We cannot understand life until we have faces and we will not have faces until we have grappled with God’s truth…

We are created social beings. From the very beginning of creation God said that it was not good for man to be alone. It is this created desire for personal connection that leads us to the greatest relationship that man can attain and that is relationship with the Living God. It was Pascal that best described the intense yearning that can only be filled with God…

What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.

Augustine further describes this in his work Augustine Confessions where he writes…

“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are rest-less till they find their rest in you.”

The problem with man is that man in his fallen state is at war with or ignorant of God’s presence. In this state of spiritual deadness man looks to other voices in search of discovering who he was created to be instead of looking to the one who created Him – God. The search for identity or as C.S. Lewis puts it the search for our reflection or “face” drives every human being at a deep level. So… we look to our parents to tell us who we are, we look to friends, we look to those whom we love, we look to society, drugs, relationships, sex or we look to…. you fill in the blank. Unfortunately, when we seek to see our reflection in these darkened, broken and sometimes destructive sources we are always left wanting because there is only one person who can ultimately tell us who we are and what we were created to be and that is God Himself.

That is why the born again life is the crux of Christianity. It’s not enough to study the Bible, it’s not enough to attend church, it’s not enough to be culturally or socially a “Christian” type person. Jesus says you must be Born Again – because it has to do with the fundamental identity of the deepest part of man – you must be family and to be family you must be Born into that family.

Born Again is not a politically correct phrase. It’s not a seeker friendly phrase. It’s not a all embracing phrase. It’s not an emergeant phrase. But, it is a Jesus phrase. I heard a pastor recently who said that the reason that Christians believe the Bible is because they don’t know what it says. It’s true. If you want to find out who you really are… if you want to find out who you were created to be… then you must be Born Again. It’s the first step in every healing process. Without joining yourself to the Creator… the one who made you… you will never know what it means to be fully human and fully alive. Sorry if it shocks or bums you out, but it’s the truth. You must be Born Again.

Having said that… most Christians never step into the abundant life that God has for them. They never fully explore the height, width, depth and breadth of God’s love for them and that is really sad and the subject matter for future posts.

How Is Your Worship Life?