Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 7 July 2022 | Thursday Message
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TOPIC: Meeting Him at the Place of Seeking
Place: Young Life High School Retreat, Natural Bridge, Virginia
Time: November 1964
It was a clear, cool autumn night. The camp meeting hall was in the motel conference center up the road from an ancient natural bridge formation. I sat in a metal folding chair in the back of the dim, old structure, listening to a speaker talk about God’s love and provision. He was describing the Gospel, but his launch was the Ten Commandments.
I’ll never forget his challenge. “Kids, what I want you to do is measure your own life up against each of these commandments as I talk about them.”
Some of it went over my head. I didn’t know what “bear false witness” meant, and I wasn’t married, so I hadn’t committed adultery. But I knew enough to know that my life was falling short.
Rather than being driven to my knees in repentance, however, I became angry. How unfair of God to give us a bunch of rules and laws we couldn’t keep! Draping my sweatshirt over my shoulders, I walked out of the meeting. I remember thinking, This is ridiculous. I can’t keep those commandments. Nobody can! (Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 7 July 2022)
I exited the musty-smelling hall into a brisk autumn night, resplendent with stars. Climbing the path that wound up the hillside toward the cabins, I found a big, flat rock in a clearing and plunked myself down.
Leaning back, I looked up through dark, towering pine trees into the vast starry dome. I remember trying to puzzle it all through. It was a conscious effort to really get to the bottom of this Gospel thing. Now what is this “seeking God” stuff all about? How does this all fit? He gives us commands he knows we can’t keep. Yet he expects perfection! Jesus came, and because he was God, he did keep all the commands. He did lead a perfect life. And then, at the end, they took him and—Whoa! Of course!
It was as if the proverbial light bulb lit up over my head. Yes! That’s what the cross was all about! That’s why he had to die!
God reached down to me in that place—on a rock, under the stars—and touched my mind. The puzzle pieces suddenly came together and I understood my need of a Savior. He met me in my place of seeking.
Thank you for reading Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 7 July 2022, Thursday
