THE RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF GOD
Psalm 63:1 NLT
O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you!
Psalm 105:4 BERK
Seek the Lord and his strength; Seek His presence perpetually!
Hosea 6:3 NASB
So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord!
Philippians 3:8 CEV
Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ!
Do you remember when you first met the woman you would eventually marry? Do you remember the insatiable desire to be with them? Do you remember your relentless pursuit of their company, how you longed to be in their presence, your yearning to get to know them more and more? I remember vividly, as though it were yesterday. I would sleep by the phone waiting for her call. This was back in the last century when all we had were cumbersome corded phones! I remember like yesterday all the handwritten letters I wrote, though at the time I actually hated writing. But not when it came to writing letters to Kathy. I recall my many trips to Ames to see her, then, all the drives to Kansas, sleeping in my car overnight in a cemetery, just so I could spend a little more time with her before getting up in the wee hours of the morning to drive home to go to work!! Call me crazy, call me insane, call me full-on smitten. I call it relentless love!
Let me give you a Pastor’s perspective on people of faith. Most I have known over the course of my decades of ministry, did not earnestly, relentlessly, pursue the Lord. There were many nice Christians, many regular church attenders, many who were fairly consistent in reading their Bibles, but few, very few, who with the reckless abandon of the Apostle Paul, discarded all other pursuits, and with relentless determination, earnestly sought the Lord, day in and day out. Whose fervor and passion for God was palpable.
When Christ captured my heart in 1975, this was exactly what God impressed indelibly on my soul. God burned this into my spirit- Seek me, Mark! Know me, Mark! Press on with all you’ve got to know me, and never, ever stop. This was my first, my foremost holy calling, above all others. It has remained so to this very day. I determined that I would seek the Lord with the same relentless, passionate devotion that I had pursued my wife. How could I give God any less?
I soon discovered there is nothing in the world like knowing God! There is nothing more thrilling, nothing more satisfying, nothing more meaningful, nothing more enriching, than getting to know the Lord. To experientially know in greater, and greater ways the depths of who God is, what God is like, living in intimate friendship with God. It is this knowing of God that has kept me going all these years, carrying me through all the great adversities, hardships, and heartbreaks. Nothing compares to knowing God! Nothing!
Let me urge each and everyone of you, reorientate your entire Christian life around this first and foremost calling and purpose: Relentlessly press on to know the Lord!
These messages will stir your soul, helping you understand in deeper ways exactly what this means. Please take the time to hear them. Be sure when you listen to the Knowing God series, you start with part one.
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Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
