Appropriating Life
Appropriating Life
“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon,
that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.”
Joshua 1:3
The Land of Promise was given by the One who cannot lie; yet it remains unknown to the one who does not walk in its abundance. The Land of Promise is vast and its bounties endless and yet, like the Pearl of Great price, it must be purchased to be held. Though its beauty is unsurpassed and its luster unparalleled it yet remains untouched by the one who merely gazes upon it un-procured.
God’s promises must be walked in, for His gift to us is nothing less than Himself. To speak of knowing Him without the wonder of experience is the travesty of religion. It is in treading, sometimes slowly but still steadily, that the book of our own history of experience is written. Life must be lived to be known. Life cannot be held within the bounds of the intellect. It must be the inspiration to explore its own vastness.
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul”
Genesis 2:7
The scriptures present to us the essence of life; God breathing into man the magnificence of His own being. Though formed and sculpted from the dust of the earth, man remained inanimate, a thing rather than a being. It was His breath that created life. A man may hold to teachings, beliefs and forms of truth, yet without the breath of God invigorating, illuminating and ever creating, he remains a lost and empty soul.
Life can only be realized by our participation in His Life. By His design, our knowing of him must be apprehended by the tread of our feet, the investment of our life into His. He can never be known in the stagnated concepts of a doctrine! His word to the poor, the blind and the needy is “come unto ME”. Those who hunger and thirst, those who are needy come. They are drawn by the wonder and majesty of something beyond mere knowledge. There is a love, a persuasion; an inarticulate desire for which their soul pants.
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”
Psalm 42:1-2
Those caught up in this quest can never be content with the promises concerning Him. True hunger can only be satisfied in the apprehension of the object of its desire.
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life”
John 5: 39-40
The invitation remains for the pilgrims of faith. Let us embrace the Word of the Lord afresh:
“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon,
that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.”
Joshua 1:3
Brian Troxel
