I was a voracious reader in my youth, if I could not be found outside playing, it was the local library where I could be found.
This continued well into my thirties, actually reading perhaps thousands of books, mostly fictional. But there was something that occurred to me recently, that the playing never really ended at that time, for I still sought the pleasures of this world.
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4)
Some may have considered it working for money, which I did, but nearly every employment position I accepted I did so to learn how to accomplish what was set before me, and when I did so, at least as much as I felt I needed to know, I moved on to the next goal, the next playtime, the next job.
Can you guess the verse I will quote next?
“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,” (Phil. 3:8)
For those who desire to learn, to experience all that is possible, there is no better place than the Word of God, for this is eternal knowledge. If your desire is to obtain the goal, you must be made aware of this verse.
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33)
You have to have a voracious appetite to search for God, and at the same time realize that for all eternity, you will never know Him completely.
The Scriptures, when they are revealed to me, are like a child who has received the exact gift he hoped for, when wisdom is granted in certain areas, there is a joy that is incomparable. Truth has been revealed and even in the darkest night, that light still shines bright.
I still read books, every day, but now they are from men empowered by the Holy Spirit with the gift of expounding properly upon the Word and will of the Almighty for those who call Him Lord, and in them I see that same elation, not only of revealed truths, but of the knowledge, the joy that we will always, throughout all eternity, be seeking God.
“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.” (Heb. 11:6)
Some of you may not understand this, but when I get to heaven, I do not want to automatically have the entire Word of God memorized, I do not want to know everything there is to know, for me personally, if there is no challenge, then life holds little meaning. But I have been blessed to be shown that all those worldly accomplishments, all those fictional books, were a complete and total waste of time.
That blessing, of realizing that I did not for so long seek His face, is a cause for both great sorrow but also of great joy and anticipation. The best I can compare it to at this time is the desire my beautiful wife and I have to spend countless eons of time exploring every planet the Lord has made, what may possibly be a never-ending journey. It is why Psalm 16:11 is precious to me.
“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
The pleasures forevermore, my playtime, if you will, will be to forever and never to end seek the face of God. It is a goal I will never reach, and to me, that is the best goal possible.
What is one single world and all the knowledge it contains compared with that?
We who have been born-again are living in a never-ending story my friends, death holds no sting for us, time means absolutely nothing, what this world offers us is of no value whatsoever.
Pick up His Book, look at His plans for you. Contentment in forever learning about our Lord, that is the assurance we have been promised.
