Musings of a Prodigal Son - Thoughts on the Search for Significance

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." (Ecclesiastes 1:2)


For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know, even as also I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)




I am writing today from a position of unbalance. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the pace of life and it's meaning. We are told to work hard and to invest in those that we love and that a reward will be gained as a result. Many people work to give good things to their children only to have that wealth squandered by a wayward child or grandchild. Many build up good reputations over a lifetime only to be forgotten within one generation. Many pay studious attention to their credit rating, acceptance by others, hiding their faults only to find out in the end that they did not truly live. The very foundations on which we often place our anchors, gives way and we find ourselves adrift once again.


I had a friend tell me many years ago that if he knew that he could just die and there be nothing after, he would not want to go through the struggle. He stated that a fear of what is on the other side keeps him in the struggle. As I am reflecting on this a question comes to mind. Does God want us to live in fear of what is on the other side? Should fear be our motivator for living well in the hopes that one day our lives will be weighed in some great cosmic scale and found worthy to enter peace?


Many would say that what comes after is a "re-entry" into this world to live out all of the lessons that we somehow missed in the last entry. Many would say that this cycle repeats itself. But repeats itself to what? Even if one holds to that view, once all the lessons have been "learned", what comes next?


We often look at each other and say, "Oh it's God will." We often say this carelessly about someone else who may be struggling or who has had their life turned upside down. When we are at a loss to make sense of something in this present world, we just flippantly say, "Oh, it must be God's will."


If it must be God's Will, are we living in a scripted world? Has everything been predetermined based on choices that God knew in advance we were going to make? If so, why the struggle?


I know that reading these thoughts may be unsettling but these are things that are thought by many, believed by many, but seldom spoken. Occasionally, when a person is frustrated enough, some of these things "seep" out in one way or another.


We often approach the Word of God from a standpoint of "logic." To borrow from philosophy and even mathematics, we approach understanding from an "if--then" perspective. We expect to come up with some orderly system. But.....life is NOT orderly. It is not fair. It is not logical.


Herein lies the difficulty. Life is pictured by God in the Bible in very simplistic terms. There are two ways to approach life. 1) By Faith 2)By Sight (our senses, logic, natural laws) . If we live life by faith which is believing what is unseen and what God has explicitly said or implicitly implied, we can rest in the assurance that He is in control and we don't have to see the end to trust that our benevolent creator will bring things to a joyous conclusion. Or if we live by "sight" (our senses, logic, natural laws) we go about feeling lost, uncertain, unable to cope, unable to reconcile the many irreconcilable "realities" of this world.


It is at times like these that we each have to clarify how we will live.


Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Musings of a Prodigal Son - A Kingdom of Priests

But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (1 Peter 2:9)

...and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father-to Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:6)
...With his own blood [the blood of Jesus Christ]--not the blood of goats and calves--he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever (Hebrews 9:12)
In the Old Testament, the High Priest could only go into the presence of God one time per year and only then after an extensive ritual cleansing. If he did not follow the cleansing ritual, he was not pure and could not be in the presence of God without experiencing death. If you remember, when the Ark of the Covenant, where the presence of God dwelt, was being transported from one place to another, some of the priests stumbled and a man (Uzzah) stepped up to keep the Ark from falling. Since he was not qualified to touch the Ark where the presence of God dwelt, he fell dead. Later, 70 men died because they looked inside the Ark. The holiness of God separates Him from humanity. This separation was the end result of Sin entering the world in the Garden of Eden. That separation has been the subject of creation since the beginning. The quest of life is to bridge that separation so that humanity (us) can be in the presence of God again. The Old Testament is a story of God's desire to have fellowship (allow man into his presence again).

Enter Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He entered the Holy Place once for all and made an eternal sacrifice for all of humanity. To secure that sacrifice for ourselves, we must put our faith in Him as our Lord and Savior. As evidence that Jesus' sacrifice was sufficient to bridge the gap between the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man, when Jesus died, the curtain in the temple (again where the presence of God dwelt), was torn from top to bottom, signifying that it now was unnecessary to separate the holiness of God from sinful man. A NEW way had been established. In fact, the Bible refers to those who put their faith in Jesus as a "Kingdom of Priests." Not just any priest, but a cleansed priest able to enter the Holy presence of God because of the cleansing of the cross.

Praise God for making us a Kingdom of Priests. As priests we can bring the needs of the people to God and ask for His intervention and forgiveness. We can fellowship with Him, embrace Him, and come into His Presence.

Help Us Lord to Operate in Our Place as Priests in this present world.