A Word With You - Seeking But Not Finding - #10371

This grandparent thing can be an expensive proposition. I mean, without grandchildren, you can walk past hundreds of cute toys and never miss a step. But when you have a grandchild, you keep seeing your grandchild's name on those toys. Which means you must buy the toy with their name on it. Right? Well, not all of them, but probably too many of them. We happened to be in a store with our little granddaughter when she was about one year old, and I happened to see this great stick horse that I thought would be entertaining for another grandchild. That would be our nearly three-year-old grandson at the time. When you squeeze the ear of the head of this horse, the William Tell Overture (otherwise known to us non-intellectuals as the "Lone Ranger Theme”) starts playing, and the horse starts whinnying and snorting, and its nose starts twitching back and forth inside its halter. Well, I walked up to the grocery cart that our one-year-old granddaughter was riding in, and I turned it on for her to see. Her reaction was interesting. She reached in the direction of that twitching steed, wanting me to bring it closer. So I did. But as I brought it near her, she pulled as far back as she could, laying her head against her mother's shoulder. So much for my field test.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Seeking But Not Finding."

Our little granddaughter wanted to check out what I had, but she didn't want it to get too close. Curious, but keeping her distance. Just like a lot of us spiritual seekers do with Jesus.

Oh, you may consider yourself a spiritual seeker - which, by the way, is a wise thing to be. You've seen that our soul can never be satisfied by just earth-stuff. You know it must be something spiritual that will give life real meaning, right, and give your heart real peace. There are many possibilities to sample on the spiritual buffet we have today, but one possibility that's hard to overlook is Jesus Christ. He's so compelling, so dominating, virtually every world religion has an honored place for Him.

You're willing to check out Jesus. You may have even been around Jesus much of your life. Maybe you know a lot about Jesus. You like Jesus. You agree with Jesus. But maybe like our granddaughter with that toy, you've basically said to Him, "You can get this close, but no closer." Oh, you like having Him around, but when it comes to responding to His claims on your life, that's where you draw the line.

Jesus met a man like that. The man demonstrated a strong interest in Jesus and a lot of insight into His teachings. Jesus described him this way in Mark 12:34, our word for today from the Word of God: "You are not far from the kingdom of God." I wonder if Jesus might be saying that to you: "You're so close to belonging to Me. You're not far, but you're not in." See, close doesn't count when it comes t