Good morning and welcome in everyone. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
When I was really young, we used to share our telephone line with others in the neighborhood. Back then it was called a party line, or a local loop telephone and it was done to save money. All of us had a special ring for incoming calls, and you would pick up the phone when you heard the right one. Nowadays, It’s been claimed that over 270 million people own a smartphone of some type, making and receiving over 13.5 billion phone calls each day. Each second there are 156,000 phone calls that are made across the entire globe. People want to keep in close communication with others, especially their own friends and relatives. They don’t miss the opportunity to spend personal time with them every day by picking up the phone, and giving them a call.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
It’s amazing how many people will quickly seek to spend time with others, but then completely forget to seek after God. They spend hours on the phone with them, but only spend ten seconds a day with God. What are the closest relationships that you possess? Of all the relationships that you could ever have, only one can provide you with eternal life, Jesus Christ. He has to be our greatest love above all others, keeping up regular communication with Him, and seeking Him from the heart.
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
First of all, to live the Christian Life requires maintaining a close relationship with God. This means that we need to seek Him regularly. Diligence is the constant effort to accomplish something, and is done in a persistent and persevering manner. God will reward those who actively seek Him this way.
2 Chronicles 31 ²⁰ And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah, and wrought that which was good and right and truth before the LORD his God.
²¹ And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.
“The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.” Psalms 34:10
To seek means to search in an attempt to find or acquire something. Many people seek after the things of this world, but the man of God seeks after the things that we need most of all, the knowledge of God’s will. It is through faith and a diligent heart, that we can be filled with wisdom from the teachings of scripture.
James 1 ⁵ If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. ⁷ For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
Colossians 1 ⁹ For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰ That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
In order to maintain any type of close relationship requires the dedication of your time. The Apostles were with the Lord Jesus practically every day, choosing Him above all others. He is the creator of everything that we see, yet many times people maintain closer relationships with people in this world, rather than God.
Luke 9 ⁵⁹ And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. ⁶⁰ Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
People will quickly pick up a phone to call a friend, but they refuse to do the same for God. Sadly many of them profess to be Christian. The relationship that matters more than any other, they completely forget about.
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Psalms 9:17
Hebrews 13 ¹⁵ By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. ¹⁶ But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
How many times have you kept calling somebody to try to get a hold of them? You exerted great diligence in the effort to contact them. In order to maintain a close relationship with God, we need to keep calling out to Him. Genuine love for Him will have a great desire to spend time with, and be near to Him.
“But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29
“Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.” 1 Chronicles 16:11
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1
For a lot of people, love for the Lord is put on the back burner. He becomes the last in the lives of many people who profess the faith. Rather than thinking about Him each morning, or singing songs on your bed, they lift up a 1-minute prayer before they go to sleep, trying to convince themselves that this is some type of relationship. If this was how people treated you, how would you feel? There’s no real close friendship there, it’s just religion. Many forms of false Christianity do the same thing today. They pray in public places rather than in secret. They really don’t love God, they love to be seen, just like the religious leaders of old. They possess the same attitudes and characteristics as they did, lacking a closeness and interpersonal private relationship with God. Jesus warned about this very thing.
Matthew 6 ⁵ And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. ⁶ But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Many people will spend a lot of time keeping up relationships in this world, but then completely forget about the one that matters the most. They will quickly forget about our precious Lord Jesus, who shed His own blood for our salvation. If people were brutally honest with themselves, a lot of them would have to admit that they really don’t spend time with God very much at all. They become too busy with worldly concerns to maintain any type of close relationship with Him.
Are you going to spend some time with God today? Is He going to be your greatest love? What will you do to keep up your relationship with Him? Keeping up our conversation with Him is far greater than anyone you will ever talk to, on…
…..The Party Line
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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