word of God”

June 27, 2020

Larry R Evans

Introduction

In 1996 the staff at Bridger Wilderness Park in Wyoming posted some of the suggestions that had been returned to them by park visitors.  Here are just a few:

1.    Trails need to be reconstructed.  Please avoid building trails that go uphill.

2.    Too many bugs and leeches and spiders and spider webs. Please spray the wilderness to rid the area of these pests. 

3.    Chairlifts need to be in some places so that we can get to wonderful views without having to hike to them.

4.    The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please eradicate these annoying animals.

5.    A small deer came into my camp and stole my jar of pickles.  Is there a way I can get reimbursed?

(Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe, p. 247.)

Sometimes we forget where we are.  With all that is going on it is easy to forget why we are where we are.  When we enter a wilderness area, for example, we can expect things to be difficult at times, but the rewards make the climb, the annoyances, the strenuous efforts but it is still worth making the trip.

We are reminded of our journey in Revelation 12. The church is described as going into a wilderness.  This is no vacation. It is all about survival as we press toward the summit. Our very lives are being threatened along the way.

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.  . . . 

The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. . . .

The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (verses 1-3,6, 9)

The first line in this week’s study guide reads like this, “The best method of studying the Bible is of no use if we are not determined to live by what we learn from Scripture.”

We need to remember where we are and why we are here. To accept the world around us as “our” new normalis a death sentence. Again, we need to be alert.  We are in a wilderness area today and there are “dragons” in search of us.  Nevertheless, we can be assured God will take care of us. We are not alone.  Those before us discovered that we can go forward with confidence, if we 

“throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:1,2)

So why are we here?  What purpose could there have been for us being created? How were we intended to find fulfillment?

Understanding the Image in Which We Have Been Created,

God’s Design for Life

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Gen. 1:26)

God models our fulfilment by His own actions:

 It is remarkable that the Bible begins by showing God at work. 

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning . . .

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. (Gen. 1:31-2:1)

If we learn anything about God’s work, we learn that work was not something that came as a result of sin.  Sin may have made work more difficult (Gen. 3:17-19) but the work was not the curse. If in fact, we are created in the image of God then work was designed to be part of our fulfilment.

In Genesis 2 we learn that creating (giving birth) was not the only form of fulfilment.  We discover that God not only formed man (2:7), planted a garden and watered it for him.   He asked  man to partner with Him by asking him to “subdue it” (1:28).  The caring nature behind God’s work was clearly demonstrated when He fashioned a wife for him (Gen. 2:21-22).  This kind of partnership is seen throughout the Bible where God’s own fulfilment is linked with ours.  In Psalm 127:1 we find God working through us: 

“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builder labor in vain.”

I realize that often when we think about developing a close relationship with God, we think of Bible study, prayer and witnessing. In no way do I want to minimize this!  Yet, the very first book of the Bible gives us another important insight to our own relationship with God.

Work is one of the ways we make ourselves useful to others. Praying and reading while cloistered in our closets is not the whole picture.  Being in a relationship with God includes our everyday work.  Ministry is not a mere human activity that we do because it is our duty!  “Ministry” is something that takes us to the very heart of God. Ministry is of God and not merely for God.

I hope you are beginning to see why I added “Finding Meaning and Purpose” to the official title of this week’s lesson which is, “Living by the Word of God.”

When I speak of “ministry” I am not speaking of pastoral ministry alone.  I am speaking of those times when we have our God-given abilities linked in partnership with God.  Together, He, you, and I serve the world He created, and in which we live.  Ministry is not a fulfillment of an obligation even if it is called “the Great Commission.”  Ministry is God’s own fulfilment which is continuing His ministry through the Holy Spirit in our lives and we in our ministry to all of His creation.

The Church longs not only for souls saved.  It longs and waits for the renewal of God’s original plan. This will ultimately be realized where the headship of Jesus is fully realized.  Even now the Church should call forth the untapped “possibilities” inherent in all of God’s creation.  This is the foundation of the ministry that I have been asked to direct for the global Church.  Perhaps you can see why we have changed the name from disability ministries to Adventist Possibility Ministries.  It is all about finding our fulfilment in God’s fulfilment: Seeing others find their fulfilment in God’s own fulfilment.  Such a vision will be ultimately realized at the Second Coming which will be, but the “re-beginning” of God’s plan which has been put on hold because of sin.  It really is exciting!  

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Cor. 13:12)

Living by the Word of God

Martin Luther described worship as the one leper returning. This continual “returning”, I believe, suggests that the revelation of God continues and as it does, we fall at His feet in utter astonishment at what He has in mind for each one of us. The “possibilities” are beyond our imagination.  Even now our fulfilment is but a taste of what is to come. It is out of this partial grasp, this taste of Divine promise, that we are drawn to God’s “living” Word. We only rise and go when we keep looking to Jesus.  It here, in His presence, that we begin to sense the fulfilment for which we have been created.

Throughout Scripture, men and women have prayed for the presence of God.  When God had given Moses a huge assignment, Moses asked who was going to help him.  Moses reminded God that He had told him “I know you by name” but that wasn’t enough. Then God explained how to him how Moses could find fulfillment. 

The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Ex. 33:14-16)

As I hear Moses’ plea and God’s response, we learn a lot about fulfillment regardless of what we do in life, what others think of us, or even what we may think of ourselves.  God’s own fulfillment is in us.  He will not abandon us.

Isn’t this what Paul was saying when he counseled,

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philip 2:12-13)

Jesus the Word and with the Word

The Gospel of John reminds us, 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning (John 1:1)

Isn’t it amazing that Jesus, who was the “Word” realized the necessity to study and commit to memory the “Word” or Scripture. Whether it be during temptation (“For it is written” Matt. 4:6), during discouraging situations (“How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled” Matt 26:54) or when facing an agonizing death (“My God, y God, why have You forsake Me?” Matt. 27:46,  see also Ps. 22:7), Jesus lived Scripture and it lived in Him.

In Conclusion: The Promise of a Different Home

In his book, Connecting, Larry Crabb tells about a friend who grew up in an angry family.  The whole family, it seemed, took their cue from the father.  They were always sniping, griping arguing with one another. A minor accident at the table was met by a withering blast of mockery, or scolding. Down the street from where he lived was a big old house with a huge front porch.  In that house lived a happy family.

 Here in this old house there was laughter, singing, lively friendly banter.  When Crabb’s friend was about ten, he developed the practice of excusing himself from the dinner table as soon as he could without being yelled at.  He would run down the street to that old house and hide under that large porch.  He just wanted to listen to the happy, laughing, loving talk of the family.  

And then Crabb suggested, “Imagine one day the father of the family discovers that you’re sitting under his porch.  He sends His son to invite you in, to come in and sit at the table with them.  You smile from ear to ear, that is until . . . you accidently spill your water.  To your happy surprise the father bursts forth with laughter, “Bring him more water, the father says!  “Bring him a dry shirt too!  We want him to enjoy this meal.”

You see, sin has taken away much of the joy that God intended you to have.  Living the Word of God means we get to know the Father. We sit with Him at His table in a way we had only dreamed about.  Today, we are living in a wilderness, but this is but a temporary home.  Perhaps one of the best descriptions of the Second Coming is found in Luke 15,

So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)

Wow! What a reception that will be!  The insults, the threats, the hardships caused by a determined faith are behind us.  What a home! What a future.  Meaning and purpose are once again fully restored. Living with our Creator and Redeemer--laughter, joy—fulfillment like it was supposed to have been. They are waiting.  The table has been set. It will all soon be ours and in real time. Our Father is ready. . . .