Pursuing and Knowing God - the key to your future.

Pursuing and Knowing God - the key to your future ~ that was the theme for the Focus Camp I went on a couple of weekends ago. I said I was going to post more about it, and finally I'm getting around to it.

Focus Camp - good name for it, because from the studies, speaking from Graham Sercombe and just sharing with the other young adults on the camp, I have been able to re-focused my thoughts, prayer times and goals.

Hebrews 12:1-2 "...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith..."

God's plan from the very beginning was focused on creating intimacy with his creation. Genesis points to this when God says 'Let us make man in our image" and when it talks about God walking in the cool of the evening with Adam.

However the plan got messed up [sidenote: a lot of people will say God's plan can't be messed up, well in a way I think it can - because God allowed it, He realised that in creating something with free will he needed to create something that could mess up his plan, but if it chose to walk in his plan how much better was that than a being he'd created to blindly follow his plan. So God made a huge sacrifice for love, he created something that could hurt him, and mess up his plans ~end sidenote!] - yeah anyway, it got messed up when Man sinned... 'the fall'. Suddenly instead of intimacy there was self consciousness, shame, covering up, hiding, blame, pain and ultimately sin.

The gospel then fits in with God opening a gateway for us to be intimate with him once more. God's plans still showed a deep desire to be intimate with mankind all through the Old Testament, but Jesus is the final and best way God can provide a way for us to be intimate with him again.

That was the general intro into Focus Camp, the rest of the camp we looked at how to pursue God and grab onto that intimacy he wants to have with us. A way to move from our independency to a dependency on him!

I think I took a lot more from my own personal times with God than I did from group or teaching sessions. The camp simply gave me a chance to focus solely on God, and see what he has been saying to me for quite a while. Instead of just running through my quiet times like I'd gotten into the habit of doing, I really did pursue God, I sought after him, and I did find him! Sitting on the cliff ledge reading and praying, suddenly God was speaking to me again - it's like he'd been waiting for me just to actively seek him (pursue him) and as soon as I did he started revealing more about himself again.

Hebrews 11:6 "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Earnestly seek him - see I think I'd had the faith to please God, but I'm not so sure about the seeking him earnestly bit. I'm praying God will help me want more and more of him so my passion for pursuing him does not simmer down, and through being earnest in my knowing God I will come to a new found intimacy with the Creator of all things!!!